Heated Mirrors Finished (Just in time for summer :-)

[Chris FJ80]

Well I started to install mirror heating pads back in the fall but got delayed with a bunch of other projects, so just finished the wiring today.

Looks like I won't get much use out of them for the next several months, but wanted to post these pics before I forget.

I followed the same basic procedure as SeanAndHis80 wrote up here: https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/heated-rearview-mirrors-finished.268442/

Just did a couple of things differently and took a lot of pics, so posting them up here, but you need to refer to SeanAndHis80's write up to get all the steps.

First step was to get the mirrors off the backing. I used warm/hot water. Let them soak a while then slowly wedged a wooden paint mixing stick in to pry it loose. It worked really well.

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[Chris FJ80]

Next step was to remove the adhesive. I tried a number of products. The professional strength goof off worked the best.

 

[Chris FJ80]

Put the pads on - they are self adhesive and once on tested to confirm the resistance was about 12 ohms.

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[Chris FJ80]

I used a type of mirror mastic that I picked up at the local hardware store. Way more than I needed, but did not want to experiment with some other adhesive.

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[Chris FJ80]

Next step was to confirm the pads worked. Ambient temp was about 67 degrees, so showing about 15 degrees heating here

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[Chris FJ80]

Next I rigged up some connectors and routed them into the mirror housings through the same channel as the mirror motor controls.

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[Chris FJ80]

Next step was to pull out the wiring harness from the body back through the door. Though there are a lot of connectors and wiring stuffed in the drivers side kick panel, this really was not too bad. I pulled the harness and rubber boots all the way out through the door so I had easy access.

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[Chris FJ80]

I did not want a straight run of wire all the way into the vehicle, so spliced in a two-terminal connecter that I pulled from a 4Runner at my local pick and pull.

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[Chris FJ80]

Got the wires (red and green) routed through the boots, then re-taped the harness, and put the harness and boots back in place and pulled the wires through into the kick panel.

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[Chris FJ80]

I too tapped into the Blue-Yellow wire on the defrost relay. I wanted to be able to connect and disconnect each of the mirrors separately, so spliced up two connectors, one for each side.

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[Chris FJ80]

A couple of more pics showing the mirror-side connectors, the completed connector assembly, and the ground point in the driver's kick panel. On the passenger side, I also used the kick panel ground for that mirror, so just ran the one wire across the vehicle.

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[Chris FJ80]

So even though this was our first 100 degree day in AZ, the heating pads seem to work well. 103 degrees before turning on the defrost circuit then they quickly got up to 120 degrees.

Just need to wait for the cooler weather now to really try them and get some good use out of them.

In retrospect, the mod is pretty straightforward. Hard to go wrong with SeanAndHis80's instructions.

Hopefully a few of these pics make the wiring and a few other steps easier for the next guy who tries it.

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[wearsabrowncoat]

Thank you for posting up, you probably saved me a big headache. I recently installed heated pads and ran wires in conjunction with yodaTEQ mirror mounts. I ran out of energy so hadn't finished the wiring. I was going to splice into the defrost switch and didn't realize the original post had been updated to tap into the relay. Btw, what year is your 80? It looks like some years have different colored wires and the mud app doesn't show your sig line.

 

[Chris FJ80]

My 80 is 1995. Good luck!

 

[DARKNESS]

Awesome! What pad did you use?

 

[Chris FJ80]

The same as SeanAndHis80. Bought it off of eBay from the guy in Poland. IIRC, I used a slightly larger pad than Sean did.

I just did an eBay search, but could not find the exact seller. Lots of other hits when searching mirror heating pads, mirror heat grid

 

[wearsabrowncoat]

Finishing touch would be a little heated mirror vinyl decal on the mirror.

Or maybe laser etched glass if I had been smart enough to do it before install.

 

[Chris FJ80]

Nice idea! I was also thinking about relabeling the switch so it shows both the rear defrost and mirror icons -- might be a tight squeeze to get both to fit though

 

[NLXTACY]

Finishing touch would be a little heated mirror vinyl decal on the mirror.

Or maybe laser etched glass if I had been smart enough to do it before install.

I am doing that now that I have a really good Yagi laser etcher that is 4 blocks from me.

 

[NLXTACY]

Nice idea! I was also thinking about relabeling the switch so it shows both the rear defrost and mirror icons -- might be a tight squeeze to get both to fit though

If only there were someone to help facilitate that