hejustlaughs

I was thinking about changing the sideview mirror bulbs to LED ones. I have no idea on how to start. I don't wanna break the casing trying to get to the bulb. I'm also not sure what kind of bulb.

xBino

dude, if you don't know where to start... i'm not sure you should be the person doing this mod

nothing worse than doing something wrong the first time, only to spend 3x more time and mney to do it right the second time

scandalous

Anyone have a write-up for this?


Or just how to change the amber bulbs to white?

hejustlaughs

I just wanna know how to open the plastic cover to access the bulb. I don't wanna "discover" it on my own by applying a screwdriver + force here and there.

scandalous

Same.


SOMEONE HELP!

valeriecason

Found this on icdedppl 's beta FAQ site:

13. what are the bulb sizes for the side turn/mirror turn signals?
answer- the side turn/mirror turn signals do not use bulbs. each mirror uses two led's instead. if you want to change these out or change them to a different color, you must take apart your side mirrors and de-solder the default led's and solder in new led's.

http://home.cfl.rr.com/icdedppl/faq.html

as for how you get them apart to unsolder ???? no idea. Anyone?

pdrizzle

So you don't have to change them to LEDs because they already are! I wouldn't mess with soldering if I were you.

hejustlaughs

I wanna change the color

GerryWhite

CYA: Just make sure you don't put BLUE or RED lights on the front of your vehicle. The police don't like that at all.

icdedppl

here is a basic rundown on how to disassemble the side mirror on the tC. i haven't done this, but i do have the repair manual that tells you how, so i'll just use that. if anyone attempts it, please take pics!:
*i take no responsibility for what you do to your car attepting this*
*disconnect the battery before you do this*
1. remove plastic/garnish piece on the interior, upper corner portion of the car door where the mirror is. it's held in by a claw and a clip. put some tape around a flat head screw driver, find a place to wedge the screwdriver and then twist to pop this off.
2. underneat that are three bolts and the connector for the power mirror and the light. disconnect the connector first.
3. for the three bolts, first make sure the mirror is supported on the outside because if you don't and you undo the bolts, nothing will be left to support it and it will fall to the ground and possibly break. once you have that supported, undo the three bolts and pull off the side view mirror.
4. you should now have the side view mirror in hand. now place the mirror on a soft surface (carpet) and face the mirror upwards and look at the bottom of the mirror. you should see two grooves. with your taped-up screw driver, wedge it underneath each groove and twist to disengage these two claws holding the mirror.
5. now lift up the mirror from the bottom and underneath, you will see that the mirror is held on by two hooks. release those hooks and remove the mirror holder.
6. now that the mirror is off, you will see the inside of the mirror casing and you will see 7 claws. disengage each of these claws and remove the back garnish piece (the part that is painted/colored the same color as your car).
7. now you should have access to the back side of the mirror and where the turn lamp (housing with the leds in it i'm assuming?). first undo the connector that is there and then remove the two screws that hold the lamp lens.

and good luck with the rest! haha. how you get into the actual lens to unsolder the old lcds, i dunno. again, this is from the repair manual and they aren't assuming you are going to try to get into that and solder in new leds. again, if anyone attempts this, please take some pics and maybe make a faq for everyone!

notes: this appears to be the 'safe' way. i found two docs. one shows you the safe way. the other makes it look like you can just grab the garnish part of the mirror (the part that is painted; ie, if you look at the front of the car and you look at the mirror), that you can just grab and yank it off (held on by four claws) to get to the lamp lens part where you could probably unhook the connector and unscrew the lens. this might work, but trying to get this back on my not be as easy if you don't remove the mirror part first. also, it appears it might be possible to do this without doing anything to the interior of the car. you may be able to just leave the mirror attached and start at step 4 and just take the mirror off and continue from there till you have the lens in hand. from there, you'd obviously have to find some way to get the lens open and do some soldering.