[MightGetDirty]

This guide has been a little overdue for me, as I finished the bulk of this installation over a month ago. You can see it in my "rig" thread here: https://www.auszookers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=57941&p=946045#p946038)

If you have a JB/JT "GV3" Grand Vitara, you would know that in almost all markets (I think UK is the exception) there was no available trim or option to have folding side mirrors. Heated mirrors or integrated indicators into the mirror covers? Sure! But not ones that fold in for protection like a lot of modern or luxury cars.

However, certain JDM models of GV's twin, the Escudo, came not just with heated mirrors and integrated indicators.. but with folding function as well! My intention for this thread is to help people on how to get these mirrors working in the GV. I would consider the difficulty of the whole job to be medium or intermediate level, mainly since getting wires run from the door to the car body is more involved than in older cars. There are some tools used that may not be in the typical toolbox but the techniques used are fairly low level (This was my first "big job" on my Zook and it overall went quite smoothly, albeit slowly because of my first-timer caution IMO).

What materials you need:

• Escudo folding mirrors (Duh!) - Part Nos 84701-78K60-XXX (for RHS) and 84702-78K60-XXX (for LHS).
• Folding mirror switch for drivers side door - Part No. 37950-62J10 (If you are wrecker/junkyard diving, these switches are also used in Swifts and SX4s from same era)
• x2 pins from a PC 6/8-pin PCIE cable
• Approx. 15m of stranded 0.5mm2 wire (automotive grade recommended. You could use wire with less core area but I found going smaller meant poorer quality crimping)
• Spade crimp connectors (red type) - 26 pairs minimum (Male + Female, 2.8mm or 4.8mm spade types recommended)
• Spade piggyback crimps (red type) - 4 Minimum with the counterpart male/female spade connectors.
• Heatshrink
• Cable Ties

NOTE 1: This is an estimate on the minimums required. You can prepare more wire for safety or use more piggyback crimps to keep existing plugs in case you need to return to original parts like I have, but that's up to you
NOTE 2: "XXX" at the end of the mirror part nos. denotes the colour code for your vehicle. These mirrors only ever came in colors ZDL, ZJ3,Z2S, Z7T, ZJP and ZMA only. If you have a different colour code, you'll need to remove the mirror covers from its housing and paint them yourself.

What tools you need:

• Trim removal tool (Alternatively, a thin, strong piece of wood)
• Set of screwdrivers
• Utility knife
• Wire stripping and crimping tool
• Drill with ~3.3mm dia. drill bit.
• Socket set (alternatively, a simple shifter would do the trick)
• Electrical pin removal tool
• Multimeter

Step 1: Removing the Door Trim and Original Mirrors
First off, lets start by opening up the door panel to get access to the door loom and to remove the existing side mirrors. For those that haven't done this before, it's a petty simple and straightforward process. Directly behind the mirror base (in the car interior) there is a triangular, black plastic pod covering the mounting bolts, and depending on your trim level these pods may house your tweeters. These are held in by a single plastic trim plug and can be easily pulled off by hand.

Next, move onto the larger door cards. In the door hand grab, there is a small plastic access panel which can be removed using 2 flathead screwdrivers. Behind this access there is a Phillips head screw - remove it.

Attachment:

ScrewDoorGrab.jpeg

Around the door handle, there is a plastic retention cover. Use the trim removal tool or a small flathead screwdriver from the inside to pry this cover out from the rest of the door card.

Attachment:

DoorHandleCover.jpeg

From here, it is just a matter of popping out the trim plugs on the bottom half of the door card from the door to separate. Use the trim removal tool to work around under the bottom of the door card and lift out. Once all plugs are popped out, make sure to lift the door card in an up-and-outwards motion, as there is one internal clip on the door card which slides and locks the trim in place.

Attachment:

Door Card Removal.jpeg

Unplug the door mirror switch from the door loom, and you should be able to separate the door card now completely.

