MMI, some bad, some good
 

First the bad news.
SWMBO is once again rather vociferous and sad.
MMI has started clicking and failing to open correctly.
Management is claiming that she cannot drive the car 'cos when she is within ten metres of the car the Parking Aid refuses to work and with no MMI panel the reversing camera is useless. :-(

Now the good news.
I phoned the dealer I bought the car from and his reply was "No problem, I'll send you a set of gears in the post. No charge". We have had the car for over two years so I think that is very good of him. Means he will be my first port of call if I ever manage to buy another car. :love:

Having done a bit of research it looks possible to do on the house front drive. :(

Any pointers/watchouts from folk that have done this?

https://youtu.be/yctZuQIgWs4

Seems a bit fiddly but doable. Good luck with it Ray.

John, Thanks for the video.
I am feeling happier.

be careful around vents and any other shiny bits to avoid scratches !
I did the cog change a few months ago and the video is pretty accurate.

good luck ! :)

Pop the wood trim off while closed and then open the screen before removing.

Don't forget the two little lugs you got to pull up when removing the vents.

apart from that you'll be fine.

I replaced all my gears but I would leave the main motor drive as plastic should the time happen again.

The brass gears are quite noisy. The main plastic one seems to be quiet.

Mike

Scott, Thanks mate, I'll pull the screen cover first when I start. I am waiting for the gears to arrive but don't know what they are. Hoping they are brass/ phosphor bronze. Bronze would be best 'cos they hold the lubrication better.

Mike, Understand where you are coming from suggesting using one plastic gear but I would think that is a weak point and would entail doing the whole strip down again in the future. I'm afraid this old lady will have to give us a lot of years service. As far as I am aware this is the first time these gears have failed on her (I have loads of paper on her) so at 12 years old they have done well. Shame that yours seem noisy, not heard that before, did you lube them?

Yeah I coated the gears in silicone grease. I suspect that the noise is why they were plastic from factory. The metal gear for the lid and the metal gear on metal for the screen drive make noise since its metal on metal. It isn't a bad noise, it's just a bit uncouth for me. The gear that commonly fails is the screen drive gear as it is small. The largest plastic gear that is attached to the motor (I think from memory) I left plastic on a mate's car and the noise of the mechanism working is quiet.

I replaced all my gears in one go with the brass ones. I am considering changing the bigger motor drive gear back to plastic. It generally isn't the one that breaks so should be fine.

Mike

Just replaced mine with the brass ones, including the motor drive gear and is silent.

My only tip would be as already said, protect the air vents when pulling up the little tabs so you don't scratch anything.

Also, make sure you have a size T9 torx bit as it a bloody awkward size most kits don't have.

Mmmm! T9, I'll have a look in my boxes. Knowing my luck I'll have a 8.5 and a 9.23 but no 9 :(
The gear kit came on Wednesday and I'm planning on doing it Saturday, only one job in and hopefully nothing else will appear.
Watching the video it looks like there are four gears!! My kit only has three.
It looks like the video guy reused the big gear.
I have tried offering the two smaller gears upto each other and they are a bit too tight. Looks like I'll have to trim the shaft slightly for it to fit into the other one.
Or am I, as usual over engineering?