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DIY Mazdaspeed 6 folding mirrors on your 1st gen regular 6!

9K views 13 replies 7 participants last post by  KreAch3R 
#1 · (Edited)
I’ve never been a fan of the sacrificial break away hardware style mirrors our 1st gen 6’s have. It seems extraordinarily short sided to have to replace a whole mirror when someone knocks into it at a parking lot or it gets bumped by an absent minded driver on a narrow street. Thus, the folding mirrors of the Mazdaspeed 6 have always attracted me. With so many of the parts appearing the same, I decided to see if I could swap them over. So I bought a pair!





The first thing I noticed was that the plugs on the speed 6 mirrors were smaller than the regular six mirrors. I had hoped that I could just remove the pins from both plugs and swap the regular plugs to the speed 6 mirrors to match my regular 6 harness, but I found out that the pins were larger on the regular 6 mirrors.



Thus, I decided I now needed the harness clips from a speed 6 door harness so I could swap those out.



As luck would have it… the clip that holds the socket onto the door was ALSO different between the two models. So, I needed those as well. So much for parts appearing to be the same!

Speed 6 clip:


Regular 6 clip



Fortunately, I had a contact with a speed 6 shell and he was friendly enough to humor my many requests.



I now had everything I needed to get it done!To make it easier for you, here’s what you need to get in advance to make it all go smoothly the first time:


SHOPPING LIST

  • Set of folding speed 6 mirrors. NOTE: the speed 6 mirrors come as heated and non-heated. The heated versions will have 5 wires in their plug. The non-heated only has three. To maintain your features, make sure you match them up. Or better yet, just make sure you get a set that are heated and then you’ll be covered! Maybe someone out there with a regular six with non heated mirrors can chime in and let us know if the sockets in the door harness has 5 pins or only three.

  • Bolts to hold the mirror on. NOTE: the regular six has studs in the sail panel of the mirror and nuts that hold it onto the door. The speed 6 mirrors use self tapping bolts that screw into the sail panel. It’s best to get the factory ones if you can, but you’ll likely be able to get a set at a hardware store that will work.

  • Door wiring harness clip of mirror socket and 6” of wiring for both driver's and passenger's door (remember to get one with five wires if you want the heated mirror function)

  • Harness clip from door panel that secures the socket to the door.
 

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#2 · (Edited)
Despite all the sockets and pins being different between the two models of cars, the one win in this whole mod was that I found out that Mazda did us the favor of using nearly identical wiring colors for both the regular 6 and the speed 6 when it comes to the mirrors.



Thus, it is pretty simple to match the colors and connect wires. The left and right hand doors use different color wires though so make sure you use the right socket when you begin swapping them over. I’ve included a wiring diagram of the speed 6 mirror circuit with a hand written wiring map for the swap. The blue pen with arrows shows you what to connect up (WAGON denotes regular 6 and MS6 is the speed 6 harness).




I chose to solder and use shrink wrap when doing my connections. I HATE crimp connectors and don’t find that electrical tape stays put enough for me. That said, I have seen some really good crimp connectors that have “shrink wrap” tubing already attached. If I had to use a crimp connector, that’s what I’d buy.



NOTE: !!SUPER IMPORTANT POINT!! When you clip your door harness, take special care to match up the length of the harness when you install the new speed 6 socket. If you connect it up too short, you won’t be able to connect the mirrors. Too long and the wire will be flapping around in the door. Do your best to make the length of the new harness you make to be the same as the old.

Here’s a close up of the finished harness with all the shrink wrap tucked into the door’s inner liner in the provided holder



And a wide angle of the modified door harness with the new speed 6 sockets.



Now repeat that for the passenger’s side and you’re all done with the hard part!

 

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#3 · (Edited)
Now we need to swap out the clip that holds the mirror socket firmly on the door. These work very similarly to the clips that hold on the door panel, but they are less of a multiple use clip and really only meant to be installed once. On the back side there are a couple tabs that pop out once they get through the hole to keep the clip tight to the door frame



If you roll the window all the way down, you should be able to reach in to the gap in the top of the door with a plastic door panel pry bar and pop the tabs in while you manipulate the clip on the door frame so you can get your old one out and pop the new one in. When you are buying them from someone else, make sure to be specific about that clip. You want to make sure they take care in removing it so you can reuse it.
Please note that the clip can go on one of two ways. The hole in the door is oval shaped.



The back side of the clip has a mating shape to keep the clip from rotating. If you get it wrong by 180 degrees, the mirror socket will be facing the wrong way and you won’t be able to plug in the mirror.



Below is the correct orientation of the clip on the passenger side door. You can translate that to the driver's door when you do that side. However, I recommend that you double check it by test fitting the clip into the harness socket before you install it just to be sure. They can be removed and rotated, but they are somewhat brittle and the less you manipulate them the better.



Once you have the clip in the door, simply slide the mirror socket you soldered on to the door harness over the clip till it snaps in place. Then swap over the mirrors and plug in the mirror plug to the socket.

NOTE: take note of the three black bolts that hold the mirror onto the door… the regular 6 has nuts on studs as stated above.

 

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#4 · (Edited)
And just like that, you have folding mirrors on your regular 6!











I didn’t like the silver mirror cover that came with my set of heated folders. Ultimately, I'll spray out a set of speed 6 mirror covers that color match the body of the wagon for that ultimate factory look! But that's for another day. Till I can get that done, I swapped in a set of black covers that I had from another set I ended up with while collecting bits and pieces for this project.



