DIY: Esthetic sunvisor fix for $6

[graycivic]

Anyone have a broken sun visor?

I can tell from reading the forums that the sun visor malfunctioning is problem that just doesn't go away. In my case, with my car over the warranty period, the local dealer offered to fix it for about $130 for parts and labor. Thank you sir but I'm no idiot and you rip enough people off. Even if the dealer replaces it under warranty, you've lost time out of your day and the newly installed visor is just a ticking time bomb ready to explode. With a little handy work and a trip to the local hardware store, issues with your sun visor will be a thing of the past.

I start off removing the sun visor and taking it with me to the local hardware store, in my case Home Depot. First, go to the nuts and bolts section and look for the connecting screw and cap, sized 6mm x 30 mm as shown in the picture below. The ones I got were dark brown and were perfect because they are a dark color like my gray visor. Buy two of these screws ($1.50).

Then you want to take your visor to the friendly paint person in the paint section. Give them your visor, and they can color match your visor EXACTLY! Home Depot has these sample paint canisters (8 oz) that they can electronically modify to give you your exact color, the best part is that it costs $3! (Total cost $6!)

Once you're home, you'll notice that the screws will be too long to hold the visor in place. You'll have to do some modifying with a basic hacksaw or dremmel. I trimmed off about .25 inch from the plastic ends and about .5 inch of the metallic screw. You may want to do this gradually to make sure you don't cut off too much, or do some exact pre-measurements. When you're done, screw in the bolt into the cap and hold it next to the visor to verify that it's the correct size.

After this is done, you want to paint the plastic portion of the screws. I sanded both exterior caps of the plastic screws with sandpaper 150 grit. Make sure to sand the bottom of the caps too. This serves to act as a primer and assures good adhesion with the paint and the plastic, or else the paint may peel off easily off of the smooth non-sanded plastic surface. I used a small paint brush to apply one coat of paint to the top and bottom, and applied another coat 20 minutes later.

Time to drill holes in the visor. I positioned my holes as follows. Both holes were 1 inch from the top of the visor. The first hole was .75 inch from the side, the second was 2.75 from the side, measured from where the plastic bar enters the visor. The hole that you drill has to be large enough to accomodate the plastic housing surrounding the screw. Once you're done, blow out the plastic debris in the visor and insert the screws using a wide flat head screwdriver. If the screwdriver strips off paint from the screw terminals, just touch it up with the paint once you've tightened everything up. The visor will feel solid and will keep the visor from coming apart.

As you can see in the pictures, the painted screws give the visor a "clean" look and nobody notices because the shape and perfect color match allow it blend into the visor. I've never had any passengers comment about my sun visors because they don't see anything out of the ordinary! Good luck!

[Ruthless909]

Very nice write up!

[av911]

Nice!!

This might come in handy in the future. Luckily, mine is still holding up after 4+ years.

[SteveOFG2]

my driver side visor just took a crap on me....guess the glue melted

[Dougoo]

Graycivic, I just bought a 07 Civic LX in which both visors were getting ready to come apart. I went to home depot and got the parts (even used your paint label for corrrect color mix) and everything turned out great. Very clean look after fix and surely much stronger than new. Thanks so much for sharing the info and the great instructions. DC

[graycivic]

I bought my 07 LX from a guy and didn't know the sun visor was broken. Nice work DC glad it worked out for you!

[ascendotuum]

Very nice. My driver's side one started doing this a couple weeks ago.

[mhobby]

Just wanted to let you know this was a great solution. Did both of my visors today based on your post. Thanks

[graycivic]

Originally Posted by mhobby

Just wanted to let you know this was a great solution. Did both of my visors today based on your post. Thanks

Glad it worked out for you mhobby. I had to find a quality fix for my sun visors because in Phoenix it tops out at 115 degrees, and the inside of the car gets even hotter! The glue in the OEM visors just isn't going to hold in that kind of heat!

[si.twin.06]

wish i did this... my dad went to honda to fix my visors when i was away in college paid the 130 charge and said it was my bday present

[screw_dup]

this worked great! thanks a lot. i just fixed my wife's visor and did the passenger side to prevent it from exploding

[Auto_X_Si]

I fixed both visors just now, by using your idea, but needed to make some slight changes as HD did not have the exact parts. No bother, I think it will work just fine. Thanks again for figuring this out.

[dawgbones]

graycivic, I want to start with, "Great post", awesome idea,


My Honda dealer and Honda of America gave me a "good will" consideration, only charging me $50 for what they quoted as $194 in parts and labor! (HOA told my wife they consider these visors a "wear and tear" item) They provided me with a brand new set of the same designed crappy visors, so I decided to use this fix on my new set to keep from having to buy any more in the future.

I printed your pictures and write up, took them to Home Depot, found the cap screws, went over to paint, they actually scanned your bar code from the picture, and mixed the paint (my Civic is gray also).

For install, I did mine slightly different and it seemed to help.

I used a Dremel with a cut off wheel for trimming everything. I held the threaded post just tight enough to keep it from turning with vise grips. I carefully followed the angle of the threads when cutting the posts. The trick with the Dremel is setting the rpm around 30,000 for cutting the posts, don't hold very close to your face, wear safety goggles (the first broken cutting wheel hit my nose), and use extreme patience when cutting the posts. I took like 5 or 10 minutes per post, keeping just enough pressure to maintain contact between the cutting wheel and the post, if not, you will bind the wheel and break it (Broke several in this process).

I set the Dremel on the lowest setting for trimming the plastic caps. I left the plastic caps on the threaded post for trimming, this prevented the interior threads on the caps from getting hosed up while cutting.

I used two pennies for final tightening of the screws in place, this helped keep the slots on the plastic caps from getting hosed up.

And finally, I painted the caps, except for the slots, prior to install, then painted the slots after final tightening to prevent the paint from getting hosed up on the edges and interior of the slots during tightening.

Thanks for the idea, it worked out perfectly, could not be happier with the results.

Although I agree with Touge07 (post #15 below), this is not the right fix, the right fix should be a re-design by Honda prior to selling any more of these visors. This DIY fix prevents me from spending any more of my hard earned money for Honda's poorly designed parts.

[civic70]

*nice*

[Touge07]

I guess this is a good fix but its not fixed the right way. The sunvisor is only $35 and it takes a screwdriver and 5 minutes to put a new one in. Good DIY Write up though.

[chrisng]

nice DIY thanks. i was gonna buy a new one.. but this is much better.

[collinsc]

Originally Posted by Touge07

I guess this is a good fix but its not fixed the right way. The sunvisor is only $35 and it takes a screwdriver and 5 minutes to put a new one in.

And then, after a few months, or maybe a year, you can pay for another visor, because they just keep on breaking. I had one replaced under warranty, but now that the warranty is over, it has broken again.

[I M Legend]

How difficult is it to replace the visor with a new one? DIY?

I have a new one on order for ~ $35 from Majestic Honda

TIA

[collinsc]

Originally Posted by I M Legend

How difficult is it to replace the visor with a new one?

It's easy. Just use a flat-blade screwdriver to pop-off the triangular plastic cover from where the visor attaches to the ceiling (refer to the fifth photo above). Under that cover, there are two screws to remove, and that's it!

[georgieimport]

Originally Posted by collinsc

It's easy. Just use a flat-blade screwdriver to pop-off the triangular plastic cover from where the visor attaches to the ceiling (refer to the fifth photo above). Under that cover, there are two screws to remove, and that's it!

the two screws that u have to take out r torx t25. its real easy like collins said