Dodgy Folding Mirror

GOONIESnvrSAYdie · Post by **GOONIESnvrSAYdie** » Sat May 17, 2014 9:41 pm

Since I got my car the drivers side mirror doesn't fold in or out properly. It makes this clicking noise and folds in and out in judders, stop start etc. Passenger side is fine. Any idea what's causing it, what I can do to fix it?

Filmed a quick video of it, apologies for having to see my mug in the reflection haha

Dbo · Post by **Dbo** » Sat May 17, 2014 9:45 pm

You have to take it apart.... the pellum inside has slipped its teeth...
you move it to good teeth if there is enough spare and hey presto.....

GOONIESnvrSAYdie · Post by **GOONIESnvrSAYdie** » Sat May 17, 2014 9:51 pm

Dbo wrote:You have to take it apart.... the pellum inside has slipped its teeth...
you move it to good teeth if there is enough spare and hey presto.....

What if it has no usable teeth? Can you get replacement parts?

GOONIESnvrSAYdie · Post by **GOONIESnvrSAYdie** » Sat May 17, 2014 9:52 pm

Also, is it easy to take apart? I'm not exactly what you'd call gifted at that sort of thing haha.

bb1boy · Post by **bb1boy** » Sat May 17, 2014 10:22 pm

Try WD40 first, I had a similar issue which I fixed today mate

GOONIESnvrSAYdie · Post by **GOONIESnvrSAYdie** » Sat May 17, 2014 10:28 pm

bb1boy wrote:Try WD40 first, I had a similar issue which I fixed today mate

Just shooting it into the area between the mirror and the mount? I asked my friend who I got the car from and he said he never used to use them so may have just seized up?

Post by **Donald** » Sat May 17, 2014 10:47 pm

I don't have auto folding mirrors but my super rare 'do-it-by-hand' mirrors were getting creaky and quite stiff, did the same as bb1boy and sprayed a shitload of WD in there. Helps if you have the little pipe thing.

Fold it in as far as you can and you can see the arced groove that some locating nub or something travels through - stick the nozzle in there and spray away.

Mine are silky smooth now. Could be that it's putting up too much resistance for the gears to move it and so then they slip. Might be worth a try before you go dismantling it at least. Not to say the gears might not be worn, just may as well start at the simplest possible cause.

Post by **RattyMcClelland** » Sat May 17, 2014 10:51 pm

My passenger one does this. Had it apart several times. Wd40 didn't help nor lithmoly grease. Still does it. Adds personality imo.

GOONIESnvrSAYdie · Post by **GOONIESnvrSAYdie** » Sat May 17, 2014 10:54 pm

Cheers guys, I'll give it a whirl in the morning and report back. I'd rather not have to dismantle it if I can help it but it has to be right. Can't have things not working properly.

Next on the list is a dodgy passenger side window, goes down very slowly and gets stuck and won't go back up once it's about half way down. Any ideas on that one?

Post by **Pushki** » Sat May 17, 2014 11:18 pm

Borrowed from PUK. May be helpful.

It's for a 4th gen', but will give you a general idea of what's involved.

wiLik wrote:...Fix

My passenger wing mirror wasn't folding, well kind of moved a bit and made the noises but wasn't working properly.

So thought I'd take a look at it and make a post about how I did it and how I fixed mine.

You'll need:
Nice selection of screwdrivers
Maybe some superglue (what i needed to fix mine)
Soemthing to cover the surface you're working on to protect the wing mirror
Beer/diet coke
And some tunes help pass the time

Sorry about some of the poor quality of some pics, just used my phone and they looked OK at the time.

Remove door card (opening window helps with this) and cover on the inside of where the wing mirror is attached to show screws. Disconnect wing mirror electrical connector from door and unscrew.

Remove the three screws from the bottom. These might be a little tight as they appear to have been put in with threadlock.

Remove inside screw and peel back rubber cover. Also unscrew the clip holding the cable in place. This will give you more slack on the cable as you can't pull it through with the connector on the end.

Remove mirror by tilting it up and pulling it from the bottom. Be careful, but should just pop out from the bottom and slide the top clips out. Also undo the 3 screws holding the mechanism in place.

Remove plastic cover from the motor end - wedging up the clip inside will help.

Unscrew the two screws holding this end in. You should now be able to remove the innards from the housing, but the cable cannot be removed it seems without chopping. Because of this, use something to protect the housing whilst working on it.

Pop the lid on the motor housing. Start at the end where the cable comes in.

You can now unscrew the motor from the top which shows the gears inside.

You can now inspect the gears inside for any missing teeth. You don't need to do this, but I wanted to anyway whilst I had it open.
Order in which they came out:

Now this was the problem with mine. The spiral gear that's sat on the end of the motor had split from end to end. When the motor ran it just span inside the gear so didn't do much. This is where the superglue came in handy

I slid the gear off the motor spindle slightly and put a little superglue down the hole and pushed it back on. (used a small piece of wire to put it in the hole with.) Be careful not to get any one the outside of the gears as it won't run properly if they're caked in glue

Leave to let the glue cure.

If you don't actually hear the motor trying to run when looking into this problem i spose what you could do is put some power over the motor at this stage to test it is actually working.

Basically now just put it all back together again. Reverse of taking it apart.

Tip: when putting it back together, any screws which were a bit tight to get out, put some copper grease on the thread before putting it back.... you never know, you might want to get it apart again

Any comments/things to add anyone?