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View Full Version : BABIKER712’s DIY: Heated LED turn signal mirror



babiker712
04-06-2012, 08:01 PM
I assume no responsibility for any damages that occur when attempting this. You’re on your own, but this will be helpful if you wish to attempt this project.

I did not intend this as a write-up, so bear with me. I’ll include links to the threads I used for resources. While there are a bunch of ways to go about this, I chose to add heated Outback mirrors to my non-heated BE Legacy since one of my GT mirror housings was damaged when purchased. You could similarly do this with your existing mirror and aftermarket heaters. I would not recommend installing these on GT mirrors as the mirror body is quite a bit smaller, but to each their own.

The basis of this install came from d1giPhux’s write up on installing heated mirrors. http://www.sl-i.net/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=16941

I highly recommend you orient yourself with the above thread before reading mine, as the work more or less parallels his and his write up is much better and includes pictures.

Materials:
Used Outback mirrors ($60)
Shark Racing LED signals ($33) http://www.sharkracing.com/acecart/bin/ ... =070000000 (http://www.sharkracing.com/acecart/bin/shop.cgi?action=view&itemID=ledmirrordiy&cate=070000000)
Wiring
Heat gun
Phillips and Flathead screwdrivers
Black RTV silicone
Paint to match body (not pictured)

1. First step is to remove the door panels. Pop off the tweeters, and remove panel by removing 2 screws, switches and door handle trim. Then disconnect mirror electrical connection at the door, and remove existing mirror via three bolts that go through door frame behind tweeter.

2. On your existing mirror or outback mirrors, remove glass via these instructions.
http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/99- ... ement.html (http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/99-do-yourself-illustrated-guides/27717-2000-04-door-mirror-glass-replacement.html) . If you search long enough, you can find the Subaru Service Manual PDF on this. In order to do this to not break the glass, use a heat gun on the rim of the backing plate, when it becomes flexible, slide an eyeglass flat head screwdriver to pry away the glass. This takes quite a bit of time and must be done gingerly, otherwise the glass will break. Budget for buying replacement auto glass, as you may need to (Dad “helped” me with this project and shattered one side, so I needed a replacement).

3. Once glass is off, remove backing plate. Peel back heat grid and place sharkracing LEDs on corner of glass, I aligned the top of the signal with the heated mirror icon so they would be symmetrical. Bring the wiring out the top of the mirror, and route through the backing plate and push through assembly along existing wiring. There are two wires, positive and ground.

4. Remount glass: easier said than done, and far more difficult that removing. This is when the original broke on one side. Work into corners of backing plate while heating with heat gun. GO VERY SLOW. You’ve added more mass behind it, it’s less likely to fit and far more likely to break. If you become impatient, you’ll mess it up. After lots of careful finesse, I was able to work mine back in 95% on one side and 90% on the other. Position the parts that are viewable from the exterior where you get your fitment, any minor gaps you should seal with black RTV silicone. As long as it is 80% in or more, you shouldn’t have any rattle from road vibration, etc.

5. Now for the wiring. There were two components to this project for me that you may ignore this part if you already have heated mirrors. I added heated mirrors to a non-equipped BE legacy since I was already doing most of the work for it. If you want to go OEM, pull a door harness from an Outback or purchase one. The OEM has two additional pins for the wires for positive and ground for the heated mirrors that are not present on my vehicle. If you snip the wires short of the connector, you can add wiring and ground one on the post on the door right by the tweeters. I also used this post to ground the LED signals.

6. Running the positive wires: You’ll need to remove the doors as the easiest way to do this, and I would not attempt this solo. Bring a buddy. Unbolt the doors where they meet the body. There will be wiring still connected, so you need something to rest this on. I found it easiest to have one person support with most of the weight on another object (garden house plastic housing was perfect height for this) with the door open 180* along the fender. There is a rubber hose that the wiring runs through from the door into the body. Disconnect it’s fitment from where it meets the body, and pull through the door side connection to expose a length of the boot that sits protected inside the door. Make a small gash in this portion of the boot MAKING SURE THAT THE PORTION YOU DO THIS TO IS INSIDE THE DOOR BODY, and snake your positive wires through the boot and into the body of the car. Run them under the dash. The positive wires from the heated mirror grids should be spliced into the red wire with blue stripe that runs along the passenger side floorpan. This is the power source for the rear defrost and will enable to you run the power on a timer to prevent from shorting out your grid with an always on source.

7. The turn signal wires you will pull through the firewall and run to the respective side headlamps. Splice into the turn signal power short of the harness with enough room to repair if you muck it up. Turn signals, as it turns out, are important.

8. Test signals before buttoning up. When reinserting the door dust boot, make sure that wires are oriented properly (not pinched) and the boot is reinserted in the same orientation it was prior to removal).

Pics of finished product:

Final thoughts: Auto glass is a two way mirror. During bright daylight, the turn signal functions are not all that noticeable. At night they look great, but be aware of this before you take on the project. Heated mirror function since piggy-backing the defrost is not as functional as OEM but will still work for those of us in winter climates, it’s nice to have.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions and I’ll try to help as I can.

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDrPdi7Cm8s
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/04/aA1vYl-1.jpg
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2012/04/oEtYxl-1.jpg

chrish8r
04-06-2012, 11:15 PM
nice writeup and it looks really good as well

csweston
04-07-2012, 12:39 AM
Nice job great write up! Ive always wanted to do this.

Wiscon_Mark
04-07-2012, 11:26 AM
I moved this thread to the DIY forum.