Retrofit Honda Civic Dimming Mirror w/ Homelink

[VTEC4ME]

I've just done this mod today using the Accord frameless mirror (08V03-3A0-100) and it was quite easy. I had initially bought the $40 harness with the Accord mirror connector that you route to the fusebox (08V03-30A-100) but I didnt end up using it and will return or resell it.

Here are the steps I followed:

In the car:
1) Remove the stock mirror shroud trim pieces (see other videoes in this thread for details on that). It was not hard, more or less I used a small plastic trim tool to pry apart, starting with a plastic razorblade at the parting line in the center of the trim pieces).
2) Unplug the stock mirror connector and remove the stock mirror by rotating counter clockwise about 30 degrees. I did this by hand but you could easily use some channel locks to make it very easy. Mentally note the position and way the twist connector fastens to the windshield as you'll have to align it again this way during reassembly.

On your workbench:
3) Purchase a new Accord Homelink Gen5 mirror, 08V03-3A0-100. (At time of writing this was $161 new from All Discount Parts).
4) Use a small plastic trim tool to pry apart the clamshell of the factory frameless mirror. (Pry at the seam between the black parts, don't pry by the glass.) I was successful in getting the side apart that doesnt have the on/off button first, then moving around the sides, then getting the side with the on/off button. This took maybe 10-15 mins on the first mirror as I was exploring and being gentle, then maybe 2-3 minutes once I had the technique for the 2nd mirror.
5) Repeat the disassembly to the brand new Homelink mirror
6) Swap the internal wiring harness and stem out of your stock Integra mirror onto the Accord frameless mirror. You are swapping the harness so you can use your Integra's factory mirror connector and not the Accord setup.. Note, there are 4 screws that hold the stem in place, then you remove the spring and pull it apart. To get the spring to reinstall behind the ball joint on the stem I just lined things up flat and fastened the screws again evenly and it pushed the spring back in place behind the ball socket itself..
7) Important: While your mirrors are apart and internal mirror harness is exposed you need to cut back or unravel the tape it is wrapped with, use an exacto knife to strip the insulation from the yellow and red wires somewhere in the middle, solder these wires together, then add some electrical tape to insulate. Rewrap the internal mirror harness in harness tape or electrical tape. I imagine you could also do this with some tap connectors instead of soldering and leave the tap connectors inside the mirror's clamshell. This red/yellow fuse is neccessary because the factory mirror connector on the Integra doesnt provide a power feed to the yellow wire which powers the homelink. Splicing these together internally means when your mirror gets power your homelink will to, which when spliced to the red means only when the ignition is on.

Back in the car:
8) Reinstall the mirror and plug the factory connector back in. The fitting where the mirror stem attaches to the windshield has 5 prongs, 4 in a square and then one extra, for alignment I found that extra needs to be facing down near the dash.
9) Reinstall the mirror trim plastics, like most other things it all just snaps back together when lined up.

To me this method is better than using the accessory harness because it means you dont have to run the harness past the airbag and use an accessory position up in your fusebox. it's little cheaper as you only need the mirror but does mean you have to be brave enough to pry apart your brand new homelink mirror, but then again you're prying apart your brand new Integra too so how much extra risk is it really? Like the car it doesnt really have any screws holding the part together so it's just a matter of finding the right trim tool or credit card to pry it apart.

This approach also means if for any reason you wanted to return to stock (can't see why you would) the whole mod is contained within the mirror and can be swapped back to a stock one in no time and doesn't involve pulling apart the a pillar trim or adding wiring to the fusebox.

Nice! Did you take any pics of the process by chance? That is very clever to just swap internals and give it a more seamless approach.

 

[vexingv]

i had initially ordered the Civic homelink mirror last month, but am still waiting for the part to be available. this alternate option with the Accord mirror seams appealing since the mirror is frameless like the original Acura mirror. if going the Accord mirror route, is there a part number just for the internal harness of the original Integra mirror?

 

[355]

I've just done this mod today using the Accord frameless mirror (08V03-3A0-100) and it was quite easy. I had initially bought the $40 harness with the Accord mirror connector that you route to the fusebox (08V03-30A-100) but I didnt end up using it and will return or resell it.

