Yes indeed, I can now definitely confirm that earlier VIN car bits like Jim's are quite a bit different from late car bits (but we knew that already, right)

Still, that didn't stop me from trying

The original issue that required said mirror swap was that the passenger side cowl/receptacle/black bit had been missing a chunk and the chrome cover has been loose ever since I got the car. While it wasn't a real problem it was on the "one of these days list" and today was the day ...or so I thought



Cowl of passenger mirror broken at chrome cover clip

Originally I'd just intended to swap out the cowl but Jim had given me a complete passenger assembly so I thought I'd see if I could swap over the whole thing.

The parts looked identical but when I pulled the top door card I could see a difference - the 91 had a few less wires in the harness. Maybe I should have just plugged it in and checked the operation, the plugs were the same and I have a feeling it could have worked ..but I didn't do that; I decided to disassemble the mirrors and replace the cowl.....


91 harness has only 2 wires at the blue connector




Chrome face plate studs had to be broken in order to gain access to motor assembly on the 94. On the 91 unit, the mirror plate was removed instead.

The chrome plate is clipped into the cowl at the inboard edge but there's two expander steel clips that engage with studs on the chrome plate on the outboard side. These are not intended to be removed once fitted. I could see no way to remove them and as the cowl was being replaced I opted to snap the cover off.

As I'd removed the chrome back section on the 94, I could access the mirror plate and see how the clips engaged with the motor housing. Very carefully, I was able to pry the plate assembly away from the motor and set the mirror plate aside for final assembly. The 91 plate was not so fortunate but it was the only way "in" to the housing.



The components that make up the mirror internals - the two loose connectors are the heater wires that connect to the mirror plate.





The 91 mirror mount - note orientation of the three mounting screws




Springs re-attached to bracket prior to motor installation




on the right, 91MY.
94 on the left has 2 extra wires and a printed circuit board.

Note exit position of harness from unit - on the 91 the harness exits between the two mount holes - this arrangement and the position of the two motors within the housing required the 94 motor to be rotated 90 degrees for re-assembly into the 91 cowl and making for a really odd cable routing. - more on that later!!





re-assembled and looking finished...but ...


Tested the motor and finally re-installed the mirror plate, a push fit.

Even though it all worked and looked all spiffy again, the mirror behaved a bit oddly ...the up/down control sends the mirror right/left and the right/left control moves the mirror up and down. I guess this happened because the motor housing was rotated - I suppose if I'd gone even deeper into the housing I could have removed the two motors and re-oriented them within the housing ....didn't think it was going to be a problem

The other theory is that the partially broken mirror on the car was a replacement (door has been painted so obviously bashed at one time), could be that the body shop sourced a driver's side mirror mechanism and installed it on the passenger side - maybe that's why the cowl was broken in the first place, some chump fitting those springs? Who knows!

Oh well, I guess if I found out which wire fed each motor I could swap them over in the door harness/plug, but for now, that's how it's going to roll!!

So to sum up, here's my advice ...check compatible year parts carefully or you'll end up going sideways instead of up and that might be the BEST case scenario

Cheers

Larry

 

Jeez,Larry,I am glad you were able to make it work!

What did the extra wires actually do? Just like Jag to build and re-engineer a simple wing mirror into something that will make coffee too!

Great pics too,BTW.Just wait until you get into that bumper assembly,I'm not sure if it was wired for the sensors for warp drive!

Thanks for posting that up mate,

Cheers as usual,Jim and Cin.

 

Larry,

Nice job, and thanks for the photos!

My assumption would be that the extra wires on the '94 mirror were for the mirror heater... Would that make sense?

Cheers,

Don

 

yep!

My guess would be for the memory modules. Both the 91 and the 94 had heated mirrors and used the same harness for the heater circuit, a brown/black pair that plugged into the mirror plate, not the tilt mechanism.

The VDP has 2 memory seating positions (which I've never used of course) and along with pre-ordained seating settings the mirrors also reset to the preset angles determined by either driver #1 or Driver #2. So possibly an extra set of tilt controls running to the memory function?

Now that we've discussed it, maybe I'll give it a try ..have to dig out the handbook first though, if the heater controls were a mystery to me when I first drove it, no doubt the seat programming is going to be ..shall we say ...possibly a bit "British"?

cheers guys

Larry

 

Ah, that would make sense. So the extra wires would be for the position sensors/potentiometers. So were there three extra wires for each potentiometer? I guess they could share a common, and maybe the power supply too, so four or five extra wires?

 

Yes Don, I think it was four extra wires.

You can almost see all of them (the four 91 ones plus the extras) in the shot of the 94 circuit board, above.

cheers

Larry

 

Coffeemaker!