Before I start troubleshooting this, was wondering if anyone else has seen this problem.

1987 XJ-S V12, left hand drive. The mirror on the passenger (right) door will run by itself. And I don't mean when I shut the door, start/stop the engine, or even lean on the car. With the keys out of it and the doors shut, and me standing six feet away, the mirror motor will just suddenly start, sometimes when I get out of the car, sometimes 10 minutes later. It will run for a while then stop. The mirror will only intermittently respond to inputs from the mirror switch.

The left side mirror works fine.

My initial thought is a defective mirror switch. Is it possible to get inside the switch to do any repairs/cleaning on it? If not, I likely won't bother and just disconnect power to the right side switch and manually adjust the mirror (I'm the only driver, so I don't really need the power adjustment).

Thanks,

John

 

The switch seems a likely culprit. I'd remove it and give it good slathering of aerosol electric contact cleaner. Might well fix the problem. If not, you've lost but 30 minutes or so in the effort

Cheers
DD

 

My suggestion also.

Worked 5 out of 6 for me, then unplug was the Plan B on the 6th.

 

I vote for a bad switch. The mirror is getting intermittent power from somewhere and it's a short list of suspects that can provide power to the mirror. You already know that the switch has issues.

 

Cleaner didn't get the job done. I'll just swap the switch wiring so I can control the passenger mirror. It's easy enough to reach out the window and adjust the drivers mirror.

Thanks all!

John

 

It's very easy for the wire insulation to get chafed where it passes through into the door. This could easily cause a short. You might try checking the integrity of the wiring where it passes from A-post through into the door.

Good luck

Paul

 

Good thought Paul, I'll do that.

Thanks!

John