DIY Power Folding Mirrors: a journey

[stanleywinthrop]

Hello folks: I am starting the journey towards upgrading my mirrors with an aftermarket power folding kit. There are several options through the mikstore and I am going to talk through them and identify which kit I will use and the process I use to install them. I am far from completing my project, and have several open questions I need to answer before I can complete it. The process will probably take weeks, if not months, because, for reasons I will explain, i have chosen a path that requires me to hunt down some not-so-common parts and to partially create my own harness. So please, check back every so often and see if I have made any progress.

But First some background:

I had a 10th gen civic si that was totaled (RIP). ON that car, I had installed an aftermarket power folding kit from HIREV, who, although the kit ultimately proved to be faulty, provided very thorough and complete instructions. That kit included an auto-folding function via a small black box that was wired into the HIREV harness. Unfortunately, for me and many others that little box frequently failed, which had the effect of preventing all power folding. I was able to figure out a way to remove the faulty box from the harness and resume, at least, manual power folding.

So now i've got a tech A-spec as a replacement and i want to have power folding back. Auto function is not a priority to me, but i understand it is important to many who may want to do this upgrade. Anyways, please check back for more updates in the future.

Finally, I'd like to give a shout out to @JDM_DOHC_SiR, who has done this mod from scratch on his FL5. He and I have been PMing on the 11th gen board and even though I will take a different route to get to the same mod, his answers have been extremely helpful thus far.

Update 10/17/23

For anyone following, I know it has been quite some time since I've been able to update this thread. Life, Work, Kids, Family Illness, etc. all get in the way. The good news is that I actually have finally made some progress towards finishing this!

Yesterday, I was able to get the motor mount installed on my driver's side mirror. Yes it was a PIA, just like predicted, but overall not that difficult. I did learn a few lessons along the way that I will pass along. It took about 2.5 hours start to finish, and with the lessons learned I'm expecting the passenger side to take half that time.

The bad news is that I discovered an annoying flaw in the shipped mikstore kit that is going to require some remedial action from me to fix. It's not that big a deal - but it is annoying enough that my OCD isn't going to accept the flaw. It's not a difficult or expensive fix, just more time.

Anyways, check back to post #4 below over the next few days as I add details.

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[stanleywinthrop]

So there a a few options available from mikstore. I will talk about the most relevant 2 that I considered.

The first is the full "C" kit.

https://mikstoreph.com/products/civic-2022-side-mirror-turn-signal-and-folding-kit

Pros:

1. the mirrors come mostly assembled with the fold motors installed, eliminating the need to disassemble the OEM mirrors, which is apparently a difficult task for the 11th gen platform.
(edit: see @23Integra s thread here: https://www.integraforums.com/forum/threads/auto-folding-mirrors.51336/ as it turns out you DO in fact have to disassemble the mirrors in the C kit. In my mind this completely obviates the biggest reason someone would want to buy the C kit)
2. The mirrors come equipped for both heating and turn signals, which is a significant upgrade for lower specd civics. This is not relevant for integras which already have both.
3. For cars already equipped with heating and turn signals (our Integra), there is no need to run a wire underneath the dash between the doors, which is another significant piece of work.

Cons:
1. price: $800 is the normal price. (Mikstore does have sales which might lessen the sting)
2. Waste. Personally, I am bothered about spending so much for equipment I mostly already have (turn signals, heating) and new power window switches, which I suspect aren't needed for our integras. (More on this point later).

The second option I considered is the more bare-bones mikstore folding mirror kit. Which basically comes with the motor bases, a mikstore harness, and a new mirror control switch.

https://mikstoreph.com/products/civic-2022-side-mirror-auto-folding-kit

Pros:

1. much cheaper at about $160
2. while this kit requires mirror disassembly, if one were to use the mikstore harness as designed, wiring is pretty straight forward and almost identical to the way the old hirev kit was wired.
3. I am becoming increasingly convinced what this kit can be wired in the exact same way as the C kit, which would obviate the need to run a wire under the dash, because we already have turn signals and heated mirrors. Spoiler alert, this is what I ultimately hope to accomplish.

