DIY LED mirror housing

[pythonjosh]

This is a rather small DIY, but you guys might find it useful. Good for Gen1-1.5. Anthony aka SolaraGuy22, you should have some input here too as yours looks better.

Tools needed are:
² philips head screwdriver
³ 10mm socket
LED(s), and thin gauge wire.

First pull off the little black triangular cap that is directly on the other side of the mirror housing, right above the door panel.
To remove the door panel---
There is a screw² in the door lock/handle panel, a screw³ under the carpeting in the window control panel, unplug the window controls, a screw² under a plastic cap towards the front of the door panel itself, and 2 screws² at the bottom of the door. Now there are only plastic snap things holding the door on, yank on the door and it will pop off. The door is still connected by wires going to the tweeter, unplug it. Now put the door panel out of the way.
Now remove 3 screws² that hold on the mirror housing. Unplug the mirror from the door. Once you remove these the mirror housing will be removeable.
From here are 2 ways to put an LED in the housing. The way I did it was to just peel away some of the weather stripping and shove a wired LED through the tiny little hole, and trust me, it's not that easy, but possible.
The other way to do this was done by Anthony (SolaraGuy22) and he removed the weather stripping to reveal I think 3 more screws² that hold the mirror and motor. Remove these and the mirror and motor should fall off into your hands.
ALWAYS BE SUPER CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH THE MIRROR AND MOTOR! They are quite fragile and not cheap to replace.
With the mirror and motor removed you have full access to put LED(s) whereever meets your liking. Please keep in mind that while these are totally legal, they are exterior lights. Having blue exterior lights on your car while you are driving is illegal and a cop WILL pull you over if he sees it.
Now for the wiring. I don't have heated mirrors so I noticed that there is still a wire for the heated mirrors, but it stops at the plug to the mirror, so I just spliced the +wire from the LED to that wire, and splice the -wire from the LED to the ground wire in that plug, should be a white w/ black stripe wire. Then I followed that wire to where the wires enter thru the rubber hose to inside the car, right behind the triangular little kickpanel by the foot rest. I can't remember the colors of the wires off the top of my head, but I will report back tomorrow with the colors, from my car at least. This wire you're gonna splice into the turn signal wire that runs thru that kickpanel, under the doorway, to the lights in the back. Again, I'll edit this post to add the wire colors today/tomorrow (I'm at work, and I work nights, it's 0300 right now )
Anthony, please chime in with your tips.

[bunthy]

wow looks good.....could you go into more about pulling th emirror and motor off each other....I ahve another idea that might work.

[nj99solara]

thanks for the tutorial pythonjosh but I have a couple of questions.
1. What LED's did you use? (size/brand)
2. How many do you have in your mirror?
3. Are they waterproof?
4. Where did you get them?
5. Did you have to solder them or are they already wired with resistors?
6. Do you think I can still tap into that heater wire if I have heated mirrors?
Thanks for the help i'm just trying to cover all the bases before I tear my mirrors apart.

[pythonjosh]

thanks for the tutorial pythonjosh but I have a couple of questions.
1. What LED's did you use? (size/brand)
2. How many do you have in your mirror?
3. Are they waterproof?
4. Where did you get them?
5. Did you have to solder them or are they already wired with resistors?
6. Do you think I can still tap into that heater wire if I have heated mirrors?
Thanks for the help i'm just trying to cover all the bases before I tear my mirrors apart.

1. I buy my LED's from a Hong Kong manufacturer. They are 5mm, and super friggin bright.
2. 1 in each.
3. I wired them and taped them up myself, so yes.
4. Hong Kong
5. I buy them in bare units, LED's and resisitors separate. Soldering is recommended, even by me, but I have never used any solder in my car.
6. Not unless you don't want the heated mirrors any more. If you have heated mirrors and want to keep them functional, you will need to run a new +wire for the LED. When you run a new wire, I recommend running that wire thru the door hose so you don't have wires hanging out, looks so much better.
Josh

[lilm]

josh that is so sexy :)


remeber to update your profile you got more than 42 installed now

[solara86]

that looks nice i might try doing that to my car my color theme is blue... i had blue neons but it broke going over a speed bump money gone to waste.. nice lights on the mirror.

[SolaraGuy22]

Hey Solara86, that sucks about your neons. I bottomed not too long ago and shattered my front tube but fortunately got it hella cheap on ebay from someone who only used 3 on their ride. Perfect huh?

Anyways back on topic:

I was going to do this a while ago but never got to it. I use the same LED's as Josh "http://www.besthongkong.com" and they are great!

I have 4 in each mirror and wanted to double it up sometime to make it more even and cover the hot spots. That is last on my things to do though so who knows.

I didn't use the heated mirror wire to hook them up, I just ran new ones to a switch that's tied into my other exterior neons.

When removing the mirror be very carefull and take your sweet time. You have to pry it off gently and be careful not to put too much pressure on it. I was lucky enough to just get a chip on it when putting it back in on my passenger side. (see picture)

[SolaraGuy22]

OMG! Those pictures are huge!

I'll resize on the next ones I post. I'll try to find the pics of the inside of the mirror.

[pythonjosh]

Anthony, did you pop the mirror off of the motor? I though you took out the whole unit as one. It really wouldn't be good for n00bs to be taking off their mirror, I can hear the goddammit reports now. Isn't there a way to take out the motor and mirror in one piece?

[pythonjosh]

Oh hey Anthony, I still have your install pics in my email. I'll post them here for you, in case they answer anybody's ?'s.

[pythonjosh]

Click for full size.

[SolaraGuy22]

Actually no, there's no way you can take it off as one unit. There are screws behind the mirror you have to take off for the unit to come out. But there is also some white adhesive too as you can see in the pics. So it's kind of a project to get them off but the results are great.

I can hear the screams as well but it's a risk you have to take with this project. Just be careful everyone.

My process for the LED's is solder the resistor on, solder the wire, electrical tape everything between the LED and the wire (keep it thin and remember to separate the + & - with a thin piece when wrapping). You're all set!

For the mirrors I put silicone on it to protect it and to glue the damn thing on.

***One trick to remember***
Before putting the mirror back on when the project is complete. Put electrical tape on the back of it as it will show light through some of the holes behind the mirror. Remember to just put a strip though otherwise it may be too thick to put back on. One should do it though depending on how many you throw back there.

Great DIY Josh.



-Anthony

[pythonjosh]

I think as a suggestion, using a blow dryer for the mirror might help separate it from the glue/tape that's holding it on. Do you think so?
I've never taken off the mirror before, just the housing. Mirror's scare me as I know they are not cheap to replace.
But you guys can just do what I did if removing the mirror scares you. Shove an led thru the hole the wire go thru. Make sure you reposition it so you get the best angle.