Side Mirror Recalls: Fire Risk, Detaching Glass, Wrong Mirrors

A side mirror recall means the mirror may fall apart, short out or fail a federal visibility rule, and NHTSA’s file shows all three. Most articles on the subject describe one headline recall, usually Honda’s, and stop. This guide goes through all 20 recalls on record for passenger vehicles, by what failed, with the unit counts and repair rates from NHTSA’s own data.

Side mirror recalls: the big picture

We counted a recall when NHTSA files it under rearview mirrors (or its subject names a mirror), it covers a vehicle in our catalog, and it is about a mirror. NHTSA files 90 recalls under the rearview mirror component, but 64 of them cover no car, SUV, pickup or van we can match: buses, heavy trucks, motorcycles, RVs and warning-label fixes, which we leave out (see truck, bus and RV recalls below). We also set aside six rearview camera and display recalls that NHTSA files under the same component, such as Honda’s 232,140-vehicle 18V629; they belong in our backup camera recall guide. One 2008 filing for 107 imported right-hand-drive Jeep Cherokees that failed many standards at once is also left out.

Only nine of the 20 have a repair rate, because NHTSA’s completion data starts with 2014 filings; those nine are 74.8% repaired, weighted by vehicles. The 11 older recalls have none.

Mirrors that may short or catch fire

Mirrors carry current for adjustment, heating and lights, and each has had a recall:

Source: NHTSA recalls file and US DOT completion data, retrieved Oct 6, 2026; table compiled by PlainVIN from each campaign’s record. “Repaired” is the automaker’s figure; NHTSA has no completion rate for recalls filed before 2014.

The pattern is that the fire risk has moved. In 1997 and 2003 the culprit was the switch on the door: Ford’s record says a short on the control switch circuit board could overheat the switch and cause smoke or fire, and the fix was an in-line 10 amp fuse, while GM’s says the short could mean heat damage to the driver’s door and a vehicle fire without prior warning, fixed with a fused jumper harness. In 2014 it was the heated mirror itself. Chrysler’s record (14V631) gives the cause as “corrosion in the exterior heated power mirror electrical connector,” which “may result in an electrical short.” Dealers move the mirror’s power feed to a separate connector. The recall was filed in October 2014 and began in March 2015 after an interim notice in December 2014, and 65% are reported repaired, which leaves about 110,000 Wranglers without a reported repair. The newest is Ford’s:

An electrical short circuit in the exterior mirror increases the risk of fire.

NHTSA recall record, Ford campaign 25V091 (2025)

The cause is the LED logo lights in the mirror housings, and dealers disconnect their wires. Only 42% of the 35,328 Navigators are reported repaired, about 20,500 without a reported repair. No car recall in the file ties a turn-signal light in a mirror to a short, so the LED logo lights are the only lighting failure on record. For fire in general see our car fire statistics and car electrical problems guides.

Mirror glass and housings that may detach

Source: NHTSA recall records, retrieved Oct 6, 2026; table compiled by PlainVIN. Total 482,313 vehicles; the four with a repair rate are 84.9% repaired, weighted by vehicles.

Honda’s is the biggest and the best documented. NHTSA’s record says:

The heating pads behind both side-view mirrors may not be bonded properly, allowing the mirror glass to detach.

NHTSA recall record, Honda campaign 23V174 (2023)

Detached glass “can reduce driver visibility, increasing the risk of a crash,” the record adds, and dealers replace both the left and right side-view mirrors. At 88% reported repaired, about 41,000 vehicles remain without a reported repair. News reports at filing gave about 330,000 vehicles; NHTSA’s record now says 339,404, and we use the record.

Ram’s two recalls show a repair that did not end the problem. In 2020 it recalled 19,075 2020 Ram 1500 and 2500 pickups because driver-side mirror glass can detach from the backing plate (20V622), and in 2024 it recalled 31,676 2020–2023 Ram 1500 Classic trucks with heated trailer tow mirrors for the same fault on the driver’s side (24V754). Our catalog links both recalls to the 2020 Ram 1500, so some trucks may be in both. Only 49% of the second are reported repaired, about 16,100 trucks. Mazda’s 2019 recall is for the interior mirror, whose adhesive may not be properly bonded; Suzuki’s 2010 SX4 recall is for loose screws rather than adhesive.