Cons:
1. requires mirror disassembly
2. using the mikstore harness requires a wire to be run under the dash between the doors
3. Comes with an aftermarket auto-fold "black box" which I feel will be a point of failure. I will seek to wire this box out of my harness, much as I did when my old hirev box failed.

 

[stanleywinthrop]

This post is to discuss the harness and switch I received from the mikstore with the $160 kit. The first picture is the back of the switch I received with the kit. This switch is identical to the switch used with the old hirev 10th Gen kit. If you will recall, this switch was compatible with the 10TH Gen OEM harness, minus the two wires that needed to be added for mirror control.

The second picture is the back of my OEM Acura mirror switch. You can immediately tell that the pins are completely different. The mikstore harness makes up for this discrepancy by providing a harness adapter between the OEM harness and the 10th gen switch. (Cont)

Now we need to talk about the third picture. This picture is the harness that came with the mikstore autofold kit. It does not include the wires that run under the dash between the 2 doors. I've circled some areas of interest. Area 1 is the adapter that goes between the OEM mirror switch harness and the 10th gen mirror switch supplied with the kit. Area 2 is the plug that goes into the aftermarket "black box" (picture 4.). Finally area 3 goes between the lock actuator and the OEM lock actuator harness. This harness is very similar to the old hirev 10th gen harness, with a couple of important differences I'll talk about later. The red wire you see would run to a tap-a circuit on the fuse panel. As it turns out, because I will not be using the harness as designed (or even at all) the add a circuit will not be needed.

So if I were to stick with this harness how would I proceed to re-rig the harness in order to cut the black box out? Luckily, Honda/Acura is very consistent with wire coloring and I have the 10th gen mirror wiring diagram (but not the 11th gen diagram). I was able to correlate between my OEM wiring harness and the color of wires needed in the 10th gen switch, and was able to confirm that the mikstore harness does provide an accurate adapter. (I am not going into detail here because I doubt most will want to go the route of no auto folding, but if someone happens to want more detail I am happy to give it.). Once I was able to determine the it was a matter of resplicing a couple of wires and then add the mirror control wires. Picture 5 is my shortened harness with all extraneous auto folding stuff gone. It is a direct adapter between the 10th gen switch and the OEM harness. But where to plug the mirror control wires? See picture 6. This is a screen shot from the old hirev instructions and you can see where the blue and green wires need to be inserted into the mikstore adapter/harness.

Now that I had this wired up I decided to plug it into and my car for a proof of concept and boom! It works, proving my theories this far. See the video.

If I wanted to proceed with this method, it would be a matter of opening up the mirrors and installing the mirror bases (not easy) and running the wire between the doors under the dash (a PIA).

But I'm not gonna do that. I am aiming for a wiring method identical to the OEM/C kit method. Stay tuned.

 

[stanleywinthrop]

Mirror Disassembly instructions

Tools: needed:
1. Plastic Trim Pry Tools
2. 10mm Socket with extension
3. Phillips Screwdriver

Key Advice for all plastic trim removal: Go Slow, Be Firm, but don't over do it! If you encounter stiff resistance, stop, examine for a plastic latch and work on disengaging the latch with the plastic trim tool before moving on.

Step 1: Remove white top cap (do this prior to removing mirror from car for a firm base). Feel with your fingers along the gap between the top cap and the turn signal lens. You should feel a slight enough gap to insert a plastic trim tool (see picture 1 below). Gently start prying and working yourself away from the car and around towards the top edge of the white cap (see picture 2). Follow my key advice above and eventually the top cap will pop off.

