How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Electronic systems, stereo and Holden iQ, wiring, it all goes here....
smwalker
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How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by smwalker »

So I got some mirrors from AU that have the puddle lamp at the bottom of them. My plan is to wire them up to the interior dome circuit that comes on when you unlock the door so they will act as approach lighting after I unlock the vehicle.

This will be a description of all the wiring in the mirror as I ran a wire through the door connector when I did my headliner change to black so I already had the wire I need at the mirror connector in the door. If you remember I picked up that wire in the headliner harness that goes up the driver A pillar. LINK TO THAT POST This was the easiest place to capture this circuit as it comes off the BCM and goes deep into the dash before coming out at the A pillar. So these lights will come on any time I turn on the interior dome lights. There is a circuit in the BCM called "puddle Lights" that I would guess would not be so closely tied to the dome lights. I am sure they would still come on when approaching and unlocking, but maybe not when you turn on the interior dome light manually with the doors closed. Not sure how that would work.

The plan is just to use the AU mirrors outer case, lighting circuit and just transfer everything else over from the US version (mirror motor and heated glass)


Mirror Removal:
Removing the mirrors involves removing the door panel first. You then have access to the trim piece that has a access door in it. Un-clip the access door at the bottom and the top slides out from the surrounding trim molding. Some pics:
Image

Using a #25 Torx unscrew the two screws you can see after you remove the trim door:
Image

Leave the top one screwed in a bit to support the mirror in case it falls out when you do the next screw.

Then unclip the doors weatherstripping to revel the third screw holding in the mirror:
Image

Then the mirror should pull off. You may get some resistance. Lift it up and out as there is some rubber adhesive holding some of it in.

Removing Mirror Cap -

Removing Mirror Glass - Now that the cap is removed and the back is exposed you can get your finger through the case in two spots and push on the back of the mirror glass. When you do this 1 of two things will happen. You will pop the glass off the motor. Or you will pop the glass and motor out of the mirror case. IF the glass comes off the motor that's fine, it will snap back on once you put it all back together. You would then have to remove the motor. It is just held on by 3 friction clips. You can see them from the front of the motor as there is access holes to get to them, but the holes wont help you remove it. But they do help in seeing where to pry on the back at those three spots to remove the motor assembly. We are really only removing the motor because we cannot get the motor connectors through the case without moving the motor out of the way.

Image


Harness Removal - So what I did was remove the 2 wire lighting circuit from the AU mirror so I can add it to the US version that had the heater circuit already in there so I can retain my heated glass and just add the lighting. To do this I removed the harnesses from both mirrors to add the wire and splice into the existing ground inside the mirror. Thinking back I think I could have done all this work without taking the harnesses out of the US mirror and just fishing one wire of the lighting circuit through the wiring chase to the connector but then I would not have been able to tape it all up into one harness.

So both of the motor connectors together are pretty fat so they won't go through the wire chase at the same time taking up the same space. So tie a string on to one and send it through the wire chase first. The harness can move back and forth in the wire chase so I tied the other end of the string to the far end of the harness so it would pop out first and I could pull the one connector through before the other one. Leave the string on there it will help you get them back through.

Image

Oh one other thing that won't go through the wire chase is the big bulb holder so at the sides of the bulb holder you will see a little window with some silver in there. That is the terminal release. Get a pick and push on the silver piece while pulling the wire from the back of the bulb holder. Slides right out. Here is one removed next to the window where the other one is still in there:

Image

Harness Modification - So when the lighting circuit comes out of the AU mirror it is made up of a bulb holder with 2 black wires with a terminal on each end. We only have room for 1 more circuit on the mirror plug so that will be 12 volts for the light and the ground (the other black wire) will have to splice in with the existing ground in the mirror and that ground is for the heater circuit. First step is determining which of the heater wires is the ground. Not an easy task because they made both of those wires black as well! So take the harness back into the car, plug it in on the door, start the car and turn on the rear window defroster. What we are going to do is determine which is the positive and that will mean the other wire will be the ground. Using a test light see which one of the connectors that goes on the mirror is energized with 12 volts positive. Then switch off the rear defrost and confirm the 12 volts went away. Then mark the other black connector as the ground (you will see I did it with a red pen). That is the wire we are going to splice into.

