I don't know if it's a feature of all x300's but today I discovered that my mirrors cant be adjusted when the car is in drive. I had to select park, before they would function. Maybe this is just a safety feature of sorts, but useful to know, before you start pulling things apart to correct a problem that isn't one! Mine is a 97 x300 sovereign, European model, anybody else come across this?

 

I'm pretty sure I've adjusted my mirrors while the car was in drive (US spec). Not sure though. I do know, however, that you can't pop the trunk with the button next to the steering wheel with the car in drive.

 

I had a related discovery with Reverse lately on my USA 97 VDP. I had apparently never adjusted mirrors in Reverse before. This time I stopped while backing out of the garage to adjust. No matter how I manipulated the mirror switches on the door (including selecting the driver side), the only effect I could cause was for the passenger mirror to go up and down. Nothing made it go left/right, and nothing made the driver mirror move.

I figured I'd be doing some troubleshooting, since recently I had to replace the mirror control switch on my 'other' blue 97 (a big Ford Club Wagon with a V10). But when I got to the street and shifted to Drive, the passenger mirror moved and caught my attention.

THEN I REMEMBERED reading in the Owner's Manual some time ago about a passenger-side mirror feature that lets you tilt the mirror down deep to view the curb while backing up to park. You move the mirror after you're in Reverse. Then, when you shift out of Reverse, the mirror automatically returns to the original position before you tilted it down! It was that automatic return that caught my eye, and reminded me of that feature.

 

So real quickly, the mirrors when backing up will only tilt up and down as mentioned by GB, however when the car is in drive the mirrors are adjustable, just not adjustable using the memory function. The joy stick and mirror selector will have to be engaged and used to adjust them. If this is not working then you have an issue somewhere.