Powerfold Mirror Repair

[Usel]

If the mirror is stuck in the up position then this is the walk through of why this particular unit is getting stuck.

This unit goes up and then will try to fold back down. It moves about 1cm. With it down as far as it goes I left it there and stripped off the glass, glass motor and mirror cap

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A visual inspection shows the pin out and caught on one of the 3 locking points. This is wrong and the pin should be up and already past the locking point. The mirror has folded up too far. The pin is also at an angle and damage is occurring.

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The photo also shows a crack in the plastic plate.

I then turned the mirror down by hand, like most people do with this problem

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I could then operate the mirror up again but killed the power before it went all the way up. I could then power it down. I did this a few times and it was working well.
I then powered it all the way up until it wanted to stop. I heard the pin click and already knew it had gone too far. It wouldn't then move down. Would only move 1cm like it did before. Obviously something inside has mechanically failed.

Tomorrow it will be opened up.

[kis]

Interesting that you say the damage to the housing is terminal? Looks like plastic? It can’t be welded?

Eager to see the inside of mine now. Always a sucker for the easy (free) fixes as they’re the most rewarding. Hopefully mine doesn’t have terminal problems! Nice little trouble shooting thread you’ve started. Look forward to the next update.

[Usel]

Interesting that you say the damage to the housing is terminal? Looks like plastic? It can’t be welded?

The housing is a metal casting, the piece that is broken off has actually been mangled and beaten about. It can't simply be JB Welded back on, needs straightening first, which will prove difficult as it's curved.

I have a plan for a fix, hopefully a successful one

[Usel]

Opening up the mirror unit.

The only way you can easily get the mirror apart is to cut the top off with an angle grinder

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Don't worry about damaging the washer, it's a common size and easily available

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Washer off

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Straight away you can see the damage the blue arrow is pointing to. The big ring the red arrow points would not even come off because of how bent the damage was

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I had to remove the actuator housing from the mirror housing first before I could get the large ring off. Getting the 4 screws out wasn't easy

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Pictures of the damage

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The damage is really what I expected. The only way the mirror can fold up and get stuck is by bending metal. I think the damage on the other mirror is just an advanced stage of the damage in this mirror. The damage in this mirror will just get worse the more it is used.

Now to carry on dismantling the mirror unit:

Jam something in the gap to keep the spindle up

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[Usel]

Cut here

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Done

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Possibly an update tomorrow with a fix

[Usel]

Here is a fix for the drivers side mirror that was getting stuck in the up position.

I took all the rough edges off the ring and re-cut the 3 catching grooves for the pin. I used a dremel with a grinding/cutting bit. A bit like a straight flute for a router

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Then I straightened the damage to the actuator housing

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I used an M16 bolt with a vice to crush the deformed housing part against the bolt. The thread on the bolt will turn all the way through, the main unthreaded shaft will not pass all the way through so you can tighten up a nut and washer

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Applied JB Weld to the damaged areas

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After 24hrs I ground down the JB Weld so parts would not foul. I drilled the hole out with a 4.25mm bit

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[Usel]

I assembled the actuator housing all back together and applied some grease. Bolted the mirror all back together and did 20 test movements backwards and forwards. Seemed to work very well and stop at the points it should.

Disassembled to take a look inside

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JB Weld seems to be okay. Long term may be another matter, will have to see if it's a long term fix or not.

I applied more grease before putting it all back together again.

The passenger mirror, which has more damage, will not make a successful repair imo. I have ordered another mirror unit which I hope has the correct actuator housing inside. Hopefully it will come this week.

[Usel]

I bought a powerfold mirror from an Audi A6 C5 for £25 with the hope it has the same actuator housing.

Before taking it apart I powered it up to make sure it works and it did.

Here is the mirror unit stripped down

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Compared to the Z4 one it looks the same

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Audi left, Z4 right

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The only difference is the ring, the 3 notches are different and it's about 1mm thinner. It can't be used in its current state.

Z4 Left, Audi Right

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I used the actuator housing in the passenger mirror and it now works perfectly. So the Audi A6 C5 unit can be used for replacement parts for the actuator housing, motor, cog, worm gear with Cog and the worm gear on the motor. If you need a ring then it's no good.

I have bought a drivers side A6 unit to replace the actuator housing on the driver side Z4 mirror. Even though I am happy with the repair I would rather have an original unrepaired housing in it as it's likely to be sold on.

