Prius v: Turn Signal Mirror Install

OK for those that don't know about it, I am not going to re-invent the wheel. There is a (massive) post in the Prius III threads about modifying the car side view mirrors with turn signal/puddle lamp/marker lights. You can read all about it here: DIY JDM style side mirrors combo lights (Signal+Parking+Courtesy lights) | PriusChat

What I am going to do instead is share my experience installing and point out the differences to v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) owners. While the v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) may share a lot of DNA with the Prius, I found the wiring is a different story. As I noted above though, I am not going to do a complete rewrite. I will however, happily respond to any questions.

I had thoroughly reviewed the Prius thread and in advance of the kit coming, I started digging into the wiring to see how much was the same. None was!

My first challenge was trying to find a source for wiring diagrams. I tried ebay, online auto sites, no one had the Prius v as it was too new. Finally I came upon a Toyota site that sells access to documents via subscription. I bought two days access for $15 and started digging in. Site is here and I HIGHLY recommend it if you are going to do anything to your car. It covers it all: https://techinfo.toyota.com.

With the confidence of the documentation I started removing the trim pieces to get access to the wiring. I have attached all of the trim pieces that I needed to remove.

Once I had access to the wiring, and the mirror, I started with the mirror disassembly. So here is my removed mirror and the new cover and light assembly:



Couple odd things I noticed when I took the mirrors apart. On the drivers side mirror, I had a gaping hole where the third screw for the signal was to go (on the mirror side. I ended up finding a large washer that was able to cover the hole and still help reinforce the light to the mirror. The other odd thing is that the passenger side mirror had zero adhesive.





In order to remove the cover from the mirror, the OP had used dimes to hold the tabs open. I found they didn't fit all tab locations so I decided to use nails instead.



Anyhow, got the covers off, installed the lights, threaded the wires through the housing.



Here is the finished product:






So the mirrors were pretty straight forward, but a few things I ran into:

1. The kit comes with a short length of wire (~16") that ends in crimps for connectors. It also comes with a much longer bundle of wires (~48") that has the male connector housing for the crimps on the 16" wire as well as the matching side (female) to join the two wires. Do NOT insert the crimps on the short wire into the housing on the longer wire. You will not get the wires with connector housing attached through the mirror housing and getting the crimps out of the connector housing once you put them in is a PITA. Put the housing on once you have fed the wires through the mirror assembly and into the door (when the mirror is re-attached).
2. Some folks had commented on their mirrors coming loose after they installed. The adhesive is not what holds the mirror (one of mine didn't even have any). There are clips that hold the mirror to the motor assembly, make sure you hear these click into place when you put the mirror back on.

Once the mirror is back on the car, feeding through the rubber gasket to the interior of the car was real troublesome. I followed instructions from the OP and removed the loom holder, but feeding the wires was still difficult....until I realized that the rubber gasket between the door and the car comes off the car really easy. I was then able to compress the gasket like an accordian and easily thread my wires through.



Wiring!

Now in the OP, most Prius owners were tapping their courtesy lights (the ones that light up outside when you walk up to the car like the dome lights) either directly into the dome lights and running wires from the headliner down the B pillar or tapping into the lines from the A Pillar. I did not want to either, and this is where the Toyota Technical Information System was well worth the $15.

Drivers Side:

The Drivers side turn signal and marker light connections were found on the same connection block (LR1) located behind the drivers footwell panel:



Pin 31 is the left turn signal and is a yellow wire. Pin 36 is the left marker light and is light green.



On the middle black connector of the block you can see both wires They are the thinner yellow and light green ones.

Ground was just tied to a ground I found in the footwell connectors. I found that the majority of them seem to be white with black wires.



Now, for the courtesy light, I had to get way under the dash. There is an ECU just above the gas pedal. There are a number of connectors on the front (towards the seat) and a couple on the back (towards the firewall). The connection we need is on the back unfortunately. It is tight, but is doable. It is the 2A connector on the ECU and the pin we need is 52 with a pink wire. Now once you make this tap, it goes to the common (black) wire for the courtesy light.







Here is a pic i tried to get of it. you can just make out the splice on the pink wire. Note, you see a white wire coming out of my tap, but that is not the courtesy light wire. With all my splices, I like to use a short section of wire to make the splice, twist the actual wire to this short section, test and then solder and shrink tube the connection to make it permanent.



The white courtesy light lead has an easier connection. It taps into another connector in the footwell (OL1). This wire was labeled as sky blue on the schematic, but I found it was a lavender wire. In any case it is PIN 22 of this connector.





I also tapped both courtesy lines and ran them across to the passenger side to feed that mirror as well.

Passenger side:

Passengers side turn and marker lights connect into a similar connector as on the drivers side but this one is LS1 and is behind the passenger footwell panel. The Pins you need are 53 for the right hand turn signal (sky blue wire) and 68 for the marker (green). Ground just goes to a white with black wire again.



Here is a finished look at the drivers side:



Some video

*warning - not GREAT video

 

Yes, same kit as used on the 3rd gen Prius

 

No trouble at all! Believe me if all did not go well, my post would have been along the lines of 'the package was lost in the mail...'

 

I ended up tapping into Ground wires on the harness. They were white with black stripe. Double check the wire with a continuity tester before tapping. I think all white w black stripe are ground, but testing it first will confirm.

 

You will need to remove the connector from the back of the ECU to really get at it. Still really tight back there though. Use a mirror to help see the wire and what you are doing (helps for removing the little yellow clip on the 2A connector as well).

 

Sorry to hear you didn't get it.

Did you get the yellow clip off?