Step 2: Remove the mirror lens. (do this while the mirror remains on the car for a firm base). Tilt the mirror so it is facing down. Place the plastic trim tool behind the mirror as close to the center as you can get it. Pry the mirror off. There is a large center pivot connection and two smaller connections that control mirror movement. If you do it correct, the center pivot and horizontal movement connector will pop off, but not the bottom connector (yet). At this point you should be able to access and remove both the mirror heater wire and the blind spot wire. Then pull the mirror off the bottom connector.

Step 3: Remove mirror from car. Other tutorials exist that show how to open up the inside of the door, and I won't try to reinvent the wheel here. Tip: use a heat gun to help peel back the adhesive, particularly on a cold day. Disconnect the mirror harness (see picture 3 - I had already disconnected the harness when I took the picture. The top red circle shows where you will find it)
Once you have the liner pealed back, make sure you have the mirror harness fully disconnected and thread it back inside the door so it has a clear path to pull out when you take the mirror off. Use a 10mm socket with extension to remove the 3 nuts attaching the mirror to the door. Tip: at the bottom interior of the door is a devilish crevice that is the perfect size to swallow up one of the nuts from the mirror if you happen to drop one. Stuff a rag, paper towel or something similar to fill the crevice up. Remove the mirror, taking care to feed the harness up from inside to make sure it doesn't get caught.

Step 4: Further disassembly. Now that you have the mirror off, take it inside where you have plenty of light and it is neither hot or cold. The first step will be to pull the rubber gasket up from the base of the mirror (the surface that makes contact with the car). You won't be able to fully pull it off the wires. There is a foam sheath, and then a plastic conduit sheath. Both have to be removed. Snip a little tape and the plastic conduit sheath comes off easily and should be reused. The foam sheath is harder to get off, but if you are careful enough you can probably reuse it (I didn't). Once you get those 2 off you can slide the rubber gasket all the way down to the harness connector. Don't attempt to pull that through. We will come back to that later. Now you are looking at the white trim surrounding the mirror base. You will take of 1/2 of the trim base to access the 3 screws holding the base to the mirror swivel mount. Use the plastic trim tool and follow my advice above. Look inside for the little latches that need to be disengaged. Once you have that 1/2 trim off, remove the 3 screws arraigned in a triangular pattern. Now you can remove the base. Once that is done, there is one more black rubber gasket on the bottom of the main mirror housing that must be removed. it has several nipples that need to be popped out. See picture 4 below. I circled the black nipples and the holes where they originally lay.

Step 5. Final disassembly. At this point you should have the base separated from the mirror housing. The housing consists of 5 primary parts:

1. the turn signal housing
2. The lower front black plastic cap
3. the rear black exterior housing (this is the trim ring that goes around the mirror itself),
4. The mirror swivel mount (this is the part that you are going to actually replace with the motorized version from the mikstore kit) and finally
5. the mirror control module (this is what the mirror lens physically connects to).

First, remove the turn signal housing. It pretty simply pops out. The next step is to remove the lower front black cap. There is a plastic latch that can be reached with a finger. See Picture 5. Start there, then use a plastic trim tool following my advice above to work you way around all the way to fully remove the cap. Next you will remove the rear mirror housing cap. there are three screws holding it on. See Picture 6. (note this picture shows the signal housing still attached to the mirror. Remove it before removing the screws). Now remove the mirror control module from the swivel base. There are 3 smaller screws for this. See picture 7.

Step 6. Now you have successfully isolated the mirror swivel mount that will be replaced. All that remains is to pull the wire harness through the swivel mount hole. To do this you must de-pin the harness connector. I use a commercially available tool found on Amazon. It takes a little practice to get the hang of it, but once you do this step is actually pretty easy. See Picture 8. TAKE A PICTURE OF BOTH SIDES OF THE CONNECTOR FIRST SO YOU REMEMBER WHERE THE WIRES GO. Once you do that the wires can be fully pulled through the rubber gasket and the swivel mount hole. See Picture 9.

