[PhaseP]

This for those folding door mirrors that lost their mind and open up 180 degrees out each time the car is started, and all attempts of resetting it have failed.
I have learned how to fix the door mirror from the youtube videos linked below, all the credit goes to those folks who published those youtube videos. I am just documenting my experience fixing this following the information found on these youtube videos. Short summary, it stops working because a locating pin with a spring under it gets stuck in its hole with corrosion and dirt, making the mirror not knowing when to stop when unfolding. Reaching this pin requires breaking a rivet like tube, which requires welding a washer in place to be able to reassemble the mirror. Most often closing the mirror half way and then operating the fold and unfold can free the pin and mirror works again. But if these attempts fail with no result, this is the real solution, or buying a replacement mirror assembly.

2009 BMW 335i Folding Mirror Fix:

BMW folding mirror fix:

Tools and materials I used:

- Plastic pry tools
- T10, T20, T30 torx screw drivers
- Big enough locking pliers, don't remember exactly but the one I had was 8 inch I think.
- 1/2 inch drill bit, with regular cutting tip, will be used to remove rivet.
- Hand drill
- Small enough pin or nail to tap the stuck pin out
- Hammer to tap the pin out
- Some oil spray, like penetrating oil or wd 40 to clean out the pin and its hole.
- Paper towels
- 7/16 inch inner diameter washer, used in place of the removed rivet via welding
- Some way to weld the washer to mirror assembly (I used a simple flux cored welder I had). Or get someone who is a welder to weld it.
- Small round or triangular file or dremel with suitable attachment to clean and round out the hole after welding

Steps given below is for passenger side mirror. Driver side would be same with only the slight difference in door panel removal due to different door handle.

- Preferably choose a warm day to do this. There are lots of plastic prying involved, a cold day can cause breakage of the clips.
- Roll down the window on the door.
- Open the door.
- With a plastic pry tool carefully remove the trim that goes across door panel horizontally. Starting prying from hinge side to jamb side. The jamb side has a locator plastic piece going into the door frame. Starting from jamb side will break this piece which is shown in the second picture below.


- With plastic pry tool separate the door handle cover section to reveal the screw shown. With T20 torx bit remove that screw.

- Remove the three other T20 torx screws that are now accessable under that long trim piece removed.
- With a plastic pry tool in between the door panel and door frame, start popping internal round clips starting at bottom corners, then bottom center and then sides.
- Once all those are popped off, push down the door lock pin. While holding the door panel with one hand so that it won't fall off, pry off the top of the door panel clips by placing plastic pry tool in between door panel and door at the top section.

- Still holding the panel, remove each cable connections, speaker, window switch, door light and etc , then disconnect the door lock bowden cable from the door lock by pulling it up and then unhooking it.
- Remove the door panel, put away.
- Carefully pry off the painted back clam shell shell of the door mirror. This is easier done while the mirror is still on the door. Removed shell and then the mirror without shell are shown:


- With your hands pry off enough section of the door window inner trim as shown below to reveal the mirror screws.

- Disconnect the mirror cable, then remove the three torx T30 screws fastening the mirror assembly. Be careful not to let the mirror fall down, but it is more likely be held still by the cable grommet.

- Pull the cable grommet out, disconnect it from the inner cable going to mirror. Note the tab that needs to be lifted for removal in the picture. Remove the mirror assembly at the same time.

- Pry and pull out cover piece under the mirror assembly.


Continued on next post:

[PhaseP]

....Continuing steps from above
- Very carefully and gently start prying under the mirror lens part. You may want to place masking tape on the lens to prevent it cracking while doing this. It will pop off eventually.

- Disconnect the cable going into the mirror lens. It may not come off unless you slide a thin piece under it that will push down the locking tabs that is shown in second picture below. Put away the lens mirror somewhere clean and secure.


- Pull out the cable that goes to the door out of the tube that it was fished in.
- The below picture shows the bottom section of the mirror assembly where it is held together by that tube whose end is rounded and pressed down like a rivet. The only way to continue disassembly is to break this rivet.

- With a big enough locking pliers press down on the upper section of that tube to compress the spring on it.
You may chose not to do this at this step, because not compressing the spring will leave only the top section of the tube to be drilled. If spring is compressed, there is risk of drilling more than needed not leaving enough meat to weld on to.
The spring will be needed to be compressed down same way while welding the washer on there in the following steps.

- With a 1/2 inch drill bit and drill start drilling the center of this tube. The tubes outside diameter is about 7/16 inch. So 1/2 inch drill bit nicely removes the riveted section of the tube, as seen below. The tube is made of soft metal and drills out quickly. There is risk of drilling into it too much. And don't expect the spring will pull it out as soon as the top section is drilled. The down force from the drill bends the end of the tube making it stick to the sides of the hole it is in which was able to prevent the spring to come free in my case. In short, drill carefully and periodically check how much is drilled and if needed just pry it off. You can see this in the second youtube video on how the guy separates the two and how the end of the tube is distorted from drill force holding it against the spring force.

