Installing Electric Wing Mirrors...

Replacing your manual mirrors with electric ones is a nice touch and certainly helps when you need to adjust your passenger one whilst on the move. This 'how to' is aimed at a mk7 fortwo as most of the wiring loom is preinstalled. It is possible to source some of the components from breakers and a guide for modifying the existing frames is here

In order to complete this task, you will need to get the following smart parts:

• Left Electric Mirror Kit (SQ0011300V001C49L0)
• Right Electric Mirror Kit (SQ0011301V001C49L0)
• Driver Side Wiring Harness (SQ0011232V00100000)
• Passenger Side Wiring Harness (SQ0009940V00100000)
• Door Handle with Switch Housing (SQ0011304V001C96A0)
• Wing Mirror Switch (SA454 820 06 10)

You will also need the following tools:

• Long Nosed Pliers
• Torx Bit T20
• Torx Bit T25
• Small Flat Blade Screwdriver
• Some PVC Tape (not essential)
• 18mm Hole Cutter

First of all, you need to remove your old manual mirrors. Pull the Rubber gaitor off the contol stick and undo the retaining nut with the long nosed pliers.

Now remove the backing panel by undoing the two TX20 screws. Pull the panel away at the bottom and unhook the rubber seal at the top. Be careful when taking the miror control out of the frame, it has a tendancy to flick back and might damage the rest of the interior.

Starting at the bottom, undo the 3 screws and cups holding the wing mirror frame in place with the TX20 bit. When you loosen the top one, hold on to the mirror to provent it from falling. Repeat for the other side.

Remove both of the exterior door panels.

Remove the interior side pockets on both doors with the TX20 bit. Remove the door handles with the TX25 bit. This unlocks the door card. In order to remove the door card, pull where shown below. The card will ping out of its sockets.

Remove the front panel and arches of the car. This needs to be done in order to change the wiring loom. The route of the loom is shown as follows:

Unclip the cable channel located within the door hinge. Pull it out of the door panel in order to get more freedom. Undo all the connectors of the wiring loom and remove from both doors.

NOTE: You will not be able to lock your car when you do this.

Replace with the new wiring looms. Ensure that you install the loom with the extra grey connector on the driver side. Clip the cables back in place throughout the door and ensure that there are no slack bits which may get caught in the electric window system.

Connect the loom into the front connector. Replace the cable channel in the door hinge. As the cables are quite a bit thicker, this may take a few attempts. Ensure that there is no strain in any of the cables when the door is open or closed. Some PVC tape may be used as cable protection in sensitive areas. The result should look as follows (ignore the two thin brown wires. These only exist if you have the driver side passenger window control mod)

Now that all the cable work is complete, the front panels of the car may be put back on. Before the doors are put back together, take the new door handle with the switch mounting and position it on the door card. Mark the centre of the cable entry point and drill an 18mm hole in the door card. Take care when doing this so as not to snag the fabric / leather.

Reassemble both doors ensuring that the mirror control connector pokes through the new hole and the connectors to the mirrors stick out the top. Fix the new handle to the door and connect the switch.

Attach the new wing mirror assemblies to the door using a TX20 bit. Connect them to the the loom. Push the hole connector through the foam block so that the connector is safely tucked away within the door.

Hook the new interior backing panels over the top of the mirror assembly and secure in place with the TX20 screws.

That is it! Test functionality of both mirrors in all directions.