Step 7. Now replace the OEM swivel mount with the one from the mikstore kit and reassemble everything in the exact opposite order from above. Feed the extra motor wires back through with the OEM harness. Reinstall the mirror on the car. Also, don't forget to route the harness back in front of the window channel inside the door. All that's left is the wiring! (See post # 5 below)

EXCEPT: I ran into a problem here. When I reassembled the mirror and installed it back on the car I noticed a small wobble. No big deal, I thought, I simply didn't torque down the screws connecting the mirror base to the swivel mount. I just took it off and attempted to torque them down futher. Mistake. I found that the screws were turning freely and not torqing down. Why? Take a look at picture 10 below. This is the OEM swivel mount. Notice the nice metal threads inside? Now look at picture 11. This is the mikstore swivel mount. Notice anything different? Like the lack of metal threads? Yep, no threads. You are sinking a screw into bare plastic, which is softer than the metal screw and means I just over hulked it. Now the wobble isn't THAT bad, but its bad enough that my OCD will bother me.

My proposed fix? Sink a heli-coil into the swivel mount plastic, to provide a stronger base to torque down the screws to eliminate the slight wobble. Check back here for updates to see how my plan goes.

 

[stanleywinthrop]

Wiring instructions (note: still incomplete)

The good news is that I've successfully sourced the newer mirror control switch that is compatible with the OEM/C style wiring. See the first pic below for the back of this switch. The part number is 35190-T20-J22 shoutout to @JDM_DOHC_SiR for help on this. The bad news the only place I could find is Yamato JDM in Japan, which meant that shipping is quite high. Hopefully US based suppliers will start to offer this part in the future.

This post will be to explain the OEM/C kit wiring method I plan to use when I finalize this project. In a nutshell, this method requires taking the two wires from each mirror motor and routing them to their respective window power switch, instead of into the mirror control switch in the method I described above.

The next pictures I've attached are from the mikstore C instructions. In the first one shows where the two mirror motor wires are inserted into the OEM power window harness. This will be repeated for each door. The second shows a wire from the driver's side OEM Window harness to the mirror control switch, and that is the extent of wiring needed with this method. The upshot is that if this method works, I won't need to fish a wire across underneath the dash between the doors. The mikstore C kit comes with new window control switches and the open question is whether my OEM window switches will work with this method. I suspect they will partly because of @JDM_DOHC_SiR's experience and because I took a look at my OEM switch and it has pins in all the right places (last picture.) Anyways, I will update as my project progresses.

 

[Integra23]

I bought the kit C from mikstore. Let me know how yours goes.

 

[JDM_DOHC_SiR]

Can't wait to see how this comes out

 

[akoza]

I successfully installed the $160 dollar kit this week. It was a royal PITA so I definitely recommend saving yourself the hassle and going with the C kit.


A few takeaways from my install:

- Routing the harness across the car was actually quite easy - I routed it along the rubber boot where the main door harness routes to the body of the car. I didn't need to take apart my dashboard other than the weather stripping, the triangular side trim pieces the doors touch when closed, and the panel with the VSA button that covers the fuse box. There's a small opening in the middle at the very back of the footwells that you can slide a fishing tape through and pull the harness through. A few zip ties under the steering wheel and behind the passenger side of the dash and you're good to go (be mindful of not obstructing any airbags here).

- Taking apart the mirror assembly was a huge pain the first time around, not so much the second time once you know what you're doing. Everything is mostly held together with clips, but there are a few screws as well. The only thing I couldn't figure out how to get off was the bottom black half of the mirror housing. This made it harder to undo the 3 screws holding the folding motor in, but I improvised by taking a Phillips head drill bit and turning it with a pair of locking pliers to get leverage.

- In order to finish swapping out the motors, I needed to pull the wiring harness through the opening in the motors. I had to de-pin the connector which took me a good amount of time to figure out how to do (I'd never de-pinned anything before and I didn't have a proper de-pinning tool). Make sure you take clear pictures of the connector before de-pinning it! I had to pull the rubber sleeve off the wires and re-fish them in after I swapped the motors. This can be a pain to do. The first thing I tried was to wrap the 8 wires/pins together in a thin layer of duct tape and fish them through using some picture hanging wire. This worked for the first mirror but ended up being too tight for the second one. I ended up cutting open the rubber sleeve lengthwise and then refinishing it with electrical tape.

