How To: Install upgraded telescopic sun visors

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Tttait

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 21, 2017
Messages
79
So I bought this really great $40k car - but it had a few issues. The seats sucked - so that was the first battle. Now we have that solved (to my satisfaction - see here http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6031&start=90#p18598 and here http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=6157).

I have a few other qualms though, the usb ports are low power (http://www.mychevybolt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5959&p=16328#p16328), and a lack of Homelink transmitter (any help here yet? looks like we have to pull down the overhead console and cut out for a homelink transmitter?). The other one that really annoyed me is based on the fact that I drive south in the mornings, north again in the evenings, and the sun is always glaring in through my drivers window, usually beyond the reach of the super economical anti-deluxe vinyl sunvisors that don't telescope in a $40k car. This one made me mad.

I had my dealer looking into cross fitting another GM sun visor, but they had no luck. I took a look at the sunvisors in my '13 Volt, and took a bunch of measurements. Sure enough they were the same size, but the wrong color and had somewhat different mounting details.

Undeterred by trivial details I bought a used set off of ebay, and a can of light grey dye. I had mixed results. It turns out the Volt sunvisors could be reasonably modified to fit, but dying the beige sunvisors gave inconsistent results. Not so good, but a good start.

About this time the wife and I kicked down the cash for a '17 Volt (lovely car - decide to buy before the Government rebates were killed off). Good news folks - not only can the 2017 Volt sunvisors be reasonably modified to fit into the Bolt, they come in the correct grey color too. They are covered in exactly the same fabric as my Bolt (light grey with a slight blueish undertone). The plastic trim on the Volt units match the plastic trim in my Bolt too.

When I went back to the parts guy at my dealer, he was willing to help me out with the purchase price of the new units - so I asked him to get me a set of 2017 Volt Sunvisors in Grey (probably the only color, but make sure) and a set of the round plastic escutcheon caps that cover the mounting base in the Volt. I picked them up the other day. With a few minutes of work they can be reasonably installed into the Bolt - and they look 100% perfect as if from the factory.

This is how to do it.

You begin by removing the factory installed sunvisors from the Bolt using a torx screwdriver. I think its a T3, but my tools don't show the size so it might be other. Remove the two screws holding the sun visor in place. Now it takes a bit of courage to get the sunvisor out - it still held in place with plastic clips. I succeeded by pulling down on the end of the visor, rotating it 90 degrees and pulling down again, and generally just working it loose. The clips could conceivably break, but I think if they do it will be on the sunvisor side that you will discard, not the plate in the headliner. It's not hard, but considering its like operating on your child, it's mildly daunting - don't worry too much, just pop them out.

With the old visors out, lay them down next to your new Volt visors and you will see a few differences. The most obvious is that the Volt visor is illuminated, and has a pair of wires coming out of it, while the Bolt does not. It's obviously possible - not too hard probably to hook up these wires to the overhead console, but I have not attempted that part yet. Note - the dealer did say the overhead console is held in place by plastic clips and it just pulls down for those of you who want to take on that part of the swap.

Comparing the two sunvisor mounting bases then looks like this (passenger side shown - drivers side similar but mirrored).
Notice that the clip shown at the 7 o clock position and the screw well at the two o clock position are going to cause problems when mounting the visor. I used a dremel to cut them off and then cleaned it up a little with an xacto knife. Please be careful. Cut off this to be flush with the base:

visor cut away.jpg

You want to be sure to leave the two screw wells which are 180 degrees opposite from each other intact, along with the other various clips. After you cut your base will look like this:

visor after you cut.jpg

Do the same thing for the driver's side visor. Remember it's similar but flipped. Cut off the clip that held down the wiring and the screw well that was not 180 degrees from its mates.

Now take the visors and install them. Line up the screws with the clip in the headliner, and press it in place - it should clip in fairly well. Then secure it with the two screws. Then extend your visor and pop the grey escutcheon cap over the exposed metal arm, slide it over the plastic elbow and get it into rough position. The cut in the escutcheon cap points roughly on each side toward the front center of the car, align it roughly and then line up the small clip on the escutcheon plate with the notch on the visor plate, press it up to click it in place. It sounds complicated maybe, but it's a no brainer.

