Wing mirrors bent backward in car wash....

[kiltyboy]

I took my 2007 IS250 through a car wash yesterday, and, unlike any other car wash I have known, when the rollers started heading forward, they did not reverse the direction of rotation when they got to the drivers door , but continued to effectively drag the brush strands from the back of the car to the front, which pushed both wing mirrors forward....When I went to complain about this, the guy in the filling station said "...oh...yeah....it sometimes does that..." and immediately laid his hands on the form to register a complaint about it !!!!! I had to go to a funeral, so had to just wrench them back into the right position, though they felt very wobbly at that point.

When I next restarted the car, there was a click sound from the wing mirrors, and they then seemed to "jump" back into position.

In what may, or may not be related, the sensor that detects the proximity of the key, and allows the doors to open by just putting your hand in the door handle, seemed to stop working, so I had to use the fob buttons.

However, later the same day, that seemed to start working again.

Has anyone experienced something similar ? Are these self healing ???

regards

Kiltyboy

[NemesisUK]

Never had an issue with my previous cars going through the car wash. Not tried it in my RC (and probably never will ...)

Where the door mirrors folded in before the event? 

[is200 Newbie]

I never use a carwash for the exact reason - plus the added hassle of trying to get the owner of it to admit liability if damage is done

The mirrors should just snap back into position if manually adjusted -  if you have the auto fold ones then the noise would have been the motors opening the mirrors as normal (there is no sensor on them to dictate they have been pushed open / closed etc through misuse) so the motors would assume their normal operation.

A car wash should not affect the use of the door though - glad to hear its back to normal though.

[C Andrew Green]

The IS250 owners manual is very specific in that when you use an automatic car wash you must fold the mirrors in (use the switch in the door panel) Page 252 of the US manual refers, might be different in the UK manual (I've got a .pdf of the US manual here and my UK manual isn't to hand at the moment).

I've forgotten a couple of times and folded them at the last minute!

My old Mazda 626 went through fine with the mirrors out, but the weren't electrical folding mirrors.............

Andrew

[kiltyboy]

Thanks for the comments.

If I'd known this car wash was going to behave as it did, I would certainly have chosen to tuck the mirrors in (it's a manual decision on my IS250 - you have to press a button to do it).

As it is, I'm wondering if it's water ingress into the mirror housing that caused the temporary non-functioning of the proximity unlocking.

 

I was just concerned that the forcing forward of the mirrors might have damaged some cogs or gears - I just don't know the detail of the motors/mechanism.

 

 

Thankfully everything seems to work now ( mirror adjustment , mirror folding....) the only thing I haven't tested is any defrosting capability - though the weather now may give a chance to test that too !

[matt8]

Switch the heating element on and touch it after a few minutes. You'll feel the warmth of it! 

[Carl1983]

I have a more concerning question. Why did you take a Lexus through a car wash? Lol

[Texas]

17 hours ago, Carl1983 said:

I have a more concerning question. Why did you take a Lexus through a car wash? Lol

Exactly what I was thinking as soon as I saw the Headline in the topic list.....

I personally would not taken any car that I owned ( or indeed my family's) into a garage automatic car wash ever since one ( car wash that is) made the local news about 35 years ago after some Herbert's tied a load of metal washers onto the strands of the revolving brushes over the weekend ( back in those days shops/ garages had very much reduced opening hours) and you can guess what the first car ( a ford Sierra sapphire) to go through the car wash on the Monday morning looked like afterwards!!!!

paul m.

[Linas.P]

On 12/8/2017 at 1:54 PM, kiltyboy said:

When I next restarted the car, there was a click sound from the wing mirrors, and they then seemed to "jump" back into position.

That is normal, there are some sort of latches which hold and locks mirrors in certain positions, to prevent damage in cases when mirror is bend backwards (I believe) it disengage latch and allows mirror to turn freely. When you turn ignition on and close/open the mirrors latch enrages again and lock mirror in either open or closed position. All that engaging/disengaging thing makes loud clicks and bangs.

Not sure about locking issues you have, keyless sensor is not located in mirror and has nothing to do with it, so I guess just coincidence. 

[jumbojake]

there is a sprung ball bearing in a track... if the mirror is forced beyond it's normal throw it will move (as opposed to break), but once returned to it;s normal position, you'll hear a load click as the ball bearing re-located into the track again.

So long at it retracts and extends as per normal, then all good.