Dodge Ram Driver Side Mirror DIY Solutions MIR01140

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Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. I hope this how-to video helps you out, and next time you need parts for your vehicle, think of 1AAuto.com. Thanks.

In this video, we're going to show you a pretty cool set of mirrors we're offering. This is a 2011 Dodge Ram. It's a fairly basic model, and we're going to upgrade it with a set of folding towing mirrors. This vehicle did not come with folding mirrors originally, so we'll have to add some wiring into the truck.

Okay, you're going to need a new set of power folding mirrors from 1AAuto.com. Again, this vehicle does not have the folding feature. They ordered the ones that had the additional folding feature. Some vehicles have folding and we sell the mirrors that fit directly for those trucks.

Okay, then you'll need just some basic stuff: small screwdriver, T20 Torx driver, 7mm and 10mm socket and ratchet, pliers, electrical or duct tape, plastic wire ties, and a Phillips screwdriver.

I'm going to kind of go fast through the door panel part. You use a small screwdriver, and pull out a little bezel that exposes a Phillips screw. Remove the Phillips screw. Pull out on the panel that's around your door handle and that comes off. There's a little triangle up top, pull that off just by pulling firmly. Then there's a series of T-20 clips. You actually try and go counterclockwise on those clips and pull the centers out. If you have to, go in behind them with a small screwdriver or your fingernail to get the center of the clip out. Then once you have the centers out, the outsides just kind of pop out by pulling on the door panel a little bit. Those clips pop out. Then once you've got all those out, you kind of go up with the door panel and pop your switch plate up. Disconnect your switches and then remove your door panel.

Now we're going to remove our old mirrors. You disconnect them. Push that off and then there's a little clip up here. Three 10mm nuts hold the mirror up here. I'm going to fast-forward here as I remove those three 10mm nuts and take the mirror. Obviously, you want to repeat this process for the passenger's side mirror.

Here we have our new mirror from 1A Auto. It's the flip out style and it has the folding feature. I'm going to show you how to wire it in.

Carefully lower it. Feed the part that you screw through. Put it in place. It has a clip as well. I'll have to hold on to it. Propping it up is the most important part. I'll fast-forward here as I put the three 10mm nuts back on. Tighten them up. You want to make sure they're good and firm and tight. It keeps the mirrors nice and steady, so make sure you tighten those up well. This comes right down. The plug goes in the bottom, like right in there. Once we have those hooked up, then we have the extra harness which is for the folding feature. We showed you how to replace the driver side mirror.

Obviously, you need to replace the passenger side mirror, which is basically the same procedure. Now you're going to take the trim panel off the dash. We're going to start running the wiring for the power folding feature, so you're going to remove two Phillips screws, or actually you could use a 7mm socket and ratchet as well. Then pull the panel off. Once you have those screws loosened up, just pull firmly on the bottom. I'm going to speed it up as we pull the top of that panel out, just let it hang down. Then you want to pull off the side panel on your dash and the lower kick panel, so you pull your weather strip away. Pull the kick panel back and then pull the carpet side strip up and out. Then this side panel on the dash pries out. Sorry about all the camera shaking there. Now we're going to pull this, we're going to use this dead panel. That's where we're going to mount our switch.

It's held in by two T20 screws. Remove those, and once you've removed those screws just pull firmly on that panel to pull it out. We've pulled this dead panel out and now basically what I have to do is make a hole in the back of it large enough to get my connector through and this connector actually comes off of the switch by pressing with your thumb and pulling. Just using a drill with a 1/2" drill bit, you're able to put a hole in that dead panel. I can see here our connector goes to the back of it. Now I have my harness.

I figured out which one was the long one, which will be the one we route over to the passenger side. Just tied a little knot in the harness, not tight obviously, just so I can identify it. I'm just going to feed these right through where that panel came out of. I've got my harness through. This is the switch end, just poking out. Wire-tied there just temporarily to hold it in place. Then up underneath here, okay, if I look for the back of my harness, I've got a black wire that has a U-shaped connector on it. I'm going to hook that to my ground which is right up here. I'll give you a little perspective here. Your ground wire is right there, use a 10mm wrench. I'm just going to fast-forward, loosen up that ground bolt enough that you can slide the ground wire from the harness for the folding feature in, and then tighten the bolt back up so you have a nice secure ground. Now we've got the ground hooked up.

Now we want to hook the red wire to a 12 volt switch power source, and I've already done the work for you on this 2011 Ram. The very top wire that I'll grab in a second is a blue wire with a purple stripe on it. That is a switched 12 volt source. That wire is not live when the key is off and it is live when the key is on and the truck is running. It's preferable that you hook it to a source like that so that the mirrors do not have power going to them at all times. The best way to do that is with an inline wiretap. Goes on, if you ever want to take this apart all it does is make a little tiny mar in the insulation of the wire. It doesn't cut the wire or anything.

Get your wire that you want to tap into the connection. Let's do that first actually. I've got my tap held by my pliers. Put my mirror wire in and squeeze. Got it that time. Squeeze it nice and tight. Close the tap. Now we're going to run our wire over and we're going to run the wire right through the middle of the panel, to run the pulled wire to the other side. Then the bottom panel comes off. I'm just going to fast-forward here. You just pull straight out on the sides. Then pull out on the bottom. Take your glove box and just pull on the sides. The glove box will come down. Now we're going to open up the kick panel and the grommet for between the body and door, so the kick panel just pulls back. Pull back firmly at the top and then you pull up kind of diagonally and out, down at the corner, and pull up on the carpet edge trim. Then that panel will pull out.

In the door jamb is your wiring tube here. It's actually held in by two, a little hard to see here, but there's two T20 Torx screws: one there and if I can show it to you, one up on top. You're going to need to use a T20 Torx driver on a ratchet, get in there at an angle, and remove those screws. Now on this tube (where it connects into the body), press down with your thumb on the top and it'll kind of unclick. Again, forward towards the front of the truck. It'll unclick and then come out. Then there's a harness right here. You need to press a tab and disconnect that. Now you can pull out on your weather strip a little bit and pull this whole thing right through and feed this whole thing through and come out.

Now I've unwrapped this tape here, and you can take this little plastic duct off just by stretching it a little bit. Now we can easily run the wire through. I've got a still shot here. I've got to apologize a little bit, I missed filming the part where we pulled the wire through the center of the dash, so we're picking up from that point. You've basically got everything apart and now the wire is routed and ready to go into the passenger's door.

Now with the wire through there, what you're going to have to do, there's some insulation here. You have to pull this up a little bit so you can get it through. You should be able to bring the wire right through. Now you want to run the wire through this section of the conduit. Make sure you take this harness and run it in behind the weather strip first. Take any type of a long narrow and blunt tool and you can put it right down through the conduit. You see, I've got this screwdriver through. I've taped the wire to it and now I can just carefully pull that all through and hopefully just kind of shake it and wiggle it. Do a little prayer. There's the wire coming through. Now I can just take this tape off.

With that through, let's plug in the mirror or actually the fold function wires. We can run a little test. Let's plug in our mirror here. Press the button and nothing should work. All right, let's grab our keys. Turn the key on. Press the button and see the mirror folds in and it folds back out. We're going to cut off part one here. To see the rest of the video, check out part two with the same title.

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