Both the A6 units had auto dimming glass which looks in good condition so I will try and sell them on to cover the repair costs to these mirrors.

[NaweedMustafa]

After two years i finally get the see the insides of this mechanism, have the same issue with the drivers side making a loud click noise when it reaches its designated fold up position. upon folding down, no luck. gotta do it by hand. (passenger side functions fine). Spraying the internals in situ with silicone spray helped me for 5 months. Definitely going to give this a try one day

[Usel]

After two years i finally get the see the insides of this mechanism, have the same issue with the drivers side making a loud click noise when it reaches its designated fold up position. upon folding down, no luck. gotta do it by hand. (passenger side functions fine). Spraying the internals in situ with silicone spray helped me for 5 months. Definitely going to give this a try one day

I hope this all helps, it's why I posted up all this information because it's really hard to find any information about the inner workings of a powerfold let alone for the Z4.

If the mirror is getting stuck up and won't come down then there is wear or damage somewhere. The stop point is metal to metal and the only way it can go further is by crushing, bending or breaking.

It's strange how lubrication has helped not only you but many others.

I will post up how to assemble it all back together when I get a chance

I would avoid using the powerfold and just use it as a manual mirror. It will fold up as well as down just like a normal mirror. This will stop further damage until you can fix it.

[kis]

Very useful updates. Thanks for sharing

When you cut the hollow rivet thing off (I think the bit where the wires pass through)…. how do you then reassemble the mirror?

[Usel]

Very useful updates. Thanks for sharing

When you cut the hollow rivet thing off (I think the bit where the wires pass through)…. how do you then reassemble the mirror?

I will try and do a write up on this however essentially I bought these 100mm m12 threaded rod used for lamps as they came with the nuts. You can use any m12 threaded rod:

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Length of the thread rod needs to be cut to around 85mm. You need to use double nuts each end as the threaded rod sometimes turns with the movement of the mirror and sometimes doesn't. So single nuts could unthread themselves.

There is another way, you can use these:

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But I couldn't find ones over 85mm long and you will also need to remove the large black plastic triangle on the mirror to install them. Which means cutting the plastic lugs off and figuring out a way to glue them back on very securely, as when you bolt the mirror to the car the black plastic makes a water tight seal to the rubber on the door.

[Enigmatik]

Hi Rob,

Just saw this! That's a great repair, glad the old one turned out to be useful! Looks like it culd save some folk some money in the future, start a refurb service? On the negative side I now need to polish the passenger one to match the shiney drivers one. Got the new battery, took him for first run of the year only to find sticky calipers from winter break. Need to rebuild the 3.0Si brakes i have in cupboard now, never ends! Thanks again for the help!

[Usel]

Hi Rob,

Just saw this! That's a great repair, glad the old one turned out to be useful! Looks like it culd save some folk some money in the future, start a refurb service? On the negative side I now need to polish the passenger one to match the shiney drivers one. Got the new battery, took him for first run of the year only to find sticky calipers from winter break. Need to rebuild the 3.0Si brakes i have in cupboard now, never ends! Thanks again for the help!

Really glad you sent me your old broken one, thank you

The black plastic on the one I sent you was just cleaned and then coated with Gtechniq C4. Expensive but works well imo.

In other news I am one step with closer with making the mirrors fold up and down on key lock and unlock.
I need to finalise the wiring for it to work with the manual window switch button and for it to disable so you can lock the doors when driving and not have the mirrors fold up
It's all done on paper but just need it to work in practice.

[Enigmatik]

Hi Rob,

Just saw this! That's a great repair, glad the old one turned out to be useful! Looks like it culd save some folk some money in the future, start a refurb service? On the negative side I now need to polish the passenger one to match the shiney drivers one. Got the new battery, took him for first run of the year only to find sticky calipers from winter break. Need to rebuild the 3.0Si brakes i have in cupboard now, never ends! Thanks again for the help!

Really glad you sent me your old broken one, thank you

The black plastic on the one I sent you was just cleaned and then coated with Gtechniq C4. Expensive but works well imo.

In other news I am one step with closer with making the mirrors fold up and down on key lock and unlock.
I need to finalise the wiring for it to work with the manual window switch button and for it to disable so you can lock the doors when driving and not have the mirrors fold up
It's all done on paper but just need it to work in practice.

No worries at all, impressed to see what you've done with it and I'll await the conversion to making the mirrors fold with locking, it's annoying Carly doesn't allow this. Hopeully that would pervent me having to murder a neighbour!