Retrofit automatic folding mirrors

[chrisaw]

My wife has a Toyota C-HR 2018 with the Icon trim level meaning no automatic folding mirrors - I have an excel spec RAV4 which does have them. This drives her crackers and she is super keen to get the same feature on her car since there's a lot of narrow streets around here and she's worried someone is going to clip her mirror off one of these days!

With that in mind - does anyone know of any kit or exactly what parts would be required to add this feature? Anyone done it or know someone who has?

I do understand this is likely to be an expensive and "involved" process and simply returning the car and upgrading trim levels is by far the easiest way but ultimately this is something she feels passionately about having and I'd like to add the feature to her car for her.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! 👍

 

[Catlover]

I know automatic is what you mentioned, but some cars have electric folding mirrors that need to be operated when leaving the car, or most mirrors fold manually anyway.

[FROSTYBALLS]

If it already has electric folding mirrors but not automatic, try what I used to do with my Auris.

Fold the mirrors, turn off the ignition and within seconds press the mirror fold button again. When the ignition is next turned on, the mirrors will 'automatically' unfold.

Otherwise the simplest answer would be to swap cars with your wife !!

[flash22]

I take it, the car has the non-folding mirrors, the icon being the base spec it may/may not have the wiring

remove the trim with the mirror switch in it and see what connector the switch has, post a pic

I have some experience with the folding mirrors, there is not much difference across the Toyota range

what is your skill level ? Soldering or wiring ? Are you ok with wiring diagrams ?

[chrisaw]

On 2/10/2022 at 11:52 AM, flash22 said:

I take it, the car has the non-folding mirrors, the icon being the base spec it may/may not have the wiring

remove the trim with the mirror switch in it and see what connector the switch has, post a pic

I have some experience with the folding mirrors, there is not much difference across the Toyota range

what is your skill level ? Soldering or wiring ? Are you ok with wiring diagrams ?

More than happy with soldering and/or wiring. Wiring diagrams I may need a little help to read but I think I can just about manage it for the most part. 🙂

By the trim with the mirror switch - the trim level she has doesn't have the window switch for sure but I will pop off the panel and look if the wiring is present. Good call actually - hadn't thought of that. I recently popped off the same panels to replace them with backlit buttons so I suspect the process is likely the similar.

As for the other questions:

The car has no automatic or powered mirrors at all - no switch to force them to close or similar - they're just manual ones (i.e. you can push them closed and pull them open but there's no switch to force this action to happen electronically nor automatically in this trim level.

[chrisaw]

@flash22 So I just removed the trim and got a few pictures of what I found - the most interesting of the 3 to my untrained eyes though is picture 3 - an unused connector taped up in there. I'm curious if this could be the magical wiring we're looking for - will have to pull apart my RAV4s one and see the size of the connector which is connected to my power mirror control switch. Seems a little smaller than I expected though so could be a red herring - not 100% clear what I'm looking for here.

[flash22]

Can you show me the connector in the second pic

[chrisaw]

On 2/10/2022 at 2:26 PM, flash22 said:

Can you show me the connector in the second pic

It looks like there are plenty of unwired pins - I'm going to guess these are the pins which would need to be wired in order for this to work?

I did notice what looks like a glass tube with some wiring inside - possible that Toyota cut the wires short and capped them with something. You can see it slightly in the previous image 3. I could be off the mark there - haven't cut the tape yet to have a closer look. With it being my wifes car I'm being extra careful. 🙂

[flash22]

It's just 2 extra wires to the switch, so that's simple enough - 2 relays - 2 wires to each door mirror

Next step is to find the plug to the mirror and check relay box 4 (RB No.4)

 

Shopping list.

2 relays

Mirror switch and/or surround, example - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265391010686 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165176530586 sell the window switch

2 door mirrors

A door loom (ideal for extra pins/wiring)

If you want remote control mirrors, you need to see if the 2 relays are wired - if you just want them manual, press the button on the switch you can fit the relays where you want

[chrisaw]

17 hours ago, flash22 said:

Shopping list.

2 relays

Mirror switch and/or surround, example - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265391010686 - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165176530586 sell the window switch

2 door mirrors

A door loom (ideal for extra pins/wiring)

 

If you want remote control mirrors, you need to see if the 2 relays are wired - if you just want them manual, press the button on the switch you can fit the relays where you want

Ordered a mirror switch and surround so that's on the way now. Will find door wiring looms and get those ordered along with power folding mirrors - all good there.

One question: 2 relays - which relays and where can I find these? Any more info on these would be great - happy to pull things apart to check if the 2 relays are present but I don't know where to look right now. 🙂

Thanks!

 

EDIT: Disregard - I just double checked the image you provided - yep, I see where you're looking for. I'll have a look later on and report back if the relays are present. 🙂

[flash22]

You don't have to change the door looms - just use one for spares

relays will not be present, just see if they are wired/have the terminals

[Big_D]

@chrisaw have you thought about doing a DIY guide and adding it to the C-HR how to guides?

https://www.toyotaownersclub.com/tutorials/category/23-c-hr-club-guides/

[flash22]

@chrisaw any progress ?

[chrisaw]

Hey @flash22,

My sincere apologies for the delayed response - I'm (weather permitting) planning to take a look at this tomorrow.

Life has been a bit hectic the last few weeks but I'm getting back to this now since it would be a nice thing to solve. 🙂

Will provide an update as soon as I've had a look for the relay slots you mentioned.

I have, however, fitted:

- The power folding mirrors themselves from an Excel trim

- The power folding mirror side panel (drivers side) from an Excel trim

Haven't been able to find the excel trim door looms but as you said - it's just a case of running a couple of wires - can cloth tape those to the loom and wire them where they need to be once I get the relays and such like present.

[chrisaw]

Yet another delayed response but an update:

@flash22 - I can verify that the 2 relays are present and there appears to be electronic connections in there. I've ordered and installed 2 extra relays (same as the other 1 installed further along the strip) and whilst I'm not sure if they're doing anything yet (likely not because of missing wires in the door wiring harnesses we have - non-Excel trim ones - missing pins) they're not causing any problems either.

Looks like all we need now is Excel-trim wiring harnesses unless you have bright ideas on how I can avoid that? I was thinking of just soldering some wires directly and avoiding the connection pins - not sure how successful that would be and would require some trial and error but would certainly be cheaper.