Step 2: Recrimping the JDM plug
One of the issues with installing the JDM side mirrors is to do with the plug to connect to the door loom. The standard GV uses a 7-pin connector, easily recognizable by the round bump and circular pin layout on one side, whereas the JDM mirrors use a rectangular "9-pin" connector (called this way online as 9 pins are used in the plug). We somehow need to get this to connect up properly to our door loom.

Attachment:

DontFit.jpg

The best way (IMO) to do this is to completely get rid of the 9-pin JDM connector and replace them with spade crimp connectors, while being very careful to remember what wire colour is for what function. You can determine what wire does what yourself with a bit of visual identification and a multimeter but since I've already done that, below is a wire colour list and quick diagram of the JDM plug for this purpose:

Attachment:

JDMMirrorPinout.png

To the uninitiated, crimp connectors are colour-coded for compatible wire size. Make sure to use red crimp connectors as the wires in the mirror are small and are really at the minimum core area for crimping. You can use standard size spade connectors (6.3mm width) if that's all you have, but I do recommend using 2.8mm or 4.8mm spades if possible, so that you can easier hide the new connectors behind the door panel. Once the mirror side is done, move on the door loom side, either replacing the 7-pin connector altogether with crimp connections or by bypassing the plug like I did. Once all done, make sure to insulate using heat shrink to prevent any shorts.

IMAGE 6

Step 3: Building the Folding Mirror Circuit
At the same time, we will need to build the required wiring for the folding mirror circuit, and if required, other circuits like for indicators. For a better overview of what we are needing, below is the service manual wiring diagram for the JB424/JB632 power mirror circuit:

Attachment:

GV3PwrMrrCircuitDiag.png

As you can see, the mirror heater wires are already existing in the door loom, even if heated mirrors was not an option in your market. The indicator wires however, may or may not be in the door loom plug depending on whether your vehicle originally had integrated indicators in the mirrors or not. My GV didn't come with mirror indicators from the factory, so I will have to run a new indicator circuit along with the folding mirror lines into the door loom. To reduce the amount of wires I need to run around the car, I will be connecting the indicator ground to the mirror heater ground line since after tracing the electrical diagrams, the heater ground endpoint is the same as for the indicators anyways.

The folding mirror circuit design is relatively simple and all wiring will come out from our new folding mirror switch in the drivers side door cluster. We shall base our folding mirror circuit design off of the one from the SX4 in the diagram below:

Attachment:

SX4CircuitDiag.jpg

..So 2 sets of 2 wires, one set running directly from the folding mirror switch to the drivers side, and another branching off from that which makes it's way to the passengers side door mirror. For those also doing indicators, that means 3 wires total need to run from the drivers door (with 1 wire about 50cm longer than the others - you will see why later) to the passengers door. Let's focus on the switch to drivers side runs first though.

The new folding mirror switch is fully compatible with the drivers door cluster. The door loom plug connecting to the switch does fit, but doesn't have the pins populated for the relevant folding circuit. I ended up getting the whole driver's door cluster but it's not necessary - the mirror switch pod can be pushed out with the help of a small flathead screwdriver lifting the surrounding retention tabs.

Attachment:

OriginalVsFoldingMirrorSwitch.jpeg

Originally I was going to jankily solder the wires directly to the new switch pins, but I then found out the pins from a male computer PCIE power cable fits inside the door loom plug almost perfectly. Use a pin removal tool to extract the pins from the PCIE plug, and a small flathead screwdriver to push these pins into the free slots of the loom connector (pin Nos 7 and 8 - the black wires shown in the photo below).

Attachment:

PCIEpins.jpg

Use a Y/piggyback connector when connecting these lines to the drivers mirror so that we can create a branch out connecting the passenger side mirror to the circuit later.

[MightGetDirty]

Step 4: Getting to the Passenger Side

By this point, we are pretty much done with the driver's side unless you need to run a new circuit to the mirror indicator. To do both these parts, we need to start running wires between the car body and the doors. Buckle up, as this IMO is the most difficult part of this whole process.

Open your car door as wide as possible to access the rubber boot on the inside. At the car body side, carefully lift away the boot to expose the plugs connecting the door loom with the main body loom. The plug is held in to the car body by 4 push-tabs (2 top, 2 bottom). Carefully push these in and lever out the plug with a small flathead screwdriver. It is good to pass through your new wires through the door boot at this point also (make sure to run the new wires around the power window rail inside the door panel to avoid interference!).

