My Genuine Toyota Signal Mirrors Are Installed!

[naterprius]

So, thanks to a friend, I have successfully imported and installed Genuine Toyota Signal Mirrors from Japan on my 2004 Seaside Pearl.

Pictures are in my gallery. The color is a perfect match, they mount up perfectly, look perfect, etc. There are only two considerations when mounting these on a USA car:

1. There are no wires in the doors for the lighting. You will have to run wiring down through the door, through the flexible tube, and up into the dashboard. (Wires not included).

2. The guts of the housings themselves are slightly skewed towards a right hand driver. Both my wife and are able to adjust the mirrors properly, but the left mirror's outer edge of the glass sticks out a little for me and the right mirror's outer edge is in so far I can see a bit of the housing in the reflection. (Keep in mind I have the seat ALL the way back, so it might not be visible if you are shorter).

Both of these are easily tolerated. I dare say that if I hadn't mentioned anything, no one would notice the second issue. (I wouldn't consider it a safety hazard).

I think it may be possible to compensate for the right side using longer screws and spacers inside the housing to bring the mirror more flush with the housing. (The right glass would now stick out a little on the inner edge). I'll work on this later and possibly post more pictures.

This is quite possibly my most favorite mod, mostly because I think I'm the only one. (We haven't heard from Quickster yet!).

I hope that your jealousy won't consume you. :mrgreen:

The auto-tilt kit needs some translation before I figure it out.

Nate

[naterprius]

I am unable to upload photos right now; my guess is due to the nationwide Comcast outage going on since Sunday.

Stay tuned to this thread...

Nate

[Canuck]

Great, Nate, awaiting the pictures. Having those kinda' reminds me of an Austin A-55 ( yup 55 HP) that I drove from the East Coast of Canada to the West Coast in 5 days and return in 1956. It had these flippers that threw themselves out from the post between the front and back windows depending upon the turn. Everyone thought they were the best things since sliced bread.
Gary

[naterprius]

I still can't upload photos. This is driving me nuts... anyone else having problems?

I tried from work, still nothing.

Nate

[Danny]

I'm able to upload pics to my personal album, so I'm not quite sure what the problem might be for you, Nate.

That's awesome about the side mirrors, I can't wait to see some pics, and hopefully you can put together a nice write-up for those of us who want to perform the same mod in the future.

[naterprius]

After I click "submit", the URL doesn't change:

http://www.priuschat.com/forums/album_uplo...ad.php?cat_id=0

Then I get the classic:

The page cannot be displayed

The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

Etc, etc. I've tried changing connections, cable modem at home with wireless and T1 at work with ethernet exhibits the same problem. I've rebooted the computer, no help.

I don't know how to fix this.

When I try to post an attachment here, it times out and the message disappears.

Danny, are their logs that can be checked to see what's happening on your end?

I'm a computer network engineer for a living, so I ought to be able to figure this out...

I'm not sure what to look for if I sniff the wire... what is happening when I click submit? It doesn't seem to be a new http request since the URL doesn't change; I'm not sure how to trace this.

Nate

[Tideland Prius]

oh.. check your image size. I've had a problem loading up an image once...

[addison1062]

Nate,

Please have one of the photo's show where the wires connect to in the dash if you can. This is going to one of my first mods when I get my Prius and I figured it would have to be through the door and into the car, etc. because of the lack of side marker lights on NA spec. Just wasn't sure the best place to hook up the wires.

You mentioned the RHD bias for the guts - do you think that the LHD 'guts' could be swapped into the JDM LED housing to eliminate the bias?

[bobc]

Good on ya!


So Nate, can you put to rest several questions?

Did you swap out the mirrors themselves from the N. American housings?

If not, is the left-hand mirror (NA driver's side) convex?

After the mod, are the mirrors still heated?

Lastly, with the added electrical load, do the signals now flash more slowly/quicker (Y'know, like what happens with trailers with signal lights)?

-bob

[naterprius]

1. No, you cannot use all of the guts from the USA housing. (You do reuse the motor, though.

2. You reuse the USA glass.

3. Heating is retained.

4. Lights are LED's so blinker speed is EXACTLY the same. (You'd think it would change a little, but no).

5. The wiring is very easy... under the dash, that is. It has nothing to do with the Japan spec side markers. The hard part is going through the doors; there is no wiring in place. I'm considering building an exact replica harness for this, but the parts are over $100 from Toyota unless I find pins somewhere else (when did replacement pins go to $9.75 a piece at a discount?). I'm going to do some cutting and soldering tomorrow.

Here's what's reused from the USA car:
-Mirror glass
-Tilt/Pivot Motor Assembly
-wiring for Motors
-wiring for heater
-Mount arm (giant black piece that actually mounts to the car, you know, the part that doesn't move when mirror folds)
-silicone seal for mount arm
-some of the screws

Literally, all the kit comes with are the housings and the inner supports. Other than the wiring and screws, it's a four piece kit. It came with 24 pages of instructions and I needed almost all of them! It's really weird, because if you go to a Toyota dealership they don't sell any of the components of a mirror assembly seperately (except the glass). I was really down inside the guts of the thing. It will have taken me several hours to complete this mod by the time it's done.

As far as the RHD "bias", it's only in reference to the depth of the glass in the housing. After I realized this, I bought three 20 cent nylon spacers from Lowe's (1/4" deep) and will mount the mirror motor using the spacers. If all goes well, the slight view of the housing in the the right hand mirror should be eliminated.

I've done a photo how-to for this mod, since I figured it might be useful. Those of you with deep pockets, anyone interested in a pre-built harness for going through the doors? Without it, you will have to cut and splice some wires (not part of the car). I would have to charge around $200 to make it worth doing. I would be happy to supply part numbers for anyone who wishes to build their own. (It will still cost you over $100 in parts).

Also, the mirrors make the car almost 2 inches wider overall. The mirrors still "break away" forward and back. Just a note, if you are planning on adding the auto-fold kit, you may need a special kit just for the signal mirror, and you should do it while you do the rest of this mod. I had no interest in Auto-fold; the only purpose I see for that is if your car is wide and doesn't have breakaway mirrors. I have manual power fold on my Trooper and use it in some tight parking spaces. I might have ordered this if I was to do it over again, but first I need to get the auto tilt working (seperate kit).

Like I said, this is my favorite mod. It looks just perfect. The only sad part is no one on the road will know it's a mod because it's so perfect. It looks and operates like it came with the car. The LED's should never burn out either, so these should be on my car a while. ;-)

Nate