Fitting ACS Mirrors

[330ciSport]

Guys,

Now got the ACS mirrors sprayed and ready to go on. Car is booked into dealership next week to get them fitted along with Eibach springs.

However, I've just worked out that I'm probably gonna get nailed for at least £140 for them to fit the mirrors alone. Clearly, this is an absolute waste of money. I've always been too nervous to tamper myself and the ACS instructions are pish.

But, I'm gonna give it a try. The only thing that is causing real concern is the the door trim removal/replacement. What I dont want is a bad fit or rattles to appear when I re-fit it.

Has any one ever produced a step-by-step guide to installing new mirrors? If so, can you point me in the right direction. Also, what the hell are the Torx 20/30 tools that I need?

Thanks.

[Afif]

140 definately soundz like a rip off. How much they charging for the springs? Anyways fas is one of a few people who installed them on here and seems to be fast at it :p

http://sankeys.demon.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=414&highlight=schnitzerdom.

[BigFas]

As afif has said, I've done this (as has Peppernick) and if it was a straight install, yeah, straightforward. However, it isn't. You have to transfer your existing motors into the new housings. And if you're being charged £140 by the dealer, that's actually not bad. it took me 45 mins per side just to transfer the motors. Installing them took about 10 minutes per side! But either way, it's absolutely doable yourself!

Here's some instructions for an M3 mirror install http://www.e46fanatics.com/howto/howtodetail.php?howto_id=6

I initially thought the ACS instructions were crap, but if you look through them methodically it does work. HOWEVER, you will need some brain power to be able to figure out a couple of steps which are unclear / missed out on the printed instructions.

If you're still struggling, you're more than welcome to come down to Slough, I will do it all for you and charge you less than half of what BMW will :D

[BigFas]

Just remembered. You're in Scotland :( Bit too far to travel :D

I can offer step by step guidance over the phone though

[BigFas]

and a torx screw is a star shaped head, you will need a torx20 driver to remove this. Any DIY store will hold them. Just get a spanner set and it'll be in there

[330ciSport]

Big "Fountain of Knowledge" Fas, cheers. Whats the tricky bit about the motors? From looking at the ACS housing, there's 4 countersunk bolts which I assume are for the motor fixings. I assumed it would be a case of:

1. Detach cabing.
2. Undo 4 holding bolts/screws on existing mirror motors.
3. Remove motor.
4. Install motor into ACS housing.
5. cable up and go!

I obviously assume wrong! I'll give it a try this Saturday. If you were kind enough to PM
your mobile no theres every chance I'll need to call on your expertise!

By the way, the £140 was based on 2 hours labour (ACS guidance times) at £70 per hour (dealer labour rates).

[BigFas]

Ok, from memory, this is what you need to do to get the motor out and into your ACS housing assuming your original mirrors are off the car:

1. Take mirror off (this has it's own technique)

2. You will see 3 gold coloured screws holding the motor in place, remove all three and the motor is now free.

3. Under the motor, you will see what I can only describe as a plastic "layer" which is attached to the painted backpiece. This is held on with 5-6 screws, you need to remove all these screws and separate this layer from the backpiece.

4. Now we have to deal with the connector. Take a close look at the connector, you will see that the connector is actually made up of two pieces, an inner portion where the wiring actually goes to, and a sleeve which allows you to slide the connector into the control module. You need to separate this. Looking at the top of the connector where the wires are all coming out, it should be pretty obvious how to do this.

5. Once this is done, get a pen and paper. Looking at the pins, you will see the wires numbered, 1-6 on one side 7-12 on the other (assuming you have a 12pin connector of course). Note the colour of the wire and it's position, taking notes of the blank spaces too. there is a pair of wires, black or brown, where they are actually the same colour but different positions, just put some tape on one wire to differentiate it. Using a SMALL screwdirver, slide all the pins out of the housing

6. Slide off the rubber grommit that's on the main cable

7. remove the motor entirely from the mirror housing, feeding through the wires. The baseplate is not removable on the stock mirrors, that's why you need to take apart the connector block otherwise there's no way the wires will feed through

8. That's it. The motor is now removed. Reverse the process in the exact order to fit the new motor into the ACS housing.

Bottom line is, it's just time consuming and a little fiddly. Definitely not difficult!

I know this is a long post, but hopefully it makes sense!

[330ciSport]

Feckin nora! Glad I asked.

Cheers Fas, suspect I'm still gonna need that mobile no.!

[BlackBimmerUK]

dismantling the motors is definitetly time consuming, but everything else should be pretty easy. I just used the ASC instructions and the ones on fanatics and luckly had no problems. Hope it goes well.

[330ciSport]

Well, after 6 hours on Friday night finally got the mirrors fitted. What a major league pain in the arse. Kinda wishing I had just left it to the dealers now!

How feckin fiddly are the connector wires? Snapped two of the connectors in the process. I have also lost full movement on the passenger side and some on the drivers side. I think I may have mis-aligned the passenger motor and when I went to re-fix it, one of the 3 retaining bolts sheared! :eek:

As a result, into the dealership tomorrow to try and resolve! [hmm

Moral of the story: if it aint broke, it will be by the time I've finished with it!

Will post some pics later today! By the way, feckin small mirrors!

[BlackBimmerUK]

sorry to hear you had so many problems, and I know what you mean by small mirrors. But i dont think i could back to those old mirrors. They just look so uglyyy.

Any pics?

[Estoril Sport]

I also found the mirrors to be a bit small at first,I believe the glass is slightly concaved so you see more within the given area. So far I have not had any problems driving with them. One thing I would have thought that the wind noise would be less, but have not noticed much difference with the ACS mirrors fitted.