[hotrod]

Here is what I have done to install my JDM power folding mirrors. Attempt this and/or follow these instructions at your own risk. I take no responsibilities over you hurting yourself or destroying your car or parts of it.

Parts Needed:
Pair of JDM power folding mirrors
Pair of USDM mirrors (yes, you need them)
Spool of 12 gauge wire
Wire cutter
Electrical tape
Solder
Soldering iron
Fish tape
Sewing needle

Removing the USDM Mirrors

1. Start by removing your USDM mirrors. Peel off the trim by grabbing it from the top, and pulling down.
   
   
   
   
2. There are four screws holding the door panel to the door. Here behind the door handle, behind a plastic plug:
   
   
   
   In the handle underneath a plastic plug (take out the handle once you got the screw out, it'll just get in the way if you don't):
   
   
   
   Towards the front edge of the door, behind another plastic plug:
   
   
   
   Towards the bottom rear of the door:
   
   
   
   
3. Carefully (and I cannot stress how important this is) pry off the switch panel, starting from the top front edge. Slowly work your way to the back along the top edge.
   
   
   
   
4. Disconnect the plugs. The passenger side will be similar, except you will only have two plugs.
   
   
   
   
5. Slowly peel the door panel off, starting from the top front, and working down, to the back, and back up. You'll hear snaps as you do this. You'll feel a rubber trim around the bottom of the door, don't grab that and pull; it is connected to the door, not the door panel.
   
   
   
   Here's a picture of the back side of the door panel. The red circles show where the clips are, and where you should be pulling.
   
   
   
   
6. Disconnect the plug for the mirror. Then pull up on the bottom half that's attached to the door. Just leave it dangling for now. Remove the three screws circled in red... make sure you're holding the mirror in case it drops.
   

 

[hotrod]

Retrofitting the Mirrors

You will have to do this to all four of your mirrors, the two USDM ones, and the two JDM ones. The reason is the angles on the JDM mirrors are more suited for a right hand drive position, whereas the USDM mirrors are more suited for a left hand drive position. If you were to just bolt the JDM mirrors on to your car, the adjustment would be taken to the extremes. Bottom line is, although they don't look different, they are. If you did a right hand drive conversion, you can skip this section.

1. Peel back the rubber cover, and unscrew the two screws circled in red. The silver clip securing the wires will come off when you unscrew the bottom screw in the picture.
   
   
   
   
2. Take out these three screws on the underside of the mirror housing.
   
   
   
   
3. If you have patience, you can take apart the connectors with the sewing needle. Save them though, because you'll need to put them back together. Remember the other half of the connector you left dangling at the door? Now is a good time to take it apart too. If you have no patience, and are okay with soldering the wires to the mirrors later, cut the connector off. Pull the mirror housing from the base, while carefully feeding the wire through the base.
   
   
4. Now push the top of the glass in, so the bottom is sort of sticking out (the mirror housing in the picture is upside down). Grab the bottom edge of the glass and pull outwards. Once you get the bottom lose, pull down to unlatch the top.
   
   
   
   
5. Here's a picture of the mirror housing with the glass removed. This is the USDM one.
   
   
   
   Here's the JDM one. Notice the additional folding motor towards the right?
   
   
   
   
6. Remove the three screws circled.
   
   
   
   
7. This is tricky, more so on the JDM ones than the USDM ones. But the idea is the same. I've circled one of the tabs, the one closer to you. The idea is to push the one that's further in the mirror housing away from you, and the one that's closer to you out. This will release the black cover.
   
   
   
   Here's a picture of the black cover, showing the orientation of the tabs. Hopefully, this will give you a better idea of how to take off of the housing. Basically, pry the two tabs apart.
   
   
   
   
8. With the black cover removed, you'll see two screws. Take these two out too. The third point I circled on this picture is a problem area. That corner is not the same between the USDM and JDM mirrors. Consequently, when you try to put your mirrors back together, they won't go back together. You'll have to file that down. I got tired of filing and just hacksawed a chunk off. As long as you don't destroy the area where the screw goes in too much, you'll be fine.
   
   
   
   Here's the USDM motor, removed from the USDM mirror housing.
   
   
   
   
9. Put the JDM motor into the USDM mirror housing... and vice versa if you're trying to keep a clean work area.
   
   
10. Reverse these steps to put your new retrofitted mirrors back on the car. See the wiring section on how to wire up the connectors, but you did take note of which wire went where, and which it connected to right?

 

[hotrod]

Wiring

First thing I should mention is the relay. It is different from the Civic and Integra relays. They use five wires; we use seven. Why? Because we're cooler. Chances are your relay came with the wires cut. Take note of the colors. These match up to the ones on the plugs that were dangling on the door.

