Mirror Motor Grinding or Silent

Your GM truck or SUV's mirror either grinds under load when folding, or makes no sound at all when you press the button.

Motor vs. gear — how to tell them apart

In very few cases (about 5% of the time) the actual small electric motor has suffered a permanent failure — this is the less common cause compared to a broken spur gear. Depending on the age of your mirrors, the armature inside the motor starts to lose its torque rating and can become too weak to drive the mirror in and out. The motor still works, but when placed under load it simply won't drive the assembly with any consistent regularity — you may hear it grind or strain rather than turn smoothly.

A motor that's completely dead produces no sound at all when you press the fold button. A gear that's stripped, by contrast, usually still produces a faint electric buzz (the motor is spinning, just not moving anything) — see mirror won't fold for that case.

The fix

We replace the small electric motor inside the spring-loaded motor housing, then lubricate and reseal the unit. You don't need to diagnose gear vs. motor yourself — our mail-in repair service always replaces both together, for $279 for one mirror ($549/pair). See full pricing.