JDM mirrors onto a UK STI
02 April 2008, 04:19 PM
#1
JDM mirrors onto a UK STI
Right....got my JDM mirrors ages ago and searched high and low for the switch and trim panel, etc.
UK suppliers were quoting "silly" prices for the parts and I was about to give up on the idea when I came across Japanparts.com: TOKYO GM SHOKAI KK.
They did not have the exact items listed, so I sent them an e-mail and within a day I had a reply back telling me that the parts I wanted had been added to the website so that I could place an order if I liked.
While I was on, I remembered reading how some people had done this mod before and how they had had to chop wires and fit different plugs and sockets, etc. This wasn't for me, so I also ordered the wiring loom from the drivers door of a JDM car, my theory being that the wiring to that side mirror would be sorted without any hassle using the new loom.
Anyway......The items arrived about a week later and after paying £30 in customs charges, they were delivered to my door.
Switch was £29.73 ( I was quoted £70 from some UK suppliers)
Trim panel was £14.87
Loom was £53.02 although you will soon realise that this was a waste of money.
So.....today is a nice day and I take it upon myself to have a go at fitting the mirrors. First job was to remove the door trim panel from the drivers side. This is an easy job, only requiring the removal of two screws (one in the arm rest and one behind the door "open" handle. After these screws are out, it's just those pop type clips that hold the trim panel on. Before removing the door panel, you need to remove the switch panel (and unplug the switches), the little triangular panel from behind the mirror position and also the trim from around the lock/door handle.Once these are off, the door panel can be removed within about 30 seconds.
With the door trim panel off and the new JDM loom in my hand, I could immediately see that there were several differences in the wiring of the main plug to the window switches. This worried me somewhat as I didn't fancy plugging it all in, only to have the car go up in flames a soon as I turned the ignition on.
The mirror switch plug was exactly the same on both UK and JDM loom, leading me to suspect that the wiring may already be in place for the folding function (I crossed my fingers)
With this in mind, I started looking at the mirror wiring on its own. I was actually expecting the JDM mirrors to have two more wires than the UK ones, but (after a quick search on Scoobynet) I soon realised that UK mirrors have two wire for the heating and JDM mirrors have two wires for folding. The mirrors have five wires, three are obviously for the movement and two are for the heating on UK and folding on JDM.
UK Mirror plug
JDM mirror plug
Out came the multimeter to check that the heated rear window switch actually put power to the mirror. It did.
I now have two wires I can forget about.
The loom end socket for the mirror has seven wires, so here's hoping that the two extra wires are actualy for the folding function. Out came the multimeter again and lo and behold, the wires are indeed for folding. They have 12 volts on them and when you operate the fold swtch, the polarity is reversed.
I removed the two heating wires from the socket and fitted some shrink sleeve to prevent any shorting. The removal of these wires/pins is a royal pain in the **** as the socket has small plastic latches inside it to hold the pins in place.
I then tried to remove the wire/pins from the JDM mirror plug so that I could fit the UK plug and then plug it straight back into the loom socket. Guess what?.......The feckin pins are impossible to get out.....well.....not impossible, but it tried my patience too much, so I looked at my options. The JDM plug and the UK socket are different sizes, but the pin layout and wiring is the same. Close inspection showed that it was only two small bits of plastic which prevented the plug from entering the socket, so these were duly trimmed with a Stanley knife.
The JDM plug fitted into the UK socket and even latched into place as supposed to.
I plugged the wires into the mirror switch and gave it a go............WAHEY...the mirror works perfectly
So.....rebuild the drivers door and move onto the passenger side. My hope was that the wiring is also the same in the other door and I only need to do the same mod to the JDM plug.
Passenger door trim off in exactly the same way as the drivers side, wiring checked and found to be just the same as the drivers side....great. Mirror swapped over (only 4 screws), JDM plug trimmed to fit the UK socket this is where I realised that the plug will still fit, even without removing the wires/pins for the heating.......needn't have bothered on the other side.
Plugged the mirror in and "went for it"..........IT DIDN'T FOLD!!!!!
Ok........got the multimeter out again and checked the wiring for the heating.....yup, same as drivers side. Looked at the wire colouring and positions.....yup, same as drivers side.
Bugger........somewhere between the drivers side and the passenger side, the wiring obviously changes, or at least has a gap in it. Maybe the door looms have all the necessary wires in them, but the main car loom doesn't?
I cannot be arsed digging around under the dashboard right now, so I have one fully functional folding mirror and one partially functioning one. That will do me for now until I have a day with plenty of spare time.
