ok first off some do's and don'ts... first DO not take off your doors for any reason alone. i scuffed up the quarter panel but luckily its on the lower half and i can polis it out... what i wont get back is the clear coat on the bottom corner closest to the frame... all in all. DONT do it



this is a diy to put lights in your POWER mirrors to light up the ground under at night but it will work in the day also... i have power mirrors so i can only inform on what the power mirror assembaly is. i have a stong feeling that manual miror will be the very same just different thing like no wires but instead cables ect.

if i remember correctly, the interior light stays on for a bit after you close the door so that is what you will want to patch into to give the mirror lights power. i havent checked which wire it YET cue i havent found a decent enough pair of lights to use but when i do get around to acctually doing this to my new mirrors i will post that then.

this is more or less for those people who were thinking about it but didnt want to screw anything up. well, some punks did it for you and
me so here goes.

you will need:

phillips screw driver
slotted screw driver
a pointy object to lift some pesky peices
a dirll and drill bit a little smaller than the light you want to put in
wiring tools: solder,wire snips, ect
patience and prob solving skills

first, i will describe how to take off the door trim cuse i forgot to take pics of that but its very easy.

first take your pointed object and remove the plastice coverings in the handle andthe two little ones on the latch side of door (the part that contacts the hook to close the door) then with your phillips screw driver remove 5 screws. one in the handle. the door on the latch side oneint the door opener handle and one in the bottom corner closest to the swing arms.

then with your slotted screwdriver, gently pry the door trim away from the door being careful not to scuff paint, you could wrap the head with tape to ensure this but its a waste of time ive done it a few times already and never had an issue. than with your spare hand grab the pannel and gently pull it away from the door. you may need to use a bit of force the first time but NO clips should break if they d they are pretty cheap. the clips are located around to out sides and bottom, there are no clips at the window ledge. you will notice that it gets stuck arounf the mirror cuse there is another trim peice there. again with your slotted screw driver pry it off gently. if the yellow clips get stuck to the door just pull them off and put back onto the trim peice.
then pull the whole door trim up and away being carful not to rip it away cuse its still attached but electrical connections that are a pita to fix and expensive to replace. on the drivers sde there are 3* connections on the passenger side 2*. (*= if you have the 6 speaker system. if you dont i would assume only 2 and one respectably)

then with a 10 mm socket (i think i didnt acctually take them off but you could take most of the car apart with a 10 mm and a few extentions) remove the three bolts that hold the mirror on. andit should come right off. again i havent done this yet im only assuming there will be no other connections. remove the plug for power mirrors and that should be everything (i hope)

now the pictures. yes they are all in black and white i didnt know until after and it sucked taking them all together so SUFFER!

disclamer!! the pics are in odrder so if you end up with the last picture first it aint my fault

you should now have what is in picture 1

remove the black screws (3) in pic 2 take off the plasctic peice and trying not to rip off the wiring harnes. just wiggle it out

now you should have this picture 3

there are some screws in there... take em out and remember where they go... i dont if you do this let me know :(

now picture 4with your pointy object,take off the little bolt covering thing on the bottom of the mirror

with your 10 mm (see i told yeah) take of the three little nuts inside pic 5

pull the peices apart pic 6

with your slotted screw driver. but EXTREMELY CAREFUL and take the mirror off.
you do this by pushing the glass towards what would be the car and prying underneith it. there are only a couple or clips and i didnt break any so you shouldnt... pic 7

this is what it should look like pic 8

take out them screws and again, remember where they go, if you figure it out lemme know
pic 9


now take off the motor asembaly and take it apart. two plastic clips

and now you have a bunch o peices strewn everywhere and no idea what youve done... congratulations!!!

now this is where your problem solving skills come into play. where do you want to put the light??? how many??? what color(S) blah blah blah... thats our problem not mine lol. and if this is something you are going to do, since your at this point, put some led's on the outer shell our something and make a turn light on the mirror too.

for installing lights, you just take your light and find where you want it, drill the hole or dremel the shape ALWAYS SMALLER THAN THE LIGHT. its better to go back and drill it ou slightly again than to have it fall out. then what genius? than take some black silicone or your favorite adhesive (not duct tape) and seal around the whole. you do this just to keep the light in place not water proof it thats coming.
then run your wiring (usually the last thing you do and run it acording to fit and reassembaly (sp)) i think you have to drill a small hole for the wire of do what some mazda three guy did and find some pins and use the extra pin holes in the wiring harnes but a drill is just a good and easier

as for water proof, well i dont know. it depends on what light you want to put in. i dont recommend a filament type bulb cuse you have to repeat the process to change it. if its led's like just the single bulb type you can silicone around all the conections and make sure it dries and you dunk it in a cup of water before installing it to make sure it works. if you want to put in sorta like a factoryloking light like in the hatch, just make sure you seal it up good with silicone or in a ziplock bag.

i dunno i dont have all the answers and this is getting to be pretty darm long...

so if you find any holes in my thinking or ned more info, just reply dont pm cuse chances are good i might not know and other people what to know the answers too.

sooory about the length but a good write up is a detailed one... scratch the detail part


ps if you really need me to say it, installation is the reversal of steps. but if you want to skip a few screws here and there be my guest

pss POOP sorry about the no zoom i didnt realize it until after. and i dontknow how to fix it

This post has been edited by nobodieshero07: Jul 4 2008, 04:42 PM