Anyone found a good resource for the 4th gen folding mirror install? What I have found to date is this
Quote:
Finally I have found solution to install this nice toy. Also, a lot of thanks to elnoyl for his help.
I decided to write this guide as nowhere in the net I haven't found a guide for prelude...
So, let's go to the game:
Nomenclature I used:
LHD - left hand driven car
RHD - right hand driven car
oem - our components
JDM - japan components
1. Mechanical
The very important thing is to say that JDM mirrors are from RHD cars. The mirrors are in fact the same, but the supporting elements not. They look almost as LHD ones, but the angles of neutral mirror position are different. Also, I have never thought before that even in ours LHD cars the left and right mirror supports are different. It can be good seen if you see your car from a higth building. The rigth mirror has bigger angle that the left mirror. It is because driver is sitting on left side of car. In Japan it is reverse.
If you will put directly RHD mirrors into a LHD car (in neutral position, into middle of regulation range) you will see only a side of your car into right mirror and some landscape into left one... If you will try to adjust the mirrors you will get a little better view, but you will achieve the extreme points of regulation range. It is neither nice, neither safe. Some people try to improve the viewing range by glueing a small round wide angle mirror on the corner of mirror glass. It is not nice too...
My idea was finally to leave all exterior parts from my oem mirrors as they are - in such case you will not need to repaint the jdm mirrors - almost always you will get them into different color - and to swap only the "skeletons" - the only thing that mechanically differs oem and JDM ones...
To do this first you have to demount oem mirrors from the car. Then you disasemble completely all mirrors you have: 2 JDM and 2 oem:
- disassemble conectors - a needle or an office binder is a very useful tool (note the position and colors of wires in the connector), take off black gummy weatherstrip, take off a small screw holding the wire harness into the support,
- take out 4 screws fixing mirrors to their supports: 3 are located under the mirror, the 4th one is located from support side,
- disassemble mirror from support, carefully pulling the wire harness,
- take off a mirror glass and a small black unpainted side cover. The side cover is held by two small hatches. the hatches are visible if a glass is taken off. Use a long small long screwdriver to push them when pulling the cover,
- when the black cover is extracted you will see 2 small screws - take them off
- take off 3 bigger screws holding the mechanism into mirror plastic cover (visible when mirror glass is taken off).
The mechanism is extracted. Just swap the jdm mechanisms into your oem mirrors.
Fix frankenstein mirrors on oem supports. In my case assembled oem mirrors with JDM mechanisms have not wanted to get directly the original oem supports. There are 2 blocking things:
1. Our friends from japan have made a small dirrerence in shape (almost invisible by eye, but well blocking), especially in proximity of 4th screw (the one from the support side). Take off some metal from the part that enters to the support - I used a grinder to take off maybe 0.5 - 1.0 mm of metal. But you will see yourself if it enters or if it is necessary to fileing some material more).
2. There is also a small positioning point on the oem support (does not exist on jdm support), the JDM mechanism has the same one in the same place (but oem mechanism has not) - you cannot have both - just cut one of them - I have cut a one from oem support (compare two supports and mechanisms to see where the points are).
Fix the wire holder and weatherstrip. Install jdm connectors. Mount assembled mirrors on the car.
Now you have jdm mirrors LHD version.
2. Electrical
First, I want to say, that I haven't found any possibility that JDM mirrors could operate automaticaly when you use your e-brake, switch off ignition, open door, etc. as it may be suggested in many places in the net. Looking the components and redesigning the wiring diagram (I didn't get any documentation with the mirrors) I am almost 100% sure that in JDM solution they operate ONLY if user press the fold button.
You should get with mirrors two toys: a JDM switch with fold button and a relay.
- button: the only difference is an additional blue/yellow wire. Extract this wire from jdm connector and put it into your oem one. By pressing the buttom +12V is given to the blue/yellow wire. In other words the relay is activated by a positive pulse (this blue/yellow wire goes directly to relay).
- relay: a big challenge, especially as it doesn't exists outside of jdm and is hard (=expensive) to get... my greatest fear was not to blow out the relay by an incorrect wiring...
The relay for prelude is different of civic or integra relay. It has 7 wires instead of 5. The colors and connections are (thanks again to elnoyl):
blue/white - right mirror fold motor,
red - right mirror fold motor,
blue/yellow - from the switch,
black - ground,
white/yellow - power (+12V constant)
blue - left mirror fold motor,
blue/red - left mirror fold motor.
The white/yellow wire should be constant +12V powered to assure the correct fold operation when ignition is cut (ex. you push the fold button and immediately take off the key from ignition). If it would be not constant but accessory/ignition on powered you would risk to take off the key faster that the mirrors would fold completely.
The relay is current-sensitive, there are no end switches in mirrors. The power to the mirror is cut off when the relay detects a highter current.
In the same way, if you want to have mirrors operated by your car alarm, you should provide a +12V pulse when arming/disarming the alarm to the blue/yellow wire - many alarms has this option.
What more do I want?..... I guess the answer is as much as I can get but if its the best that there is out there then it'll have to do. I enjoy guides that have images relating to the instructions. Maybe this will be the first guide I add.
Shouldn't this guide be put into the FAQ? Its definitely better than what is currently there.
The AutoGuide.com network consists of the largest network of enthusiast-owned enthusiast-operated automotive communities.
AutoGuide.com provides the latest car reviews, auto show coverage, new car prices, and automotive news. The AutoGuide network operates more than 100 automotive forums where our users consult peers for shopping information and advice, and share opinions as a community.
Linear Mode
