rquinley

My A4 has side view mirrors that can be electronically folded in and out. Will it damage the mirror's mechanics or electronics if a mirror is manually folded in or out? I am thinking of the car wash employees that typically push the rear side view mirrors in to run the car thru the wash and pull them back out again after the wash cycle.

hasht2

I don't know for sure, but it's probably not a good idea.

You can retract them on demand using the mirror adjustment **** on the driver's side armrest. I'd retract them yourself when you turn your car over to the car wash.

SYMAWD

You should be fine. The cars are shipped with them folded in and most of the time they were folded in manually.

Dan in St. Louis

Strife1013

I wouldn't recommend it, tell them not to touch your car.

Versprechen

Yeah sounds like forcing gears, not good.

IMYM

That's a poor design if they can't be folded in manually without damage. The primary function of the folding design (manually or powered) is to avoid extensive damage if the mirror is hit.

Majority of the powered folding mirrors have a 'clutch' between the motor and the driving gears. Not only that protects the gears and motor in case of an accident, it also simplifies the design since you don't need a feedback loop to tell the motor that the desired position is reached.

rquinley

Dan -- Thank you for the info. The "Caution" box you posted appears to be the same format as the "Warning" type boxes in my A4 Manual, but I could not find what you posted. Can you advise what Audi manual has this box on the mirrors?

I do have to agree with another respondent that it is a poor design if the mirrors can be damaged if manually folded or opened.

Dan in St. Louis

The one I posted is from page 61 of a PDF of the manual "Englisch 05.2016 8W0012720AD."

There is a similar warning on page 57 of my printed manual "Englisch Nordamerika 05.2016 8W0012721BB."

I just looked under "mirror" in the index.

A4Driver

First of all, the only time I will ever take my car to a car wash is if the car needs cleaning badly (like in the winter when it gets covered with salt) and the car wash is spray only -- no brushes. Ninety percent of the time I wash it by hand.

Also, nobody -- except for an Audi Tech at the dealership -- ever gets to drive my car. I would never let a car wash attendant, or a valet, or anybody else drive my car ... or do anything to it for that matter.
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