 

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#5 · (Edited)
As it turns out, the mirror covers can be very quickly and simply swapped out on the speed6 mirrors. Unfortunately, the regular 6 mirror covers do not swap onto the regular 6 mirrors. I broke my own 6 mirrors removing the mirror glass to find out. I was beyond irritated.

To remove the speed 6 mirror cover (for painting or otherwise), first remove the mirror glass. The process involves pushing on the top of the mirror to “click” it all the way so you’re looking at the sky (if you were sitting in the drivers seat). Then using a panel pry tool from the gap at the bottom, pop the ball and socket joint from the mirror motor off the mirror glass. Then do the same with the outer mirror motor socket. In the process the center clip will likely go as well. Make sure to have a hand ready as the mirror usually comes flying off and can break if it hits the ground. If the mirrors are heated, the heater wires will help keep it from falling to the ground.

NOTE: ignore my finger and take note of the mirror motor. The two ball and sockets are at the black parts of the mirror motor. In the center is the pivot socket for the mirror. Those are the three mounting points for the mirror glass to the mirror motor.



Here's a photo of the back side of the mirror to help you understand how it mates up with the mirror motor. Sorry it's so dirty... it was the only picture I had of the back.

NOTE: this is a non heated mirror... the square on the left would have two plugs sticking out to attach the heater wires to if it were the heated version.



Now that the mirror glass is off, you’ll be able to see the spots where the mirror cover attach to the frame of the folding mirror body. There are two clips at the top:




And one at the lower outer edge of the mirror




Here’s a picture of the mirror cover removed so you can see the clips clearly.



When you remove it, start with a small pry tool or screw driver. Gently press down on the clip nearest the sail panel while applying some pressure away from the mirror frame. Then move to the outer upper clip and do the same. You will feel the mirror cover start to retreat from the mirror frame.



!!!AVOID ALL TEMPTATION TO PRY THE COVER AWAY FROM THE FRAME!!!



Doing so will likely break a clip and the cover will be useless. I used my fingernail inserted in the gap just above the clips to hold outward pressure on the clips as I released them.


Once you have it started, go to the outer lower clip and gently pry that away as you continue to apply gentle outward pressure on the mirror cover and it will eventually pop free of the frame.





It can come flying off pretty quickly, so making sure you have a bit of a hold on it would be good.

NOTE: on the bottom of the mirror cover are two small pins that angle down. These are there to hold the mirror cover tight to the frame. They will break if pulled directly away from the frame. Treat them more like a hinge and pivot the cover away from the frame and then lift it out. Those pins are SUPER easy to break.




One more photo here to help you see how the cover attaches. This is the back side of the mirror showing where all the clips attach. Hopefully it will help you understand as you’re removing it.




Now that you know how to remove it, you can buy color matched base and clear coat from the following website (info courtesy of @DrFeelGood):


https://www.automotivetouchup.com/touch-up-paint/


Put in your year make and model and it will pop up a color chart. To find out what color your car is, open your driver’s door and look at the vin sticker. On the bottom it will have the color code after the following prompt: EXT PNT. For example, mine is “26 X” Match that up and you can order what you need to paint out your speed 6 mirror cover to match your current body color.




And that’s all there is to it! Now that you know that the speed 6 mirrors will fit, you could also buy the electric folding ones or even the turn signal folding ones and install them on your regular 6. Now that said, it’ll be a bit more involved as you’ll need to pull the wires through the door for the electric folding feature and or the turn signal wires to activate the side turn indicator. But at least you’ll know before you plunk down the big dollars on the mirrors!


Hope this helps out someone out there.
 

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#6 ·
Epic! I have been lamenting this non-feature of the 6 for some time. I wish I would have taken a picture of the bruise I received from these non-folding mirrors I received from them when I ran into one fast walking through the garage.
@Byakuya, Can I put a vote towards sticky? This is one of the better DIY I have seen in a while.

Thanks @waughoo. for your hard work. If you have any extra parts (I noticed a few different mirror cover colors) I am interested in doing this as well.

Bravo!
 
#8 ·
While I completely agree this is a great writeup, the official/non-offical rules of the DIY section are that we don't sticky anything since there aren't too many threads in those sections and everything *should* be fairly easy to find.

That being said, I'll talk with GreyGhost about it since we've been discussing doing some overhaul of the forum a bit anyways :)
 
#7 ·
A keen eye you have there @DrFeelGood . I should be able to scrap together one complete set from the multitude of bits I have left over. I'd be glad to give you first crack at it.

Thanks for the kind words. It was a lot of work studying electrical schematics to figure it out, buying more parts I didn't know I needed the first time as well as remembering to document it all along the way. Regardless, I'm happy to help the community. I've learned a lot along my way here. I'm glad to give a little back.
 
#11 ·
I followed @waughoo's outstanding tutorial and recently added heated folding Speed6 mirrors to my 04 wagon. Thanks again for this. It was incredibly helpful and made the swap a breeze.
240622
 
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#14 ·
@waughoo excellent write up! I have one question because I'm not completely sure with what your regular speed was equipped in the beginning. Your original mirrors didn't fold at all? (manually?) So you swapped them with the speed 6 mirrors. Do they fold only manually or electrically (with a motor, switch, automatic)? When/how did you wire that up?
 
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