JDM folding mirror swap

Overview:

Power folding mirrors are one of those little goodies that Japanese customers enjoyed. Installing them on USDM cars is straightforward and can add a little extra “wow factor” for those interested in it.

Difficulty: ***

Time: 1-2 hours

Cost: $150-$200 (eBay)

Tools:

– Screwdriver
– wire cutter/stripper

Materials:

– JDM Mirrors and switch
– wire connectors
– wire

Procedure:

The JDM mirrors have 5 wires as the USDM mirrors have only 3.

First off, before doing any wiring, you have to swap out the triangular bases. Also, unless you want to use the JDM mirror glass, which is not as magnified as our USDM driver’s side one, you’ll have to swap them out as well. They just pop out. So first take off the mirror glass. The disassemble the mirror from the triangular base by removing the 3 screws on the bottom. Do the same on the JDM mirror. Now put the JDM mirror onto the USDM triangular base. If you don’t do this, the angle of the mirrors are different enough to where you can’t adjust the driver’s side mirror very far out. After you do this for both mirrors, the wiring isn’t that bad if you have the JDM switch. Basically, you’ll have to run a pair of wires to each mirror. Each pair of wires will run to the switch. Hopefully your switch came with a partial harness. The JDM harness has 2 extra wires. One is for fold, and the other for unfold. This is what you run the extra pair of wires to each mirror for. One of the extra wires from EACH mirror will attach to ONE extra wire on the switch. This goes the same for the other two extra wires coming from the mirrors. Basically, the two extra wires on the switch controls the fold/unfold option on BOTH mirrors. The coloring on the wiring within the doors from the old USDM harness (3 wires) should match up to 3 wires on the JDM harness. Of course the 2 extra wires on the JDM harness is for the fold/unfold.

Here’s the difference between the US and the JDM wiring harness colors:

US – blue. purple. yellow
JDM – blue. purple. yellow. pink. orange

The wiring is pretty much straight forward and it is the same with S13. It is the swap of triangle part that creates the most trouble since USDM version has a little pin in the front and the JDM had that pin in the back. In order to switch them over you need to sand it down.