strife

I really like folding mirrors, but no US E350 of my vintage (2013) has them. They are very expensive from MB (if they would sell them in the US at all), so I considered looking for a used set from Canada. The problem with Canada is usually shipping and ‘import” BS/expense, which makes this very unattractive (although some Canadian companies have “border” US representatives that get daily deliveries). Also, due to a past bad experience with a US dismantler, I gave up on this idea.

Anyway, I took a chance last year and got a new set from China at a “reasonable” price on eBay. They were delivered surprisingly quickly (by today’s standards) and looked pretty good. I had a choice of white or black housings, I chose black, and the paint on the mirror housings was decent although they did chip a tiny bit on the edge upon disassembly (being black, not really noticeable). The supplied mirrors were low-cost “rest of world” mirrors, with defrosting elements, and that’s all. Both sides are pre-wired for “auto-dimming” mirror glass. There was NO PROVISION for blind spot, etc., wiring in the mirror or in the wiring harnesses. There is, however, a courtesy lamp, complete with bulb and wiring. SO, this matched my car options except for the power folding. The following is an account of my installation; not responsible for any issues that one may have in performing these procedures.

I removed my stock assemblies and moved the mirrors (on the bench) and removed/replaced the housings (on the car). I did this in a particular order, because the housings are a PITA and I didn’t want to remove glass from three feet up, and the housings are IMO easier to remove/refit when mounted on the car. It is possible to remove the housings without removing the glass if you are careful and set the mirrors parallel to the seam in housing. You see these guys on YouTube just go in there with a plastic trim tool and pop them off. This is just my opinion, but I would absolutely not recommend this (if you MUST do this, do NOT put any pressure on the EDGES of the mirror (the plastic backing does not extend to the mirror edges). These are pretty expensive, particularly the auto-dimming driver side glass. On the bench, I carefully raised the top two latches between the plastic mirror backing and the motorized mount and then twisted a small screwdriver in a slot to release them (see pics). This is a MUCH safer no-drama method, in my opinion. Of course, if it’s broken already, knock yourself out.

YouTube videos are also very helpful for many of these steps.

Be VERY careful with the connectors to the heating element. Don’t simply yank them off (on original or aftermarket mirrors). Using needle nose pliers and a screwdriver, lift and wiggle them off slowly and carefully so as not to pull unduly on the heating element; there is a real possibility of tearing the connectors off from the element. Maybe use TWO needle nose pliers, one to hold down the connector on the mirror and one to pull up on the wire connector. I’d guess that these connectors are simply not meant for reuse!

The Chinese mirror assemblies were quite difficult to screw in to the frame of the door. I didn’t investigate the “why”, although I suspected the mirror casting threads; I cut down two of the screws. I took the opportunity to clean and silicone spray the gaskets involved.

My OEM housings were in good shape and I had earlier installed those “moving LED” side markers, and, of course, the original housings were originally painted to match the car. The fact that I had an aftermarket frame with an OEM housing and an aftermarket turn signal LED made the housings quite difficult to install. A good part of the trouble involved the aftermarket LED assemblies whose mating connector just didn’t want to catch.

Of course, just having power folding mirrors won’t cause your mirrors to magically fold. Firstly, you need a new door console switch assembly. These are available aftermarket at good prices, and I bought one. Removing the old one was awful. There are two mounting methods, one where it just “snaps in” and requires special MB tools to remove without damaging the switch or door panel (that probably cost more than the door panel and switch EVEN IF still available, if past experience holds). The other mounting method on newer W212’s uses a bracket that will require door panel removal to free. This is described elsewhere on this forum. Which do you have? The only way to really tell AFAIK is to remove your door panel .

Having no “MB special tools”, I ruined the original switch (but not the door panel) removing it, breaking a bit off of the chromed plastic. Installation of the new switch assembly went smoothly. Note that before I installed it, I also added silver button tops to my personal taste. TIP: if you buy these silver switch toppers, scrape the “black” on the original switches that would be under the new topper overlay clear part with a single edge razor blade, neatly, in order to allow for small misalignment and to allow for the maximum amount of even lighting.

I had considered replacing the “courtesy” lights with CANBUS T10 LED’s that I knew to be very reliable, but removing the lower plastic from these mirrors is an unpleasant project, and, with new bulbs, I decided to go with what the mirrors came with.

After doing THAT, there is the matter of “coding” so that the car will be aware that the mirrors fold. I won’t go into this here, but following the excellent videos by this person:


https://www.youtube.com/c/AmazingRoad/videos


I did this, and his process worked fine. I was very concerned about the accuracy of the Chinese wiring harness, etc. (imagining smoke billowing out of the door when turning the key), but all functions of the mirrors, including folding, were OK. There are about a million ways for this to go wrong and brick your car’s module(s), so this project was quite hair-raising. Was it worth it? In summary, absolutely not. But I learned a lot, and I like the results.

I could probably get at least $100 for what I have left over (assemblies made from used OE frames, new painted aftermarket housings and turn signals), which would put my cash into it (sans programming) to ~$300.

I would give this project my Mercedes Repair/Upgrade “Torture of the Damned” score of 6/10 devils. If one were to install only the Chinese mirror assemblies and not “mix and match” housings and light assemblies, I’d knock a point off of that. Many opportunities for expensive “first timer” failures. Not for beginners or the timid. Strangely, there was no blood.



Levering off heater pins.

Release top clips, then use small screwdriver here and twist to release.

Switch panel with fold button, with brushed silver tops.

Pics or it didn't happen.

badbenz94

Nice job!!

I have always liked folding mirrors but on the 212 chassis, they don't fold in very much manually to make it useful. I was hoping that with the power feature they would fold in more.

Chris