Sticky door mirrors

[bozthesax]

When locking the car, the drivers door mirror won't fold in properly. I can hear the motor whirring away, but unless I give it a helping hand, not much happens. Unlock is the same. Is there any way to grease it up/lubricate the mechanism at all? (Passenger side works better however)

[J44EAG]

PTJS 1 (Paul) has stripped one of these units and found the drive arms to corrode badly...oxidised aluminium, which gums up the mechanism.

I had the same issue with my door mirror six moths ago after buying the car. Not being quite so enthusiastic as Paul, I squirted WD40 in to the base of the unit and excercised the unit until reasonable operation returned. Just today, as Paul predicted,, the mirror unit has again developed stiffness so I`m off out there again to have another go at the problem. This is the lazy mans fix which may or may not be productive. Worth a try?

Have some rag handy to mop up excess WD.

Mike

[J44EAG]

Fixed mine again! How about that. Fifteen minutes after my last post!!

WD and a bit of manual exercise of the mirrors. Good for another six months of use. All done with safety and economy in mind and without significant loss of life. They don`t teach this sort of thing where I learned my trade!!!

Mike.

[BrianG]

I had this problem too when I bought my car 2 years ago. I followed advice from another forum not to bother with WD 40 but to take the cover off the back to get at the works. The spindle and housing gets really corroded: it runs in a bare aluminium casting. I squirted loads of engine oil all around, exercised it, then more oil, etc., until it worked freely. It was messy - catch the oil as it comes out the drain hole in the bottom of the unit if you don't want to mess up your driveway. It's been OK ever since.

[ptjs1]

boz the sax,

In order to get the mirror cleaned and working properly, you really need to take the puddle lamp cover off, rather than just the mirror back. You can get some temporary improvement by cleaning the top half with the mirror back removed. But the bulk of the corrosion occurs on the bottom half. See this earlier thread with my pic of the puddle lamp cover removed:

http://www.jec.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=280&t=8341

Good luck

Paul

[pmcguire123]

his had the same problem got a can of silicon spay and sprayed all round there was a little hole near puddle light and gave it a good burst now works a treat
regards pete

[ptjs1]

Pete,

That will help but you really need to slide off the lamp cover and get to the mess of alloy corrosion that is in there!

Paul

[bozthesax]

Thanks for the help chaps, took the puddle lamp off, absolutely full of detritus (can't say cr.p!) cleaned it out, spray oil all round and hey presto - both sides work properly! Yay!

[ptjs1]

Glad we were able to help!

Paul