I really wanted some heated mirrors. So I found some adhesive backed elements that can stick to the back of the factor mirror glass. I bought the element from e28fixer on NASIOC. I figured this would be an easy project, but it was a little work. Not anything too bad, just time consuming.

The usual disclaimers apply.

First step is to remove your door panels. Good insturctions can be found here.

http://subaruparts.com/install/2002ispeakerupgrade.pdf

The pictures are not in order for some reason, so read the entire thing before starting.

Once you have the panels off, you will see the screws holding the mirrors on. There are 3 gold screws, and one black one, closer to the front of the car. It took me a brand new screwdriver and a whole lot of torque to break these screws loose. Once you do get them off, take a break. It took me about 2 hours to get mine off.

Take the mirrors inside, and go and find a hairdrier. The higer wattage the better. I used a 1600W one I found. Next you will need to heat the mirrors.

To get the glass out of the mirror holder, Subaru says that you need to heat the glass untill the black surrounding is soft, approximately 2-4 minutes. Heat the glass and the surrounding directly for 3 minutes at least! The drivers side mirror will begin to stink when it is almost done, the passenger side will not (On Mine).

Once you can move the black surrounding with your fingers, and the glass is way too hot to touch, grab two thin objects. I used 2 butter knives. Place them as shown in the picture, and gently pry the mirror glass out. Apply slow, but firm pressure and the mirror will unstick itself and come out like a peice of taffy.

Both the driver's side mirror and the passenger side mirror come out rather easy. The driver's side is held on with some sort of adhesive putty-glue, while the passenger (at least on my car) was held on by 2 peices of double-sided tape.

Driver's Side...

Passenger Side...

Next, clean off the backs of both mirrors. They need to be as clean as possible, so the element will stick to the back. Next, look at the element, and look at the glass holder. You may notice that there is no way that it will fit into the holder without some work. Decide on a place that you are going to cut out to fit the connectors. Once you pick one (I picked inboard, which I think is the easiest). Then cut out the black plastic, so the wires and connectors will fit. I removed the black holder from the mirror, just to make it eaier to get the wires in, and to cut the hole. If you have a dremel or similar, I don't think that you will need to take the black peice out. Your hole will look something like this.

Next, apply the element to the back of the mirror, so that the connectors and wires will go through that hole. I picked this side and this arrangement, becasue I felt that it would interfere with the mirror operation the least. You may notice that the tabs on mine are bent. This is because I soldered the wires to the connectors.

Now for the fun part. Once there are holes in both mirrors, and the elements are on the back, go back to the mirror assembely. On the bottom of the hinge, there are 3 screws holding the 2 peices together. Remove all 3 of these and pull the mirror apart about 1 inch.

Now, look at the back of the black peice. It is covered with some foam rubber. You will need to pull the rubber away from the wires, and a little bit from the bottom, so you can run the 2 wires. I used about 2 feet of each.

Push the wires through the black foam, and so it comes out inbetween the peices, with about a foot remaining inside the "car." Then take the wire inbetween the peices, and push it through the hole, up into the mirror housing. Then pull the wires though the hole in the black peice. You will have something like this.

Next, solder (or connect) the wires to the element. I chose to solder because I did not want the added depth of a connector. If you do solder, make sure that you do not let the element heat up too much. I dont think that it would be too good for it.

Now that the wires are soldered, put the mirror peices back together. Re-install the 3 screws. While you are doing this, pull the slack of the wires back into the "car."

Once that is done, you are ready to re-install the glass. I used a silicone adhesive on mine. I figure it was the best compromise of flexability and adhesion for the mirror (and I went to a body shop, and they told me that is what they used ) Heat the black holder again with the hair drier, for about 3 minutes, untill it is soft again. Once it is soft, apply the silicone. Liberally cover the black holder. I also covered my wires and the connectors on the back of the mirror glass. Push the mirror back into place, it should pop right in. While you are doing this, it helps to have someone else pulling the slack out of the new wires, while you are installing the glass. When all the slack is out of the mirror, you will have about 1 foot inside the "car." Don't pull too hard though, your mirror still needs to be able to move.

Since I pulled the black foam off of the mirror, I applied a little bit of silicone behind the foam and around the wires, to make sure it would seal again well. This step is probably unneccicary, but still a good idea.

Push the foam back to the mirror, and let the adhesive dry. Admire your work.

Re-install the mirrors onto the car. Test out the mirror controls, and hope that the mirrors still have full range of motion.

The last and final steps are to run some switched power to the mirrors. I have not been able to do this yet. It appears that running the wires through the doors is going to be a really difficult job. I also have not decided how I want to switch them. I am torn between having them on with the defroster, or having them seperate.

If anyone has any questions, or ideas, feel free to PM me :)

Update to Heated Mirrors mod 12/04

As of now, the mirrors are done. They work great. I ended up using the defroster switch to control the rear window defroster and the mirrors both.

As to how I did it, first make sure that you are relaxed. This is not something to do when you are in a bad mood.

First, you will need to have the door panel off, and the plastic pulled back. I found that it was a lot easier to pull the speaker out as well.

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~m3mclean/Door.jpg

Next, I gave the door cord on the inside of the door a good yank to straighten it out. It is fastened to the door inside, and I could not see any way to free it, other than this. After that, I took the door cord inbetween the door and the car and peeled off the electrical tape. Then, the two halves could be spread out. However, they won't separate, so don't try too hard.

Next, cut a small hole in that seperated section, and take the tape off the door-end of the door cord. Get some good pulling lube (yeah I know) and put some in from both ends. Then, take a heavy gauge wire (I used #12), and push from the center to the door. The heavy gauge helps keep the wire straight when pushing it.This step took me 1.5 hours on the passenger side, and 30 minutes on the driver's side. Be patient. If it doesn't work, ADD MORE LUBE! Honestly, it makes things much easier.

Once you get it into the door, connect it to the mirror. Then resecure the cord, and tape it back up. After that, push the wire from the center of the cord, into the car. This step should only take 5 minutes max. This is relatively easy. Once that is in, rearrange the 2 halves of the door cord rubber, and retape them. Ground the other wire coming out of the mirror to the door.

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~m3mclean/Wire.jpg

Now the hard part is done.

To use the mirrors at the same time as the rear defogger connect a relay to the Red/Blue Stripe wire behind the rear defogger relay. Be careful, there is more than one Red/Blue Stripe wire down there. To get power, I found an unused fuse. At least for the sedan, it is unused. This is a 20A fuse, below the relays. This wire (Red/Black Stripe) is for the rear 12V outlet on a wagon, so it worked perfect for the sedan! Connect the power for the mirrors and then viola!

Well, you may be asking, Was this mod worth it?

I only see three options for this decision. Do it yourself, live without them, or buy a 2004!

Well my answer is, yes, I am glad that I took the time to do this. It really did not cost too much to do, and it is definitely nice to have. But, it definitely took a very long time. I was probably the hardest mod that I have done as well. It was something that will be appreciated in the winters to come.

Please, if you have any questions, email or PM me :D