Power window control does not respond consistantlly. Seems to work when it feels like it. Always get some resonse but while trying to adjust mirrors, there seems to be dead spots in the position range, both up and down and in and out. This occures with both left and right mirrors. Anyone ever dealt with this issue besides me. Thanks in advance for tips or other references.

 

wrgarey;
The mirror control joystick and switch for driver and passenger mirrors are quite intricate, and control the two mirror motors and two potentiometers for each mirror located behind each mirror. Because these motors are behind the mirrors through eight pin connectors, and more exposed to outside elements, it could be some corrosion build up on the wire terminals. Also, due to the mirrors not being moved over long periods of time, the motors may have taken on a "set position", or have a "flat spot" on the motor creating erratic or a "jumping" movement. Sometimes, operating the mirrors through their various movements and cycles will eliminate some of the erratic movement. The downside to doing this for any length of time is possibly burning out a motor. If the mirrors will position where you want them, it may be best to leave them alone.

 

Jag13cat
Thank you very much for your reply. I'm still trying to learn to use this forum so am hoping this gets back to you. I have "hunt and peck" keyboarding skills so my responses are more labor intensive than the savy and fast geeks. Anyway, I am a former Air Force flight simulator technician with fairly extensive electonic trouble shooting skills, thus appreciate your read/take and subsequent advice. I think you are spot on with the motors needing exercise. However I believe my problem may be in the Joy Stick controls. The seat memory also remembers mirror positions and will adjust the mirrors when I select a seat memory button. The mirrors readjust flawlessly and seemingly effortlessly, which indicates to me my joy stick control may have dirty contacts or could use some cleaner or burnishing. Does the control have a history of problems, do the potentiometers wear out, do they burn contacts, ......? Before I remove the door panel to remove the Joy Stick and all that involves, I was looking for someone who has had a like problem and how they attacked it. Can you spray Electronic Contact Cleaner around the shaft, blow it out with air in hopes of blowing a speck of dirt out? Is it in a sealed unit that can't be opened even when removed? You are probably right in suggestin "it may be best to leave them alone" just set them [manually if necessary] and live with that. That kind of thing drives me crazy though, but that is another issue. Thanks again for taking the time to help me.

 

perfect timing ;-) my wife's XK8 had a similar problem. Door mirrors won't move with the joystick but would move to the preset positions when you press one of the memory buttons. So it must be the joystick. I fixed this yesterday.

You can actually open the switchpack. The back is held in place by a few clips but it's really easy to bend the sides and lift the back. be careful, there are quite a few little pieces inside that will come loose if you turn the switchpack.

this is how it looks like with all the little pieces in place:



and here's the switch itself. I took fine sandpaper and removed the corrosion from the contacts for the sliding switch and then I also super glued the little plastic cross in place.



If you only connect the bottom part of the switchpack, you can actually test if the buttons work properly, you just have to make a connection on the contacts for the sliding switch. Just press one of the joystick buttons and the mirror should move.

30 minutes of work and $120 back in my pocket ;-)

 

If you use sandpaper, it should be EXTREMELY fine, like 2000 grit. Then you should clean and lubricate with TV tuner contact cleaner. These contact platings are typically a few microinches of gold, and too much rubbing and no lubrication will remove the plating and the problem will be back in fairly short order.

 

This worked great - thanks!

Adding what I can - here's some extra detail on how to remove the switch:

1. remove the rubber tray from the door pocket
2. Pry back the top part of the leather cover below the switch
3. the cover is held in with a small plastic clip that you do not want to break...
4. Work the clip back and forth slowly so as not to bend the teeth




...you broke the clip? No problem - call up a good local auto parts store and ask if they have a rack of various interior clips you can browse...if so, Head there and search for the closest match.

5. Remove the phillips screw
6. Push in on the door panel just above the switch this will help you pull it free without damaging the wood cover
7. Work the switch free...





8. pop the clip from the switch, pull off the 2 clips holding on the cover
9. Keep the joystick facing down and pry the cover plate loose so you dont lose all the little pieces inside.

After cleaning as described above I put a bit of dielectric grease on the switches and the Atari 2400 joystick to help it move more freely

Before reinstalling you might also want to clean the 10+ years of gunk trapped in the door panel.

To put the switches it back in, same trick - push on the door panel to help ease the switch back in.

...hope that helps!

 

As a follow-up to this thread, which was extremely helpful in guiding me through the process to fix my mirror control on my 2003 XK8 (great pictures guys!) I offer the following, additional information:

Like the original poster, I too had "dead-spots" in my mirror control - both mirrors would operate up and to the right, but not down or to the left. Unfortunately, following the procedures described in the posts above did not fix my problem. However, posters in a discussion about repairing seat control modules (another problem I have to tackle with my passenger seat) talked about inspecting the module's printed circuit board (PCB) for corroded or burned traces. This was exactly my problem with my mirror control switch - burned trace on the PCB which was easily repaired by soldering a small-diameter jumper wire around the burned trace. Fortunately, the burned trace was on the bottom side of the PCB, so the wire I soldered did not interfere with the switch's push buttons or joystick contacts.

Sorry, I did not think to take any pictures of my not-so-professional-looking solder job.

 

Not many threads on the forum about this problem. My mirrors worked fine up until the other day when neither mirrors would move left or right, but they would move up and down. The memory button on the door would move both mirrors left and right, so I knew the mirror motors were fine.

