LikeEnvoy
Member
Hope this is of interest to some.
I want to upgrade my basic SLE Envoy remote mirrors to the heated type at minimal cost.
I found a pair in the junkyard but the outsides were bad. They looked beaten up and the castings inside were corroded and dirty.
So I spent time and dismantled the mirrors there and got just the heated glasses and the actuators (with position memory feedback, too).
These were covered in dust/dirt too, but the actuator shafts were sealed with rubber gaiters so i thought they should keep the insides clean.
I cleaned the outsides then dismantled the actuators one at a time to service them. I had to use a drill bit in a pin-vice to pop the ball joints out of the tilt platform sockets. The yellow arrow is one of the four ball joint socket holes where I pushed the drill bit in. I set the drill depth from the pin-vice so it would just pop the joint out without pushing too far and possibly damaging something.
This is a picture of the inside of an actuator after I had cleaned and redistributed the grease. Some of the grease was a bit dry but there was a fair bit trapped under the gears that was still nice and oily so I spread this around everything.
The "screw jack" type outputs each have a ball joint on top which snaps into the tilting platform and moves it and so the mirror glass that is clipped onto it. The screw jack threads are gripped by plastic legs on the drive gears that are sprung onto the threads. When a jack reaches its limit, the sprung legs push out and slip with a click; that's the clicking you hear when your mirror reaches the end of travel.
The position feedback part is that circuit board (PCB) on the right. There are black resistance tracks printed onto the PCB for measuring the position of those two white plastic pieces. Each of those plastic shafts is snapped into ball joints on the tilt platform and so they move in and out with the platform as the motor drive is tilting it. Each plastic shaft has an electrical contact "brush" that rubs on the black resistance track to send the resistance/position back to the door module.
Here is a feedback shaft in place on the PCB. It slides up and down as the ball joint is moved by the tilt platform.
I found all four of those metal brushes broken off!
That is very likely why so many people have reported mirrors moving to the end instead of to the memorised position. The broken ends can either lose contact or dig in and scratch the resistance track, or even produce intermittent contact. Any of these conditions would confuse the memory system.
This is a picture of how the original brush-end very likely looked. I have seen similar types in lots of other equipment.
But this is how these actuator brushes looked:
I drew a thin PCB section to show how it would slide between the plastic arms of the feedback shaft. The broken brush-ends are jutting directly down and would scrape onto the resistance track.
Now, after I reformed the ends of the brush:
The ends of the brush fingers are curved up again, so they will brush smoothly against the resistance track.
I applied contact cleaner to the tracks and brushes and assembled them.
This is one actuator assembled after servicing. The left picture shows the motor connector plate (red, pink, red, orange wires) that has small connector blades underneath that slot down into the motors and the whole plate clips onto the casing. The feedback PCB connects by a small Molex plug on the right of that plate.
Looks nice now and I'm hoping I can part dismantle my mirrors and fit these actuators and glasses. Then I will feed the wires through and assemble the mirror again. The spring clip of the folding post may be a problem but I heard they are available on the internet. On the junk car I had to break off plastic tops of the three plastic posts that secure the mirror base cover to the metal cast base. I can do that with mine and drill/screw them back together.
Now for some nice weather. Zero Celsius again this morning!
I want to upgrade my basic SLE Envoy remote mirrors to the heated type at minimal cost.
I found a pair in the junkyard but the outsides were bad. They looked beaten up and the castings inside were corroded and dirty.
So I spent time and dismantled the mirrors there and got just the heated glasses and the actuators (with position memory feedback, too).
These were covered in dust/dirt too, but the actuator shafts were sealed with rubber gaiters so i thought they should keep the insides clean.
I cleaned the outsides then dismantled the actuators one at a time to service them. I had to use a drill bit in a pin-vice to pop the ball joints out of the tilt platform sockets. The yellow arrow is one of the four ball joint socket holes where I pushed the drill bit in. I set the drill depth from the pin-vice so it would just pop the joint out without pushing too far and possibly damaging something.
This is a picture of the inside of an actuator after I had cleaned and redistributed the grease. Some of the grease was a bit dry but there was a fair bit trapped under the gears that was still nice and oily so I spread this around everything.
The "screw jack" type outputs each have a ball joint on top which snaps into the tilting platform and moves it and so the mirror glass that is clipped onto it. The screw jack threads are gripped by plastic legs on the drive gears that are sprung onto the threads. When a jack reaches its limit, the sprung legs push out and slip with a click; that's the clicking you hear when your mirror reaches the end of travel.
The position feedback part is that circuit board (PCB) on the right. There are black resistance tracks printed onto the PCB for measuring the position of those two white plastic pieces. Each of those plastic shafts is snapped into ball joints on the tilt platform and so they move in and out with the platform as the motor drive is tilting it. Each plastic shaft has an electrical contact "brush" that rubs on the black resistance track to send the resistance/position back to the door module.
Here is a feedback shaft in place on the PCB. It slides up and down as the ball joint is moved by the tilt platform.
I found all four of those metal brushes broken off!
That is very likely why so many people have reported mirrors moving to the end instead of to the memorised position. The broken ends can either lose contact or dig in and scratch the resistance track, or even produce intermittent contact. Any of these conditions would confuse the memory system.
This is a picture of how the original brush-end very likely looked. I have seen similar types in lots of other equipment.
But this is how these actuator brushes looked:
I drew a thin PCB section to show how it would slide between the plastic arms of the feedback shaft. The broken brush-ends are jutting directly down and would scrape onto the resistance track.
Now, after I reformed the ends of the brush:
The ends of the brush fingers are curved up again, so they will brush smoothly against the resistance track.
I applied contact cleaner to the tracks and brushes and assembled them.
This is one actuator assembled after servicing. The left picture shows the motor connector plate (red, pink, red, orange wires) that has small connector blades underneath that slot down into the motors and the whole plate clips onto the casing. The feedback PCB connects by a small Molex plug on the right of that plate.
Looks nice now and I'm hoping I can part dismantle my mirrors and fit these actuators and glasses. Then I will feed the wires through and assemble the mirror again. The spring clip of the folding post may be a problem but I heard they are available on the internet. On the junk car I had to break off plastic tops of the three plastic posts that secure the mirror base cover to the metal cast base. I can do that with mine and drill/screw them back together.
Now for some nice weather. Zero Celsius again this morning!
