I’ve been looking for a guide on how to do a power mirror conversion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find one…at least, one for the Focus. So, I figured that when I was ready to take the plunge, I’d document the steps I took in order to do this conversion.
With that said, here is a list of everything I used (some items are optional – those will be marked with an **)
Part one: Materials, hardware, and tools – oh my!
Silcone sealant ** ( You can use this to seal the end of the crimp connectors from water, where the wire goes in the connector. Also, this will add some strain relief on the wires.)
Heat shrink tubing ** (This can be used in place of the silicone sealant, to help prevent moisture from working it’s way down into the crimp connectors)
Wiring diagram (see image below – Note: This wiring diagram is for a 2002 Ford Focus )
Hardware
22-18 gauge crimp connectors: I bought these ones: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc…er=600833_0_0_
They come 10 to a pack (5 male, 5 female). You’ll probably need 2 packs. One for connecting the wires, the other for extending the mirror wires. (A third pack might be wise, to have extras just in case)
18 gauge wire: You can buy a 3 pack of 15 foot rolls from Rat…erm.. Radio Shack for about 7.99 (plus tax) The Radio Shack part number is 278-1226
“Vampire” taps: (for those that are unaware, a vampire tap allows you to splice into a line without making a permanent cut.) The ones I used for this project are these: http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc…questid=711072
Drivers side & passenger side mirror, mirror switch, and corner/face plates (no clue what it’s really called) (visit your local scrapyard, or alternatively, you can get them for about 50-60 bucks brand new from a store like AutoZone/Advanced Auto Parts – the ones listed below are your ordinary, garden variety power mirror. Ie: They are NOT heated)
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par…084_2362_14147
Drivers side & passenger side pig tail, including the block connector to the switch (This is the drivers side. The passenger side will have just the red/black piece thats towards the top of the picture) (see pic below)
Tools
Wire strippers/crimpers
10mm & 7mm sockets
Ratchet w/ extension
screwdriver/ratchet (no clue what its called – it has a ridged handle like a screw driver, but the tip has a squared end for putting a socket on it)
T20 Torx screwdriver (For some reason, the passenger side mirror I pulled had this screw in the lower left corner. The other one didn’t.
Part two: Install
Step 1: Remove the corner piece that houses the manual mirror adjustment.
There are two metal pieces on the outer edge, and a bigger clip just above the bolt hole. You can use a small flathead
screwdriver to push the plastic tabs off the metal tangs, (chances are the plastic tabs will slide off fine, leaving the
metal tabs on the door) and then use gentle pressure to undo the bigger clip that’s in the middle. (just above the bolt hole)
Danger Will Robinson, Danger! – the two metal tangs on the inner part of the bezel has 4 sharp corners – like needle
sharp – so be wary of them. I’ve marked them with a “1” in the picture below. I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t manage to stab
myself in the thumb while taking this piece off, LOL
Step 2: Unbolting/screwing the old mirror.
Using the 10mm socket & 6″ extension, remove the bolt holding the mirror to the door (number 2 in the picture). Once that’s
removed, use the T20 Torx bit to remove the Torx screw (immediately to the right of the mirror adjustment knob – see above picture for reference)
Step 3: Removing the door panel cover
Using the T20 bit again, remove the paneling screws from around the edge of the door panel. If I remember right, there are 7
or 8: 2 along the outer edge of the door (by the door latch), 2 along the inner edge (by the door hinge) and 3-4 along the bottom.
Once that’s done, using a butter knife, go ahead and pop out the door handle cover. You should see two bronze/gold colored bolts – one at the top of the handle, and one at the bottom of the handle. Use the 7mm socket on the screwdriver thing (a normal sized ratchet/extension wont fit in the hole, it’s kinda small) and remove those two bolts.
Once that’s taken care of, the panel will come off if you lift up & away at a 45 degree angle. If it doesn’t come off easily, double & triple check to make sure you didn’t miss a bolt (door handle) or screw (along the edge of the door panel).
After all is said and done, you should be greeted with the following:
(Don’t ask what’s up with the duct tape holding the styrofoam – I didn’t know what specifically was used to adhere the foam to the door, so, I improvised, LOL)
Step 4: Test fitting the power mirror
Pretty self explanatory – there’s a few posts that fit into the holes (including the post where the torx screw was) make sure it all fits together nicely, then go ahead and bolt the mirror to the door (10mm socket) and tighten down that Torx screw (T20)
Step 5a: Directional Wiring
Once the mirror is bolted/screwed down, you can go ahead and re-clip the bezel into the corner. But, before you do that, go ahead and plug in the black clip into the back of the switch – it’s keyed, so it’ll only fit one way.
After that, go ahead and plug the mirror connector into the mirror, then tuck the wires leading into the connector (to the mirror) into the bezel, then clip it into place.
