My 2004 Murano suddenly developed a loose driver’s visor a while back that became progressively worse. From discussions at various Nissan online sites, I have found that other owners have experienced the same problem for one or both visors. Something inside the visor itself breaks and the visor will no longer stay where one sets it. I have had mine fall down unexpectedly while driving.
Visors were covered under the 3/36 warranty, but my car is a 2004 and the problem is no longer covered. The cost of replacement of a single visor is almost $400 with installation!
I have spoken to my Service Dept briefly and they say there is no service update on this issue. I feel it is a safety issue and they should devise a fix for my current visor or replace it free or at a substantial discount. What is your advice?
Find a replacement visor at your local junk yard and install it yourself. I’m guessing this will cost less than $50.
When the warranty is up it’s up, and everyone on Earth always wants something fixed for free or at a substantial discount after the warranty has expired.
Since there has never been a car built that does not suffer problems this means that if all of the car makers start repairing for free every problem that occurs after the warranty is up that new cars will cease to exist.
The thing here is that everyone will always want something 5k, 10k, 50k, or a 100k miles after the warranty has expired so a line has to be drawn somewhere.
Sometimes parts with weak design points may not fail at all unless helped along by someone being a bit overzealous with them. In this case, flipping the visor up and down quickly with a couple of fingertips (a mild slamming) rather than lower and raise it gently.
If the visor hinges on a metal rod, bending the metal rod slightly will prevent the visor from falling down. Or, purchase some self-adhesive Velcro, and stick a piece of the hook to the ceiling and a piece of loop to the top of the visor.
Tester
Can the passenger side sunvisor be moved to the driver’s side? The stripped models of the Ford, Chevrolet and Plymouth cars back in the 1940’s through the 1950’s did not have a sunvisor on the right hand side. If you have someone who rides frequently on the passenger side of the front seat, give them the nickname “Squint”.
I’m sure you can replace it on your own. It doesn’t seem like a big deal.
It is so gratifying to go on discussion groups and have people like ok4450 to enlighten us selfish, silly. careless folk about the realities of consumerism, isn’t it?
It really helps to learn that these things are always the owners’ fault and never the car makers in any way and that owners just have to suck it up and fork out exorbitant amounts of cash to car dealers without complaint or question.
I really appreciate the advice to “lower and raise it gently” - advice ok4450 might want to consider when posting comments - lest he end up with a floppy reputation. But that would be a silly suggestion, I guess?
My car was new in 2004 and doesn’t even have 24K miles on it, so I hardly think anything in or on my car has been overzealously used, m’dear. But thanks for playing.
p.s. I never asked for any other special warranty repair before, either. My dealer replaced the rusting gas filler-neck free when Nissan issued a bulletin on it. I have no issue with Nissan. Love my car and my dealer. I just think the visor problem is a safety issue, not a warranty one. (If the lighted mirror flap was falling down, I would ignore it.) I’d be willing to go for a fix of the visor problem instead of a replacement, if it didn’t result in uglifying my visor or car ceiling.
I have thought about ways to fix it myself, including slicing the inside felt just over the metal rod and seeing what broke.
Would be nice if Nissan looked into this matter to see if there is a cheap, simple fix one could do like injecting something rubbery - to provide friction stoppage, that wouldn’t freeze the visor in one place.
I make no claims to being mechanical or anything like that so . . . The velcro idea is interesting, but wouldn’t look too good.
Both mirrors have lighted, flip-cover mirrors on the inside (when down, of course) and aren’t interchangeable. This is also what makes them so expensive to replace, I guess.
I am going to call my dealer and see if there is a compatible, non-mirrored Nissan visor that can be used as a replacement. If not, I will check out local junk yards. I had considered that already. Junk yard shopping just isn’t something I’ve done before.
Uh huh. Spoken like a macho, male person used to doing car repairs.
Hey, all you other 120lb females out there with arthritic hands - what do you think about this suggestion, eh?
