How To Add (98-01) Lighted Side Mirrors on a (95-97) | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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How To Add (98-01) Lighted Side Mirrors on a (95-97)

Sbyrne97

Well-Known Member
Joined
February 18, 2008
Messages
538
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2
City, State
Mason Neck, Virginia
Year, Model & Trim Level
97' Mountaineer
I have always wanted lighted side mirrors on my 97 mountaineer. But as we all know only 98 - 01 explorer/mountaineers had them.

Well this weekend i went to Pick and Pull and got some side mirrors off a 00 explorer to see if it was plug and play. They weren't....but with a little splicing I have added puddle lamps to my mounty...along with side steps...auto lamps and miscellaneous items

First off get your Side mirrors from a 98 - 01 and Pig tail connecter from 95-97

photo.jpg


The connecter off a 95-97 is a 3 pin connecter, whereas the 98-01 is a 5 pin connecter

photo-1.jpg


The two extra pins (98-01) are for the lamp inside the mirror. These are the two black wires going to the connecter.

photo-2.jpg


The wire colors for 95-97 and 98-01 mirrors are all the same. Purple Green & Yellow for the right and Red Blue & Yellow for the left

What I did was cut the black tube that holds the wires and splice all the mirror wires first. Just match up color to color. The black wires are both colored the same so there is no designated power or negative wire. I spliced two 18 gage wires to both the black wires.

photo-3.jpg


Next place the mirror on the door and feed the connecter and two black wires into the door. Pull the two black wires in through the bottom left bolt hole for the lamp.

Plug in the mirror connecter to test for functionality

Now to connect the power wire for the side mirror lamp. The easiest choice is the puddle lamp used for the door, it is a black wire with blue stripe. For the negative wire, connect it to the door ground which is behind the door cover. It's a green 8mm bolt which is already used as a ground.

Check for illumination...Put the door cover back on and your DONE!!

Now you have puddle lights and side mirror lamps

I'll have pictures up soon...for better explanation
 



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Nice!
 






Great info! Someday I'll be putting a set of heated puddle lamp mirrors on my 94 Limited.
 






Ah I thought of adding the heated option...because they had a limited at the JY but, the wire for heat is connected to the rear window defroster switch. so you would have to route the extra wire through the door which requires drilling or opening that huge wire loom connecter in the door

Plus i live in virginia which rarely gets cold enough to frost
 






Ah I thought of adding the heated option...because they had a limited at the JY but, the wire for heat is connected to the rear window defroster switch. so you would have to route the extra wire through the door which requires drilling or opening that huge wire loom connecter in the door

Plus i live in virginia which rarely gets cold enough to frost

Luckily mine is already equipped with heated mirrors so I'd only need to run a wire of the puddle lamp.
 












SOOOO Glad I saw this post as this was gonna be my project for this weekend. And i'm sure when I would of seen the 2 black wires I would of been like WTF???? Thanks again for this thread.

BTW where are the pics at Sbyrne97?
 






Well done. I'm going the other way- will be adding the lights to the bottom of the front doors of my 2000... Too dark on the floor in there without them... This still helps those looking for wire id's!
 






Just pulled my left mirror and am bout to splice it with the 98-01 mirrors but my 95-97 wires are blue, yellow and white. Not purple, green and yellow.
 






Hmm well Im guessing ford used a white wire for your mirror than a red. The left "driver" side mirror on mine had Red Blue and Yellow colored wires. The passenger side had Green Purple and Yellow. So you have all the right wire colors but white. Which Im assuming is equivalent to red.

Joe the small door light really helps illuminate the carpet for passengers...also helps if you drop something off your lap onto the ground

The pics should be up there though if you don't see them let me know i can email them too you
 






I wired them up last night and whenever i would push left or right on the switch, the mirror would go up and down. Same with the up and down on the switch. It woupd go left and right then. So I got frusturated and pulled them out and threw the non puddle lights back in for now.
 






Why not just switch the wires? Sounds like they were just hooked to the wrong leads...
 






Thats the thing i did and no luck. Gonna mess around with it again this weekend.
 






Thats the thing i did and no luck. Gonna mess around with it again this weekend.

I plan on doing mine as well, this summer though. since mine is earlier a 96', I believe my wires would be similar to yours. unlike the 98' which was only one year off of having the lights, when you figure out what wires go to what, would you mind posting them, or snapping a photo?

Also how would you hook up the lighted steps? If anybody knows?
 






I plan on doing mine as well, this summer though. since mine is earlier a 96', I believe my wires would be similar to yours. unlike the 98' which was only one year off of having the lights, when you figure out what wires go to what, would you mind posting them, or snapping a photo?


Def will do.
 






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