Remove all the tape from both ends of the harness tubing. I put the spice right before the heater wires exit the tubing. So I cut a slit of about 1 inch inf the end of the tuning that is at the opposite end of the connector, folded it down on it's self and slid the tubing as close as I could to the main connector to give me room to do the splice. Take one of your black lighting circuit leads with the terminal on it (either ones fine they are both black) and insert that into the open cavity on the main connector. Line up the two bulb terminals so you can get a jist of how the wires will run together along the harness (want them the same length). Then cut the loose wiring circuit wire and the harness ground wire in the same spot to give you your splice location:

Image

Strip wires, put some shrink tubing on the wires where you can, and crimp the 3 ground wires together using a bare crimp connector:
Image

Move the shrink tubing over the bare crimp connector and heat the shrink tubing, Move the harness cover back over the splice, tape up the harness from connector to splice securing the one loose light wire with the harness. Finished Product:
Image


The connectors and terminals for the mirror are the JST HL series:
Image

JSt Part Number SSF-21T-P1.4 (I have extra of these if you cannot find them in singles) is the female terminal and goes on the car side connector. The male (mirror) side I already had on the end of the wires I took off the AU mirror so I did not need to buy any of those. But if you are doing some custom wiring get the male pins with JST part number SSM-21T-P1.4

Not sure if these are the same connectors for the G8, SS, VE, VF, WN but I imagine they use the same ones.
EDIT - Eat my words on that. For the VF and WN (SS and 14+ caprice) they switched to a 12 cavity plug to account for all the extra stuff added to the mirrors. Blind spot warning as an example. So I will change the title of this to 11-13 only.

Since I have the mirror cases completely disassembled I gave them a good cleaning and am putting a layer of black bumper paint on them followed by some clear coat as they were a bit faded from the AU sun. Want to look into LED bulbs for them to match the white color of the puddle lights I have at the bottom of the door.

Will try to do a video of them in action once it's all back together.

Well an update to this about 2 years later. Went to change out the LED bulb in my left hand side mirror light housing and I broke the tab on there!! Brittle! Found by accident the left side lamp housing is Holden Part number 92291249 - Have not been able to find the right side (not that I need it , yet) because while it is detailed in the parts catalog we like to use to AU parts it says "Not Needed" and does not have part numbers next to it. Huh.
Last edited by smwalker on Mon Jul 09, 2018 9:29 pm, edited 13 times in total.
Steve Walker
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Re: How To: Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by s/c'd cav »

waiting ! i like the ones the dodge chargers have
smwalker
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Re: How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by smwalker »

Came out real nice. Throws a good light out.

Video of light in action

Image
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
s/c'd cav
Posts: 1382
Joined: Mon May 30, 2016 3:12 am
Location: PHOENIX AZ

Re: How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by s/c'd cav »

they look pretty good !!

does karo have any info on them ?
smwalker
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Re: How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by smwalker »

I am sure he could get some new ones. Will try to post some Holden part numbers
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
smwalker
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Re: How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by smwalker »

Found these on the Holmart site but searching them brings up no hits:

92194051
92194052

Holmart has the mirrors for $255 AU each - They are heated and puddle light equipped. Ones I got only had the puddle light so not sure what cars those came off of. They do make aftermarket ones I am seeing on Ebay AU, that means maybe we could get the aftermarket ones in the US more easily (and cheaply). Depending on quality of course.
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
s/c'd cav
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Re: How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by s/c'd cav »

ill pass them along to him see what he can come up with
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Re: How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by Fudgehog »

Hey Smwalker, what additional steps would be involved to add heated mirrors to a non equipped car?

I'm guessing pinning the BCM and running the wires but you would know more. Thanks.

Would be cool to add puddle lights and heated mirrors. Thanks.
13 Caprice 6.0L, Solo catback exhaust, 3.27 diff, VCM OTR and Volant throttle spacer, MSD coils plugs wires, transmission pan upgrade and widemouth filter. Camaro 18" rims.

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smwalker
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Re: How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by smwalker »

Well the heater mirrors are powered by the same relay that powers the rear window heating grid so every car gets the relay and wire going to the rear window. Question is does every car get the wiring to the Door mirror connector? I would think they would as it is just a single wire to each door. Surely GM would not cost cut to that extent? TO require a different part number and design of a body harness for such a small variation? Start ripping your door panel off and count the wires going into the mirror connector.

If you do not have them we would have to tap into the wire going back to the rear window grid and splice into it then take a wire to each mirror. Then of course get a mirror with the heating element in it.

Just have to source the tiny slide on connectors that attach to the back of the mirror.

Could be done, hardest part would be finding a route from one side of the car to the other for the mirror wire. May have to take up the flooring for that or could run under the rear seat.
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
s/c'd cav
Posts: 1382
Joined: Mon May 30, 2016 3:12 am
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Re: How To: 11-13 Mirror Puddle Lamps

Post by s/c'd cav »

would need a car with and with out the heated mirrors to see if the have the same wires at the plug or door

also i can check the parts catalog , and see if the harnesses are all the same , or if they are different for the options

steve , do you know if the 11-13 were the only ones with the heated mirrors ? or if they were a option on the 14-17 as well ?
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