Hi

My Electric Door Mirrors are not working, neither one of them, no matter which way I move the little 'Joysticks'

There is no sound of any motor running either, or any signs they are trying to move.

Any Ideas?

 

OB,

Obvious things are:

- check the fuses
- check the wiring connections in the doors at the plugs

It's very unlikely that all motors in both mirrors suddenly packed up at the same time!

Paul

 

Hi Paul

Any idea where the fuses are?

 

The mirror switch/loom and mirror/loom plugs have very poor connectors. (The fuse is number 8 in the box above your shins by the way, and also controls the central locks, the mirrors are always live).

The only sure way to get them reliable, if it is not the fuse, is to go through all the connectors, clean and fix them. I fixed mine as follows: First disconnect battery, then:

Door Switch: Unscrew escutcheon carefully to get access to the plugs, remove door card IF wires are not long enough for easy access to the loom plugs. You will find (from memory) three plugs behind the switch, one bringing in the volts, and one for each mirror. Detach each plug and clean it with connector cleaner, reattach plugs. Reattach battery and check for voltage at the switch. See if the mirrors work in both directions. If they do thread a thin cable tie round the loom plug to hold it closed tightly.

If one or more does not, rig up a bit of wire and squirt some volts directly down the loom plug attached to the mirrors (trial and error will do no harm) and see if this makes the mirror move in both directions. They may well respond to this, so then you know the problem is in the switches/switch plugs and short loom between them. The switches DO fail, but all the breakers (eg Grublogger) have them.

If this treatment fails to get one or other mirrors going in both directions, the odds are that the equally rubbishy plug that joins the mirror itself to the loom in the door is dodgy. Unscrewing the mirror from the outside MAY let you get to this plug and do the same treatment, clean and tie. But probably you will have to remove the door cards to access the plug properly.

A morning's fiddle about, but I did mine years ago and no trouble since. The MOT is the easy part OB!

Greg

 

OB,

A very erudite set of suggestions from Greg!

I'm not sure which of your cars about which you're talking, so don't know if the fuse locations changed over the years. (Because of the pic, I always inevitably get drawn towards your 95! I know more about facelift cars). I assume that you must have service manuals for the pre and post-facelift models?

Because both mirrors have suddenly gone, that would seem to imply that it's either a fuse or a connection on the main switch, not on the mirrors themselves.

I'd start with the fuse location, checking integrity and power source, then move to the switch. I think that means on an early car, that you'll have to pull the door card. The manual describes that easily enough; be careful how you remove the press clips using a suitable tool.

Good luck

Paul

 

Hi Paul

Thanks, I'll check the fuses first.

 

Hi Greg

Its sounds a bit of a 'Nightmare Job', unless it is the fuses which it could be, as things could have got corroded after sitting there for 8 years doing nothing!

There is no Central Locking on this particular Car and having just passed the MOT.

I am very reluctant to fiddle with it any more than I have to, until I have got a Summers worth of use out of it.

Which as you know in the UK can last as long as a Couple of Weeks if you're lucky!

I also happened to look at the Price of Secondhand Seats and Door Cards!

OMG! I never realized, they were worth so much!

And my 'Scrapper' has got Two perfect Seats and Door cards!

And not only that but they are also in 'Grey'! the same as my 'Good Car'

So Dr Blossom will experiment on 'The Scrapper' first.

The Passenger door has fallen of the Scrapper, so Bad Weather can get in.

So look out for my Post on how to get the Seats out (after this weekend)

If I have to take the Door Cards out, then I may as well upgrade the Speakers at the same time.

Thank again for your help which as always is appreciated.

 

"There is no Central Locking on this particular Car"

Oh yes there is, it just is not working!

When the great day dawns, removing the door cards is not too bad, and great idea to try it out on the dog, so to speak. Proceed as follows: unscrew coutesy light plate; unscrew hidden screw just below pocket in door; pull back the chrome trim on the forward end of the door card (not easy) and unscrew the huge pozi headed bolt; as Paul said, carefully lever out the forward, bottom and rear edges of the card - you will hear their clips unpopping; then pulling the card out a bit from the bottom, give it a VERY firm upward clout, and pop it out of the top channel of the door trim and the mid-door fixing at one go. Then, balancing it on your head etc etc, undo the speaker wires and the puddle light and mirror plugs.

You are in catch up mode with your car; once all these bits are done it will give you good service! The XJS Gods test their acolytes before deeming them worthy of reliability...

Greg

 

Hi Greg

The reason I thought She didn't have Central Locking, is because this Car Came with Two Sets of Keys.

Two ignition Keys and Two boot/trunk Keys and that's it!

My other Cars have got 'push button' dongles, which then Automatically unlock the doors.

But this one just has 'Plain Keys' and She only had one previous owner to me, who really looked after and pampered this car in a way that you wouldn't believe!

So if he had the push button things, I'm sure he would have given them to me.

In any event I am willing to bet he's regretting Selling her now!

But they cost a 'Fortune' to maintain, if you run it down the *********** every time something goes wrong and going by the wad of bills that came along with this Car and all the FMDSH.

I can understand why they lost popularity, not to mention the engine that could probably drink the GF under the table!

Incidentally Jaguar are going to produce a very limited quantity of Brand New Lightweight 'e' types! if you happen to win the lottery this Weekend.

So while they have got the patterns out, maybe we could all lobby them, to Start producing the 'e' type all over again!

 

OB,

"Central locking" & "Remote locking" are not the same thing. Even on the later cars with remote security fobs, the key will still "centrally" lock the doors and boot.

Have you not noticed that when you unlock the drivers door, the passenger one also unlocks? If not, you have another little job to sort!

I like Greg's analogy that you have to earn the right to reliability! All these little jobs such as the mirrors etc are just expected maintenance and really small fry compared to, say, dealing with an over-heated V12 with warped heads! Now, that's a difficult job!

Good luck

Paul

 

Hi Paul

Funny you should mention it, as I never gave that a thought!

First of all you have to lock and unlock each door individually and then do the same with the boot/trunk.

But when you unlock the boot/trunk, you cannot remove the key until you lock the boot/trunk up again!

Which is both a blessing and a curse, as on the plus side you can never leave the boot unlocked (when in this mode)

But more often than not, the Car Alarm seems to go off after, 30 second or so, as to be fair to the Car Alarm Manufacturers, I've never properly understood how the 'blinking thing' is supposed to work.

All I can say is it really freaks me out! As only one of the 'Dongles' on one Key ring seems to disarm it and so you are really playing a game of XJS Roulette!

I know I should mark the Key Ring and that's what I'm going to do!

Greg is absolutely correct! Reliability has to be earned, it isn't an automatic right bestowed on Ownership.

I've still got an awful lot to learn, so thank Goodness for this Forum! and those who have helped me.