Repair your folding mirrors

Hello,

I just repaired my left folding mirror and took some pics, so I will try to make a quick how-to tutorial in case someone has the time and will to try this instead of buying new ones. I first of all sorry for my English and for the bad quality of some of this pics.

So here we are:

1. Step one:

Take the mirror off your car I will not show how this is done, since you all know how to do it (ratchet with extension and 10mm socket should do the trick )

2. Step two:

Tilt the mirror by hand and try NOT TO break it

There are two clips on the bottom of the mirror. Flat screwdriver should do the trick.

See the position of the clips. Once they are off, just pull the bottom of the mirror and the upper ones will go out too.

3. Once the mirror itself is off (hopefully in one peace ), we are heading for the connector. Pull up the rubber and you will see the screw that holds the connector.

4. And now to disassemble the connector itself:

It has two clips on both sides. They release a plastic inner part.

Then there is a second plastic part over the pins which is easily removed.

After that with a needle you can get the pins out one by one. DO NOT FORGET TO WRITE DOWN THEIR COLORS IN EACH PLACE! (old school but effective ). Pins have numbers on the back of the connector 1-5.

5. Next step - removing the bottom part of the folding mirror. There are two screws again under the rubber.

When you unscrew them the bottom part will pop off.

6. Once the bottom part is off there are two more screws (endless story ):

7. Don't feel lucky... there are two more screws on the front of the mirror (I already felt screwed finding those ):

Once you are done with those the whole inner mechanism will go out of the plastic shell.

8. There is a small plastic cover on the top of the el. motor and the small circuit board. And you will find yourself somewhere here (Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice... ):

9. Now, if the problem is electrical there are 3 options for you:

1 - The capacitor on the right. 2 - The relay on the top (already removed in my case). 3 - The capacitor........ ummmm wait... that's not a capacitor... it's a fuse!... on the left. (the other thing way long gone in my case).

If the problem is mechanical, there is another screw (oh not again) below the circuit board... but you should find how deep the rabbit hole goes for yourself (since I didn't do that). It's not a bad idea to clean it up and oil it... just in case.

10. The relay and the fuse:

Hopefully you will be able to read their numbers.

11. Pull yourself together and do the steps backwards

12. Open a can of beer and enjoy the rest of the evening

I hope this will be helpful to some of you.

I am heading for the beer

Nice one. A great little how to.

I'm sure this will come in useful for many members. Well done.

So is it a case of ordering the new resistors and fuse etc?

The resistors are your last concern. I doubt anyone would ever need to change these.

The most likely reason is the fuse. It's like 5p new. And this part is getting damn hot while working...

Second most likely reason would be the capacitor. In time it gets warped (if that's the right word here). Again like 5p new.

The relay sometimes sticks in one position and in this case it's moulded in one solid part, so it can't be fixed. New is like 40p.

At least those are the prices in my country. So 50p in the worst case scenario... instead of £150 for a second hand mirror.