Attachment:

BodyPlugOut.jpeg

These kinds of connectors separating the door and body looms are more common now in modern vehicles (2000s onwards), but make it a lot harder to pass wires through than in was in the past. That said, the wires are better protected against sharp steel edges than with a rubber grommet so we are getting some benefit for the extra difficulty.

Turn around the connector such that you can see the individual slots the wires go in to the plug. As these connectors are typically standardized for use in multiple vehicles, there are usually a number of spare/unused slots available. Choose an area of the plug where 2 spare slots are free (or 3, if you also need to running a wire for indicators) that is near the edge and away from existing loom wires. Chances are, your new wires aren't small enough fit through the slots as-is.. So carefully drill out the spare slots using a 3.3mm dia. drill bit without damaging the existing loom until your new wires can be fed through easily. Profanities are optional.

Attachment:

StartOfTheNightmare.jpeg

Thread your wires through and once you have your positioning right, cut and add a crimp connector near the plug here, just in case the door needs to be removed at some time in the future. Again, make sure to insulate with heat shrink to prevent shorts.

Attachment:

IsItOverYet.jpeg

Now that the first part is over, lets get into the car body proper. Under the dash, locate the inner rubber boot/grommet which the door wires run through. It should be near or under the cabin fuse box/BCM (Passenger side is shown in the photo below for a better view):

Attachment:

ForYourSanity.jpeg

From the inside, push the end of a long cable tie through the boot until you can get at it from the other side. Tape your new wire runs to this cable tie and then pull them through the grommet to the inside of the car. Profanities are mandatory.

Attachment:

StickItYouKnowWhere.jpeg

This is by far the easiest method due to the elbow the inner boot has.. ..Was that fun? Well guess what! You can run your new wire runs under the dash to the passenger side and do this whole process again for the passenger door! YAY!

Once you are through to the passenger door side, it's simply a matter of plugging up to the new mirror and you should be set to start testing.

Step 5: Connecting Indicators

If you are adding an indicator circuit for your new mirrors, one of the 3 new wires you just ran is for the positive indicator line. Make sure you have a few spare loops (~50-60cm) of wire under the drivers side of the dash before cutting/splitting this line into two - one for left and right indicator respectively.

We will be connecting these left and right ends up via piggyback connectors to the left and right indicator circuits, directly after the turn signal/hazard relay plug in the cabin fuse box. The location of this plug hard to see in the service manual - check for a white plug above the fuses on the left.

Attachment:

PlugSomewhereAroundHere.jpg

Space here is tight, but not as bad IMO as running cables through to the doors. Locate the Green/Red (left indicator) and Green/Yellow (right indicator)wires on the plug (at pin locations 2 and 3) and put your piggyback connectors on them. Try not to make a hash of the crimping like I did here - the original wire length is short and doesn't allow for many attempts.

Attachment:

CrimpsNotGoodNotTerrible.jpeg

Connect your new left and right indicator lines up and you should be set to start testing.

Step 6: Final Checks and Testing

Now that all your wiring is set up, make sure all connectors are firm and properly insulated from each other and the car body, especially for the folding mirror circuit. If the 2 open/fold lines happen to touch while energized, you will short out your new mirror switch and let out the magic smoke that makes it work. As those switches can be hard to find, you have been warned.

Once everything looks sound, turn the key and test each function works correctly (left and right mirror adjustment up/down/left/right, mirror fold in/out, indicators left/right). You may need to swap your mirror fold motor lines around if they happen to fold when the fold switch is off. Tidy up your wiring work with cable ties so that individual lines don't get caught or tangled.

STEP 7: Enjoy Your Fancy Mirrors

Attachment:

FlashyMirrors.jpeg

If you made it this far, congrats! You now have one of the only, if not the only Grand Vitara with folding mirrors in your city, maybe even the country! Enjoy it and wear that smug face of knowing your car has something rather special that only those who know, know about.