Side mirrors behaving erratically

[Funugy]

Have an '03 EB. When I use the FOB to enter the car, both mirrors move around erratically, make popping noise and don't end up in the same place that they began in. The noise and the fact that they're moving doesn't bother me, however, the fact that they don't end up in the same place does. The back up feature whereby the mirrors dip in turned off. Does anyone know why they wouldn't return to the same place?

 

[stamp11127]

Do the seats return to the programmed location if they are moved to a different location? If not, that points to the driver seat module. You would need to verify that it is at fault first before condemning the part.
The DSM may have stored codes which will require one of the high end scanners to read them. The cheapies for the masses are not setup for those systems.
Don't know if it is the cause in your case, but my wife's MDX will not tilt the mirror down if the mirror selector switch isn't in the center position.

 

[Skauber]

You can read those with FORScan and some of the cheap ODB adapters, but not all. What's new.

Anyway, it may be dirt in the motor, specially on the potensiometers for the memory function. The only way to fix this, is to get the motor out of the mirrors and disassemble it and clean it. If all other memory functions work normally, it's likely that the mirror motors are dirty. That is at any rate the cheapest and quickest thing to try first, and only requires some lithium grease, electrical contact cleaner and an hour of your time.

 

[Funugy]

Do the seats return to the programmed location if they are moved to a different location? If not, that points to the driver seat module. You would need to verify that it is at fault first before condemning the part.
The DSM may have stored codes which will require one of the high end scanners to read them. The cheapies for the masses are not setup for those systems.
Don't know if it is the cause in your case, but my wife's MDX will not tilt the mirror down if the mirror selector switch isn't in the center position.

Yes, the seats work fine. They move back to the original position.

 

[Funugy]

You can read those with FORScan and some of the cheap ODB adapters, but not all. What's new.

Anyway, it may be dirt in the motor, specially on the potensiometers for the memory function. The only way to fix this, is to get the motor out of the mirrors and disassemble it and clean it. If all other memory functions work normally, it's likely that the mirror motors are dirty. That is at any rate the cheapest and quickest thing to try first, and only requires some lithium grease, electrical contact cleaner and an hour of your time.

I'll give this a shot.

 

[Skauber]

Oh, the FORScan link had a weird lable. hehe.. FORScan

Here it's a bit more clear in case you missed it from my other post, anyway, good luck with the cleaning.

 

[FordGate]

Sounds like your mirrors got bumped and are out of sync. Happens on mine. I just manually pop the mirrors back so that they have the travel they need to reposition properly. Just put them to the end of travel with the power switch. If they pop, move it back so it has more room and try again until they can travel properly. If that doesn't fix it, most likely one of the arms pulled out of the motors. They are easy to fix but require pulling the mirror glass off. If you have to go that far, maybe just buy a new mirror motor. They are cheap as people break them all the time. My wife shit-canned 4 of them. This is also why I know how they work!

 

[Hamfisted]

Have an '03 EB. When I use the FOB to enter the car, both mirrors move around erratically, make popping noise and don't end up in the same place that they began in. The noise and the fact that they're moving doesn't bother me, however, the fact that they don't end up in the same place does. The back up feature whereby the mirrors dip in turned off. Does anyone know why they wouldn't return to the same place?

There was a TSB on the mirror memory module years ago. It's basically crap and prone to failure after a few months. The best thing to do is turn off the mirror auto movement function thru the message center options. I had the module replaced under warranty twice and the service tech recommended turning the feature off. That was over ten years ago and they've been off ever since.



-Mike