The wrong mirror: what FMVSS 111 requires

Nine recalls are not about a part failing at all. The car left the factory with a mirror that does not meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 111, the rule that governs mirrors (and, since 2018, rearview camera images). The standard as written in 49 CFR 571.111 asks for the following on a passenger car:

• an inside rearview mirror of unit magnification, meaning flat glass that shows true distance (S5.1);
• a driver-side outside mirror, also unit magnification (S5.2.1);
• a passenger-side outside mirror, which may be convex only where the inside mirror cannot meet the field-of-view rule (S5.3), with a radius of curvature between 889 mm and 1,651 mm and the words “Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear” marked on it (S5.4).

Trucks, vans and SUVs of 4,536 kg or less may instead have outside unit-magnification mirrors of at least 126 cm² on both sides (S6.1). The standard also covers mounting; for the outside mirror it says the mounting:

shall provide a stable support for the mirror

49 CFR 571.111, S5.2.2, as published by Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute

That is why Honda’s detaching glass carries an FMVSS 111 citation in NHTSA’s record: an unsupported mirror fails the standard, even when no one has been hurt. The compliance recalls are small, and nearly all were filed before 2018:

Source: NHTSA recall records, retrieved Oct 6, 2026; table compiled by PlainVIN. Total 16,464 vehicles; only the 2014–2017 recalls have repair rates (55%–81%).

Convex glass is the recurring mistake, and the records explain the danger plainly: a convex mirror shows traffic smaller, so it looks farther away than it is. BMW’s record says the driver may not notice that vehicles in the mirror are closer than they appear.

Power, heated and folding mirror faults

Power mirrors are the source of most of the electrical recalls above. Three recalls name the power mirror switch itself (Ford 97V083, GM 03V093, Chrysler 97V015), covering 1,156,171 vehicles, and all three are about heat or fire. Heated mirrors appear in Honda’s heating-pad recall, Chrysler’s Wrangler fire and Ram’s heated trailer tow mirrors. In the one purely mechanical case, DaimlerChrysler’s 2003 recall of 195,500 pickup trucks (03V077; a 2002 Ram 1500 in our catalog), the detent system in the exterior mirror housings may lose its function, which could affect the rearward field of view; dealers install a mirror detent retainer kit.

We found no car recall whose record names a power-folding mirror mechanism, a mirror memory system, or a mirror-mounted blind-spot or turn signal light as the defect. A mirror that folds or sticks is a warranty or repair matter unless a recall applies to your VIN; a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) is not a recall. For other visibility recalls see our windshield wiper guide, sunroof guide and headlight guide.

Truck, bus and RV mirror recalls

Heavy vehicles have their own run of detaching mirrors. They are not in our car count, and we cannot match them to a VIN in our catalog, so check with the manufacturer. Examples in NHTSA’s file: PACCAR’s 2024 recall of 10,611 trucks whose cab mirror assembly may detach (24V017, 74% reported repaired), Hino’s 2021 recall of 4,848 whose mirror glass may detach from its carrier plate (21V146, 87%), and Mack’s 2019 recall of 3,906 trucks whose passenger down-view mirror may detach (19V054, 68%).

What to do about a mirror recall

1. Check your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls or with our VIN decoder. Mirrors are shared across trims, so a recall may cover your model only in some years or with heated mirrors.
2. Read the notice. NHTSA does not flag any of the 20 car recalls as Do Not Drive or Park Outside. Owner letters can carry interim instructions (the Wrangler recall had an interim notice months before its repair was ready), so follow yours.
3. Expect a free fix: new mirrors, glass or screws, a moved power feed (Chrysler) or disconnected wires (Ford).
4. Report what you see. Detached or loose mirrors and warm or smoking door switches belong in an NHTSA complaint, even if the car is later repaired.

If you are shopping for a used car, mirrors are on the list in our used car inspection checklist.

Recall figures are PlainVIN’s analysis of NHTSA’s files and update when we refresh the data. “Reported repaired” is the automaker’s figure, and repair-gap estimates are our arithmetic from it. This guide is general information, not mechanical or safety advice for a specific vehicle; the official source for any recall is its NHTSA recall record.