Slow Electric Folding Wing Mirror - Fix

[SJX]

Slow Folding Wing Mirror Fix

The driver’s side folding mirror on the facelift W210 cranked in at a painfully slow rate, seemingly if at all sometimes - so investigation was needed. Hardened grease was most certainly the cause due to age petrified grease in the folding mirror drive gearbox. (anyone who has ever taken an old wiper gearbox, or electric drill to pieces will know exactly what I mean!)



Power the mirror in and assist it by hand if it's really struggling, then remove the wing mirror cover (Fold the mirror in and release the square spring steel holding clip with a careful poke down the back edge with a screwdriver) Once free from the retaining clip, power the mirror to its normal position. The cover now pulls away from the hinge part in the direction away from the car and hangs just far enough out of the way to proceed. Removing the outer cover reveals a second flimsy black plastic cover at the hinge point protecting the fold motor and gear assembly from the elements. Remove this cover by simply prying gently at its retained edge whilst pulling outward. Once this second cover is out of the way, the motor and gear quadrant is revealed.


Take a small sharp bladed terminal screwdriver and find the indicated location shown in the picture and make a small hole in the gear case just beneath the motor (push and rotate the driver a few times to make a neat hole, go steady though, the plastic is thin) Do not use a drill (hand drill or otherwise)as past disasters have shown how easy it is for the drill bit flutes to bite in the thin plastic driving the bit forward uncontollably into whatever you were carefully trying to preserve. Using the sharp screw driver method, although crude does gives a great deal more control of whats going on. You have been warned !



Protect the cars paint beneath the mirror with a rag and spray copious amounts of WD40 into the gear housing through your new hole, flooding the mech. Work the mirror in and out under power a few times, being careful not to trap the mirror cover that will be hanging loose. Repeat the WD application and let it stand a few mins to soften the hardened grease that is the root cause of the issue. (Infact – go make a brew)


Give it a final spray with WD and run the mirror in and out several times, you will have noticed the fold speed increase almost immediately the first squirt got to work. Once you are happy with the fix, wipe off any excess and clean the plastic gear housing with de-greaser or such and put a small blob of silicone sealant over the hole you made. Reassemble and be very pleased with yourself!.



If you don’t make a cup of tea, this can be done half an hour a side easy.


Special note: If your mirror cover has LED repeaters in the housing, clean up the connector pins before you re-assemble, as they will be corroded slightly and probably not contact correctly once the mirror cover is refitted. (I know this!) To facilitate easier location of the LED connector on reassembly, tilt the mirror glass down slightly, this gives you some clearance between the mirror cover and mirror itself to guide the connector home.


I am almost sure this one will be of use to a few members!


Pictures of mirror assembly you will need to see:
http://www.gr8moments.com/w210/W210%...%20Fix%201.jpg

Steve

[renault12ts]

Another useful thread Steve, thanks.

[Aerialmark]

Just what mine is doing thanks

[andy27168]

Hi,
Just looked at the pics, I take it the green dot on the motor is not where you make the hole, but on the black plastic housing beneath it.
These motors are known for failling and use to be available separetly on some cars, makes me wonder now whether it is actually the motor itself failing or just the "gearbox" part seizing, both my mirrors are very slow, just thought it was a tired motor, I,ll try this the weekend fingers crossed it will cure my problems.

[SJX]

The green dot is as you say on the motor and not where you make the hole, this is a paint marking of some sort. The next picture in the row shows the hole you need to make in the plastic gear housing, indicated in the picture by a red circle and pointed to by the screwdriver blade. The motors probably do fail in time possibly because they cant cope straining to move a stiff gear clogged mechanism, they only look a tad bigger than a scalextric car motor !

Hope it works out for you.

Steve

[andy27168]

Cheers feel a fool now only saw the first two pics, needed to scroll to the right, problems of accessing the forum from a Android phone I,m afraid.

[SJX]

No problem.... at least you didn't have to ask a complete stranger to read outloud the text message sent to your phone ! I knew I had been sent a message about a scheduled collection, but had to resort to the above to find out where and when, NOW THATS FEELING FOOLISH !

(-)(-)
...~...

[A210AMG]

Hello

Any idea if this is the same on a S211 (E class 2003) my driver side is anything from not folding...to slow folding. WD40 helps for a while but I think it needs a better fix...

[SJX]

Will be the same I am sure, if worried about the WD not lasting for you, why not squirt some 3 in one in the hole after you have freed it off with WD40? This could work even better I suppose. Time will tell of course, but as long as the WD40 gets to the parts that need it (refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach - Old Heineken ad creeping in there) and not just splashed around all the plastic in the slim hope that it gets where actually its needed - then it should be 100% improvement. I went from a nearly no-go to racing the passenger one to a closed folded position, so it does some good !

Steve