Dismantle power fold mirrors [MK2.5 Focus]

[Ste Cooper]

Hi all

Has anyone had any experience with dismantling a power fold mirror for a MK2.5 Focus?

More importantly the actual folding mechanism? I wish to clean and re-grease mine. 

Ive dismantled mine down to the folding mechanism but hit a brick wall. 

This is what im left with currently.

Ive highlighted the main sections:

So:
Green
    Main assembly that appears to take the weight of the mirror and the power fold motor attaches to.
Red
    The part that moves and the mirror is attached to. The power fold motor appears to mount underneath it.
Orange
    The mounting fascia. This is bolted to the Green section. With those bolts removed its loose. However still fixed on the left hand side. I think there may be another srcrew on that side.
    If thats the case then the red section will need to be removed in order to separate this section and the green section.
Pink
    This appears to be a tube that holds the red section to the green/orange assembly. It has a massive spring underneath it that keeps it under tension. I think it slots into a mounting on the green section and the tension from the spring keeps it in place.

This is the top of the tube highlighted in pink. Judging by the two cutouts its intended for a tool to fit in them to prove leverage to spin.

I attempted to compress the spring by putting a G-clamp on the top of the tube and the bottom of the fascia housing in orange. The problem is because that is just a fascia and not actually structural rather then really compressing the spring it just deforms the housing.

It is however possible to compress the spring my about 4mm but i cant get any purchase on the tube to spin it. I will need to build something to use the cut outs.

I'm hoping anyone has some experience at this and if im on the right track with how to disassemble this. 

My other fear is once i release the tube the spring is going to be impossible to compress back in again to refit.

Any info would be great ta!

[io_s_cristi]

Hi,

Did you somehow manage to decompress that spring to be able to reach the motor that activates the folding? I'm stuck at the same stage. I can't reach the folding motor in the mirror on the right side which folds only at certain moments and goes slower than the one on the left. Also, when the car closes automatically and I have activated the function of folding the mirrors, sometimes it makes a strange noise(like buzzing) that can be heard in the same door (right side) where the folding does not always work.

Did you find a special tool to do the job?

[StephenFord]

43 minutes ago, io_s_cristi said:

Did you find a special tool to do the job?

I'm curious, did a spray of something like 3 in 1 oil not help at all to enable the smooth folding of the mirror? It usually fixes any slowness, which I've used several times on powerfolds, or did you just fancy a 'project'...

[mrmetallica]

ive tried and failed seems impossible to do

[io_s_cristi]

16 hours ago, StephenFord said:

I'm curious, did a spray of something like 3 in 1 oil not help at all to enable the smooth folding of the mirror? It usually fixes any slowness, which I've used several times on powerfolds, or did you just fancy a 'project'...

A spray doesn't help because the motor that activates the folding is in a kind of plastic housing and you can only get to it if you manage to decompress that spring.

It's not just a project, I really want to solve it somehow and see if I can change the motor that drives the mechanism.

[DaveT70]

I'm sure they're pressed in, if the motor goes you need a new mirror

[io_s_cristi]

The motor is not dead because folding works in most cases, the problems could be the mechanism actuated by the motor, but to check this you have to decompress that spring with a special tool I think... with any other type of pliers you can risk damaging that plastic part that keeps the spring tensioned