Question regarding power mirrors in a base model coupe.(s13)

[SSMini]

First let me say I did a search using "Power mirrors" and came up with 8 pages and did not find the info I was looking for. I have a 93 base model coupe. I would like to add the power mirror feature to my car. My question is: Is the power mirror wire harness separate from the rest of the main harness? Or is the power mirror wire harness all tied through the main harness? If its separate, than I'll do the swap, but don't want to waste my time if I have to go digging through a complete wire harness. If this add on feature is a simple task, any info/advice I should know about? What all do I need to get/pull from the car so I only have to make one trip to the salvage yard??
Thanks.....
I should have mentioned that I have the power folding mirrors with switch.(Not installed yet.) I'm guessing I'll just need the wire harness itself........I hope.
Thanks again for any help/info you can provide.

[CarloSR]

The power mirrors are separate from the main harness, I just did the opposite, removed my power mirrors and power windows to fit manual ones.

[SSMini]

CarloSR,
Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll go to the local salvage yard and see what I can find. Was it a pain to remove the power mirror wire harness?
Thanks again....

[CarloSR]

Nope, they have this conector, under the dash so you can remove everything or in your case, add eveything.

[SSMini]

Thanks again.....

[projectRDM]

Sorry but you're wrong.

The S13 chassis has a single interior harness that runs from the passenger side of the dash over to the SMJ going under the hood, then back down the driver side of the car around the back and up to the passenger side Bpillar. It's a single harness. Though the power mirror switch is wrapped in a 'leg' of the harness, it is NOT separate and cannot be easily removed unless it's cut out. Base models cars are not prewired at all, so you have the option of either swapping the entire harness from a car that's power equipped or cutting the pigtails you'll need and running all the wiring from console to both doors on your own. There is no removable portion anywhere on the harness as suggested.
You could also take a power harness, fully unwrap every inch of it, remove and depin the wiring you need from the SMJ, and then repin it into your car, but that's still a lot of work and disassembly. At that point you're better off swapping the new harness in, you could then add power locks/windows, cruise, virtually anything easily if you wanted.

[SSMini]

I guess it was 2 good to be true. I really only want the power mirror feature. I guess I'll get all I can wire and plug wise then try and figure out the pins and kinda sorta build my own power mirror harness. If anybody can help me with a link that may go into detail about this, please let me know.
Thanks,

[Dream240]

Originally Posted by SSMini

I guess it was 2 good to be true. I really only want the power mirror feature. I guess I'll get all I can wire and plug wise then try and figure out the pins and kinda sorta build my own power mirror harness. If anybody can help me with a link that may go into detail about this, please let me know.
Thanks,

Wiring up power mirrors is not THAT hard. It's more expensive than anything else. The wiring costs quite a bit since you should color code them to make service easier.

On a base model S13, you will need the following:

power mirrors (OEM or eBay ones will work)
OEM power mirror switch w/pigtail (waaaaaay easier to work with than W/O the tail)
50'-75' total of 18-24 guage wire 5 different colors!!(I used 16 guage wire but it's a bit overkill, go with smaller gauge to save room)
I ended up just buying 1 roll of each color at autozone. At 6 bucks a pop they got expensive. But at least it's done right.

Wire colors-5 needed total: I used white, blue, and yellow to match the ebay mirrors I bought. And black(ground) and red(power)

1. Remove your manual mirrors and install the power ones per the simple FSM instructions. Run the new mirror wiring inside the door and let it dangle for now.
2. My eBay mirrors didn't come with instructions so you have no idea which wire is for which function(up/down, left/right, ground). I had to test them to figure out which wires did what and just write down the results. Kind of a PITA.
3. Run 3 wires from the door, through the wire hole, and hide them as best you can as you snake them along the same route as the OEM harness. Under the driver's seat and up the tunnel to the switch. The passenger side I just ran the same route but on the passenger side. Use zipties to secure the wires.
4. Run a piece of ground wire from the switch location to the grounding point under the driver's seat. Connect the ground there.
5. The power wire is a bit tricky cause you will need to include a fuse in the line for the mirrors to work. IIRC the fuse is a 15 amp. I bought one of those fuse holders from autozone for about 5 bucks. Works great. Now what I did was run the power wire from the switch back to the fuse box, looped into the appropriate fuse slot for the mirrors per the fuse diagram and then spliced in the fuse holder. Then I spliced the power wire to the appropriate slot on the input end of the fuse box - voila!! Power. I tucked the fuse holder into the fuse box area so that I could access it when i needed to replace the fuse and at the same time kept it out of sight. The trick is to make sure you have enough wire in the fuse box area to allowing you to pull the mirror fuse holder out a bit to work on it if needed. Don't make the power wire so tight that you can't move it around at all, that'll just piss you off.
6. Then proceed to splice in the newly run wires (8 total) into the mirror switch. Make sure to follow the wiring diagram in the FSM for the appropriate wires for each function. What I did was test them by temporarily connecting the mirror wires to find out which wire did what. It blows a couple fuses but once you know just write it down. Then proceed to splice.
7. Make sure you tuck all the wires in and away from possible entangling. Put your interior back together and enjoy!!!

Sorry I don't have pics but I sold the car shortly after and never took pics. Yeah it was a selfish thing to do. I wasn't thinking of the Zilvia community when I did the work. I know this write up is quick and missing details so don't hesitate to ask me questions.

Good luck and feel free to PM me with questions.