Dominic
08-09-2016, 01:47 PM
Hi guys,
I bought my car last Fall knowing that the side mirrors did not work correctly, but I would like to get them working. I have read through several threads here and my symptoms are different so I'm hoping you guys might have some insight. To summarize what I have found by searching other mirror-related threads: several folks have an issue where their passenger side mirror dips down in reverse and doesn't come back up, and the consensus is that the motor or ribbon cables are bad.
My symptoms are as follows:
- My passenger side mirror never moves down in reverse (it rarely moves at all).
- The slider position of the mirror switch on the driver's door doesn't seem to have much effect. Whether it is set to passenger side or driver's side, it is always the driver's mirror that moves (however, I did get the passenger side to move once briefly while I was testing).
- When the driver's mirror moves, it always moves all the way to the end of travel limit. For example, if I bump the little mirror joystick to the left, the mirror moves all the way until it is pointing outboard as much as possible. If I bump the joystick to the right, the mirror moves all the way inboard. Same for up and down motion. The mirror does NOT stop moving when I return the joystick to the center position. However, if I bump it to the right when it's moving left, it will immediately start moving back to the right (it doesn't go all the way to the end of travel before responding).
- As I mentioned, I was able to get the passenger mirror moving for a little while when I tested the mirrors, and when it worked, it did the same thing as the driver mirror (moved all the way to the end of travel).
What have I tried so far?
- I inspected the ribbon cables by removing the mirror glass from the mirrors and also removing the door panels and peeling back the moisture barrier. The ribbon cables on the passenger side and driver side both looked fine. I didn't observe any obvious damage or cuts in the cables. I wouldn't guarantee that the cables are good, because I didn't actually remove the motors from the mirror housings to do a full inspection of the cables behind the motor, but so far they look ok.
- I have NOT tried swapping the switch yet. My car (like most ZHP sedans I believe) has the memory mirrors, but no power folding. I assume that means I need to try swapping the switch with another equivalent (blue bottom) switch, correct?
So, do you guys think it's likely the switch could cause this symptom? Some control module? Driver or passenger mirror motors/cables?
Thanks very much for any advice!
Dominic
I bought my car last Fall knowing that the side mirrors did not work correctly, but I would like to get them working. I have read through several threads here and my symptoms are different so I'm hoping you guys might have some insight. To summarize what I have found by searching other mirror-related threads: several folks have an issue where their passenger side mirror dips down in reverse and doesn't come back up, and the consensus is that the motor or ribbon cables are bad.
My symptoms are as follows:
- My passenger side mirror never moves down in reverse (it rarely moves at all).
- The slider position of the mirror switch on the driver's door doesn't seem to have much effect. Whether it is set to passenger side or driver's side, it is always the driver's mirror that moves (however, I did get the passenger side to move once briefly while I was testing).
- When the driver's mirror moves, it always moves all the way to the end of travel limit. For example, if I bump the little mirror joystick to the left, the mirror moves all the way until it is pointing outboard as much as possible. If I bump the joystick to the right, the mirror moves all the way inboard. Same for up and down motion. The mirror does NOT stop moving when I return the joystick to the center position. However, if I bump it to the right when it's moving left, it will immediately start moving back to the right (it doesn't go all the way to the end of travel before responding).
- As I mentioned, I was able to get the passenger mirror moving for a little while when I tested the mirrors, and when it worked, it did the same thing as the driver mirror (moved all the way to the end of travel).
What have I tried so far?
- I inspected the ribbon cables by removing the mirror glass from the mirrors and also removing the door panels and peeling back the moisture barrier. The ribbon cables on the passenger side and driver side both looked fine. I didn't observe any obvious damage or cuts in the cables. I wouldn't guarantee that the cables are good, because I didn't actually remove the motors from the mirror housings to do a full inspection of the cables behind the motor, but so far they look ok.
- I have NOT tried swapping the switch yet. My car (like most ZHP sedans I believe) has the memory mirrors, but no power folding. I assume that means I need to try swapping the switch with another equivalent (blue bottom) switch, correct?
So, do you guys think it's likely the switch could cause this symptom? Some control module? Driver or passenger mirror motors/cables?
Thanks very much for any advice!
Dominic