How-To: LED Signal Markers Install

[Tork Monster]

** INSTALLATION OF LED TURN SIGNAL MIRROR CAPS ON A 300C **

2-03-07

This procedure should also work on Chargers and Magnums.

PROJECT DIFFICULTY: moderate

FRUSTRATION LEVEL: moderately high

TIME REQUIRED: 3-5 hours DOE (+ painting)

TOOLS REQUIRED:

• Phillips and Flat-Head screwdrivers
• Razor blade
• Silicone sealant
• Heavy-duty outdoor double-backed tape
• 8mm socket or wrench
• Torx wrench set
• Wire strippers
• 18-20 gauge electrical butt connectors
• Electrical tape
• Shrink tubing
• Small zip ties
• ~10' piece of 22-gauge 2-line insulated wire
• ~36" piece of 12-gauge wire
• 1/4" power drill,
• Needle-nose pliers
• Wire cutters
• Plenty of Heineken.
• If you choose to paint your mirror covers yourself you will also need paint supplies.
• And more Heineken.

The 300-Series Chrysler needs turn signals in the mirror covers… Chrysler didn’t install them so an aftermarket company is making caps that install over the stock mirror covers. These are available through eBay from a company based in Hong Kong. These typically are listed at a starting bid of $99. If you bid on them and someone outbids you, hold tight. I was outbid and the company sent me a “second chance offer” for $99.

The listing offers unpainted fiberglass covers that look like this:

The caps I received were already primered and only required a light sanding before painting.

(1)- REVIEW & PAINTING:
Before you paint the caps, test fit BOTH caps on your stock mirrors to make sure there are no major problems. If one cap is somewhat loose, you can use extra mounting tape to secure it.
-Remove the LED lights from the casings.

-Sand them with at least 250 grit paper.

-Either have a body shop paint them, or go to a auto body paint supply store and buy a pint of matching Base Coat color, with hardener, and Clear Top Coat with hardener. If you don’t have a compressor and spray gun, don’t worry; just buy a few Preval spray kits to do the work.

Here is a link to the website for info on Preval sprayers:
http://www.prevalspraygun.com/howto.htm

Make sure you paint the caps in a dry dust-free environment. Follow the instructions on the paint cans to apply. If you goof up or get runs in the paint, let it dry and sand smooth… try again. Make sure to paint the edges of the caps completely, as that is what you will see from inside the car.

(2)- MIRROR REMOVAL:
In order to properly install the caps and wire them so they actually work, the original mirror must be removed and partially disassembled. To remove the mirrors, the door panels and other trim must also be removed.

Now is the time to really look at your mirrors and decide if you really want this that bad…


-Remove the door panel. There are two hidden screws holding the panel in place, as well as a few exposed screws along the bottom, and several plastic “push-pin” clips.
One hidden screw is located under the door handle pull. Use a small flat-head screwdriver on the top slot of the plastic plug to open it (the bottom is hinged). You can usually pop open the cover on the lower screw with your fingernail (top slot again). The lower plug is located under the door pull, just above the storage bin.
Remove the screws along the bottom perimeter of the door panel.

Next, remove the plastic fasteners ( these are really cool- to remove them you push the center in, to install them you pull it out; you press them flush to secure them in place)

Push the center of the pins in about ¼”

Now the fasteners can be removed. Be careful, they break easily! One way to remove them is to pull on the panel after all have the centers depressed, but then they pop out and can easily get lost.

-Pull the bottom of the door panel outwards and lift on the entire panel to unlock it from the tabs located along the top, and the lip along the window seal.
There are many electrical connections to be disconnected before the door panel can be removed. Every electrical clip will have at least one tab that must be depressed or moved to disconnect the clip. Study these before forcing apart; breaking a clip can result in a poor connection and future electrical problems. Don’t worry about marking these; they can only be assembled one way.

Rotate the blue plastic clip from the door handle linkage away from the linkage “arm”, and pull upward until the linkage pops out. Remove the panel and set aside.

(3)- -REMOVE THE MIRROR:
Pull back on the plastic window surround behind the mirror to expose the mirror mounting nuts.

Press the tab and remove the electrical connection from the mirror, as seen in the picture.
Remove the (3) 8mm nuts to remove the mirror. Once the mirror is removed from the car, carefully remove the thin foam gasket from the mounting base of the mirror.

(4)- MIRROR DISASSEMBLY:
Take the mirror inside where there is a lot of light so you can clearly see inside of the housing. Press the inner side of the mirror inwards so the outer edge of the mirror is forced out, and you can see inside the mirror housing.

The mirror itself is held in place by several clips onto a plastic mounting flange. Use a thin flathead screwdriver to gently pry the tabs out to release the mirror from the flange.
You may need to use several screwdrivers to pry a few tabs simultaneously since these will continue to pop back in place until you have unhooked a few. DO NOT PRY TOO HARD! These are plastic and will break fairly easily.
Once you have a few pulled back from the flange, the others will easily follow.

With the mirror out of the way you will be able to see the plastic tabs that hold the cover in place. Use a flathead screwdriver to pry these tabs back to remove the cover.

(5)- LED CAP INSTALLATION:

Hold the cap next to the stock cover to locate the best place for the wiring to enter the mirror. Drill a ~1/4” hole in the stock mirror cover, as seen below. Feed the wire through the hole.

Apply double-backed tape to the inside of the cap. It is important to get heavy-duty exterior mounting tape rather than the lightweight interior foam tape. The drivers side cap fit much tighter than the passenger side, so I applied several more strips of tape to the passenger-side cap (diver’s side seen in above photo).

