Power Mirror Screwed Up

[MM2004]

Uncovered the Beast the other day after not driving her for about a week. Threw on a little Zaino after the California Duster and had accidentally knocked the driver’s side mirror (glass) out of adjustment.

No biggie until I went to adjust the mirror from inside the car during the pre-drive warm-up. Moving the switch up made the mirror move down. Moving the button inward, the mirror goes outward, etc., etc. :mad:

Had to end up adjusting the mirror manually.

Switched to the passenger side and worked perfectly. :confused:

I did a quick search yielding no hits on this newfound issue. :(

Has anyone experienced this on his or her MM?

I have to take a trip to my L/M Dealer soon and am sure it will be fixed good as new. The mirror was not bumped hard enough to break anything, I don’t think. :confused:

I have owned several cars with power mirrors and have not experienced this before.

Any insight would be appreciated. :)

Mike.

[Rider90]

I had this problem with my 04 F-250, dealer replaced the switch under warranty.

[Glenn]

The one time I had this problem with a Ford electric mirror, I had to manually push on the mirror glass up and down and sideways until I got it to sync again with the mirror gears. It will not hurt the gears inside the mirror housing. You have the mirror glass out of sync with the gears.

Glenn

[BK_GrandMarquis]

The one time I had this problem with a Ford electric mirror, I had to manually push on the mirror glass up and down and sideways until I got it to sync again with the mirror gears. It will not hurt the gears inside the mirror housing. You have the mirror glass out of sync with the gears.

Glenn

Be careful about doing this. The bracket that holds the mirror in is kinda weak. It'll break if you push too hard.

[ahess77]

The one time I had this problem with a Ford electric mirror, I had to manually push on the mirror glass up and down and sideways until I got it to sync again with the mirror gears. It will not hurt the gears inside the mirror housing. You have the mirror glass out of sync with the gears.

Glenn
As an engineer for exterior mirrors, the above analysis is completely incorrect.
Most electric mirror glass actuators have a ball-and-socket attachment to the plate that moves the glass. If this ball-and-socket attachment is loose then what you did may have reattached this connection. The previous body style F150 had a POS mirror glass actuator anyway. In any case, there is no resynchronization of anything inside the mirror glass actuator. It's a motor with a worm gear that turns a screw that's attached to the back of the mirror glass. It is correct that adjusting it manually will not hurt it, this is an FMVSS requirement so you can meet the field-of-view if it does fail electrically.

As for the problem of the mirror moving outboard when the switch is moved inboard, if it worked correctly before, then it's not in the exterior mirror, it's in the switch. If it always worked incorrectly, then it's in the wiring harness.

While I'm talking about exterior mirrors, remember that the glass and the plastic glass holder is a dealer serviceable item. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE MIRROR ASSEMBLY IF THE GLASS IS BROKEN. In fact, even the electric glass actuator is dealer serviceable. This is one area of dealer abuse that's almost universal, in fact many dealers have never even ordered the glass only or actuator only for an exterior mirror. However Ford has a requirement that their mirror glass be serviceable and almost all of their vehicles have serviceable mirror glass. Just so you know.

[fastblackmerc]

As an engineer for exterior mirrors, the above analysis is completely incorrect.
Most electric mirror glass actuators have a ball-and-socket attachment to the plate that moves the glass. If this ball-and-socket attachment is loose then what you did may have reattached this connection. The previous body style F150 had a POS mirror glass actuator anyway. In any case, there is no resynchronization of anything inside the mirror glass actuator. It's a motor with a worm gear that turns a screw that's attached to the back of the mirror glass. It is correct that adjusting it manually will not hurt it, this is an FMVSS requirement so you can meet the field-of-view if it does fail electrically.

As for the problem of the mirror moving outboard when the switch is moved inboard, if it worked correctly before, then it's not in the exterior mirror, it's in the switch. If it always worked incorrectly, then it's in the wiring harness.

While I'm talking about exterior mirrors, remember that the glass and the plastic glass holder is a dealer serviceable item. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE MIRROR ASSEMBLY IF THE GLASS IS BROKEN. In fact, even the electric glass actuator is dealer serviceable. This is one area of dealer abuse that's almost universal, in fact many dealers have never even ordered the glass only or actuator only for an exterior mirror. However Ford has a requirement that their mirror glass be serviceable and almost all of their vehicles have serviceable mirror glass. Just so you know.
Good 411!! Thanks!

[Blackmobile]

Moving the switch up made the mirror move down. Moving the button inward, the mirror goes outward, etc., etc. :mad:

Switched to the passenger side and worked perfectly. :confused:


I have somewhat of the same problem. When I move mine left electrically the mirror goes down. When you switched to the passenger side and it works correctly, that would take the switch out of the equation, IMHO. I would say it's the motor in the mirror. On occation mine does go back to working properly, but for the most part a manul adjustment is needed. It's really not my place to correct an engineer, but as a Tech I live for it.LOL

[ahess77]

When you switched to the passenger side and it works correctly, that would take the switch out of the equation, IMHO.

Actually this indicates more that it is the switch. The mirror switch has two sets of contacts, one when operating the left, and another set when operating the right, and neutral when in the center. The motors themselves are either going to work OK or not at all. There's no way to reverse the wiring in the electric mirror motors once they're assembled. So, a mirror that works OK sometime and reversed sometimes isn't due to the electric mirror actuator, it's due to something else.

Dissassemble a switch sometime and you'll see that there are 8 to 10 contacts that are about 2mm apart separated by thin plastic. If the plungers aren't centered or the plastic is deformed or breaks then it's easy to overtravel the joystick and make circuits that the switch never intended causing strange operation.

Also, when the mirror is operating reversed, look really closely to see if the mirror is actually traveling at a diagonal direction and not in an up/down or right/left direction only. A diagonal travel means that the neutral wire is not being grounded or pulled high like it's suppose to be.

At Ford, the release engineer is asked to write the service procedure when the program is almost complete. At that point the release engineer is generally working on the next program and doesn't "invest" must time in making sure the service procedure is accurate, concise, and useable. In my opinion, this is why you'll see so much bad information in the service manuals, especially because most engineers on the program never plan to buy and/or work on the vehicles they're engineering.

[MM2004]

Great info. everyone :beer: !

Dealer visit is in short order.

Mike :) .