Mirror switch wiring

[Shep]

My power mirrors won't budge, and I believe the problem is at the switch. I found one wire (the brown striped one) disconnected at the switch and plugged it back in, but still nothing. None of my fuses are blown. I'm not sure if I have a bad switch or just have the wires set up wrong, but I'm hoping it's the latter. I can't seem to find a good picture of which wires go where, although some of the pictures seem to indicate that my two red wires and my two green wires may be mixed up. Here's a picture of my current setup:

17407

So right now it's:

black | small yellow/green | brown
Light Red | (blank)
(blank)
dark red | large green
white | blue

Are all my wires in the right spot? The ground wire's in the position in the back, although it's had to make out in this picture. And just for reference, which wires would I touch together to move the mirrors manually?

[Ron]

Here ya go:

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?6562-Mirror-Switch-Connections&p=95078#post95078

[DMC5180]

Here's an NOS switch. 1741717418

[Shep]

Here ya go:

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?6562-Mirror-Switch-Connections&p=95078#post95078A-ha! The colored wires up top should all be one to the right. PO must've done that when he tried to unsuccessfully remove the lower door panel.

Thanks a bunch guys! :thumbup:

[Shep]

So correcting the wiring didn't work, my switch is bad. Either that, or both my mirror motors are bad. Before I throw in the towel though, I'd like to figure out if I can manually touch the wires together to move the mirror.

Based on the wiring diagram (and using the numbers from Ron's PDF), I've found that the black wire (A1) is ground, and the light red (A2) is hot when the ignition is set to on. Theoretically, the below mirror movements should be possible by touching one wire to (A1) and the other to (A2), reversing to go the opposite direction.

Left mirror up/down: Small Yellow/Green (A3) -- Large Green (B2)
Left mirror left/right: Brown (A5) -- White (B3)
Right mirror up/down: Small Yellow/Green (A3) -- Blue (B4)
Right mirror left/right: Brown (A5) -- Dark Red (B1)

I have not tested this yet however. I'll post back what my results are when I do.

[Sammy]

None of my fuses are blown.

It sounds like your switch could be bad but have you double checked your fuses? I was in a similar situation last week after I had checked my fuses one evening. The book said fuse #9 was for the mirrors so I even swapped it out just for giggles. I continued to have the same problem after replacing the switch so just for giggles I checked every fuse again even though I swapped fuse #9 with a new one. I visually inspected each fuse again and to my surprise there was a tiny burn mark in fuse #8 that I didn't notice before. I replaced the fuse and my mirrors worked find after that.

I don't know if the book was wrong or if my car was wired incorrectly. All I know is fuse #8 on my car provides power to the mirrors and the book said they were powered by fuse #9.

[Shep]

It sounds like your switch could be bad but have you double checked your fuses? I was in a similar situation last week after I had checked my fuses one evening. The book said fuse #9 was for the mirrors so I even swapped it out just for giggles. I continued to have the same problem after replacing the switch so just for giggles I checked every fuse again even though I swapped fuse #9 with a new one. I visually inspected each fuse again and to my surprise there was a tiny burn mark in fuse #8 that I didn't notice before. I replaced the fuse and my mirrors worked find after that.

I don't know if the book was wrong or if my car was wired incorrectly. All I know is fuse #8 on my car provides power to the mirrors and the book said they were powered by fuse #9.Thanks for the tip! When I posted that, I had checked all my fuses (and I mean all -- none of the fuses in the entire block were blown). I just checked fuse #8, and that fuse was fine, but #9 was completely blown. I'm thinking it blew when the brown wire came disconnected while I was trying the switch. I swapped out fuse #9 for a fresh one, and now my driver's side works! The passenger side however does not. It does not make any sound like the driver's side does, and the mirror is still pointing mostly at the ground. Just to make sure everything still worked, I tried the driver's side again, and it moved, so it's not a fuse issue. At this point I'm thinking I'll just unhook the passenger mirror and try touching the wires directly to the battery to see if I can get it to move at all. I'm really hoping it does so I can adjust the mirror properly, even though it'll be more difficult (but cheaper!) to diagnose and repair. Manual pushing refuses to stick (any harder and I'll break the glass), and I honestly cannot see anything but the rear right wheel in the mirror.

In regards to fuse #8 vs fuse #9, I've read of other owners saying the same thing, which has me wondering if this was another production change. Perhaps they started on fuse #9, but for whatever reason switched it to fuse #8 and never bothered to update the labeling.

[Ron]

Now that the one side is working, pull fuse 8 & 9 and see which one makes it stop working......

[Shep]

Now that the one side is working, pull fuse 8 & 9 and see which one makes it stop working......No need, only fuse #9 was blown, and it didn't work until after I replaced it. Fuse #8 has not needed to be replaced since I took ownership :)

[David T]

When checking fuses it is not good enough to just check them visually. All too often a fuse can be bad and it is not easily obvious to the eye. I like running down them all with a power probe and just seeing if it lights up on both ends of each fuse. Another thing to check is for signs of heat damage. Finally you should make sure you have the correct size in each position. Don't put the cover on either, it can make it get even hotter.
David Teitelbaum

[Shep]

When checking fuses it is not good enough to just check them visually. All too often a fuse can be bad and it is not easily obvious to the eye. I like running down them all with a power probe and just seeing if it lights up on both ends of each fuse. Another thing to check is for signs of heat damage. Finally you should make sure you have the correct size in each position. Don't put the cover on either, it can make it get even hotter.I keep a fuse tester in my glovebox that lights up when the fuse has continuity. It came in a kit with assorted fuses from Autozone, which I also keep there. If it doesn't light up, I do a visual inspection to verify. It's much quicker and much more accurate than a visual inspection would be, so I never rely solely on a visual inspection for that reason. :thumbup:

[Shep]

Ghetto mirror adjustment:

http://vin559.com/images/work_done/mirror/resized/mirror01_640.jpg (http://vin559.com/images/work_done/mirror/mirror01.jpg)

I'm pleased to report that it worked! I took the upper door panel off, unplugged the mirror, attached wires to the pins, touched those wires to the battery, and it moved! No sparks or anything. Note for anyone that goes this route: the inner two pins control up/down movement, whereas the outer two pins control left/right movement. Flip the wires around to go the opposite direction (I found it was easier to use alligator clips on the plug and simply swap the ends touching the battery around). Only took two tries to get it honed in to where I want it.

Obviously either the switch or the wiring is bad, so the next step is to check for continuity between the wires at the switch and their counterparts at the mirror plug to ensure the wires are intact. That'll let me definitively figure out if its a wiring problem or if the switch is bad. In either case, the mirror is properly adjusted now, so I can put this in the back burner until a later date. The driver's mirror still works with the switch, so I can adjust that at will.