Mirror Switch Reconditioning

I read Curtis Mittong's, 19 Sep 2003 article entitled "Power Window Switch Rebuild", and decided to apply his premise to my power mirror switch. Allow me to bore you with a bit of history before I begin.

My E30 is a black 1989 four door sedan which I originally purchased as my eldest sons first car. He decided he did not want the car after all, so I inherited it as my daily driver.

Being the only driver of the vehicle, I hardly ever use the power mirror switch, so it did not bother me much that it did not function properly. After reading the article Curtis wrote, I figured it was simple enough to try the same with my power mirror switch. It worked surprisingly well.

I used a different procedure for the cleaning, but the premise was the same. The following is the procedure I used:

Items Needed:
- The Smallest Flat Head Screw Driver You Can Find
- An Old Tooth Brush
- WD-40

Procedure:

1. Pry out the switch with the screw driver. It should pop out pretty easily.

2. Disconnect the switch from the wiring harness and use the screw driver again to separate the switch housing.

3. Separate the circuit board from the switch housing being careful not to drop the floating contacts inside.

4. Spray a generous amount of WD-40 inside the housing and on the circuit board and let them sit for a couple of minutes.

5. Use the old tooth brush to clean out the housing and copper paths of the circuit board.

6. Word of Warning: The floating contacts look like two small metal ball bearings linked together. Be careful not to lose them when you are cleaning the housing. I did not know they were not connected to the housing and I dropped one during the cleaning process. I took me a while to locate it since they are so small.

7. That is all there is to it. Use the reverse directions to reassemble the switch. The power mirrors work like new.

Paul R Contreras