I asked about a year ago if the RX-8 was pre-wired in the touring models for side mirror defrosters...with only one response, unfortunately. I would only like to report, for those that enjoy cloth seats, but would still like to see out their side mirrors in the winter (and can get their hands on a set of GT mirrors), that the wiring harness to the mirrors IS pre-wired for the defrosters.

I gambled, and purchased a set of GT mirrors from eBay and installed them last weekend. The car colored tops pop out (accessed inside the housing), so I just replaced the sunlight silver ones with my titanium gray and plugged them in. I waited a week to actually get something worthy to defog them, but was tickled pink to see them work.

 

sweet.

Good info

 

Well, I guess you have some additional upgrades if you want to be a part of the elite GT crowd. The rear window defroster is the one that will activate the side mirrors. I guess you should thank me for giving you another project. Your welcome.

 

One note.. it may be a cheaper upgrade then you folks think. I took apart my mirror (to add puddle lights). The mirror housing for the GT and non-GT are the same. The only difference is a set of purple wires running to the mirror for the defrost.

For around $30 you can buy the "heated" mirror faces.. run two new wires through the housing and connect them to the (presumably already there) wiring harness and have GT side mirrors for only around $30 per mirror plus a bit of labor.

--Mark

 

Where were you a year ago...(just kidding). I had considered that, but I had the parts list for the 8 and it showed different part numbers for the GT housing and the touring housing. Unfortunately, I had to figure it out with my purchase. Although, I got both my mirrors for $100.00 on eBay. I have never actually purchased any accessories new, because there are so many people trying to make their 8 different...areo flares, bumpers, mirrors, wheels, etc. are always available for a fraction of the retail.

 

Heated mirror's are OEM parts. If you go to the dealer and order replacement mirror glass, they'll ask you "heated or non-heated". AFAIK, only the GT model cars have heated mirrors from the factory.

Puddle lights, see https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...=Puddle+Lights

 

When someone gets to this, let me know and I'll help you go through the process and get the new mirrors hooked up.

My suggestion is to get two new wires, purple if possible just to help keep the color codes.. Then unwrap the harness inside the mirror and rewrap it with the two new wires.. attach the wires to the mirror (solder and heat shrink is probably easiest..) factory is a small slide on (female) spade connector with heat shrink covering it... [I don't know where to buy such small spade connectors.]

Then on the car door side, just find the hardness and tap the wires on the car side of the harness for the mirrors. They're not purple on the harness, but the connector is basically setup (this is from memory) as a 4x2 grid. Where one row is the mirror movement, 4 wires.. the other row is the heated mirrors.. basically setup as X B B X (X = wire B = blank). Just find that, tap into the two wires and you'll have the heated mirrors.

--Mark

 

Just for reference, the wires on the harness are brown. I believe it is two rows of four...the brown ones are in the second row, first and last.

 

It must be a US thing. Canadian RX-8's get the heated mirrors on both the GS and GT. Oh, we get headlight washers too.

 

Showoff!

 

Bump,

Anyone know if the wiring harness is there on the Sport Model RX-8? I have a sport model and the only thing I miss is the heated mirror since I drive my in the winter here in the Midwest.

 

I second this request, although I rarely drive my car in cold weather.
If someone has pics of the hookup as well, that'd be great. Post a DIY please

 

This is some interesting stuff. I live in the south, but I just can't resist a good mod ;-)

Just a question for you mirror-savvy folks- On my A4, one of my favorite "little things" was the blue mirrors, which subdued headlights from behind. Any idea on how I can get that on my 8? Know of any film or spray I can use with success?

Yargg..

 

I'll take apart my mirror tomorrow and let you know if you don't have an answer by then. I have an 05 sport.

zenmoused

 

Well, I took apart the mirror and the little speaker housing on the door and have not seen any purple wires or harnesses. Anyone know if the harnesses in the tourings are found farther in the door? I'm hoping I'm just missing something.

 

The wiring is mirror through the door panel, then out in the door.. the harness is about 3 inches or so long, then it plugs in.

The purple wires were on the MIRROR side of the plug. The car side, I don't remember the color.

Look at the car side of the plug, are there two wires that are not connected? If so, I suspect they are your heated mirrors, you just have to tap into them.

 

If you can find the Derwankel puddle light instructions, they are going to be your best source of "mirror disssassembly" that I know of.

Basically, its:

1) Remove all of the screws holding on the inner door panel.. (there are a couple of hidden ones.. I THINK there was at least one behind the switch panel)
2) Remove the cover where the speaker is (on the inside of the door.. it just pulls off)
3) Pry out the door panel to release the clips.. once all of the clips are released, you lift up on the panel to slide it off the door.. (if you just pull you will BREAK YOUR DOOR panel! You need to lift up!)

Once you are there, you now have the wiring and mirror exposed.. disconnect the wiring harness.. then to remove the mirror there is basically a screw (or two?) behind where the speaker was.. remove those. the mirror will be lose. You can then remove it from the car (be careful, there are plastic tabs that break off easily. Try not to break them.. if they do break, it's not the end of the world.. I think they're just alignment tabs.)

To dissassemble the mirror, you push on the upper outside edge of the mirror, then read in from the lower inside edge (behind the mirror) and pull the glass off. There are 3 ball sockets that hold the glass in place.. once those are released it comes apart really easily.

The painted cover of the mirror is just that a cover.. you can remove it to get a bit more access.. but you have to pull apart the front to get access to the inside.

Once you have everything apart, you can disassemble where the wiring goes through the mirror and either add new wires beside the existing harness (described in the Derwankel instructions), or you can unwrap the existing harness and re-wrap it with the new wires inside.... this is how I did my puddle lamp install.

(If you can't tell, I recommend you use Derwankel's instructions.. Also you may want to buy/install puddle lamps at the same time.. they're really easy to install if you are in the mirror and wiring already.)

--Mark

 

I haven't taken the door off yet- anyone figure out if the sport model has the wiring in place for mirror defrosters? I'd love to know this before I open the door so I can know whether or not to buy the mirrors, and do those and the puddle lights in one day

Thanks to anyone who could shed some light!

 

You can find out by popping the mirror glass out.

 

My '05 Sport has heated mirrors... I know it's not supposed to, but they defrost when I put on the rear window defroster. Looks like I saved $30!
EDIT: actually it doesn't. That was just a strange coincidence where the mirrors happened to not defrost for the first couple of minutes of driving, and then defrost soon after putting the rear defrost on... happened a couple of times, but now that it's colder, its clear that they don't.