When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
The garage I use for the XKR is custom-built and the doors are only 8' wide, so I retract the mirrors every time I enter it, and of course deploy them after backing out. I seems as though the act of putting the car into Reverse while the mirrors are retracted has caused something to happen that now causes the mirror to go UP instead of Down when I hit reverse (as in backing into a parking slot).
a. will placing a car into Reverse while mirrors are retracted cause this?
b. Is this a fix that a DIYer can make? IOW, is the front cap for the mirror removeable in order to access the gearing?
"ONLY" 8 feet wide??? The car is 76 inches with the mirrors out, which is barely wider than with them in. Ten inches clearance on both sides would seem to be WAY more room than a person would need. Max width for passenger vehicles in the US is 80 inches, which still gives eight inches per each side.
Most garage doors in the US are 8 feet wide for single doors. 9 and 10 are getting much more common with the larger house sizes.
OK, lol, let me add that access to the outside garage requires a rather sharp turn around a tree, so there's not a normal glide path and the car is in an arc when entering.
OK, lol, let me add that access to the outside garage requires a rather sharp turn around a tree, so there's not a normal glide path and the car is in an arc when entering.
Now, about those mirrors?
You COULD consider the mirrors as Feeler Gauges so you don't scrape the sides of your car. Mirrors are easier to replace than an entire side.
As far as opposite dipping when retracted, I've never experienced that.
"ONLY" 8 feet wide??? The car is 76 inches with the mirrors out, which is barely wider than with them in. Ten inches clearance on both sides would seem to be WAY more room than a person would need. Max width for passenger vehicles in the US is 80 inches, which still gives eight inches per each side.
Most garage doors in the US are 8 feet wide for single doors. 9 and 10 are getting much more common with the larger house sizes.
I just measured, and the car from mirror tip to tip is 84", not 76 (2008 model, anyway) and the garage opening is actually 93". With the car in the turning arc, and mirrors extended, there is about 2" between RH mirror and garage framing, which explains my interest in retracting them....
You COULD consider the mirrors as Feeler Gauges so you don't scrape the sides of your car. Mirrors are easier to replace than an entire side.
As far as opposite dipping when retracted, I've never experienced that.
The smart move will be to take down the oak tree and give myself more room to straighten out the car. The dipping is good to have when backing into parking spaces, but it's not enough aggravation to go visit the dealer yet; especially if somebody has had the same symptoms and been able to correct them.
Our cars are like a computer that has a glitch and needs to be rebooted. I'm not a technician, but it seems to me that your car's upside down side mirror operation may be caused by a confused module. I would try a hard reboot and see if that works. It can't hurt, and is worth a try.
To do a hard reboot, you have to discharge the capacitors in all the modules. A capacitor is nothing more than a battery, and you have to give it a path to ground to discharge it. To do that, disconnect the negative battery terminal from the battery and momentarily touch it to the still-connected positive terminal. This gives all the capacitors a path to ground and erases all the volatile memory, which resets those modules to their factory defaults.
You will have to reset the windows. To do so, follow these steps from the Owner's Handbook:
Good luck!
EXCELLENT, Stuart!! The re-boot got things back to normal, so thank you. What I think I've learned is that if anything electronic decides to go rogue, do a re-boot before anything else.
Actually, since many of us don't drive our cars regularly, the first thing to do should be to make sure that battery voltage is up to 12.5V or better....then do the re-boot.
Last edited by bamaboy473; Aug 28, 2022 at 02:57 PM.
@bamaboy473 , to @Stuart S suggestion; I “reset” the car prior to each new season. It keeps most of the annoyances away… including the passenger seat control module losing its settings.
Besides, it then warrants a spirited drive to relearn my preferences.
Dipping side-view mirror