Here are the steps I followed:

In the car:
1) Remove the stock mirror shroud trim pieces (see other videoes in this thread for details on that). It was not hard, more or less I used a small plastic trim tool to pry apart, starting with a plastic razorblade at the parting line in the center of the trim pieces).
2) Unplug the stock mirror connector and remove the stock mirror by rotating counter clockwise about 30 degrees. I did this by hand but you could easily use some channel locks to make it very easy. Mentally note the position and way the twist connector fastens to the windshield as you'll have to align it again this way during reassembly.

On your workbench:
3) Purchase a new Accord Homelink Gen5 mirror, 08V03-3A0-100. (At time of writing this was $161 new from All Discount Parts).
4) Use a small plastic trim tool to pry apart the clamshell of the factory frameless mirror. (Pry at the seam between the black parts, don't pry by the glass.) I was successful in getting the side apart that doesnt have the on/off button first, then moving around the sides, then getting the side with the on/off button. This took maybe 10-15 mins on the first mirror as I was exploring and being gentle, then maybe 2-3 minutes once I had the technique for the 2nd mirror.
5) Repeat the disassembly to the brand new Homelink mirror
6) Swap the internal wiring harness and stem out of your stock Integra mirror onto the Accord frameless mirror. You are swapping the harness so you can use your Integra's factory mirror connector and not the Accord setup.. Note, there are 4 screws that hold the stem in place, then you remove the spring and pull it apart. To get the spring to reinstall behind the ball joint on the stem I just lined things up flat and fastened the screws again evenly and it pushed the spring back in place behind the ball socket itself..
7) Important: While your mirrors are apart and internal mirror harness is exposed you need to cut back or unravel the tape it is wrapped with, use an exacto knife to strip the insulation from the yellow and red wires somewhere in the middle, solder these wires together, then add some electrical tape to insulate. Rewrap the internal mirror harness in harness tape or electrical tape. I imagine you could also do this with some tap connectors instead of soldering and leave the tap connectors inside the mirror's clamshell. This red/yellow fuse is neccessary because the factory mirror connector on the Integra doesnt provide a power feed to the yellow wire which powers the homelink. Splicing these together internally means when your mirror gets power your homelink will to, which when spliced to the red means only when the ignition is on.

Back in the car:
8) Reinstall the mirror and plug the factory connector back in. The fitting where the mirror stem attaches to the windshield has 5 prongs, 4 in a square and then one extra, for alignment I found that extra needs to be facing down near the dash.
9) Reinstall the mirror trim plastics, like most other things it all just snaps back together when lined up.

To me this method is better than using the accessory harness because it means you dont have to run the harness past the airbag and use an accessory position up in your fusebox. it's little cheaper as you only need the mirror but does mean you have to be brave enough to pry apart your brand new homelink mirror, but then again you're prying apart your brand new Integra too so how much extra risk is it really? Like the car it doesnt really have any screws holding the part together so it's just a matter of finding the right trim tool or credit card to pry it apart.

This approach also means if for any reason you wanted to return to stock (can't see why you would) the whole mod is contained within the mirror and can be swapped back to a stock one in no time and doesn't involve pulling apart the a pillar trim or adding wiring to the fusebox.

Thanks for posting this and it helped me when doing this mod on my car. I agree that taking a couple mirrors apart and swapping parts is better than having to take the car apart to add a wiring harness.

I did do a couple things differently though. The first was the removal of the trim from around the base of the mirror. I found it very difficult to remove the trim cover over the base by prying it apart so I ended up pulling the edge of the flat cover down where it fits up against the headliner and then popped the mirror off its base so the mirror and trim were loose and they were only held in place by the sliding tabs on the upper trim piece. I then moved the trim and mirror together from side to side which released the tabs on each side which allowed the whole assembly to came off together. Once on my workbench it was easy to pry apart the mirror base trim using a small screwdriver on the tabs from inside of the trim pieces and remove them from the mirror.

I found the easiest way to pry the mirror housing apart is to start in the middle of the top seam of the housing using a small, thin steel spatula and inserting the tip of the spatula blade into the seam at an angle until it slipped in and under the rear housing. With the blade inserted I was able to insert an old credit card into the resulting gap next to the spatula blade and then pull out the blade. With the credit card holding the gap open I then worked along the seam popping the housing apart. The ends of the housing are the most difficult to pry apart but just be patient and they will eventually pop apart.

I also found that the spring around the plastic ball joint cup on the mirror bracket that needs to be removed to swap the Integra stem into the new mirror rear housing did not go back on by tightening the mount screws during reassembly. I had to put the stem ball through the rear housing, reassemble the spring onto the plastic cup and then snap the cup back onto the stem ball. The photo below shows the spring in question partially removed from the cup.

