HOWTO: Install folding mirrors on a W202

[Deleted member 2227]

This is quite a complex mod and if you aren’t sure you can do then don’t. My local dealer said to me that fitting folding mirrors is to a RHD car is not on there job list and therefore “you’re on your own”!! Very reassuring!

The aim is to go from this:

To this:

First you will need to get the folding mirrors/covers, dash trim for your car, the switch and the loom.

You may also wish to buy 6ft of 2 different coloured 0.75mm cables and some connectors. (for reasons that will become apparent later.)

The loom has a plug to attached to it which has 2 yellow leads, 2 green leads, a red/pink lead and a blue lead.

The red lead is the lead to the fuse box and has a spade connector on it.

 

[Deleted member 2227]

Job One.

Power from the fuse box.

First of all you need to remove the screws that retain the trim under the lower dash on the drivers side. This is attached by means of screws along the left side, in the centre towards the back of the steering column, on the right behind the bonnet release (which you need to pull now!!), and behind the parking brake handle.

Remove all the screws and gentle unclip the lower dash trim and then lower it down. (I didn’t totally remove it)

Then go to the bonnet. Open the bonnet to its vertical position using the clips at the back of the bonnet.

Once the bonnet is up and the ignition is off, move to the fuse box.

Unclip the fuse box lid and note the position of the screws that retain the back part that covers the relays and the front part that retains the fuse box. Remove all the retaining screws carefully noting where the short one goes. (DO NOT DROP THEM INTO THE ABYSS)

Remove the top section of the fuse box and put somewhere safe with the screws.

Then lift the fuse end of the box by unclipping the retaining clips at the side.

Gently lift the fuse rail up a few inches and turn it over so that you can see where the spade connector will fit.

Go back inside the car and attach the spade of the fuse cable to a stick. This will enable you to aim the fuse cable to the day light now visible under your dashboard in the top right corner (under the fuse box).

Leave the stick with cable attached under the dash while you go back to the fuse box to see if you can find the cable and stick under the relay box at the back of the fuse box.

Having retrieved the fuse cable and find Fuse space five. From the underneath each fuse space has three slots. One is towards the front of the car, one to the back and one in the middle. The front one is the live rail and the back one is where the spade connector should go so that the two are bridged by the fuse when added from the other side.

HOWEVER, on my car only the live rail had any copper connections in it that therefore you couldn’t get any current from the back slot. I connected the spade connector to the live rail slot for ease of working. I then needed to fit an inline 20 amp fuse to protect the circuit. If you don’t have connectors in the back of each slot then you must fuse it in line or else the circuit can draw up to 40Amp which will melt your loom and cause a fire risk, albeit a small risk as the folding mirror is only ever switched for a few seconds at a time.

Having connected your spade connector firmly into place (with or without the main board fuse) you can then reassemble the fuse box by going through the stages outlined in reverse.

You now have power!!

 

[Deleted member 2227]

Inside the car you need to remove the gear trim surround, the oddment tray, the ashtray, and the sunglasses tray. The dismantling of this area is covered in Shude’s How to install command thread
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5483

When you can get to the central dash area you need to route the whole of the loom that you are installing so that it sits roughly where the ashtray was. The plug for the switch needs to be fed under all the “bars” around the gear selector so that the plug ends up roughly where it will plugged into the new trim.

One pair of yellow and green cables need to be fed out of the side of the centre of the dash so that they go under the carpets on the side of the centre dash. Aim towards the rail on the floor in front of the passenger seat. Repeat on the drivers side. The brown cable is the earth cable and needs to be screwed onto the rail under the carpet infront of either seat. I attached my earth under the seat subframe bolts.

The blue cable is the switch lighting cable and needs to be routed towards where the boot opening switch goes. Ultimately it needs tapped into the blue cable to the boot release connector. This cable lights the boot release switch.

 

[Deleted member 2227]

JOB 3
Stripping trim!!

The trims in the footwells need out in order that you can poke a stick through the rubber cable gaiter to the inside of the door. This now starts getting scary!

Find the little cover in the footwell, flick it out with a screwdiver and remove the retaining screw.

Then remove door sill trim,(just pull it upwards and it comes off)

Then remove the Material strip shown below and unclip the foot well trim to enable access to the cable gaiter (concertina shaped thing!)

The fasteners for this trim appear to be made out of razor blades, so be careful!

 

[Deleted member 2227]

Job 4

Door card removal. This has already been expertly done by Shude here.

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5491

Door cards are fragile take care!!

 

[Deleted member 2227]

JOB 5

Removing the existing mirrors. This has been covered expertly by pluggers so just read this:
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8145


My only tip is watch your paint work and remember when you remove the last spring the whole unit is sprung loaded so be careful!!

 

[Deleted member 2227]

Job 6
Cable Routing.

The yellow and Green cables that you fed down the side of the central tunnel under the carpets need routed behind the air conditioning ducts to the area next to the seat where the door sill cover was before you pulled it off!

You then have a choice. There are two ways of wiring the mirrors to the green and yellow cables.

1. cut into cables in the main loom leading to the control box in the door.

2. extend the yellow and red cables to get to the mirrors without getting into cutting the main loom. This is the cowards way and therefore the method I used!

You will need to cut the 0.75mm cable into 4 three foot lengths, 2 each side. these cables need wired into the plugs that plug into the folding mirrors.

BEFORE joining these extentions to the yellow and green cables you need to route them from the outside of the car, through the hole left where the old mirror was, done inside the door behind the control box, and then through the cable gaiter. I found that a stick with a stick loosely taped to it and then poked through from the footwell side helped me get the mirror cable extensions through the gaiter!

This photo shows where the cable comes in from outside at the top and where the control box is.

Cable Gaiter

Extension cables and "normal heating oving plug"

 

[Deleted member 2227]

JOB 7

Reattach the new mirrors plugging the extension cables and the normal plug into the relevant sockets before re bolting on your mirrors. Follows Pluggers instructions as above but in reverse. Take care of your paint as you screw the sprung loaded mirrors on!!

 

[Deleted member 2227]

Job 8

Having connected the loom to the fuse box, routed the cables, earthed the brown lead under the seat and reattached the mirrors you need to attach the switch to the loom. I did it already attached to the new geartrim surround with the appropriate hole already cut, but you could test it out of its trim.

Then the moment of truth is twist the extension cables on to the yellow and green loom wires and then press the switch. I had one mirror going in whuile the other went out (reverse the connection!).

If it all works, then make the cable joins permanent and insulated and then all you have to do is..................





.............put the car back together using the methods above in reverse. I hope this helps someone.

My advice would be dont do this mod unless you are completely mad. If you break your car, cut yourself to ribbons, have a breakdown then dont say you werent warned!!!