Double check to make sure that you’re not pinching the wires with the tab/slot
There should be 6 extra wires dangling off the pig tail that aren’t connected to anything:
Control wires:
Yellow/Violet: (yellow wire, with a strip of violet – this controls Left/Right motions for the passenger mirror)
Blue/Yellow: (blue wire, with a strip of yellow – this controls Up/Down motions for the passenger mirror)
White/Red: (white wire, with a strip of red)
Power wires:
Orange/Yellow: (orange wire, with a strip of yellow – this is your hot/powered wire)
Black: (Ground)
Solid white: (not sure what it’s purpose is, but it eventually needs to be connected to the white/red & white/green wires)
These six wires can get routed through the rubber grommet that’s below the mirror (see picture for reference)
Now, here’s where it gets a bit confusing…
Coming off the drivers side pig tail, you have yellow/violet, blue/yellow, and white/red.
Coming off the passenger side pigtail, you’ll have yellow/violet, blue/yellow, and white/green
At this point, I extended the yellow/violet, blue/yellow, and white/red wires, and ran them under my dash to connect to the pig tail on the other side.
You essentially match the colors up, with the exception of the white/red wire, which gets connected to the white/green wire.
You can verify this by looking at the schematic in the first part of this guide.
On the drivers side door, you’re going to have to use the crimp connector to connect the white/red wire, to the white/red extension (which will go to the white/green wire on the passenger side), and then, use a vampire tap on the white/red wire and splice in the solid white wire.
Your connection/splice will ultimately look like this:
(Apologies, lol… I never claimed to be Picasso )
The way I did it, was I extended the wires first, then ran them through the rubber boots that connected my speakers to my stereo (I did NOT splice INTO the speaker wires, I just used the protection of the rubber hose that was there) Then, I snaked it to the rubber grommet below it, to bring the extended wires into the cabin.
Once they were in the cabin, I ran them under the dash, behind the stereo (and glove box). Once I reached the passenger side, I ran it through the way I did on the driver side (rubber grommet, then the rubber hose, and into the door) then used the crimp connectors to connect to the pigtail.
Step 5a: Power/ground Wiring
On the driver side floor well, there’s a panel on the left side. (Below the fuse panel). There are two large plastic screws &a tab holding it into place.
(I had my cell phone tilted weird, lol)
Remove the screws, and gently pry the tab out to unclip it.
Next, remove the vertical trim piece, which will help expose the grounding bolt you will use to ground your wiring, and tap into the power supply.
Once that’s done, you’ll see a bundle of wires. Gently spread them apart, and look for a orange/blue wire (solid orange, blue stripe)
Now, on the drivers side pigtail, look for the orange/yellow (orange wire, yellow stripe). You’re going to need to extend the orange/yellow wire so you can use a vampire tap to splice into that orange/blue wire.
The solid black wire, will be your ground – you’ll probably need to extend it (unless you found a closer ground point), crimp a U connector on it, (the piece with a little bit of yellow on it) then ground that wire. (See pic below)
Now, according to the schematic, the orange/blue wire will be constantly hot (have power). You shouldn’t have to turn the ignition on in order to use the mirrors.
After that, go ahead and test the mirrors to make sure they move in all directions.
If everything works like it should, go ahead and button up your doors, and you’ll be good to go!
Youtube vid of them:
Part three: Questions/Troubleshooting
Q. How long did this take?
A. It took me about 2 hours (4, if you count the rain delays)
Q. Help! My mirror doesn’t go <insert direction here>
A. Check your wiring – each wire is specific to two things: mirror side (driver/passenger) & direction (up/down, left/right)
If your driver side mirror doesn’t go up/down, check the blue/red wire/connection.
If your driver side mirror doesn’t go left/right, check the yellow/blue wire/connection
If your passenger side mirror doesn’t go up/down, there are two possible areas to check: the blue/yellow wire, and the
white/red, white/green/solid white wire junction
If your passenger side mirror doesn’t go left/right, there are two possible areas to check: the yellow/violet wire, and the
white/red, white/green/solid white wire junction
(I’m not entirely sure what purpose the solid white wire has. I DO know that it definitely needs to be tapped into
the white/red, white/green wire in order for both sides to function)
Q. Help! None of my mirrors work!
A. Again, check your wiring. Specifically, check the orange/blue & orange/yellow (your power wires) and make sure there’s a
good connection. If that fails, check fuse #35 in your fuse panel (it’s the fuse for the interior lights – if you look at the schematic, you’ll see that that wire branches off into the interior lighting) If the fuse checks out fine, then go through your connections. It’s possible that theres a bad connection, bad wire, bad switch, or heck, even a bad mirror.
Q. Hey… wait. I have two/four extra wires that aren’t connected! What gives?
A. Depending on the color (Green/black, Green/orange, and 2 black) It seems that you bought/salvaged power mirrors that have the built in heater/de-fogger. The mirrors I salvaged from the junkyard didn’t have the built in heaters/de-foggers.
