side view mirror electrical problems

[jimskiwithsoul]

My 1986 911 has side view mirror electrical problems.

essentially I have only left and right and no up/down. If the toggle is pressed to the right or right it only goes to the right.

If pressed to the left or down it only goes to the left.

Does anyone know the cause of this and how to remedy?

The car was vandalized and now going through a restore. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[jmod]

Hi,

You say you are restoring the car. Just need a few details to help diagnose the problem. Do you have the same problem on both mirrors? Have you dismantled the driver's side door recently? Disassembled any of the looms on the trunk floor?

[porschenut]

spray some contact cleaner into the control knob, and work it around a bit. I had the same problem and this fixed it.

[DRACO A5OG]

+1 cleaning, but also check to see of the connector's ground or other sockets are not loose.

[pegasus9]

classic ball and socket displacement symptom in the mirror housing.

Here is Talewinds' detailed fix.

Side View Mirror on '88 3.2 acting funny, help please

[jimskiwithsoul]

Hello jmod,
Yes the problem is on both mirrors. The car doors have been completely dismantled not sure about the looms. However, the problem did exist before the restore.

Thank you for your help.

Originally Posted by jmod

Hi,

You say you are restoring the car. Just need a few details to help diagnose the problem. Do you have the same problem on both mirrors? Have you dismantled the driver's side door recently? Disassembled any of the looms on the trunk floor?

[86 911 Targa]

Originally Posted by 86 911 Targa

If all of the above does not help, verify the color codes on the connectors.

Hope this helps.

And, here's a pic from anothe member:

[jmod]

Originally Posted by jimskiwithsoul

Hello jmod,
Yes the problem is on both mirrors. The car doors have been completely dismantled not sure about the looms. However, the problem did exist before the restore.

Thank you for your help.

Some great information has been posted here including circuit diagrams and practical advice.

The mirrors use the white/brown circuit from the joystick switch to change from up/down to left/right. As far as I can tell from your description I see four areas of interest.

1) Broken or disconnected wire. Make sure the white and brown wires are connected at the toggle switch.
2) Disconnected/bad ground. Since you have disconnected stuff, make sure the brown (ground) wires are properly connected inside the door and other places - refer to the circuit.
3) joystick switch bad. The change is controlled by the switch and the contacts can go bad. The advice to use contact cleaner in the switch is to address this problem.
4) wiring error. There is no limit to what POs can do faced with a problem. If you need to get to the switch you can check the wiring.

Are you handy with a multimeter? If not you might want to start with the contact cleaner. If you are lucky, you won't need to open the door cap to get to the bottom of the joystick switch.