Passenger side mirror tilt has a mind of it's own

[Tanner]

I asked this before but nobody seemed to have any solution to it, so I'll ask again..... my right driver side mirror seems to lose it's bearing... so when it's being tilted down in reverse and or returning back to where it should, it ends up tilting too far up to the point I'm looking at blue sky. Really need the reverse tilt working now that I need to cram two cars in the garage and need to see how close I am to the stuff I have on the side of the garage wall.

Anybody know what needs to be done to fix this? I'm thinking the controller is fine, there's some position sensor in the mirror that's probably fubar'ed.

[mingamells]

Mine does the same thing. Got no answers for ya though.

[JRMSLINEA4]

I asked this before but nobody seemed to have any solution to it, so I'll ask again..... my right driver side mirror seems to lose it's bearing... so when it's being tilted down in reverse and or returning back to where it should, it ends up tilting too far up to the point I'm looking at blue sky. Really need the reverse tilt working now that I need to cram two cars in the garage and need to see how close I am to the stuff I have on the side of the garage wall.

Anybody know what needs to be done to fix this? I'm thinking the controller is fine, there's some position sensor in the mirror that's probably fubar'ed.

My car doesn't have this feature.

[RVT]

I asked this before but nobody seemed to have any solution to it, so I'll ask again..... my right driver side mirror seems to lose it's bearing... so when it's being tilted down in reverse and or returning back to where it should, it ends up tilting too far up to the point I'm looking at blue sky. Really need the reverse tilt working now that I need to cram two cars in the garage and need to see how close I am to the stuff I have on the side of the garage wall.

Anybody know what needs to be done to fix this? I'm thinking the controller is fine, there's some position sensor in the mirror that's probably fubar'ed.

Educated Guess....
I'm assuming the mirror is motor driven. You might investigate if it is needing lubrication. Could simply be binding.


Vince

[Insane_Audi]

my passenger side goes down when i tell it to..but not my drivers side.. :(

[Übermensch]

Educated Guess....
I'm assuming the mirror is motor driven. You might investigate if it is needing lubrication. Could simply be binding.


Vince

x2

[Bsix3.0]

did you set the memory so it will return to position it was? the memory for the seats also controls the mirrors aswell..

[BoostedA4tQ]

same problem on mine would love to know though.

[Tanner]

Mine has gone completely nuts today, guess the -6C had something to do with it?

Shift into reverse. Doesn't move. Then it moves maybe ten seconds later. Guessing a faulty switch somewhere.

And when it goes down, it really goes all the way down. Then when it needs to return to the previous position, it doesn't. The all of a sudden it wants me to look at the sky.

I'd pull the mirror off to see if there's a sensor in there that's all dirty or something but knowing my luck, if I try and pull the mirror off, something will break with these colder temps.

[cesc281]

i asked this before but nobody seemed to have any solution to it, so i'll ask again..... My right driver side mirror seems to lose it's bearing... So when it's being tilted down in reverse and or returning back to where it should, it ends up tilting too far up to the point i'm looking at blue sky. Really need the reverse tilt working now that i need to cram two cars in the garage and need to see how close i am to the stuff i have on the side of the garage wall.

Anybody know what needs to be done to fix this? I'm thinking the controller is fine, there's some position sensor in the mirror that's probably fubar'ed.

do u have mem seats?????

[Tanner]

Yeah, have memory seats... the memory seems to work, it just moves the mirror the wrong amount.

[BoostedA4tQ]

Yeah, have memory seats... the memory seems to work, it just moves the mirror the wrong amount.

Make that two of Us...i have a 05.5 S4 what year is yours? It seems to be a common issue.

[Tanner]

Mine was probably one of the first batch of B7s that arrived in Canada, so probably a 05.5 like yours.

I'd love to get this stupid thing fixed as it's been really aggravating lately. I'm not certain right now, but even when I have the memory switch turned off, when i first get into the car, I *think* it still adjusts the mirror (and HVAC temp) to the setting that's paired with the key, as I recall seeing the side mirror pointing in some random direction.

[Tanner]

BTW, found this site (requires registration):

http://www.audi-portal.com/en

Not sure if I (or anybody else for that fact) can find anything useful in there other than possible error messages for each measured value block.

[Tanner]

Okay, I decided to pull things apart to see what I can find. Mirror .. check. Control unit... check. Held down by three screws. Plug pops off easily. Done.

Tried to take it apart, don't have the appropriate torx bit to loosen things up. Cover that attaches to the mirror though is held down snugged to the control unit by nine tabs which are a PITA to remove from the looks of things. Peer inside, gears looks fine, does sound like the motor is still running when the mirror is extended to either limits so guessing the motor is connected to the gear using some belt or something.