With both sides done it looks like this:

both visors installed.jpg

I seem to be limited to 3 pix here. I'll add another...
 
Another pic, with the visor extended as it should have been able to do in the first place...

View attachment telescoping visor.jpg

And a close up showing the escutcheon cover - looks much nicer than having the exposed screws on the stock Bolt:

View attachment escutcheon.jpg

I know there is a website in Canada that sells GM parts at about half off - but they don't ship sough of the border. Sorry I got mine free for teaching this trick to the dealer - can't help with that.

The next step is probably working out how to wire the visor lights into the center overhead console - you just need +12 and ground as the switch to turn on the light is on the mirror door.

Somebody could solve all our problems if they can find a slightly better sunvisor from GM - a matching, installable, cloth covered grey sunvisor with the homelink transmitter integrated into it as well (like o current Ford models).

Questions?
 
This is excellent. Can somebody please provide the gm part numbers of this so that we can have it ordered?

Honestly, I only want the driver side. I could care less about the passenger side.
 
I did not order the parts myself, but the part number for one is shown in my photos. It comes up as a 2016 part (2017 parts don't show up yet on many websites). Based on that I believe the Part numbers are as follows:

Sun Visor - Drivers Side
Left. w/vanity lamp grey; w/vanity lamp, grey.
23223684

Sun Visor - Passenger Side
Right. w/vanity lamp grey; w/vanity lamp, grey.
23223686

Sun Visor Cover.
Left; Right. grey.
23438713 (2 Required)

A quick search shows the total for all 4 parts cost $154.12 plus shipping from GMPartsDirect.com


Note that the new sun visors are covered in the same cloth as the headliner. You could choose to only replace the drive'rs side, but they will look mismatched if anyone has an eye for such things. GM also seems to price the passenger side unit at about 30% cheaper than the drivers side. You may prefer to just do both.
 
I found this problem annoying myself and at first thought that my visor was stuck. However I have run into another ridiculous problem.
The parts department can't give me a price for the visors unless I give them a VIN# for the Volt! I do not have a VOLT.
 
Thank you again so much for this research.

My apologies to all those disagree, but that is an obscene amount of money for sun visors. I'll be stopping by my local pick-n-pull to see if they have any from a wrecked 2nd gen Volt, and probably get them for 10 bucks.

If anyone wants to buy a $500 generic hammer, I am sure GM could sell you that too.
 
flamaest said:
My apologies to all those disagree, but that is an obscene amount of money for sun visors. I'll be stopping by my local pick-n-pull to see if they have any from a wrecked 2nd gen Volt, and probably get them for 10 bucks.
That's a terrific way to do it and I worked great when I had to replace a broken visor in my Dodge Caravan. But the Caravan was a helluva lot more popular than the Volt so I'm guessing that it will probably be a lot harder to come by one at a wrecker.

Some wreckers are shying away from hybrid and electric cars - if you can find one that specializes in them then you'd stand a lot better chance.
 
Hi Tttait, great mod. You mentioned in your post -

"I know there is a website in Canada that sells GM parts at about half off - but they don't ship sough of the border"

Please could you pass on the website, as I can't seem to find cheap parts up here?

Thanks,
 
If the price difference in Canada is so much different, perhaps someone in Canada can buy sets of these and mail them to buyers in the United States.
 
Can anyone confirm if the first generation Volt sunvisors work on the bolt? Those can be found on eBay for 30 bucks.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/232098553901
 
Right, that's just one example. Lots to choose from.

Would be great if anyone has the ability of doing a little bit of measuring between the two. I know I'm asking a lot since most folks don't have a gen 1 and Gen 2 volt at their disposal.
 
