Rear view mirror ball joint suddenly loose

Today after grocery shopping returned to the car, took down the sunscreen and the mirror was bumped (which happens often) but it made a much larger motion than usual. Straightened it out, then tried to flip the night/day tab and the whole mirror moved. That's new, usually pushing the tab back and forth does not move the body of the mirror at all. Gave it a light shake and the part mounting to the windshield is tight but the ball joint where the arm goes into the back of the mirror is loose. Not completely loose, but much looser than it should be.

It's much too hot and sunny to mess with this now, but once it cools off, is there a way to tighten that joint? Looked at the manual and there was no indication that the ball joint is adjustable, or even if it could be taken apart and reassembled (to wrap the ball in some thin rubber, for instance). This is the type of mirror which has no features at all, just the one day/night tab.

If there is no way to take that joint apart or tighten it, have any of you replaced this mirror with a "Jingea" (B08RMZJ81L) from Amazon? These are about a quarter of the price of an OEM mirror.

Thanks

 

Checked it this morning (75F or so) and it was still loose. Took it off to inspect. That turned out to be easy. Squeeze the sides of the square outer cover on the glass and it lifted off and slid down the connecting arm. Then lifted upwards parallel to the windshield and the base adjacent part slid off the base. Supposedly there is a little release lever that should need to be pressed, but I guess it was not engaged. Holding the mirror by the arm just behind the actual mirror part and flipping the little tab it would shift position each time (rotate on the ball). I didn't see any way to adjust the tightness of any part of the mirror assembly. Will just replace it.with the ~$20 part from Amazon.

 

The "Jingea" arrived last night. The ball joint is much, much stiffer than the one on the car. Flipping the tab back and forth does not cause any motion of the ball joint.

I think what probably happened is that we just wore out old the ball joint. My wife is 5" shorter than I am and since the two cars are usually parked one behind the other whoever is going out usually just takes whichever car is closest to the street. Consequently the rearview mirror gets adjusted a couple of times a day on average. All that rotation on the joint eventually wore down the socket, ball , or both.

 

Tried to tighten the existing mirror. Turns out the mirror part with the socket can be pulled off the arrn part with the ball with enough force. There was dust of some sort in the socket, probably worn off plastic. Cleaned both surfaces and reassembled. Still loose. Pulled the ball out again, cut the pinky finger off a Nitrile glove and put it over the ball. Yes, it looked exactly like a small you know what with a condom. Pushed it back into the socket, and while it was a hair tighter, it was not tight enough that the mirror didn't move when the tab was flipped..

Gave up on the old mirror and installed the Jingea. Which was incredibly easy. Adjust the angle at the two ball sockets, one on the window side of the arm, the other on the mirror side. Slide it down over the "stone" which was still attached to the window. The arm angle wasn't quite right so pulled it off the stone and readjusted that junction. When it was about right tighten the T20 Torx screw in the base against the stone to lock it in place. Fine tune the mirror angle. Done.

I strongly suggest NOT adjusting the window side ball joint while the mirror is fixed to the stone on the window. That joint was exceedingly stiff and I had to use a lot of force to change its angle. I felt there was a significant probability of either tearing the stone off the window or cracking the glass if that much force was applied while the mirror was on the window. Just take it off, adjust it, and slide it back on.

There are some posts by tall people about moving the stone up to reposition the mirror higher. I don't believe that is necessary with this replacement part. Leave the stone in the OEM position, and tilt the arm up towards the ceiling more (heeding the warning in the preceding paragraph). The OEM arm appears to have a ball at that end too, but it wouldn't move with what I thought was more than enough force, so perhaps appearances are deceiving.

The quality of the Jingea part seems fine. Other than being a slightly different shape than the OEM mirror, I don't think anybody would ever notice (or care) it wasn't OEM. We will see how well it holds up.