I didn't read the entire thread but probably should have. Keep the entire switchpack upside down while taking it apart, otherwise you will end up with a pile of springs and clips inside like mine did. After I did this I found another thread where a member had it explode on him and was not able to get it back together. :/ Well I found what was causing the glitch. There was corrosion on both the top and bottom of the circuit board. After some electrical cleaner and a microfiber towel, I managed to get everything back together and it works again!

There are two springs which hold up the two copper clips...these go in the back of the plastic piece to toggle between the left and right mirrors.

The other slightly longer spring slides into the brass tube which toggles the mirror directions.

Then ofcourse the four long white plastic pieces slide in the tubes for the window up and down functions.

I took some pictures to help anyone else in getting theirs back together. In the first two pictures you can see the minor corrosion that had occured.

 

My mirror selector switch was stuck. Adding a little lithium grease to the plunger locking area and sliding surface remedied my issue. I also used a pen eraser to clean the contact area on the circuit board. Thanks for the photos and opening instructions they helped.

 

My power mirrors have been wonky ever since I bought this XK8 3+ years ago. The passenger side never worked and the driver's side quit about 6 months in. Since they were close enough for gov't. work and I'm the only driver I ignored them.

Since it's gotten cooler and putzing with the car isn't an invitation to a sauna I thought I'd do a little snooping. Following the pictures and descriptions posted by Leviathan and chillyphilly I was able to remove the control switch without a hitch (yes push on the door panel to ease the switch removal).

The problem was due to the PO's evident spilling of some sort of drink that left a trail of crud on the contact surfaces on the part of the switch that controlled the mirrors and they couldn't make a solid connection. Taking it apart...carefully.... I was able to use an electronic circuit cleaner and a soft eraser (no sandpaper) to clean it pretty well. Not perfect but at least enough to get side to side on the driver's mirror and a full range of controls on the passenger mirror. Try as I might I could not get the driver's side to go up or down so I guess I'll search for a used power window switch on the net and if I find one at a reasonable price I'll swap it out.

One additional hint that helped me put the switch back together. Following chillyphilly's advice I made sure to keep the joystick pointed at the ground so all the tiny pieces didn't scatter everywhere to never again be seen by man.


Putting it back together turned into a bit of a challenge when I couldn't figure out how to get the 4 winged piece to stay where it need to go as I put the other pieces back on top of it. I finally resorted to some "Elmer's" paper glue like the kind school children use. Not particularly strong or toxic, a jell so it doesn't run all over the place, and weak enough that it will pull apart as the pieces move back and forth inside the switch. Just enough stickiness to hold the piece while I put the switch back together.

 

Hi everyone. I recently purchased a 2000 XKR convertible that has this window switch issue. I haven't actually taken in apart yet, but here are the symptoms. I haven't been able to adjust either driver or passenger side rear view mirror up, down, left right since the car was purchased. Just a side note, the car lived in FL it's whole life but now lives in upstate NY. One day last week, I hit the memory button #1 and my drivers seat, and both mirrors moved then returned to the previous position. It appears the mirror motors are still working if I'm thinking about this correctly. I've also read about a control module for the mirrors. Can anyone explain how these mirrors/control module, and memory function operate? I've reviewed the owners manual and it's not all that clear to me. I'll rely on you all to enlighten me.

 

There is at least one old thread in the archives about removing the switch and it has a several good pictures of what the internals look like and some cautions about taking your time so look it up. I'll see if I can find it and send it along but you can look as well.

The switch mounted on the driver's door controls the mirrors motors through the tiny joystick. On my '99 the previous owner had evidently spilled something that leaked down into the switch and corroded the tiny contacts that were used to control up-down and in-out. The switch was easy enough to remove but do it carefully and gently. The contacts are tiny and if you aren't careful you can dump the entire bunch out on a table and be in some real trouble getting all back in the proper places. Use some electrical contact cleaner on a Q-tip or similar to clean all the contacts and reassemble.

In my case the contacts were badly corroded and the repair only lasted for a month or two but your mileage may vary. I can get some up and down movement of one mirror but no in or out so like yours the motors are fine but the switch is probably toast.

 

I found my self going in circles trying to find the thread that pictured the switch with some instructions and overlooked the very thread we're on. The post by chillywilly that started this thread has all you'll need to take a shot at fixing it yourself if your problem is in the switch which is the most likely culprit based on your explanation of your problem.

Scroll down to the very fist post.

 

thanks for theinfo. I've reviewed how to take the switches apart and will try that first. Do you know how the memory unit relates to mirror position? Could this be affecting the operation of the mirrors?

 

It could affect them but remember that it also 'remembers' seat and steering column/steering wheel position so if it were screwed up I'd expect a lot more than just in-op mirror controls. Since the motors still work (a common thing if the switch is bad) I'd bet it's the switch and its contacts. My car has spent it's entire life as near as I can tell in Florida and I suspect a fair amount of that time was outside and humidity plays hell with electrical connections.

 

Thanks again for the info. My car spent 18 years on the Gulf coast. I'm sure humidity has affected it as the car has low miles and was used at a resort area for guests.

 

I had the same issue, so I have taken appart the whole controller, there was no trace of corrosion so I did a quick clean up with alcohol to remove any dust and grease in between the PCB and the buttons.

After reassembly the joystick 🕹️ works a lot better, I still have a few dead hit every so often but given how often I adjust the mirrors....

 

I just found this post. Glad to see it. I have been away on other car projects and have not had much chance to fiddle with the '97' XK8 for a while. My still be waiting, but now I think I see the way to address the issue. On my car, neither outside mirror will move to the left or up. I will now check the memory feature to see if it is the joystick which I had suspected. Will be able to do that on our Sunday drive.
Thanks,
Dennis