1. Cut four long wires, and three short ones. You may want to measure your car out for this, so here's what's going on:
   The four long wires:
   • Two going from the passenger door to the the driver door
   • One from the passenger door to steering column
   • One from the passenger door to the center console
   The three short wires:
   • Two going from the relay on the passenger door to the mirror on the passenger door.
   • One going from the relay on the passenger door to a grounding point on the passenger door.
   
   
2. Solder the new wires to the ones coming off the relay. Do this one at a time. Don't go soldering all seven at the same time. The black, blue/white, and red wires on the relay get the short wires; the remaining four gets the long ones (the blue/yellow one is the one that goes to the switch in the center console).
   
   
3. If you took the time to take apart the connectors by the door, solder the wires from the connectors to the new wires. Blue/white to blue/white, red to red, etc. This is why you should do it one at a time.
   
   
4. Use some electrical tape to tape up the soldered joints.
   
   
5. Now is a good time to put the connectors back together too. Here is what they should look like and how they should match up:
   
   
   
   The picture shows you looking at the connector from the side the wires are going in, not the side where the connectors meet. If the color is white, I've marked it with a "W", otherwise, it's open. If you wired it correctly, the yellow on the driver side mirror should connect to the yellow/green on the driver side harness. The black on the driver side mirror should connect to the red/blue on the driver side harness. Get it?
   
   
6. Mount the relay. There is a depression towards the front of the passenger door almost directly below the mirror. That is where the relay goes. There is a similar set up on the driver door, but with a different relay.
   
   
   
   
7. Plug in the passenger mirror.
   
   
8. There is a grounding point by the door speaker. The bolt is copper. Use that as your ground.
   
   
9. Remove the speaker from the door panel. There are four screws holding it in.
   
   
10. Run the remaining four wires down behind the panel into the area where you just took off the speaker.
    
    
11. Notice that the door jam has a rubber thing that protects the wires as they run from the cabin to the door. That rubber thing is actually three separate pieces. Untape it to reveal the three pieces. Then pull on the angled pieces to free them from the door panel and the body.
    
    
12. Put your hand in the speaker hole, and guide the wire to where you pulled the rubber thing off the door panel. Fish the entire length of the four wires through here first before continuing.
    
    
13. Now run the wire through the angled rubber connector. Again, fish the entire length of the wire through first before proceeding. Do the same for the other two pieces.
    
    
14. Before you put the wire in the hole on the body, reach around under the dash, and feel for a hole with your left hand. Put your right hand in the hole on the outside. Once you figured out what you're working with, feed the wire through. The passenger side is not difficult at all. Once you got the entire length of the wire into the cabin, secure those rubber parts back onto the door and body.
    
    
15. Run the blue/yellow wire to the center console for the switch. We'll deal with this in the next section.
    
    
16. Run the yellow/white wire to the ignition switch. Hook it up to the white wire for a constant 12 volt. If you're lazy, find 15A fuse for your foglights, and wire this white/yellow wire to the fuse.
    
    
17. Now do the same you did for the driver door as you did the passenger door for the remaining two wires.
    
    
18. Finally, plug those two wires into the connector, and attach the male and female connectors. You're almost there!

Installing the Switch

1. Remove the back portion of the center console by taking out these screws:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Don't forget the other side.
   
   
2. Lift the console up from the rear. You'll see something like this now.
   
   
   
   Detach the green plug. You won't see this yet, but in the picture, notice the blue/yellow wire on the very right of the green plug. That is the wire coming from the relay. Pop the USDM switch out.
   
   
3. Here's the USDM switch next to the JDM switch. Cool folding button.
   
   
   
   
4. Pop the JDM switch in place.
   
   
5. Run the blue/yellow wire from the relay into the outer most slot... like the picture above.
   
   
6. Plug the green plug into the switch.
   
   
7. At this point, you are done. Put the ignition in the second position, unless you wired the yellow/white wire to a 12 volt constant. Press the button to make sure the mirrors fold. You might also want to check the adjustment to make sure they're still okay... but they should be since all we did was move the original wiring into the JDM connectors.
   
   
8. Follow some of the above instructions in reverse order to put your car back together.

The reassembled center console with the JDM switch.

Here's a video of mine in action... click here.

Theoretically, you can wire you car alarm to this so that it will send a 12 volt pulse to the trigger wire (the blue/yellow wire) so that the mirrors will fold on arm, and unfold on unarm. I haven't gotten around to that yet... because I'm still too lazy to do the 12 volt constant.

