How to replace OEM door Mirrors with Heated Mirrors

This is part 1 Installing and wiring up the OEM functions of the replacement mirrors.

If you bought your new heated mirrors from Ebay, this is what they will look like.


Tools used:
x1 flat screwdriver
x1 10mm socket and 1/4" drive ratchet and 3" extention
x1 10mm wrench
x1 24" or so (length is not terribly important) hard stiff wire.
x1 small paperclip

Step 1: Using the flat screwdriver, carefully pop up the triangle mirror cover, place that part aside.


Step 2: Wrap the stiff wire around the plug that goes into the door. Make sure that when you tug on the wire that it won't slip off the plug. The wire prevents the plug from disapearing down the black void that is called the door. Pull the two plug parts apart.


Step 3: There are three 10mm nuts that hold the mirror on. Use the 10mm socket where you can and the 10mm wrench to loosen up the nuts and very carefully remove them with your fingers. Take your time here folks. One slip and the nuts go down that black void. Place your nuts in a safe place. Carefully Remove the existing mirror and place beside the new mirror.

Step 4: Next up is the wiring. You'll notice that the OEM plug is 4-pin, while the new mirrors are 6-pin. Using the flat screwdriver, carefully remove the grey plastic clips on both plugs ends of both mirrors. There should be four grey plastic clips when your done, place them aside. Using the small paperclip, push up on one color wire, then insert the paperclip into the release hole (it's the small hole on the inside of the plug), then pull the wire out of the plug. Do this four times on the oem plug, and four times on the new mirror plug. Only do this to the colored wires, leave the two black wires alone on the 6-pin plug.

Four pin plug close up:


Six pin plug close up:


Old and new:



Step 5: Install the new mirror. Don't reuse the old rubber/foam gasket, the new ones come with a different type of rubber gasket. Put those three nuts back on very carefully.

Step 6: Now I did find a wiring diagram of both the heated and non-heated mirrors, but in all honesty, I didn't use them. I just manually pushed in the four loose ends of the new mirror into the OEM door plug (the one with the wire wrapped around it) until I got the power functions to work correctly. It took me two attempts to get everything working properly. Once your happy with the wiring, remember how they were plugged in, the remove the four loosey pins, and insert them into the old OEM 4-pin plug that was removed from the old mirror. Reinsert the four grey plastic clips. At this point, it should look like this;

Plug the old oem plugs back together and test to make sure that everything is working.



This is as far as I got so far. Next up is grounding the 12v power for the heating element inside the door, and running the single 12v wire. I think that I may have to remove the door panel to run the wire through the door and the door rubber to the body. Then I have to locate the rear defrogger circuit and splice into it. that will be part 2, when it gets done.

once you figure out how to wire up the heating element i will more than likely be investing in a pair

No problem, I got one step closer today.

Today I managed to ground the heating elements, and run the power wire through the door into the cab on both doors.

Step 1) I used a length of stiff wire to see if I could get from the top of the door to the wiring hole without taking off the door panels. Good news you can! If you used a long enough wire, then you can just attach the top end to a spool of wire (I picked the color black so it would it wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb). Then just pull it though to the door wiring hole.


Step 2) Cut the newly run wire to length at the top end. I left 5" out. Strip off 1/2" of insulation, and twist the strands. Crimp on a blue butt connector.

Step 3) Clip the black connector off so that the two black wires are sticking out. Bare a good 3/4" of wire on each. Twist the strands so that they don't stray. Fold the twisted end in half. Crimp a red ring terminal on one wire. Crimp the other wire into the other end of the blue butt connector. You should see something like this.


Step 4) I thought it would be great to keep the wire inside the rubber boot in the door wiring hole. So I took off the half round plastic cover inside the cab by both doors. On either side, it's not a clean run. It's almost impossible to run the wire inside the boot. That sucks. Maybe someone with more patients than me will do this. So, you don't have to take the plastic covers off, just run the wire along side the rubber boot and into the cab like this.

It doesn't look pretty, but it gets the job done.

Leave enough wire inside to run anywhere in the cab, just place the excess wire under the floor mats.

I did a trial run of both mirrors by attaching the leads to a batt terminal on the under dash fuse box. Guess what! It works! They both started to heat up.

I was curious about the current draw because of the tiny wires going to the mirrors. Each mirror draws only 1 amp, so they won't need a relay.

Now I will just need to find a trigger for them somewhere. I would like to use my rear defrogger circuit.

I've done it!

I found a wiring diagram for the rear defrogger circuit. I was worried that it used current draw to determine when to shut off, but it doesn't. It uses a timer instead, so the diagram says to look for a purple wire in and out of the convienence center under the dash. I found it, tested it with a meter, and sure enough, it only came alive when the rear defrogger button was pushed in.

awesome! I used two suitcase tap connectors, and voila! Heated mirrors that turn on and off with the rear defrogger!

how much did you pay for the set?

Biggwaukegan said:

how much did you pay for the set?

Click to expand...

I'm in Canada, so I ended up paying about $70 each with shipping and duties. But in the US you can get a set for much less.

I bought mine from this Ebay vendor.
LH
RH
They were packaged well and arrived in good shape and it all works.

Do you still have the pictures to this thread, because they are missing?

For adding heated mirrors to ANY vehicle you can hook 1 of the heat element wires to ground inside the door then run the other to the rear defrost (some countries call it "defog") power source. I recommend using a relay between the rear defrost power (switched from dash hvac control) and the mirrors while getting the supply (continuous +) from your fuse panel under/in the dash so you don't have to run into the hood area.

Jarhead3085 said:

For adding heated mirrors to ANY vehicle you can hook 1 of the heat element wires to ground inside the door then run the other to the rear defrost (some countries call it "defog") power source. I recommend using a relay between the rear defrost power (switched from dash hvac control) and the mirrors while getting the supply (continuous +) from your fuse panel under/in the dash so you don't have to run into the hood area.

Click to expand...

Is this a Rip Van Winkle revival of old messages?

We will see if he gets a response from a 6 year old post, anything is possible I guess.