The thing that moves doesn't move freely - i suppose this is a good thing as it'll bounce around while you're driving which could be come very annoying. Did notice that it was greased up but a bit dirty, tried to clean it as much as I could and gave it a shot of lithium grease to see if it helps over the next few days.

Of course I didn't take any pictures of the thing itself but here's one off ebay...



Probably will just get the part myself and replace it if the thing continues to misbehave. Part is 4E0 959 577 C.

[BoostedA4tQ]

Keep us posted....

[Tanner]

Damn that part ain't cheap... $145CDN (with a slight discount through the dealer). Just for some plastic, gears and a motor! It'll be on the list of things to repair at a later date, easy enough to do and skip the labour charges.

[Winners Eat Pho]

Quirky on my car too. I stopped using it because I'm certain it will break one day, and don't want to get too attached to it working sometimes.

[Tanner]

LOL I got attached to it for the last four years.

So far today it's working after mucking around with it last night.

[rensho]

Anyone getting any further with this? My driver side mirror has a mind of its own all the sudden. 50% of the time, when I unlock the car, the mirror tilts to the ground, or to the sky. I try and reset the memory for the intended position, and it doesn't seem to help much.
Haven't pulled it apart yet. Anyone pull it apart and lube it to any help at all?

[Tanner]

Easy to take apart, mirror pops off and the motor assembly is held down by three screws and the wiring to it plugs out easily. I need to get to the autowrecker near by to see if they have this part.

The motor assembly is held down by a bunch of snap-in tabs and a torx screw. Not sure if it's just as simple as removing the screw to get at the stuff inside.

[rensho]

Tanner, thanks for the notes. Did pulling it apart and greasing fix the problem?

[Tanner]

Nope, I need to fully take it apart to figure out what's wrong.

[Tanner]

Okay looking around for the part, local wrecker doesn't have the part with the memory function (which goes for $100CDN), discounted part from one of the dealers at about $145, and cost from another dealer is $175. I've concluded that the part is not easily serviceable but identified where the problem is..... so here goes.

1. Pop off the mirror. Just move the mirror manually so you can squeeze a couple fingers in and gently tug on the mirror until it pops off.
2. Remove the three screws as highlighted by the red circle. Once the motor unit comes off, just unplug the wiring harness (circled in blue). Note that there's a big finger extending from the back of the mirror that will need to be slotted back into what's highlighted by the green circle when you reassembly things. Just rest the side mirror on the side to keep it out of the way.
   
   
3. The guts. Fortunately, the whole thing doesn't need to be replaced like the B5 mirrors which is pretty expensive.
   
   
4. The part itself. You'll need a T20 torx screwdriver to remove that screw in the middle which needs to be done at this stage.
   
5. Using one of those precision small flat-head screwdrivers, insert it into the slot to push the tab and with other hand somehow, lift it up. Work your way around the whole thing.
   
   
6. The cover removed. You'll see a two gears (one to move it up/down and another side-to-side) and how it fits into the cover that you just removed.
   
7. Next, using the same small flat-head screwdriver, carefully lift up the tabs as shown below and work your way around to remove the cover.
   
8. The four separate parts you should have.
   
9. The internal working of the part.
   
   Everything looked pretty clean in here.
10. The source of the problem.
    
    For the up/down and side-to-side positioning, there are two potentiometers to track the position of the mirror. This is what's messed up. It's probably need some cleaning but there's no way to remove this part from what I can tell. So I just spun these things around a lot with my fingers to hopefully work out any grime from within to alleviate the problem for now.

I think there is a spray that one can get at an electronic store to clean these things, haven't investigated this yet. So I imagine what I could do is pull out all of the gears, get rid of any existing grease, spray the two potentiometers with a cleaner, clean things up, regrease the gears and put things back together.

When you put things back together, when you snap things all back together and ready to put that screw back in, make sure that the positioning of that centre piece is more or less flat and level. It'll make it easier to put that screw back in. If you drop it in and the top of the screw isn't sticking out by about a quarter of an inch, then it's aligned onto the top of the hole properly.

After things are put back together, some quick tests, the thing seems to tilt down and back up correctly. I'm not sure if there's some vagcom thing I need to do to "reset" the position but it seems to be okay, for now, but i expect it to go nuts again a few days from now.

I'm gonna probably just replace the darn thing from the dealer with the discounted price later on, but it's an easy thing to replace yourself to avoid the labour costs.

[rensho]

Tanner, thanks for going thru that and taking pix.

Hey, by any chance are your APR'd? My mirror was immediately an issue after I APR'd. Not blaming, yet, just gathering info. I'm sure it is just pure coincidence.

