A different Wing Mirror question

[Mr Vlad]

From day one of ownership of my car the driver door mirror has never worked except it folds in on the button. It doesn't go left right etc etc on the button. 

I've had the door card off today but didn't see anything untoward. I took the passenger door card off and saw a difference. Both mirrors have a Red box denso control unit. The passenger side mirror has Two plugs. One plug goes into the harness and the other to the Denso unit. However on the drivers side the mirror has only One plug which goes to the harness. 

Can anyone confirm that the driver side door mirror (car is a SE-L) has 2 plugs or 1?

I ordered a pair of mirrors thinking I could swap the inners but no chance. Sent them back. Got others coming but only one of them has the 2 plugs, other doesn't. 

What gets me is I'm wondering if there's a different Denso unit for driver side and passenger side because my two denso's are identical and on the passenger side the wiring of the 2 plugs on the mirror plug in neatly i.e. where the mirror plugs into the denso is towards the front of the car. However on the driver side the socket in the denso is towards the rear of the car and possibly the mirror wire won't reach.

Anyone with a SE-L recently had their driver side door card off and can remember how the door mirror cables/cable is connected?

[Mr Vlad]

Well I think I've found something googling and funnily enough I thank Normski2 for his thread of July 2018 where he took photos and a full description how to change the door handle of all things. Attached is the photo that answers my question. 

As you can see where I have a Red box this car in the photo has a Black box. It's the box above the large speaker and left of the mid range speaker. That box is the mirror controller ecu. You can see that the wire from the mirror goes into two. One plug goes to the loom and the other to the mirror ecu.

So basically if ever you need to replace your driver or passenger side mirrors be aware there are 2 types. 1 with only one plug a 2 one with 2 plugs. It'll depend on the spec of your car if it has fully electric mirrors or just heated. 

[Linas.P]

Not sure how relevant that is but Normski's car is 2010 (meaning different mirrors with indicators and auto-folding function) and your one is 2007 (with neither of those functions). It would make sense that 2010 car would have different ecu/mirror controls.

[Mr Vlad]

Yes but fact is there are 2 different wired mirror types for is250. Luckily I've bought the only one available in black with the 2 plugs. I've also bought a black one with just 1 plug so I can test the possibilities. My passenger side mirror has TWO plugs so I have to assume my driver side should too. I suspect that in my cars history it's has a few prangs. I know it's had a windscreen fitted. The front driver side fog light lens has a nice scrape on it. I also suspect the original mirror got mullered in its past and the current one fitted which by the way has never worked whilst I've had my car.

I'm stating Facts not here say like you. 🍻

[ColinBarber]

Only vehicles with memory functions have mirror ECUs located within the doors which store the position of each mirror. The door ECUs are the same both sides. There are part code changes throughout the life of the vehicle which may explain the colour differences or just what colour plastic Denso were using using on that manufacturing run.

The mirrors themselves are different too. The memory ones have position sensors in them and two sets of wires - one with just two connections which is for folding and goes directly to the folding switch and the other, which controls mirror movement, goes to the ECU. Mirrors without memory have a single cable which directly connects to the mirror controls.

 

Your vehicle has had its O/S mirror replaced at some point with an incorrect, cheaper, non-memory one.

[Mr Vlad]

Correct Colin 👍

[Mr Vlad]

Well i can confirm that a 2007 SE-L does indeed need a wing mirror with two multi plugs. On Saturday there was enough of a break in the weather to change my door mirror with one I bought on eBay. Had to swap the plastic shrouds as mine were in much better nick. My new mirror now moves with the switch and it moves down when I engage reverse. My passenger side one doesn't move anywhere as much as my new drivers one when in reverse but it does move fully with the toggle switch. Must be dodgy somewhere in the motor mechanism. Think I'll swap it for another one. 

Hope this will be of use for someone down the line.

[F.A.]

2 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Well i can confirm that a 2007 SE-L does indeed need a wing mirror with two multi plugs. On Saturday there was enough of a break in the weather to change my door mirror with one I bought on ebay. Had to swap the plastic shrouds as mine were in much better nick. My new mirror now moves with the switch and it moves down when I engage reverse. My passenger side one doesn't move anywhere as much as my new drivers one when in reverse but it does move fully with the toggle switch. Must be dodgy somewhere in the motor mechanism. Think I'll swap it for another one. 

Hope this will be of use for someone down the line.

Early 2IS SE-Ls often suffered with the mirror failing to fully dip or dip at all when reverse is engaged. Manually pushing the mirror up and down the fully extremities with your fingers would temporarily fix it but it wouldn’t take long for it to stop working again. IIRC it was either the mechanism that started to seize, which could be dismantled and lubricated or the teeth from the cogs were damaged. I think there were also cases where the memory module needed replacing. We never got around to storing this out on our 2007 models and it never was a problem on our 2011 model so I guess Lexus made some improvements. 

[Mr Vlad]

That's interesting read F.A. out of curiosity I'll manually move the mirror lens to each of its extremities however the mirror moves to its extremities with the toggle switch. Therefore I'll look into getting another memory module. Thanks for the info 👍

[F.A.]

55 minutes ago, Mr Vlad said:

That's interesting read F.A. out of curiosity I'll manually move the mirror lens to each of its extremities however the mirror moves to its extremities with the toggle switch. Therefore I'll look into getting another memory module. Thanks for the info 👍

Yes, the mirror always worked as normal with the toggle switch even though it didn’t dip fully or at all in reverse. It may be worth popping the mirror out to lube and / or check the mechanism is OK before purchasing another memory module. 

[is200 Newbie]

I put a post on this back in 2016 - seems like yesterday !!! - i cant copy the link but if you search wing mirors IS220d 2007  from 16th December 2016 you should be able to find it.

[ColinBarber]

11 hours ago, is200 Newbie said:

I put a post on this back in 2016 - seems like yesterday !!! - i cant copy the link but if you search wing mirors IS220d 2007  from 16th December 2016 you should be able to find it.