PS folding mirror not folding :(

[d3ck5]

hi all

my passenger side mirror no longer folds

i can hear the motor work, but obviously the connection between the motor and the gear to fold it isnt happy

whats the easiest way to access it? can i remove the mirror from behind the tweeter? do i need to take the whole door card off?

tried to find a diy, but there was nothing specific, that or my search skills suck.

thanks
d

 

[naughtika]

when you find out, do you mind sharing it with us? been wanting to find out about this too.. just haven't had the time to get to doing mine..

 

[dwarfmarine]

Might be worth looking on the FTO forums, I think faulty folding mirrors were a common issue

 

[d3ck5]

cheers. might do that.

 

[PHIL069]

I wrote the FTO DIY for fixing the folding mech on the mirrors.
I have also pulled the passenger side mirror appart on my Galant as it doesn't fold, I also can hear the motor running.

The internals of the FTO and Galant mirrors are nothing alike.

The FTO mirror is easy to pull apart and repair, the Galant mirror is very difficult to pull apart.

You remove the mirror from behind the tweeter cover, if you have weather strips they get in the way of mirror removal. I was able to pull/peel my weather strip back enough to remove the mirror.
To pull the mirror apart without cutting the wiring harness you have to leave all the parts strung along the wires as you progress through the internals. You end up with a big chain of parts in your hands.
Once you get into the internals, you have to pull apart a small box the holds the circuit board to access the gears & motor.
This took me ages to work out and it took me an hour to try to line it all back up again to put back together (it was a real head f**k).
I found that the Galant mirror had stripped one of it's gears.
The small axle out of the motor goes into the first gear, this is the gear/connection that was stripped.
It is impossable to repair.
I put it back together with the same result as before I pulled it apart.
I need to replace mine.
If I have to replace the internals from another mirror, I would have to cut the wiring harness to get the internals out and reconnect/solder it after installing the internals.

 

[d3ck5]

Tyvm Phil!!!

I read thru enough FTO mirror right ups to be scared that they were different.

So if I decide to replace the mirror entirely (as opposed to just using the internals), is there a plug and play harness or would I need to cut and solder?

 

[PHIL069]

If you were to buy a new or used full replacement mirror you would just unbolt and unplug the old one and plug in bolt up the new one.

The colour coded panel on the front of the mirror could be swapped to.
So you could buy any colour mirror and install your couloured panel to it.
But to do this you would have to remove the glass and unbolt the internals to get too the screws that hold the coloured panel on.
You can also do this without cutting wires.

 

[d3ck5]

thanks again.

exactly what I needed to know

cheers

 

[Kaldek]

Hmm. I've been thinking of building a controller that automatically folds the mirrors when start/stop the car but it sounds like I'd just end up stripping gears.

 

[d3ck5]

anyway, i ended up buy a new mirror. dropped in in 15 and works a treat.

my gtir had the alarm hooked up to fold / unfold mirrors on arm and disarm.

i dont think it would be as easy on the vrs?

you could probably get it to easily unfold on engine startup, but folding in on shutdown or alarm arm would be a bit more taxing.

id assume youd have to get a constant power source to be able to fold them after the car is off.

could be easy for the guys good with wiring, but im an utter hack.

 

[naughtika]

@Ozyvr4 had done this to his alarm and works really good... specially when the side mirrors works like they should

 

[unclepaulie]

The mirror not folding in is probably due to the white plastic gear being stripped.
From what I remember, it is a normal flat dog engagement type gear and it contacts a rounded gear. The white gear gets chewed out.
Someone replaced it on cvr4 years ago

 

[naughtika]

or the grease drying..

mine usualy stops working when it rains

 

[Kaldek]

@Ozyvr4 had done this to his alarm and works really good... specially when the side mirrors works like they should

Now that's interesting because I have an alarm with a bunch of auxiliary outputs that could easily do it. Only problem is these Viper guys won't let the public access their manuals. Like as if that's going to stop professional thieves. Morons.

 

[d3ck5]

Now that's interesting because I have an alarm with a bunch of auxiliary outputs that could easily do it. Only problem is these Viper guys won't let the public access their manuals. Like as if that's going to stop professional thieves. Morons.

pretty sure you could get this in 15 mins of googling

 

[Kaldek]

pretty sure you could get this in 15 mins of googling

Sure! I think I have one for a slightly different model already. I just get pissed when I have to dig around to get it.

 

[d3ck5]

now if i can get an auxiliary to release the boot.....