Hi All, after trawling through this site for tips on how to do this retrofit I have now achieved my goal and to be honest it hasn't cost me a great deal. I thought I would share how I did it so that others could possibly do the same. I won't go into all the details on how to change the parts as this has been covered in other posts. What I will cover is how I sourced them,and where, including the coding and costs and any problems.

Firstly, I am not afraid to to take things apart and luckily enough that hasn't backfired on me - yet!

I have a C220 CDI Estate (59) SE Blueefficiency. Bought it second hand and was slightly disappointed when I realised that it didn't have the auto folding mirrors. Now I am a bit of a geek and do like my gadgets so decided to look into the retrofit. I didn't want to pay in excess of £150 for each mirror from eBay so I took a chance and bought just the frames instead - second hand from eBay. The ones I bought were the powerfold but being sold as spares and repairs. I bought them at separate times from different sellers. The first one cost £20 and the motor for the glass needed replacing as it was cracked and loose. It didn't come with the glass. There was no cover/casing. (Mine are the mirrors with the LED arrow lights by the way). The second was £30 and also sold as spares repairs but not sure why to be honest except that again it didn't come with the cover/casing or the glass.

The first thing that I realised is that all the parts from my existing mirrors were fully interchangeable with the new ones I had bought. Fingers crossed that the motors were OK - I swapped the glass motor from my nearside and put on my existing casing and mirror. I then did the same on the drives side. On the powerfold mirrors I realised that there was an extra plug on the harness. I was a bit nervous as to whether this would fit into my existing door control units but when I removed my old mirrors I realised that my existing control units had all the required sockets and I could literally just plug them in. (Another point to note is that I now realised is that for the drivers side I had bought the powerfold mirror that also included the wiring and build for the blind spot assist. I took the cover from the bulb secured it within the casing and took a chance that it would work! The drivers powerfold mirror also comes with the connection for the auto dimming glass as standard - whereas my old mirrors didn't have this. Bought the correct glass from eBay again for £30 - think I was very lucky with the glass as they are being sold for over £100 second hand and over £300 from MB).

Mirrors were now fitted and working fine but only as regular mirrors of course. I now needed to buy the door switch and get the coding done. Sourced the switch from eBay at a cost of £26. Again fitted it with no problem (had to take the door card off). The mirrors still worked fine following this and I did wonder whether the powerfold would work as well from the switch (even though I new the instrument cluster needed coding for the auto folding on locking) - it didn't.

So now all parts were fitted but I still didn't know if any of the parts I had bought were faulty or that I could get the coding done even if they weren't. I live in Warrington, Cheshire and we have an independent MB specialist with a STAR machine. Rang Shane who said he hadn't done the coding before for this retrofit but had no issue trying it. He did stress that sometimes the coding didn't work as it was dependant on what options were actually available for the model of car at the time of manufacture. They charge £45 + VAT for coding. Took the car to him the following week and within 10 mins he had the mirrors folding from the switch. 20 mins later the instrument cluster was coded and the mirrors folded automatically on locking! He topped my oil up (needed about a litre), washed the car and charged me £45 for cash! Now that's what I call good service.

Cost in total - mirror frames £50 for the two. Door switch £26 and coding £45 and dimming mirror £30 a total £151.

Risks - getting the correct second hand parts, that work, at the right price. Fitting them without breaking anything (be careful changing the mirror glass) and lastly finding a specialist that knows what they are doing and then don't rip you off!

Next retrofit is the cruise control - This is supposed to be quite difficult on the coding side (parts are straight forward - just swap the existing indicator/wiper unit with one that includes the cruise control stalk - have done this once already but never got around to the coding as I realised that after I had fitted the part I had used one from a saloon and therefore had no rear windscreen wiper! Just trying to source a cheap part - if anyone needs and indicator/cruise for a saloon just let me know). MB tech said they will do the coding for free (if they can) when I take the car into them for a full service!

Hope this helps others and doesn't bore you all too much. Any questions and I will try and answers.

Thanks

Mike

 

Hi , You could be just the man i need to speak to LoL. I am trying to retrofit the LED indicators to my vito (they share the indicators built into the mirrors with your model)

I have bought everything i need, but am struggling to find the plug that joins the indicator to the wiring harness. Is there any chance you could have a look at the plug on yours and see if you can find a part number for me ???

Everyone else is being secretive Lol and mercedes wont tell either LoL.


Nick

 

Will have a look today but not sure that the plug it self has a part number as it is all part of the same unit. Will come back to you.

 

Hopefully there is a 2 pin plug for just the indicators, cant see that they would integrate all the pins for everything in one housing, unless the indicator just plugs into a multi way block ??

Thanks for having a look for me


Any pics of the inside of the mirror ??

Nick

 

Sorry no pics i'm afraid. The indicator lens is the "arrow" type with two points. This is part of the colour coded casing that goes over the wing mirrior frame. If I remember rightly its connectyed to the casing by a couple of screws. It wasnt somethingthat I had to fiddle with to be honest. When I changedthe caing onto the new frames the Led Indicator just moved with itr - it connects electrically by just two ins that are on the frame - no wire as far as I can see - the pins align with two points on the indicator when it is put on - does that make sense?

Mike

 

Thanks for looking for me, i have a feeling mine is the older type which is not the arrow type.

Oh well , need to find someone with an older style of mirror now .

Thanks again

Nick

 

Hi Mike!
Do you have the part number of the parts you used?
Thanks

 

Hi


I am just about to undertake this on a 2012 C220 and I'm struggling to find someone I feel confident enough to do the coding, any suggestions?


I live in West Sussex but work in Surrey so anywhere close to this would be good but I suppose I would travel to the Indi in Cheshire if I really had to and they had experience of coding mirrors in the past


Thanks


Adrian