I apologize for not having all the photos and steps. I wasn't thinking of doing a guide. This is from memory only so use this post as a guide only and not a how-to step-by-step manual...
0) Buy LED arrows from ebay. You can buy amber ones from these guys but you could try the red ones
(2) Amber 14-SMD LED Arrow Panels for Car Side Mirror Turn Signal Lights | eBay
1)Take out the mirror by pushing on the tilting mirror upwards, pushing on the top of the mirror and pulling on the bottom of the mirror.
Here's what it side mirror housing looks like without the mirror. The red boxes show where the plastic backing snaps onto the mirror housing.
2) To separate the mirror from the plastic housing, follow this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM2u7lWscKg&feature=related.
Just like in the video, you only need to heat the plastic edge. I think he went around the edges for about 30 seconds with the heat gun. Be careful you don't do it too long at one spot otherwise the heat will melt the plastic.
Success! The back of the driver side mirror had sticky double sided tape on the spot where he wanted the arrow so he had to clean and remove the sticky tape and also part of the brown tape in the middle of the mirror (red box):
Be careful when you do this. If you scratch the back mirror surface, it will show up in the front. I have a few scratch marks on the front but you can't tell unless you are looking for them.
3) Dremel out a small spot on the plastic in order for the led to fit:
4) Here's what the arrow looks like fitted to the back of the housing:
5) Then reheated the outside edges of the plastic backing and reinserted the mirror back into the plastic housing. (Sorry no photos)
6) Remove the side door panel by following the these steps:
7) Then removed the side mirror housing by removing the 3 bolts holding the mirrors to the side of the car and then removed the 3 screws at the bottom of the mirror housing.
8) Separated the mirror cover from the housing by pressing in the tabs within the housing and snaked the LED wires to through the back. Popped the cover back on the housing after.
9) Then taped and snaked the wires through the part where the power mirror wires goes through the mirror housing:
Once got this far, wasn't sure how to do the wiring. Read the few PW threads on how others wired up their LED covers but thought it required too much work. Being a believer of less is more, I decided to connect the arrows to the side markers instead, which was only a foot or so away.
10) Popped out the side marker by sliding the marker towards the front and then lifting the back part outwards. I then poked a mechanic's wire through the fender's weatherstripping and surprising enough I was able to thread it through to the side marker's opening.
11) Pushed the wire into the fender's weatherstripping to hide the wire on the fender side and zip-tied the wire to the outside of rubber boot where the standard speaker/power wires normally goes from the door to the cabin.
11) Tapped into the 12v wire of the side marker (green wire) and connected to the + of the LED arrow. Grounded the LED arrow's - wire to a bolt on the door.
12) Put everything back and here's what the arrows look like:
Driver:
Passenger:
Notes:
- It took about 3 hours to complete. Difficulty was easy/moderate. My biggest concern was separating the mirror out of the plastic backing
- On my car arrow is brighter on the passenger side mirror than the driver's
- Our mirrors are not as translucent as some other cars. Therefore the arrows are not as bright/visible as I like. I tested the arrows on a spare Ford Explorer side mirror that I had and the arrows were clearly visible even in sunlight.
- Bought the amber arrows since it fitted our car's yellow turn signals but wonder if red would be brighter
- It looks cool at night but they're pretty much invisible during the day
- Just in case you haven't gotten the point yet, the arrows are not that bright, lol. It looks brighter in the photos than they appear in real life.
Hope that helps anyone who was thinking of adding LED arrows to their cars. Once again some steps may be missing but it's pretty obvious when you do it.
Oh yeah, a big thanks to all the other DIY's on PW. It would probably take me 3 times as long to figure out how to do anything without those posts.