(6)- WIRING:
NOW, you have to feed the LED wiring through the center of the swivel hinge, along side the factory wiring that powers the mirror. This is a PAIN. The first step is to remove the adhesive that plugs this passage from any water coming in through the hinge from the outside. A very gummy adhesive surrounds the wire loom and must be removed to allow room for the LED wiring. I used a thin flat-head screwdriver from the mounting side on the hinge to dig into the ball of adhesive. Pull the electrical connection to one side and dig at the adhesive until you can pull some out. This stuff is extremely strong and will pull out of the mirror housing without breaking if you are persistent. Just make sure you don’t damage the wiring harness or clip while doing this.

Once all of the adhesive is removed from the housing, feed a ~12 gauge wire from inside the mirror down through the hinge until you can see it coming through the other side. After about three beers and an hour of swearing, you can usually reach it with needle-nose pliers. Bend a hook in the other end of the wire and hook the LED mirror wire to pull it through. Be careful not to brake the insulation on the LED wires.

Pull the wiring through, expose the adhesive tape, and carefully press the new cap in place over the stock mirror cover (NOTE: make sure the stock mirror cover is clean of all dirt & wax. Use a solvent to remove any wax and oils or the tape will not stick).
I considered using clear silicone to adhere the caps in place, but I had the tape and wanted to avoid the mess of silicone. Time will tell whether the tape is long lasting…
Once everything is in place, replace the goopy-glue that plugged the mirror passage with silicone or other sealant.
The mirror can now be installed on the door. Make sure to replace the thin foam gasket on the mirror base before mounting it on the door frame.

(7)- ROUTING THE WIRING THROUGH THE DOOR:

Follow the factory wiring harness from the mirror down the door and through the rubber boot at the door hinge. The door panel is covered with a sound-deadening plastic, held in place with more of that tough adhesive you pulled from the mirror housing. If you try to just pull the plastic away from the door, you will rip the plastic. It is easiest to simply cut the adhesive with a razor blade.

Once the plastic is pulled away, you can thread the LED wiring through the door and into the rubber boot at the door hinge. Use small zip-ties to secure the LED wiring to the factory wiring. You must secure the LED wiring all the way inside the door, or you will run the chance that the wiring could get caught up in the power window when it is rolled down.
Securing zip-ties to the wiring inside the door using only one left hand is a great exercise in dexterity and patience.

More beers required here.

However, if this step proves impossible to accomplish, cease consumption of beer and ask a neighbor kid to do it for you.

Remove the rubber boot from the plastic wiring grommet mounted in the door jamb.

Once the rubber boot is pulled back from the grommet, use a thin screwdriver to release the four clips holding the grommet in place. Pull the grommet from the steel frame.
Thread the LED wiring through the door and the rubber boot.
Drill a ¼” hole through the upper recess in the plastic grommet, and thread the LED wiring through the hole.
Remove the door sills and the kickpanel in the footwell. Thread the LED wire into the footwell through the open hole in the sheetmetal. That 12-gauge wire can be helpful here since that area is filled with foam panels and other sound-deadening panels.

(8)- ROUTING THE WIRING INSIDE THE CAR

The passenger side was easy; up towards the dash, and down along the existing wiring there. The driver’s side, however, was not so easy… I ended up drilling a hole through the sheetmetal just above the door sill to thread the wire. It was the only place where the wire would come through. I wrapped the LED wire with shrink tubing and taped it in place to protect it from being cut by the drilled hole (see photo).

Once the wiring is carried through you can replace the rubber boot and the plastic grommet. Roll the boot inside-out and fit it over the grommet flange before popping the grommet back into the hole in the sheetmetal.
Thread the wiring along a factory wiring loom up under the dash and across to the passenger side. Join up with the LED wiring from the passenger side mirror and carry them down to the wire loom under the passenger-side carpeting.

(9)- CONNECT THE WIRING TO THE POWER:

An earlier post in the forum (Freebird’s) indicated that a white wire with yellow stripes was the passenger-side turn signal wire, and a white wire with dark green stripes was the driver’s-side signal wire.
The problem here is that there are two identical white-with-dark-green-stripes wires in this bundle. I studied this for quite a while before just flipping a coin on which to cut first.
Nope… that one is to the Back-Up Warning Sensor.

Good, the other one worked.

It is best to cut the wires up on the firewall rather than the floorboard, to avoid the possibility of shorting the connection if you somehow fill the footwell with water. Make sure to use quality connectors on the wiring (I used butt connectors and shrink tubing, then electrical tape).
NOTE: There is a polarity on these LED lights. The wire that has wording on the insulation must be connected to the power, and not the wire that has a dashed line (that is the ground wire). Wire it up reverse and they won’t work! Drill a small hole in the sheetmetal in the footwell and use a screw to attach the ground.

(10)- NOW YOU CAN TEST THE LIGHTS!

The 4-way flashers will light ‘em up if everything is done correctly. If you see sparks and smoke starts billowing up from the dash, time to get more beer.

(11)- REASSEMBLING DOOR PANELS:
A few things I should mention about reassembling the door panels.
-There are some white plastic tabs that secure the upper section of the door panels to the door frame. These will stay in place on the door frame when you lift the door panel to remove it. While it is possible to reinstall the panel by reversing this, it is much easier to remove these plastic tabs from the door frame and pop them into the door panel. Then you can simply press the door panel inward when it is in place and the pins on these clips will click into the sockets (sorry I didn’t take pictures of this)

-The plastic interior fasteners that hold the edges of the door panel in place must have the center pin pressed back out to reinstall. Press the center out until it extends about ¼” out from the surface of the fastener head. Once pressed in place, simply push the center pin flush and it is secure.

TA-DA!
Shown with the flashers on (these are much brighter than this pic shows).

When I had the door panels off, I took the opportunity to remove the upper chrome window trim and black out the lower trim. I used blackout tape on the lower trim to “test” what it will look like if I paint them.

Mod ‘till you drop!