I'm looking at replacing the folding motor in my drivers wing mirror. Looking at Ebay, the motor looks similar to the following, only the contacts are at the bottom rather than the back -

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-12V-DC-14000-RPM-Standard-Micro-Motor-High-Quality-Free-Postage/122005965840?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D38661%26meid%3Dd49682ef6e3a477b83fc2bc07e1dd0ef%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D122005965840

 

There wasn't any info on the motor when I opened up the wing mirror, so can anyone tell me if this motor will work?

 

Annoyingly the motor was working before I painted the mirror!!! In fact it's the third motor to die (on other mirrors) after I painted them...weird. Unless the 'test' battery I'm using just doesn't have enough power left in it to operate the motor.

You'd be better sourcing another complete mirror, look a bit lightweight those motors, what if it takes an eternity to fold the mirror in after all your fiddling, you're barking up the wrong tree imo.

 

Think you need to test what you have on the car, not that difficult to just hook them back up is it ?

The fold back motor has an inherent problem that causes it to fail but replacement is usually not required.

 

The small range the motor moves in does not give the brushes enough time to clean the commutator, this slowly gets dirty and breaks the contact electrically to the stator.

 

So remove the motor and with no gears attached to limit range of movement spin it by hand several times back and forward. Then power up and it may need a spin to start it off, now you will have a high revving motor screaming away. Leave it to run for 20 seconds or so, it very likely will smoke slightly from the cleaning effect on the commutator. Switch off and repeat two or three times allowing to cool a little in between runs.

 

Refit and should be working again.

 

Jeff

Edited December 30, 20168 yr by JeffTT

Cheers! I'll do that. I only just bought these replacement mirrors, so if I can fix rather than replace the motor, which was working, then I'll do that.

 

My 'test' battery IS my Zed battery, but as I've been rebuilding my Zed I haven't needed a fully working battery, just something to power the windows and lights etc. I will be getting a new battery soon though.

So remove the motor and with no gears attached to limit range of movement spin it by hand several times back and forward. Then power up and it may need a spin to start it off, now you will have a high revving motor screaming away. Leave it to run for 20 seconds or so, it very likely will smoke slightly from the cleaning effect on the commutator. Switch off and repeat two or three times allowing to cool a little in between runs.

 

I think the same can be said about the screen washer motors, i couldn't get one of mine to seal so i visited a breaker and took off 2 x motors, one worked straight off but the other didn't, with 12v bench power applied i spun the shaft by hand and got an encouraging sign of life, more of the same and eventually it 'cleaned' up and ran perfectly.

 

For the op, the swb breaker visited does have still its folding mirrors and they are both in the 'closed' position, so my guess is these will work perfectly. I can obtain for you if you like for £30 the pair i would guess at, tiny bit of shipping on top £5 - food for thought.

Hey, thanks for the offer, appreciate it! However these are my replacement mirrors. I still have my old pair, so I figured I should be able to get at least one of the motors working. I really need to get around to doing stuff! :)

 

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So, using my old mirrors, I stripped down one of the motors and I connected 12v.

 

The pink and orange wires are wires that come from the car side, and where I connected the 12v

 

 

 

 

The white disc in the pics seems to be a switch that revolves when the mirror folds/unfolds, and must cut the power to the motor once folded/unfolded. There's what looks to be capacitors connected underneath the IC, not sure what these do.

 

So, applying 12v directly to the motor did nothing, even after turning the motor manually. On checking with the meter; 12v enters through the pink and orange wires fine, and gets to the IC on the rotatory switch, but isn't getting beyond it, even if I rotate the switch.

 

So I'm not sure if there's more than one issue here. I'll try the other motor tomorrow and see what's going on in there.

 

Either way, I find it odd that 3 out of 4 motors that did work fine have just given up. I'm almost sure if I hadn't removed the first two from the car, they'd still be working. The replacements worked too when I got them, I tested them, after painting, one was dead. Just plain weird!

I have looked into this today, i have four spare mirrors and under bench testing all worked, most are the non heated type expect for one, this one would not always close when fitted to the car but under my 12v worked 100% of the time today, so with a slight fault this is the reason it's on the shelf at mine.

 

All you state is correct but if you have applied 12v and the ground to the motor direct then there is no hope for you or them, on doing this without the white disc you can apply power until it clicks because the motor will not know from the pcb what position it is in. I've seen you've removed the shaft so 12v should make it spin and spin.

 

Well, I took apart my dodgy 'replacement' mirror tonight -

 

 

 

 

 

No luck unfortunately, it sparked on the motor contacts, and I think it was getting warmer but could have just been my body heat, but anyway - no movement. I was unable to turn the shaft by hand (fingers) and had to use pliers (without power connected), even then it was tough to turn. It should be easy right, until you power up the magnet 'core', as until then there is no resistance against the normal magnets, right?

 

Anyway - I saw this and for £2 I think it's worth a shot -

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Torque-Dual-Shaft-DC-3V-12V-High-Speed-FK-280PA-Mini-Motor-for-Hobby-Toy-/282238076909?hash=item41b6b347ed:g:yEEAAOSwmc1XPSTg

 

Shaft is a little short, and I'd have to cut of the 'tail', but sizes seem good. Not sure I need high RPM...but so the mirror folds faster, I can live with that.

I think it'll move at the stock speed, once there's no load on it yes it'll spin like crazy but you marry up those cogs and the torque comes into play.

 

Amazing what you can buy for the money, longevity must be a consideration, personally the original motors have been fine for me with only one iffy one, and no doubt they have been tested thoroughly way back in the late 80's, keep us posted.

So, the motors I ordered from China finally turned up today and I've spent the last 2 hours trying stuff....my Friday nights sure have hit a new time low. lol

 

 

 

In a nutshell, they would have almost been a perfect replacement, they're exactly the same size. The extra shaft sticking out the back could be cut off...so no issue there, but the problem is the originals have splines cut into the shaft where the worm gear attaches, and this proved to be a problem, the new ones don't have splines. So, I tired using the new motor and attaching the worm with contact adhesive (all I had, other than plastic glue), soon as I powered the motor up it just spun the shaft inside the worm. Something stronger may have worked though.

 

So I figured I'd use the shaft from the old motor. Although I finally got it apart, I destroyed the rear plastic bit that houses the brushes. To top it off, I couldn't get the old shaft out because of the splines!! So....I ended up attaching the rear brush housing from one of the new motors to the old motor. This worked, and everything seems ok. I'll try it on my Zed tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

When I took the old motor apart, all seemed fine. I'm guessing it was the bushes causing the seizing issue.

 

So, at least this provides options for those with dead folding motors.