- Pull or pry out the metal round piece.

- Remove the four T10 torx screws shown. (note the stuck down pin, which is the cause of all this!)

- Pull the gear and motor assembly out, while doing so make a note of the orientation of the motor wires and then disconnect the motor wires.
- Remove the black plastic cover of the gear assembly by freeing the locking tabs on each side.

- With a pin or small enough nail that can fit the small hole on the opposite side of the stuck pin push out the pin from its hole that it was stuck. I had to gently tap it out with a hammer, it was that much stuck with corrosion.

- Take the pin and the small spring under it from their hole.
- Thorougly clean the pin and its hole with some penertating oil, scrub off the pin surface if needed with some hard plastic. Work the cleaned pin in and out on its hole until it moves freely.
- Lube the pin hole, place the spring and then the pin back in. Make sure the pin is not sticking at all in the hole when pushed down.
- Optionally clean all the gear pieces and lube them with some grease. I used silicon grease on plastic gears and some moly grease on metal ones. That is what I had at hand, so used them, not particularly selected.
- Put the gear assembly back together and back into mirror assembly.
- Again press the spring on that tube again while it is placed in its place in the mirror assembly with that locking pliers.
- Place the bottom section of the mirror assembly to its place, the tube going through its hole as it should.
- Place the 7/16 washer over the tube whose rivet section had been drilled off.
- Weld the washer to the tube. Below is my ugly novice welder work. Not pretty but worked!

- Clean out and trim excess of the weld inside the tube so that the mirror cable can go again through it to connect to the cable on the door side.
- Push the cable through that tube, then the hole on the lower mirror part.
- Connect the grommet to this cable connector and place it on the mirror on its place.
- Close the bottom cover of the mirror assembly that was removed.
- Connect the mirror lens cable, then push and pop in the mirror lens to its place.
- Put the mirror back on the door as assembly being reverse of disassembly.
- One thing that can be missed, the inner black window trim that was half way pried open (the one that has the tweeter in it) needs to go over the thin rubber that goes over the sheet metal door frame even on the vertical straight section of the window where the mirror section starts. Pay attention there from the outside of the door you will see what I mean.
- Don't forget the put the Bowden cable hook into the door lock latch and secure it by pulling it down and placing it in its guide just below.
- Don't forget to place the door lock push down pin to its place while assembling the door panel.
- Time to try the mirror and watch in awe that it works now as it should!!!

[opjose]

Excellent write-up!

Could you re-title the first post to read ?

DIY: Malfunctioning folding door mirror fix

[GoRomeo]

dang it, this is more complicated than I tought...

[PhaseP]

Someone later posted a DIY which uses technique of drilling a hole that corresponds to the top of the pin and freeing the pin that way without breaking and then needing to weld that rivetted piece. That is easier, you can give that a try.

Another thing I noticed, it is good fold and unfold these mirrors every once in a few weeks to get the pin working up and down so that way it doesn't get stuck.

My driver side pin got stuck this summer. I drove a few days like that each time putting the mirror in position manually with my hand. I was about to pull it out and fix same way but pin got unstuck when I tried the last time. After that I am folding and unfolding the mirrors once in every week.

[GoRomeo]

Originally Posted by PhaseP

Someone later posted a DIY which uses technique of drilling a hole that corresponds to the top of the pin and freeing the pin that way without breaking and then needing to weld that rivetted piece. That is easier, you can give that a try.

Another thing I noticed, it is good fold and unfold these mirrors every once in a few weeks to get the pin working up and down so that way it doesn't get stuck.

My driver side pin got stuck this summer. I drove a few days like that each time putting the mirror in position manually with my hand. I was about to pull it out and fix same way but pin got unstuck when I tried the last time. After that I am folding and unfolding the mirrors once in every week.

I use mine all the time I always open and close my mirrors everywhere I go. Maybe it was the excess of use. It happened to me few years ago but then corrected by itself. Not this time or so far...

Yeah I saw it on youtube about drilling the hole. I just added WD40 uderneath the opening space like someone suggested but did not work. Mirror still not stoping at the right place. I tried to move it back and forth still nothing. I guess my only option left is to drill the hole.

[GoRomeo]

UPDATE: After doing the drilling and added some lubrication my mirror started working for only about 2 months. I tried to lub it again through the hole but did not work. I guess this time finally gave up . Maybe in my case it was the excess for 12 yrs, so I ended up cutting the wire for now to stop the mechanism from working . I dont want to mess up with it anymore. I am shopping around for a used mirror. Cheers!

[Caradayz]

I want to say thank you very much for such a detailed guide with photos. You have helped me a lot, as well as many of my friends. Now I want to buy a new plastic welding, I am studying the material on this topic. Can you give any advice on modern models?

[bubarak]

Very nice post thanks!