The motor back plate now lifts off.
The motor housing on the other side also comes off once the screws are removed.
Here are our gears, you can see how the teeth are stripped. The housing is also filled with old oxidized tar-like grease. Our thinking is the grease got gummy which made things hard to move which put more load on the gears causing them to wear quickly and strip. The grease needs to be totally cleaned out and replaced with a light viscosity synthetic grease. If you don’t do this the mirrors will move sluggishly and the new gears will probably wear quickly.
We ordered some new gears simply by looking on eBay. They sell for around $30, way cheaper than buying a mirror assembly. If you have an older car that BMW no longer supports it’s getting a junkyard part or get these gears and fix your mirrors!
The new gears vs our old worn-out parts. The mirrors assemble in the reverse order of the disassembly. Like we said, completely clean out the gummy OEM grease and be sure to use fresh, light viscosity, non-oxidizing grease.
3 comments
This is way beyond the capacity of a BMW owner, but it was a great read.
Why is that?
Great article. I’m having problems with both sides on my M5 and thought I’d have to learn to live with it. The process looks a bit tedious but not difficult at all. Thanks for sharing a reasonable solution to the absurd replacement cost.