DIY M3 Mirrors LED Change

DIY M3 Mirrors LED Change

Took a bit of pictures while doing this with my dad.

Someone save the pictures, and add it to the DIY List if you want, because I am not going to keep these pictures up for long.

DIY



First, shift the mirrors, so you can easily access the 4 clips. There are 4 in total...



Using a screw driver, I pryed .. with medium strength one of the edges out, and pulled the mirror out. There are 4 in total, I did the top 2 first, than did one of the bottom and than the last one can easily slide out.



Heres what it looks like after its been removed!



Remove these 3 screws, to get this plate out.



The removed product



Now you got 3 more! Remove the screws and take out the metal piece.



Now, remove the top screw, and just flip the bar to the side, so its not holding the lights anymore.



The light than, can easily just slide out, like in this picture. There is a metal/metalic piece on it, just remove the two screws and you can make it look like what I have in the picture.



Heres a close up of the circuit board. Behind it, the white wire is the (+) and the black is the (-).. and I think blue is the ground.



Using a soldering gun, heat it up and remove the original leds and replace with your own! Btw... its hard to find these LEDs... and also, when you solder tham back, the + and - can not touch or else u'll short circuit ur mirrors!... look at the back of the circuit board, you can see the terminals of the LED do not touch when soldered, you do the same too




reverse the process to put the mirrors back on, the mirrors need a little strength to snap on, and make sure you get all 4 holders snapped back on! And heres the finish product, without the blinkers are! but are totally legal now! And with ladies on my car woo haha

why were they illegal? what color were they?

Blue

Now, disabled.

Soon will be whitish amber, or just amber.

Wait, stupid question. The mod is to change the BLUE LED to Amber or anything other color right? so why not buying the mirrors with Amber LED at the first place?

Something like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33649&item=2427298038

Those aren't powered. All the powered ones I see have blue LEDs in them.

Not really, here is one:
http://www.eracingzone.com/20toycorpowm.html

But at $99, maybe it's cheaprer to do the DIY.

BTW anyone have experience on those M3 mirrors? I heard ppl saying they have smaller surface therefore more blind spot than OEM mirrors. :?

I like that Website.

Yeah, I've heard the glass is both smaller and not as high quality. Not sure it's worth changing the stocks, especially since you still have to pay to have them painted.

Has anyone had their mirrors painted? I want to get my stock mirrors painted so if you have any pics or advice, holler at me.

I broke mine, got a black one, had it painted... Looks oem, cant tell it was painted... I guess it has to do with the shop that does the work...

Correct me if I'm wrong but, these mirrors are not powered. They can't be adjusted from in car. My car has power mirrors, so I definitely know the benefit of them. So for people in a situation like me, where they would like to swap to M3 style mirros but just don't want to lose usability its a situation no product has yet addressed. Also, I think the M3 style is a bit ugly in where they located the lens. Keep any eye out next time you see a Mercedes Benz E500 or any of their newer cars. They have the lens mount on the bottom of the light in a nicely curved lens. It looks totally slick when its on.

I'm gona work on modifying some stock mirrors to make them look like that. I'll let you guys know how it goes or doesn't.

Yea you are right, they do have no power to these mirrors. But for me, who needs power when I am the only one driving.

You can get powered M3 mirrors for about $100 more I believe. And they will work with stock mirrors.

I think the M3 style looks much bettre when there isnt any LED on it, I regret. but hey... it looks 10x better than stock so Im not complaining

Do you know where I could find the powered version of the M3 style mirror? Also, on the BMW's the mirrors actually fold up nicely when you hit a button. Now that would be slick to have on our Corollas. I'd pay ~350 for that. Let me know if they already have that, else I'd get started working on one.

Which wires did you tap into to get the blinkers to work and about how long did it take you to install the mirrors?