 

[DrivinVtec]

i like BMW. can i have it.

good write up so far

 

[DrivinVtec]

opp..looks like your done.

STICKY!!!

 

[hotrod]

no, it's not about the bmw. it's about the mirrors.

 

[DrivinVtec]

no, it's not about the bmw. it's about the mirrors.

HAHAHA yeah i know. Im glad i got it right thow. but on another note, great write up. great pictures an well explained. This should go up in the sticky. good job :number1

 

[93_SI]

this article is of no use to me, as i drive a civic, but i HAVE to commend you on the write-up....very well done!! :number1

 

[DrivinVtec]

this article is of no use to me, as i drive a civic, but i HAVE to commend you on the write-up....very well done!! :number1

doesnt help me either but still well done.

 

[dom yo]

this article is of no use to me, as i drive a civic, but i HAVE to commend you on the write-up....very well done!! :number1

agreed man, i love the people that are actually dedicated enough to right out how to do stuff, though i will probably never use this, it looks good

thanks :w00t

 

[hotrod]

just giving back to the community, but thanks guys.

 

[Freakin'H22A]

I have only one question???

The question is that instead of going through all that trouble of taking off the JDM motor and filing/cutting that tab off... My idea, and please let me know if it is a good one, is that since the difference between the JDM and the USDM is the angle of the mirrors. Why can't we just switch mirror motors instead of the folding motor.

This way we just have the JDM folding Mirror motor swapped with the USDM "angle" motor instead of the other way around and having to cut the tab off. :confused

Let me know... thanks

 

[hotrod]

Why can't we just switch mirror motors instead of the folding motor.

you can, and that's exactly what i did... unless i'm not understanding you completely. i know it looks like you're filing the nub down on the mirror housing, but that nub is actually attached to the motor. you'll see once you take the mirrors apart.

oh wait wait... i think i know what you're saying now. from what i remember, the folding motor is not a separate assembly from the other stuff in the housing. the whole thing goes together.

 

[Liquid_Snk]

:wow Such detail and very well explained, Excellent pictures. :clap
Rep+ :hug

I VOTE STICKY :number1

 

[Freakin'H22A]

you can, and that's exactly what i did... unless i'm not understanding you completely. i know it looks like you're filing the nub down on the mirror housing, but that nub is actually attached to the motor. you'll see once you take the mirrors apart.

oh wait wait... i think i know what you're saying now. from what i remember, the folding motor is not a separate assembly from the other stuff in the housing. the whole thing goes together.

I forgot to mention to you, nice "STICKY". But it seems that you didn't know what I was talking about. Actually, you motivated me to deal with mine today.... I didn't have to file down or cut down anything because I left the JDM Folding Motor assy as is and only swapped the USDM mirror motor (of course I had to cut the wires and then reconnect them but I didn't have to file down anything.

So what I have now is a JDM Folding Mirror with the angle of the USDM instead of having the USDM filed down or cut assy with the JDM Folding Mirror motor. Get what I mean? :number1

 

[hotrod]

I forgot to mention to you, nice "STICKY". But it seems that you didn't know what I was talking about. Actually, you motivated me to deal with mine today.... I didn't have to file down or cut down anything because I left the JDM Folding Motor assy as is and only swapped the USDM mirror motor (of course I had to cut the wires and then reconnect them but I didn't have to file down anything.

So what I have now is a JDM Folding Mirror with the angle of the USDM instead of having the USDM filed down or cut assy with the JDM Folding Mirror motor. Get what I mean? :number1

i think i finally get what you're talking about. you're saying the motor for the fold and the motor for adjusting the mirror can be taken apart right?

 

[Freakin'H22A]

i think i finally get what you're talking about. you're saying the motor for the fold and the motor for adjusting the mirror can be taken apart right?

Exactly!!!! :btu

 

[East McDuck]

I'm curious about one thing. Besides the fact that it just looks cool, what's the significance of having mirrors that fold in electronically? I thought the point of the mirrors being able to collapse in like that was to keep them from snapping off if you run into something.

 

[IHIPrelude94]

I'm curious about one thing. Besides the fact that it just looks cool, what's the significance of having mirrors that fold in electronically? I thought the point of the mirrors being able to collapse in like that was to keep them from snapping off if you run into something.

I always thought it was because in Japan, some of their roads are freaking narrow... Fold your mirrors in and it grabs you another couple inches of space? Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[East McDuck]

I always thought it was because in Japan, some of their roads are freaking narrow... Fold your mirrors in and it grabs you another couple inches of space? Maybe I'm wrong.

Hmm, could very well be. That or they have tiny garages, which makes just as much sense.