Power Folding Mirror turns to wet noodle (aka broken power folding mirror)

[sb89]

EDIT: Procedure post 6, feel free to ask questions if you have them.

Leaving the market today and my power mirror goes to unfold and simply flops… I’m talking full wet noodle flapping in the wind. There was a washer that fell out when I was trying to see what’s going on in the parking lot.

Long story short I solved it, it required taking the mirror off entirely and reassembling the spring loaded assembly that pushes the mirror assembly against the mirror support. I have thoughts that maybe it could be done without removing the full mirror but it would be dangerous.

If anyone’s interested or has had this happen to them, I can try and write up some detail on how to fix it tomorrow when I finish assembling the mirror and painted housing.

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[D00notD00d]

Happens to all of some time, no shame!

 

[Dee]

Happens all the time.
It's just a waste of time to put them back on.
I leave them off.

 

[CaliPorsche]

Wow…. Lucky you saw the washer. I seem to recall a few years ago there was a spree if mirrors being stolen and resold, could that be the root cause … a failed attempt?

To answer your question …. Posting the procedure on here would always help someone down the line.

 

[trycan]

If anyone’s interested or has had this happen to them, I can try and write up some detail on how to fix it tomorrow when I finish assembling the mirror and painted housing.

YES! Posting the procedure would be helpful to any of our future selves that end up in this situation.
May consider revising the thread title because I'm not sure others will think to use "wet noodle" as search terms. (Sometimes finding threads on this site can be difficult, even when you know something related exists)

 

[sb89]

Alright, tutorial…

So there’s a heady duty spring that compresses the mirror housing against the mirror support. I guess through some digging on rennslist and talking to the dealer it’s not acceptable but also not uncommon for this to come off if someone jacks with the mirror, you hit it, etc.

TLDR: This blue retaining clip in the photo is what caused my broken power mirror and wet noodle flapping in the wind incident, it gets installed once the spring is compressed which takes two full grown men to compress and install the clip, then it secures in alignment with the red arrows. There’s also two nylon washers, a thick one under the spring and a thin one between the spring and metal washers that does just below the retaining clip.

It may be possible to do this with the mirror on the car, but you will struggle to get the leverage to compress the spring without putting it in a more secure workbench/vice set up. I personally think the door panel and mirror removal is much easier than the potential consequences of doing this on the car. I found this video helpful as it’s only two screws:

That warning aside, it’s VERY easy to remove the glass mirror and the painted cover. I’m sure there’s many tutorials on here but I found this video useful:

Note for the wrap guy video, he doesn’t have surround view, lane change assist, or heated mirrors so yield to mirror wires depending on your config. Popping the mirror off is just as easy though, as is taking off the painted cover with these two screws and then undo the clips right to left in the second and third photo.

All in I’d rate this self repair about a 3/10 on the repair scale of difficulty. The only reason it’s not a 1 or 2 is because of how much load that spring takes to compress. You absolutely need two full grown men or a press. I even wore safety glasses installing the clip while my friend compressed the spring, and I never do such things because I’m reckless.

Lastly, I make no money and there’s no sponsorship link here but this panel removal kit from Amazon is my favorite kit the I seem to use on Porsches WAY more than I ever want. Cheap and nice to have for replacing or removing legit any panel in the car. https://a.co/d/hc2ERa9

I plan to replace the front CT OFDP spoiler tomorrow with this tool kit being a large aid, wish me luck.

You need a T25, T10, and M10 triple star/spline drive bit, the panel tool kit helps tremendously with routing the mirror cable around the window, I found rolling the window up to route the cable was a must. Last photo is just a clean photo of the retaining ring and spring set up before I put it all back together.

 

[sb89]

YES! Posting the procedure would be helpful to any of our future selves that end up in this situation.
May consider revising the thread title because I'm not sure others will think to use "wet noodle" as search terms. (Sometimes finding threads on this site can be difficult, even when you know something related exists)

Done and done.

 

[Geno911]

Happened to me on my old BMW – mirror just dangled like a chicken wing in the wind. Ended up being that same spring/washer setup. Taking it apart was a bit of a pain, but once you see how it locks in it makes sense

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