- When putting everything back together, make sure your screws are tight enough or there will be play in the mirrors. I made this mistake the first time and had to take everything off and retighten them.

 

[Integra23]

We're you able to test and wire it like the C Kit which dose t need that wire connecting both side?

 

[akoza]

We're you able to test and wire it like the C Kit which dose t need that wire connecting both side?

The instructions were pretty vague and I don't know enough about the wiring setup to really dive in and test every pin like a true expert would. I'm not sure how I'd even test that with a feature that doesn't exist on this car from factory.

One snag I ran into though was the instructions mentioned to connect the fused red wire from the kit to the "thick yellow wire" in the connector going to the driver's side window controls. Well there was a thick white wire and a thin yellow wire, but no thick yellow wire. I tested both pins with a multimeter while the car was off, and confirmed the thick white wire had a constant +12v. I'm guessing the wire is probably yellow on the Civic.

 

[stanleywinthrop]

For anyone following this thread check post # 4 above to see instructions on how to disassemble the mirror. Once i get my wobble problem fixed, all that will be left is the wring.

 

[akoza]

Step 3: Remove mirror from car. Other tutorials exist that show how to open up the inside of the door, and I won't try to reinvent the wheel here. Tip: use a heat gun to help peel back the adhesive, particularly on a cold day. Disconnect the mirror harness (see picture 3 - I had already disconnected the harness when I took the picture. The top red circle shows where you will find it)
Once you have the liner pealed back, make sure you have the mirror harness fully disconnected and thread it back inside the door so it has a clear path to pull out when you take the mirror off. Use a 10mm socket with extension to remove the 3 nuts attaching the mirror to the door. Tip: at the bottom interior of the door is a devilish crevice that is the perfect size to swallow up one of the nuts from the mirror if you happen to drop one. Stuff a rag, paper towel or something similar to fill the crevice up. Remove the mirror, taking care to feed the harness up from inside to make sure it doesn't get caught.

Great writeup! I did this a few weeks ago and was able to remove the mirrors without having to peel back any of the adhesive. I removed the grommet at the top of that liner to use as a looking hole, and stuck my extension (with wobble bit) into the opening in the liner where the mirror wires come out. To help prevent the nuts from falling down, I lined the inside of my socket with masking tape to decrease the tolerance enough for it to hold the nut firmly. I also took off the bottom door speaker and stuck a magnetic flashlight facing upwards so I could see what I was doing. The speaker opening also helps with finding and retrieving any nuts you will inevitably drop into the door abyss. Good call on stuffing a rag down in that crevice though - I did lose the nuts down there a few times and it was a pain to find and get them out.

For anyone following this thread check post # 4 above to see instructions on how to disassemble the mirror. Once i get my wobble problem fixed, all that will be left is the wring.

I have the same wobble on my driver's side and it's driving me crazy! Passenger side is nice and solid. Glad to know it's a matter of torquing but not over-torquing. I will take my mirror off again at some point and try to fix this. Thanks for the heli-coil suggestion.

How did you route the cable that's supposed to run across the car to the other mirror? I have mine going between the bottom of the rubber boot and the opening in the door, and underneath the weather stripping on the body of the car. Finally I routed it under the dashboard and fished it through an opening behind the center console (along the cabin side of the firewall). I'm not too happy with where I routed it between the door and the body of the car, but I'm hoping to maybe try a better solution if you have one. I read somewhere that you can go entirely through the rubber boot but it requires removing the door and drilling through the top of the plastic connector where that harness plugs into.