The last thing I did differently was to purchase a used mirror from a '22-'24 MDX which is the exact same mirror as the Accord one. For some reason they tend to be cheaper in the used market than the Accord mirrors.

That these cars did not come with Homelink or even have it as an option is hard to believe. Thanks again for your post and it really helped me do this mod.

 

[its_vraq]

Thanks for posting this and it helped me when doing this mod on my car. I agree that taking a couple mirrors apart and swapping parts is better than having to take the car apart to add a wiring harness.

I did do a couple things differently though. The first was the removal of the trim from around the base of the mirror. I found it very difficult to remove the trim cover over the base by prying it apart so I ended up pulling the edge of the flat cover down where it fits up against the headliner and then popped the mirror off its base so the mirror and trim were loose and they were only held in place by the sliding tabs on the upper trim piece. I then moved the trim and mirror together from side to side which released the tabs on each side which allowed the whole assembly to came off together. Once on my workbench it was easy to pry apart the mirror base trim using a small screwdriver on the tabs from inside of the trim pieces and remove them from the mirror.

I found the easiest way to pry the mirror housing apart is to start in the middle of the top seam of the housing using a small, thin steel spatula and inserting the tip of the spatula blade into the seam at an angle until it slipped in and under the rear housing. With the blade inserted I was able to insert an old credit card into the resulting gap next to the spatula blade and then pull out the blade. With the credit card holding the gap open I then worked along the seam popping the housing apart. The ends of the housing are the most difficult to pry apart but just be patient and they will eventually pop apart.

I also found that the spring around the plastic ball joint cup on the mirror bracket that needs to be removed to swap the Integra stem into the new mirror rear housing did not go back on by tightening the mount screws during reassembly. I had to put the stem ball through the rear housing, reassemble the spring onto the plastic cup and then snap the cup back onto the stem ball. The photo below shows the spring in question partially removed from the cup.

The last thing I did differently was to purchase a used mirror from a '22-'24 MDX which is the exact same mirror as the Accord one. For some reason they tend to be cheaper in the used market than the Accord mirrors.

That these cars did not come with Homelink or even have it as an option is hard to believe. Thanks again for your post and it really helped me do this mod.

Going down this path as well. Though I'm stuck getting the spring removed from the ball joint cup without bending it. Is it normal to have the spring bend during extraction?

Any tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated.

Another thought I had was to try and depin the terminal connectors (rather than disassembling the mirrors), but I'm not sure how. Is that possible?

 

[355]

I pried the spring off the cup one coil at a time using a flat bladed screwdriver and working around the cup where the spring seats. It's a very stout spring so I doubt you will distort or bend it.

You certainly could just cut off the harness as close as possible to the female receptacle on the new mirror and then cut the pigtail off of the Integra mirror as close to the attachment base of the mirror as possible. Then you could solder each wire from the new mirror to the corresponding color wire from the Integra mirror pigtail.
The problem with the new mirror is that it doesn't have a pigtail long enough to reach the wiring harness female receptacle on the car so de-pinning it wont help. Also the pins in the plug on the new mirror are not correct for the Integra plug and would have to be changed.

 

[its_vraq]

I pried the spring off the cup one coil at a time using a flat bladed screwdriver and working around the cup where the spring seats. It's a very stout spring so I doubt you will distort or bend it.

You certainly could just cut off the harness as close as possible to the female receptacle on the new mirror and then cut the pigtail off of the Integra mirror as close to the attachment base of the mirror as possible. Then you could solder each wire from the new mirror to the corresponding color wire from the Integra mirror pigtail.
The problem with the new mirror is that it doesn't have a pigtail long enough to reach the wiring harness female receptacle on the car so de-pinning it wont help. Also the pins in the plug on the new mirror are not correct for the Integra plug and would have to be changed.

I was able to complete the disassembly, swap the stems, & reassemble it back. Everything looks like it's working as expected. Thanks for clarifying that step, much appreciated!

I should note that I struggled putting the spring back on using your method. There wasn't a lot of clearance for me to put the spring back around the cup. I'm sure there was some clever trick to make it work, but I'm not that clever.

I ended up following the instructions outlined in post #11, lining things up first. I had to ensure the coil initially sat on the edge of the cup's lip. Then drive each screw in a little at a time, moving on to the next screw in a clockwise order, so each coil layer cleared the cup's lip.