Which brings me to wonder how the vanity mirror light is powered - cell battery or wiring?
Since you do have a sunvisor on the right, you might see if you can get on with the Postal Service as a substitute rural mail carrier. They sit on the right side and drive. When you have earned $400, you can quit and go back to the dealer to have the sun visor repaired.
On a serious note, junk yard shopping isn’t all that difficult. I always call the yard first to inquire if they might have the part I need and ask for a price. This does two things: 1) it saves you a needless trip if the part isn’t available and 2) asking about a price over the telephone leads the yard to believe that you may be calling other yards and the yard may just give you a good price. You also might see if the dealer is willing to call a yard. Repair shops are often given a price break by salvage yards. I once wanted seats for my 1965 Rambler and was quoted a price of $50. The service station where I traded called a yard and was given a price of $25. The mechanic had me put on a jacket that the employees wore, so it looked as though I was part of the shop and I picked them up.
Thank you Triedag, for some actual, helpful advice!
Obviously the visor problem isn’t up at the top of my TO DO list, especially right now. If it doesn’t start just falling down into my line of sight when I hit bumps (as some owners have indicated), I can live with it for a while. I did do an online check a while back to see what’s out there, but the only hit was someone else hunting for one.
I will take your advice and call some local yards. Thanks again!
p.s.: I’d LOVE to be a rural mail carrier. Maybe a post-retirement job, eh? 
When I went out to get the seats for my Rambler from the salvage yard, I got to wear a jacket that had the Sunoco insignia on the back and a cap with Sunoco above the bill. I drove the service truck for the service station to pick up my seats and a couple of other parts that the station wanted. I really felt like I was somebody with a real job as opposed to my hobby as a college professor (this doesn’t pay enough to be considered as a real job).
I vote for wired. Maybe you have a friend or relative that could help with the repair? When you (they) remove the couple of screws that hold the rod in the roof, the wire will be visible. There should also be a connector for the wire. I’ll be it’s in the headliner. You may have to tug gently on the wire to get it out so that you can disconnect it. When you get the replacement, look at how ling the wire is. That will give you a good idea where the connector is and if it exists.
It’s hard-wired. If there is a vanity mirror in both sun visors, they’re both hard-wired.
And I agree with you, Liz1388; your visor should not crap out at <24K miles, no matter what. I’ve had vehicles with nearly 200K miles and never had a problem with a sun visor holding its position.
I originally suggested a junk yard replacement, but now I’m thinking the junk yard visors won’t be any better. You have to keep up your efforts with Nissan.
There’s no excuse for a sun visor that won’t hold position, regardless of mileage.
Thank you, mcparadise. I am going to call them again and see what they will do.
Have you done this yourself? How difficult is it to pry off that little panel over the place where the rod goes into the headliner? If I break it, will Nissan sell me a replacement?
I’d go back to the Velcro idea. It is available in white or black and the only time you’ll see it is when the visor is down. Since the visor is up most of the time no one will know it’s there. A quick effective fix to a nagging problem.
Well, first of all, I’m not sure I see how the velcro would work. If I hung a strip of the velcro from the headliner above the visor and attached a corresponding piece to the back of the visor, it could get pretty complicated to fiddle with while driving. Ya know? Unless you meant just sticking the visor to the headliner and forgetting any sun glare blocking at all?
Besides, that kind of jury rigging might look cute in a Honda Civic Beater, but having that in a $35K priced car, just doesn’t sit too well with me, not to mention how it would go with trying to sell or trade it in.
We have had a problem with the drivers side visor since day ONE of owning our 2003 Murano and after the dealer tried to fix it. Ok4450 seems to think that poor design is acceptable but I do not. My first and last Nissan. 3 alternators in year ONE, doors that did and still lock when the door is shut, even after the door harness was replaced, a clock that doesn’t keep time (the engineers must have worked overtime to screw up a digital clock), endless vibrations and on and on.