[Tanner]

GIAC'ed since this past spring, but the problem started to occur a few months ago.

I found a place nearby that sells electrical contact cleaner. So if the thing starts to misbehave, I'll try this stuff and take a closer look at that white gear... I think there's a plastic pin that is holding the gear in place that I might be able to slide out. Not sure how I missed that earlier today.

[Tanner]

Just a quick update, a few weeks I took things apart, the thing started to have a mind of it's own. Went to the local electronics store and picked up a cleaner used for cleaning contacts and such. Worked great for the first few days and now when I shift into reverse the mirror doesn't move anymore, so now I'm at a lost at what's going on. I can still control the mirror and the memory functions still work, in fact, if I move the mirror around and select one of the memory buttons, the mirror will return back to where it should.

Stupid thing....

[rensho]

My mirror (driver side), has stopped losing its bearing up/down and has now lost its mind side/side. Additionally, my memory for my keyfob changed to another seat/mem setting. My wife is 1, I'm 2. Now my fob is sync'd to hers, but mem 2 still is programmed with my setting.
Pretty lame.

[toaster]

i don't have auto tilt, so i don't have to worry about these shennanigans...

of course, i also have to open my door and stare at the lines on the ground when i back into spots.

[rensho]

My mirror (driver side), has stopped losing its bearing up/down and has now lost its mind side/side. Additionally, my memory for my keyfob changed to another seat/mem setting. My wife is 1, I'm 2. Now my fob is sync'd to hers, but mem 2 still is programmed with my setting.
Pretty lame.

My stupid memory seats/mirrors have now malfunctioned in a different way. The driver mirror is now the one that tilts down to the ground as soon as I remote unlock. It stays that way until I manually adjust it back to normal position. F'n sucks.

[Tanner]

All I know is that my mirrors work 99% of the time when it's well above freezing. So I've basically concluded that the sensors within the mirror housing don't like cold temperatures so I'll just live with it.

[a4audi4fun]

My stupid memory seats/mirrors have now malfunctioned in a different way. The driver mirror is now the one that tilts down to the ground as soon as I remote unlock. It stays that way until I manually adjust it back to normal position. F'n sucks.

Didn't accidentally change a setting to say it's now a Right Hand Drive (RHD) car did you? (Module 46?)

[rensho]

Didn't accidentally change a setting to say it's now a Right Hand Drive (RHD) car did you? (Module 46?)

Not that I know of. I haven't vagcom'd anything in the car since the first gremlins started showing up last year(before i posted to this thread).

I will now go in and see how any of them are set. The driver side mirror had been fine until a couple months ago. It was the passenger side mirror that was possessed. Now that one is fine...

[Tanner]

Try adjusting your mirrors then saving the settings to the memory, maybe something got mixed up or the left mirror forgot its bearings.

[scythe1969]

I was experiencing this problem (going on 6 weeks now) as well and was trying to document the issue for the dealership. About a week ago, I was on the passenger side of the car when I opened the car with the key fob. When I pressed the button to open the doors, the mirror pivoted. I remember that when I had read the ability to pair the fob with the memory settings of the seat, etc. in the owner's manual, I had taken the time to do that. That being said, I tried to test the theory out by locking/unlocking the car and every time I got a random placement of the mirror, or it wouldn't go back to the original starting point and then lower itself from where it stopped - totally random behavior... I have since unpaired the key fob from the car and have no longer experienced the problem or the random tilt and readjusting of my passenger rear view mirror.

You might want to give that try, cuz it only takes a minute and it may resolve a very annoying issue... just my 2 cents.

[Tanner]

How did you remove the pairing of the key?

[rensho]

How did you remove the pairing of the key?

Would like to know this as well. I wonder if it is just a matter of removing the battery from remote for a minute.

[SacAudi]

Would like to know this as well. I wonder if it is just a matter of removing the battery from remote for a minute.

+1 04 S4. and mine occasionally tilts down or out for a long time until it shuts off. it hits the limit and keeps ticking... super annoying it happens when i click unlock and if i am far away i dont know that its happening, once i press unlock a second time it stops. i have to get in the car and re adjust it. I got this car not long ago so i am not sure if it has the adjusting mirrors, they dont do anything when i am in reverse...

[a4audi4fun]

How did you remove the pairing of the key?

From P102 of my manual.

Cancel seat position assigned to a key

• Hold seat MEMO button down and within 10 secs press Unlock button on remote control key
• Release MEMO button after two seconds

Assign a seat position to a key

• Press memory button of seat position you want to assign (numbered 1-4)
• Hold down memory seat position button and within 10 secods press the unlock button on the remote control key
• Release both buttons after two seconds

[Tanner]

Thanks, strangely those steps aren't mentioned in my owner's manual.