 

[stanleywinthrop]

Great writeup! I did this a few weeks ago and was able to remove the mirrors without having to peel back any of the adhesive. I removed the grommet at the top of that liner to use as a looking hole, and stuck my extension (with wobble bit) into the opening in the liner where the mirror wires come out. To help prevent the nuts from falling down, I lined the inside of my socket with masking tape to decrease the tolerance enough for it to hold the nut firmly. I also took off the bottom door speaker and stuck a magnetic flashlight facing upwards so I could see what I was doing. The speaker opening also helps with finding and retrieving any nuts you will inevitably drop into the door abyss. Good call on stuffing a rag down in that crevice though - I did lose the nuts down there a few times and it was a pain to find and get them out.



I have the same wobble on my driver's side and it's driving me crazy! Passenger side is nice and solid. Glad to know it's a matter of torquing but not over-torquing. I will take my mirror off again at some point and try to fix this. Thanks for the heli-coil suggestion.

How did you route the cable that's supposed to run across the car to the other mirror? I have mine going between the bottom of the rubber boot and the opening in the door, and underneath the weather stripping on the body of the car. Finally I routed it under the dashboard and fished it through an opening behind the center console (along the cabin side of the firewall). I'm not too happy with where I routed it between the door and the body of the car, but I'm hoping to maybe try a better solution if you have one. I read somewhere that you can go entirely through the rubber boot but it requires removing the door and drilling through the top of the plastic connector where that harness plugs into.

Thanks for your response! To answer your question, I don't intend to run a wire between the doors at all. Take a look at post #5 above. My intent is to wire it like the mikstore C kit, which is to say like the OEM method in countries where power folding mirrors are offered in the civic and the mirrors are powered through the vehicle canbus, which negates the need to route a wire between the doors.

I haven't done it yet - my next step is to tackle the "wobble" and then finish with the wiring - so post #5 isn't meant to be a full set of instructions just yet, just to show what I intend to do. Check back in the future if you are interested in seeing what I end up doing.

That being said, take a look at the mikstore instructions and dig around on YouTube. I think it is possible to knock out that plastic plug without taking off the door.

 

[stanleywinthrop]

Great writeup! I did this a few weeks ago and was able to remove the mirrors without having to peel back any of the adhesive. I removed the grommet at the top of that liner to use as a looking hole, and stuck my extension (with wobble bit) into the opening in the liner where the mirror wires come out. To help prevent the nuts from falling down, I lined the inside of my socket with masking tape to decrease the tolerance enough for it to hold the nut firmly. I also took off the bottom door speaker and stuck a magnetic flashlight facing upwards so I could see what I was doing. The speaker opening also helps with finding and retrieving any nuts you will inevitably drop into the door abyss. Good call on stuffing a rag down in that crevice though - I did lose the nuts down there a few times and it was a pain to find and get them out.



I have the same wobble on my driver's side and it's driving me crazy! Passenger side is nice and solid. Glad to know it's a matter of torquing but not over-torquing. I will take my mirror off again at some point and try to fix this. Thanks for the heli-coil suggestion.

How did you route the cable that's supposed to run across the car to the other mirror? I have mine going between the bottom of the rubber boot and the opening in the door, and underneath the weather stripping on the body of the car. Finally I routed it under the dashboard and fished it through an opening behind the center console (along the cabin side of the firewall). I'm not too happy with where I routed it between the door and the body of the car, but I'm hoping to maybe try a better solution if you have one. I read somewhere that you can go entirely through the rubber boot but it requires removing the door and drilling through the top of the plastic connector where that harness plugs into.

@akoza

Were you able to get your motor installed on your passenger side? Finally got around to the passenger side and encountered a major problem. The mirror housing doesn't fit in my passenger side mikstore mirror! The drivers side was fine. This is bizarre.

 

[akoza]

@akoza

Were you able to get your motor installed on your passenger side? Finally got around to the passenger side and encountered a major problem. The mirror housing doesn't fit in my passenger side mikstore mirror! The drivers side was fine. This is bizarre.

Interesting, yeah I had no problem doing mine. What was the problem specifically?

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