How Not To Remove Your Power/Heated Mirror(The Write Up)(WARNING:Explicit language used)
One thing I can honestly say I've never and really NEVER used is my power/heated mirrors. I've never once adjusted my mirrors using the switch mounted under the AC controls, and it just doesn't get cold enough here to warrant the use of heated side mirrors. This has never bothered me until today when I went to remove them in preparation for moving them to my Rancho ROCKgear doors. Instead of making them plug and play next to where they mount to the Jeep, which would make all the sense in the world, they are not. They prevented me from removing my mirrors completely. This made me extremely frustrated being that something I do not use is now going to hinder me from being able to use my factory mirrors on my half doors! Now, you might ask;
Why not just order a new set of mirrors and wait for them to be installed?
Mainly because after purchasing these and the SpiderWebSkins coming in at just near $1k, Myself and my wife find it a hard pill to swallow to buy anything else right now for Steel at the time being.
or
Why not just run mirrorless with the half doors until you can afford the mirrors?
Running without mirrors would defeat one of the purposes of having the half doors. One of the reasons I bought these particular doors was the ability to reuse my factory mirrors with them. And, I am not okay with letting something I never use prevent that and cost me even more money. So, I took matters into my own hands.
Here is how NOT to remove your factory Power/Heated Mirrors
The objective here was to remove the power/heating harness from the mirror so that it can be removed from the Jeep. This is connected behind the actual mirror and requires removal of the housing and glass. I pulled Steel into the garage and began the minor surgery.
Start out by removing the bolt on the bottom of your mirror.
Then you'll need to remove three torx bolts that are a T-15. You'll have to manipulate the glass around to get them. I didn't have any issues doing this, but it is a tight fit.
After this, your mirror housing will then be able to pivot like this.
To remove the mirror glass, take a flat head screwdriver and twist and the glass will come loose. This is actually a very easy step.
Now after this, you'll be able to locate the four pen connector. This is VERY DIFFICULT to remove but if you take your time with a flat head screwdriver, it'll eventually come out. Here is what it looks like once removed.
After that, to remove the harness you have to remove the mirror. Use a T40 Torx to remove the two screws from the inside of your JK.
After that, you'll need to pull a little slack on the harness from the door to be able to wiggle it out of the mirror assembly.
Well, SH*T.....
While pulling slack, I snapped the wiring harness in two, rendering it useless. That may be a couple bucks off the resale... Oh well! Maybe i'll get it right on the next side...
NOPE
Well, in a way, mission accomplished! Not like it was gonna hook it back up anyways... Now you have two Manual mirrors that are only two bolts away from being usable on your half doors or relocatable.
Now, this wasn't my overall goal but it did accomplish what I was trying to do and didn't cost me a dime.. Unless I ever decide I need Power/Heated mirrors again.
I hope this helps someone who is needing to do this to relocate your mirrors, and I hope you learn from my mistakes and it goes better for you. If you guys think I should post this in the write-ups section, let me know!
Thanks for reading
EDIT: Not sure why my pictures went crazy... Also not sure how to fix them..