The downside with this method is that I couldn't get all the coils surrounding the cup, once all the screws were set in place. About half a coil isn't sitting around the lip properly, which I can live with.

Anywho, thanks to everyone in this thread for making it possible to finally have homelink in my car!

 

[Trey]

Anyone selling their original auto dimming only mirror? DM me if you are. Thanks!

 

[bandit81]

I ordered 08V03-3A0-100, it arrives tomorrow! I may make a video taking the mirrors apart just so we have something to reference for that step. I will take lots of pictures as well.

I am surprised that the internal harness of the Integra mirror has the yellow wire as it is literally not doing anything in the mirror currently.

I got a jumper wire with the pins to jump the red and yellow wire at the harness plug, but now that I am taking apart the mirror I may just solder them. Soldering today is way easier than years past when you use "heat shrinking solder butt connectors", but when using them you should have the wire harness disconnected from electronics as it can send a lot of heat up the wires. If I solder, I will cut the wires cleanly, strip the ends, then slide each end into the butt connector. A quick hit of heat from the heat gun and I'll be good to go. This will remove about 1/4" of length to the harness though, which may be why stripping the wire and splicing is necessary, I will find out tomorrow.

Transferring the stalk or stem is the only part I am not quite understanding. I suspect once I have it apart it will make sense. I am guessing the stem of the Integra is not the same as the Accord, is it that the harness is different?

Thanks guys!

 

[bandit81]

Got the mirror off and split apart, it is actually easy if you are familiar with spreading apart tech toys, phones, etc.. I now see the 4 screws that need to come off also, all makes sense. Can't wait for this mirror to arrive tomorrow!

 

[Trey]

Got the mirror off and split apart, it is actually easy if you are familiar with spreading apart tech toys, phones, etc.. I now see the 4 screws that need to come off also, all makes sense. Can't wait for this mirror to arrive tomorrow!

Interested in selling your integra mirror??

 

[bandit81]

@Trey

I don't know what I would sell you, I am keeping the original harness and mounting bracket, it will only be the mirror and the back casing of the mirror, no stalk/stem/bracket or wire harness.

 

[bandit81]

I used the butt solder connector, soldered the red/yellow wires, then wrapped the wiring with new fleece tape. Ready for the mirror swap when it arrives tomorrow.

For those wonder what the mirror looks like apart:

 

[bandit81]

New 2023 Accord mirror arrived last night! In less than a couple hours I had it installed. There is really no need for a video other than what was linked previously. Photos are worth a 1,000 words, so here are a couple more.

Final disassembly of the non Homelink mirror:

Disassembly of the 2023 Homelink mirror (stalk/stem still connected):

Reinstallation of spring challenging:

The 3 coil spring that adds tension around the ball is a challenge to reinstall (until you know what to do). I spent nearly an hour trying to pull it back on with the ball stem installed. I tried the method of screwing down the 4 screws in hopes the spring would "seat" but I quickly discovered it was starting to disform the plastic back casing. In this scenario the spring was doing nothing but acting as a spacer and applying extra force to the plastic that it wasn't designed to have.

I took a break, walking away from the problem is always the best. I thought about how this was assembled in the factory at first thinking they may have some special rig, I then then came to the conclusion the spring is first installed back into the black mount part then the black mount part is pushed into the ball. This took a bit more force but worked in less than 20 seconds. In conclusion: install the spring back before snapping the ball end of the stem back into the black mount. (I believe @355 explained this in the thread but I didn't get it at the time)

Everything (other than this spring) went smoothly, mirror Homelink buttons work great, mirror looks original to car.

If you live in Columbus and want help with this mod, look me up we can knock it out at a cars and coffee meetup easily.

 

[acurax]

For those who go the route of getting the mirror automatic dimming attachment (08V03-30A-100) here are the installation instructions for the Accord, which is very similar to the installation on the ITS. Steps 17-22 aren't necessary for the ITS due to the factory wiring harnesses being different.

View attachment Mirror_Automatic_Dimming_Attachment(08V03-30A-100).pdf

 

[TopazM3]

I just did this in the manner of glhs…. Many thanks to his contribution to this thread. Everything was pretty straightforward except getting that #&*@##! spring back on. I did try for awhile to put it back on with the mirror reattached to the ball ( after my first attempts to put the spring on first failed). I was successful after I put the stem in a vice and then pushed the mirror/spring assembly back on. It’s nice to get rid of my visor mount remote.