So....anyone contemplating doing this job......don't buy the wiring loom from the drivers door!! I have one spare if anyone needs one
I got the mirrors off eBay and all in all (not including the unnecessary loom) it's cost me less than a hundred quid. A bit pricey for mirrors perhaps, but I wanted them!
Oh yeah.........the mirror switch is labelled Toyota and when I removed it, I discovered that the window switch unit is Nissan........go figure eh? I guess the Japanese manufacturers use eachothers parts occasionaly.
Spoiler off now (another thread in "General")
UK suppliers were quoting "silly" prices for the parts and I was about to give up on the idea when I came across Japanparts.com: TOKYO GM SHOKAI KK.
They did not have the exact items listed, so I sent them an e-mail and within a day I had a reply back telling me that the parts I wanted had been added to the website so that I could place an order if I liked.
While I was on, I remembered reading how some people had done this mod before and how they had had to chop wires and fit different plugs and sockets, etc. This wasn't for me, so I also ordered the wiring loom from the drivers door of a JDM car, my theory being that the wiring to that side mirror would be sorted without any hassle using the new loom.
Anyway......The items arrived about a week later and after paying £30 in customs charges, they were delivered to my door.
Switch was £29.73 ( I was quoted £70 from some UK suppliers)
Trim panel was £14.87
Loom was £53.02 although you will soon realise that this was a waste of money.
So.....today is a nice day and I take it upon myself to have a go at fitting the mirrors. First job was to remove the door trim panel from the drivers side. This is an easy job, only requiring the removal of two screws (one in the arm rest and one behind the door "open" handle. After these screws are out, it's just those pop type clips that hold the trim panel on. Before removing the door panel, you need to remove the switch panel (and unplug the switches), the little triangular panel from behind the mirror position and also the trim from around the lock/door handle.Once these are off, the door panel can be removed within about 30 seconds.
With the door trim panel off and the new JDM loom in my hand, I could immediately see that there were several differences in the wiring of the main plug to the window switches. This worried me somewhat as I didn't fancy plugging it all in, only to have the car go up in flames a soon as I turned the ignition on.
The mirror switch plug was exactly the same on both UK and JDM loom, leading me to suspect that the wiring may already be in place for the folding function (I crossed my fingers) With this in mind, I started looking at the mirror wiring on its own. I was actually expecting the JDM mirrors to have two more wires than the UK ones, but (after a quick search on Scoobynet) I soon realised that UK mirrors have two wire for the heating and JDM mirrors have two wires for folding. The mirrors have five wires, three are obviously for the movement and two are for the heating on UK and folding on JDM.
UK Mirror plug
JDM mirror plug
Out came the multimeter to check that the heated rear window switch actually put power to the mirror. It did.
I now have two wires I can forget about.The loom end socket for the mirror has seven wires, so here's hoping that the two extra wires are actualy for the folding function. Out came the multimeter again and lo and behold, the wires are indeed for folding. They have 12 volts on them and when you operate the fold swtch, the polarity is reversed.
I removed the two heating wires from the socket and fitted some shrink sleeve to prevent any shorting. The removal of these wires/pins is a royal pain in the **** as the socket has small plastic latches inside it to hold the pins in place.
I then tried to remove the wire/pins from the JDM mirror plug so that I could fit the UK plug and then plug it straight back into the loom socket. Guess what?.......The feckin pins are impossible to get out.....well.....not impossible, but it tried my patience too much, so I looked at my options. The JDM plug and the UK socket are different sizes, but the pin layout and wiring is the same. Close inspection showed that it was only two small bits of plastic which prevented the plug from entering the socket, so these were duly trimmed with a Stanley knife.
The JDM plug fitted into the UK socket and even latched into place as supposed to.
I plugged the wires into the mirror switch and gave it a go............WAHEY...the mirror works perfectly
So.....rebuild the drivers door and move onto the passenger side. My hope was that the wiring is also the same in the other door and I only need to do the same mod to the JDM plug.
Passenger door trim off in exactly the same way as the drivers side, wiring checked and found to be just the same as the drivers side....great. Mirror swapped over (only 4 screws), JDM plug trimmed to fit the UK socket this is where I realised that the plug will still fit, even without removing the wires/pins for the heating.......needn't have bothered on the other side.
Plugged the mirror in and "went for it"..........IT DIDN'T FOLD!!!!!
