As installs go, this was not one of the easier ones I have done, but it wasnt all that bad. This is a brand new truck, less than 2000 miles on the clock, so tearing apart the dash is something I do with a bit of trepidation. The first step is to remove the old mirror, comes out with a hex key. Once that is out, then you need to remove the map light fixture. The fixture comes out with two phillips screws and pulls out and down. There is one power connector for ground and 12v and a line from the door switch. I disconnected the fixture at the connector. While I had the fixture down, I did the mod to remove the aluminum plates that limit the light to the two smal ovals. Much brighter now.
Once the light was removed, I removed the driver side grab handle, the a-pillar cover (snaps in and out so you just pull on it) and the plastic edge over the drivers door. You will also need to remove the drivers side sun visor so you can run the wires under the headliner. Remove the driver side sill cover and kick panel. The only other trim I had to remove was the cover for the electrical 12v outlets to tap into a 12v ignition on source.
The New mirror front view
New Mirror rear view with connector.
Once you have gotten to this point you are ready to start running wires. This mirror comes with a temp sensor and a uv sensor. Both have two wires that need to run from the cab through the firewall to the engine compartment. I decided to go through one fo the rubber grommets as the least intrusive way of getting the wires through. I ran the wires from the engine compartment back into the cab using a real thin screwdriver and caught the edge of the connector pin on the blade of the screwdriver and pushed it through the rubber. This worked well with all but one connector pin which got a bit mangled up. I ran both sets of wires up to the front of the grill going behind the battery. I clipped the temp sensor in the grill, I had to leave the uv sensor wires tied up as it started to rain at that point. Will wire the uv sensor in this weekend.
Here is where the wires go through the firewall.
The wires come down here behind the kick panel.
This is where you route the wires so the fit behind the a pillar molding. When you get to the top of the molding, push them under the headliner and route them so they come out the opening for the map light fixture. Previously I had routed the short connector that goes from the mirror into the map light opening and connected that to the mirror. The other end of that connector also mates up with another connector that you plug the individual wires with pins (remember I mangled one of em) so I had to finagle that so all my sensor wires made contact. If it doesnt make sense, it will once you read the directions and see the wires in the kit.
After running all the sensor wires, all that was left was to find 12v battery and 12v ignition on sources. This proved to be the biggest PIA part of the whole install. There is no convenient way of tapping into a fuse block or some other panel to tap off the two sources. I knew there was 12v battery to the map light fixture so I was good there, but 12v ignition was tough. I ended up tapping into the source for the power outlets and running an wire over to the mirror kit harness and splicing it in. I tapped into the battery wire for the map lights and once that was done, it was wired.
This was the biggest pain, I snapped one of the plastic buttons that hold the trim piece on, but it fit back together ok.
Here it is, installed and running. It did not take all that long to replace the kick panel, sill cover, door trim and a-panel cover and grab handle. Ditto the sun-visor and map light fixture.
When I first drove witht he mirror, it seemed like it looked better than it performed. I hadn't run the calibration in which you have to drive in a 360 circle while its in the calibration mode. Once I did that, the compass became much more accurate. I have a magellan map330 gps mounted as well and I set it to a magnetic readout and the compass was within about 2-10 degrees all told. (after I played around with the zones for the magnetic deviation) This particular compass will allow you to select degrees f or c or the compass heading. Thats a nice feature.
All told I am pretty pleased with the install. The mirror is available on the bay for around 100 bucks plus 10 to ship. The autodimming feature seems to work well. Temp readout seems pretty accurate too. Will have the UV feature (why I need it I dont know
)when I install this little bugger later on:
Upgrading to an auto dimming mirro with compass and temp
Re: Upgrading to an auto dimming mirro with compass and temp
Re: Upgrading to an auto dimming mirro with compass and temp
Installing the mirror
Re: Upgrading to an auto dimming mirro with compass and temp