Tttait said:
I did not order the parts myself, but the part number for one is shown in my photos. It comes up as a 2016 part (2017 parts don't show up yet on many websites). Based on that I believe the Part numbers are as follows:

Sun Visor - Drivers Side
Left. w/vanity lamp grey; w/vanity lamp, grey.
23223684

Sun Visor - Passenger Side
Right. w/vanity lamp grey; w/vanity lamp, grey.
23223686

Sun Visor Cover.
Left; Right. grey.
23438713 (2 Required)

A quick search shows the total for all 4 parts cost $154.12 plus shipping from GMPartsDirect.com

Has anyone​ here ordered from GMPartsDirect using these part numbers? Just trying to get a confirmation that these are indeed color matched with the Bolt.
 
scbolt said:
Tttait said:
I did not order the parts myself, but the part number for one is shown in my photos. It comes up as a 2016 part (2017 parts don't show up yet on many websites). Based on that I believe the Part numbers are as follows:

Sun Visor - Drivers Side
Left. w/vanity lamp grey; w/vanity lamp, grey.
23223684

Sun Visor - Passenger Side
Right. w/vanity lamp grey; w/vanity lamp, grey.
23223686

Sun Visor Cover.
Left; Right. grey.
23438713 (2 Required)

A quick search shows the total for all 4 parts cost $154.12 plus shipping from GMPartsDirect.com

Has anyone​ here ordered from GMPartsDirect using these part numbers? Just trying to get a confirmation that these are indeed color matched with the Bolt.
I'll be looking in to the $85 #23223684 one myself if this is indeed a good match. (Bump)
 
By the way, my solution for any car with a visor which does not extend out, is to velcro a old school multi-CD holder which are very light and can be positioned just enough so that it extends out to relieve of any sun glare.

Here is a second option, a bit more than the $1 CD holder I can get at the dollar store

https://www.amazon.com/Gray-Visormates-Window-Visor-Extenders/dp/B002JR949K/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_263_bs_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=R3EH1X3JRR48MT2W22VA


Cheers
 
flamaest said:
By the way, my solution for any car with a visor which does not extend out, is to velcro a old school multi-CD holder which are very light and can be positioned just enough so that it extends out to relieve of any sun glare.

Here is a second option, a bit more than the $1 CD holder I can get at the dollar store

https://www.amazon.com/Gray-Visormates-Window-Visor-Extenders/dp/B002JR949K/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_263_bs_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=R3EH1X3JRR48MT2W22VA


Cheers
Thanks for this link. It seems like someone could make that on their own (which is why I am thanking you). So it comes down to - do I make this or do I spend $$$ on a more professional-looking piece of kit? Sigh
 
flamaest said:
Right, that's just one example. Lots to choose from.

Would be great if anyone has the ability of doing a little bit of measuring between the two. I know I'm asking a lot since most folks don't have a gen 1 and Gen 2 volt at their disposal.

2013 Volt sunvisors (subtle beige) are identical to 2017 volt Sunvisors (grey). Both are dimensionally identical to the Bolt stock visor in dimensions. There are additional pieces of plastic on the base of the Volt mounting plate that must be cut away per the first post.

What dimensions would you need?
 
gbobman said:
scbolt said:
Tttait said:
I did not order the parts myself, but the part number for one is shown in my photos. It comes up as a 2016 part (2017 parts don't show up yet on many websites). Based on that I believe the Part numbers are as follows:

Sun Visor - Drivers Side
Left. w/vanity lamp grey; w/vanity lamp, grey.
23223684

Sun Visor - Passenger Side
Right. w/vanity lamp grey; w/vanity lamp, grey.
23223686

Sun Visor Cover.
Left; Right. grey.
23438713 (2 Required)

A quick search shows the total for all 4 parts cost $154.12 plus shipping from GMPartsDirect.com

Has anyone​ here ordered from GMPartsDirect using these part numbers? Just trying to get a confirmation that these are indeed color matched with the Bolt.
I'll be looking in to the $85 #23223684 one myself if this is indeed a good match. (Bump)

The number appears on a sticker on the perfectly matched unit I got from my dealer.

For further confirmation you could call the 800 number for the website and make sure that there is only one part number for the 2017 volt sunvisor, despite trim level, etc.

I'd feel pretty comfortable that's the right number.
 
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