Ok........got the multimeter out again and checked the wiring for the heating.....yup, same as drivers side. Looked at the wire colouring and positions.....yup, same as drivers side.
Bugger........somewhere between the drivers side and the passenger side, the wiring obviously changes, or at least has a gap in it. Maybe the door looms have all the necessary wires in them, but the main car loom doesn't?
I cannot be arsed digging around under the dashboard right now, so I have one fully functional folding mirror and one partially functioning one. That will do me for now until I have a day with plenty of spare time.
So....anyone contemplating doing this job......don't buy the wiring loom from the drivers door!! I have one spare if anyone needs one
I got the mirrors off eBay and all in all (not including the unnecessary loom) it's cost me less than a hundred quid. A bit pricey for mirrors perhaps, but I wanted them!
Oh yeah.........the mirror switch is labelled Toyota and when I removed it, I discovered that the window switch unit is Nissan........go figure eh? I guess the Japanese manufacturers use eachothers parts occasionaly.
Spoiler off now (another thread in "General")
Last edited by martyrobertsdj; 02 April 2008 at 04:36 PM.
09 April 2008, 01:14 PM
#3
Update - job complete
Ok, decided to tackle the passenger side issue this afternoon.
Removed the sill trim (a couple of clips to undo and then and the thing just pulls off) and checked the connector between the door loom and the main car loom.
As suspected, the door loom has the wires for the fold function (yellow, and black with a white stripe), but the car side of the loom does not.
Door loom plug
Car loom socket (see the two gaps?)
So....The easiest way was for me to pull out the two connectors from the door plug and then run two new wires from this, across to the passenger side. This was duly done. Connectors removed, wires cut, joined and covered with heat-shrink tube.
The two wires were them run across in the dash and down to the passenger side, where the plug/socket were found to be just as per the drivers side........folding wires in the door loom, but not in the car loom.
The two connectors were removed from the door loom plug, cut off and after checking the polarity for the folding function, the two new wires were joined to the door loom and again, heat shrink was used for a proper job
Both sill trims refitted.......Job done!! Mirrors fold lovely thank you very much
45 minutes well spent.
One thing I did find though..........when I removed the drivers sill trim, I found a plug and socket disconnected. Now as far as I know everything on my car is working so not wanting to blow anything up I left them disconnected, but can anyone tell me what this connector is for??
Cheers.
I hope that this little write up may help anyone that goes for putting JDM mirrors onto their UK car. Mine's a 2005 Sti.........how different the wiring is across the models, I don't know, but if I have saved someone a bit of hassle that's great.
Removed the sill trim (a couple of clips to undo and then and the thing just pulls off) and checked the connector between the door loom and the main car loom.
As suspected, the door loom has the wires for the fold function (yellow, and black with a white stripe), but the car side of the loom does not.
Door loom plug
Car loom socket (see the two gaps?)
So....The easiest way was for me to pull out the two connectors from the door plug and then run two new wires from this, across to the passenger side. This was duly done. Connectors removed, wires cut, joined and covered with heat-shrink tube.
The two wires were them run across in the dash and down to the passenger side, where the plug/socket were found to be just as per the drivers side........folding wires in the door loom, but not in the car loom.
The two connectors were removed from the door loom plug, cut off and after checking the polarity for the folding function, the two new wires were joined to the door loom and again, heat shrink was used for a proper job
Both sill trims refitted.......Job done!! Mirrors fold lovely thank you very much
45 minutes well spent.
One thing I did find though..........when I removed the drivers sill trim, I found a plug and socket disconnected. Now as far as I know everything on my car is working so not wanting to blow anything up I left them disconnected, but can anyone tell me what this connector is for??
Cheers.
I hope that this little write up may help anyone that goes for putting JDM mirrors onto their UK car. Mine's a 2005 Sti.........how different the wiring is across the models, I don't know, but if I have saved someone a bit of hassle that's great.
Last edited by martyrobertsdj; 09 April 2008 at 01:17 PM.
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06 September 2016, 10:05 AM
#9
17 April 2020, 08:39 AM
#13
Do your mirrors have heated glass in them? If you take the mirror off using a heat gun you will see an element running behind the mirror itself built into the mirror and 2 tiny wires coming from the glass itself. You simply need to connect these up to the rear window element wiring which can be done via the fuse box or switch at the front of the car. Simples. Most likely the loom will already have the wires in place to do this. Get yourself a decent wiring diagram for the system and you'll find all the pin numbers, wire colours etc to do this. It's very easy if you actually already have the heated elements.
