How to fix the left wing mirror motor

Post Mon Sep 19, 2005 4:03 pm

When I purchased my E30 ride, I was told by the previous owner, that he changed all four doors.

I noticed, the driver side mirror worked perfect, I mean the motor adustment. But the left wing mirror never worked even though I could hear some clicking sound coming from the engine bay.

Any way the left wing mirror was scratched, so Purchased a complete mirror assembly from a chop shop and fixed it yesterday, but sad the mirror still does not work, it is the same with clicking sound from engine bay.

Has any one seen this symptom and fixed it ?

TQ

Post Mon Sep 19, 2005 5:35 pm

The motors sieze up, the clicking you can hear is the relay in the fuse box.

It's probably going to be another new mirror as I'm sure the motors are permanently fixed.

Post Mon Sep 19, 2005 5:48 pm

You can get the motors out i had a pair of silver thingys in place of my original ones. They were M3 mirroris i think, anyways they didnt work as the guy who had it before me cut the wires.

So i put the old ones back on and all the left mirror did was go left to right even when i was trying the button up and down.

So i too the glass off removed the motors (in there little housing) and thought it was going to cost me loads of dosh to replaced. I decided to take one of the M3 mirrors appart BINGO it was exactly the same motor and housing so i unplugged it and swapped it for the broken on and hey presto. The motors work better than the old one alot smoother.

I still have the other side might swap that over tooo, unless i keep it and use it if the right hand one goes?!

Post Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:38 pm

before u go buying a new mirror etc... try the multiplug in the drivers door pillar, i had the same fault and by getting a small driver pushing each wire connection into the socket solved the problem.

Post Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:16 am

First a few details on how the mirrors work. There is only one motor in a mirror. The other thing is a clutch.
If you apply power to just the motor, it will move from left to righr or right to left, according to which way around you connect the + and -.
If you apply power to the clutch, the motor drive is transferred to the up/down mechanism, so with power applied to the clutch and the motor the mirror will move up and down.
The clicking you can hear is coming from the LH mirror, and is the clutch operating, so these two wires are connecting OK.
The mirror mechanism dismantles easily, but your problem is unlikely to be in the mirror itself.
Your problem is that the motor in the mirror is not getting power, although the clutch is. The power to the LH motor goes through two pins in each doorpillar connector, and this is where you problem most likely is.

Post Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:35 am

Try also pushing the mirror around by hand whilst operating the switch. My mirrors were seized up when i bough my car, they freed up with a bit of pushing and poking.

Post Tue Sep 20, 2005 10:09 am

Thank you everyone .. lots of ideas and feedback , Next week end I am going to fix this.

Thank you all

Post Tue Sep 20, 2005 10:26 am

It happened to me last week. Brianmooore are right. It is the connector, most probably either at the A pillar or between mirror motor and door. Mind was between the motor and the door. Just peel of the triangle cover from inside and disconnect the connector. Clean it and fixed it again. Walla, it work again. I hope I explain it right.