DIY : Automatic power folding side mirrors

[blkrhyno]

So this DIY allows you to automatically have your side mirrors fold in when the car is locked and fold out when the car is unlocked. Now obviously this only works if your mirrors already power fold. If you're not comfortable with wiring them I wouldn't attempt this at all. This is my first attempt at a DIY, so please excuse me if I miss anything you can always PM me and I'll gladly answer any questions. The usual disclaimer applies here so attempt at your own risk.

Materials needed :

16 or 18 guage wire
2 DEI 528 T pulse timer
5 SPDT relays
Digital multimeter
phillips screwdriver
8mm racthet
zip ties
I missed anything I be sure to mention it below

So I have to apologize because I can't seem to find all of the pics I took but for the most part you don't need most of them.

This is the wiring diagram of how the mirrors connect to the DEI 528 T pulse timer & the spdt relays and I would suggest wiring these up before going out to the car.

This is a pic of the DEI 528 T pulse timer, I purchased mine on ebay for about $13 each.

This pic shows the adjustment knob which needs to be adjusted to about 3.5 sec, this timer can adjust between 0-60 sec so it doesn't need to go to far.


So to start you'll need to remove your driver side & passenger side door panels. This is easy as there are only two phillips screws at the top of the door panel to be removed at least on my 04. I only took it off enougn to reach the wires needed. I can't find my pics of this so I stole the ones from Dre's door led thread, sorry Dre.


So once the door panels are off you need to located the two wires that power the mirrors, now on my 04 s-line these two wires are blue and yellow, you can see them here.

Now for those of you attempting this on a different model or year as long as you test and find the two wires that power the mirrors everything else beside those two wire colors will be the same. Now to explain a little further the two wires will be reverse polarity which basically means that one wire sends power while the other sends ground to move the mirrors, then the wire that sent power before will now send ground and vice versa for the other wire. So if the blue gets power & the yellow gets ground to fold out the mirrors, the blue wire will get ground & the yellow wire will get power to fold them in. To test this, if your wire colors are the same as mine should make it easy, if not it might just take you a little longer. I used a power probe for testing but you can use a digital multimeter set to vdc ground the black wire put the red one on the suspected wire, now obviously the wire should be striped alittle to expose the wire itself. Turn the car to the on position and turn your mirror switch to see what the wires do. Now when you find the right wires you want to write down which wire does what so it can be match up to the wiring diagram above. So the wire that has power on fold out will be wired to pin 30 of the 1st relay on the bottom left and the the wire that gets ground on fold out will be wired to the 2nd relay from the bottom left. Pin 30 of the 3rd relay from the left will be wired to pin 30 of the 2nd relay from the left and pin 30 of the 4th relay from the left will be wired to pin 30 of the 1st relay from the left. If you have an aftermarket alarm on your car it will make wiring the lock an unlock much easier those wires are usually blue & green and paired together in a 2 pin harness from the alarm brain, so if you do just tap in to those. If you want to do this with your factory remote you'll have to find your factory lock & unlock wires which is located @ the central locking control module which isunder the carpet in front of the drivers seat. The lock wire is green/blue pin 12 & the unlock wire is brown/yellow pin 6(sorry no pics).

So after you locate the two wires that power the mirrors cut them and tape off the side going back to the switch, attach new wire to the motor side, now make sure to write down which one is which especially if they're not using the same color wire. I soldered mine but you can use what ever method you like. Run the wires through the rubber boot in each door.

You'll have to remove your drivers side kick panel held in place by 5 8mm bolts, you have to remove the plastic piece right in front the lcd display to access the 2 top bolts on the bottom you'll see the other 2 through access holes on either side of the panel, the fifth on you have to access through the fuse panel(sorry no pics). You also need to remove the panel to the left of the dead pedal or foot rest whatever that thing is called held in place by 2 phillips screws. On the passenger side you have to remove the glove box which is held in place by 5 8mm bolts.
Here is my little metal snake entering the drivers side, the foam piece can be removed for better access.


Here it is on the passenger side

I ran the wires from the passenger side mirror, pass the blower through a little open area above the transmission hump



I ran all my wires to the drivers side that is where I put my timers & relays, there's a good spot here

So once you have everything wired up this should be the results
http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/n...=VIDEO0020.mp4
I'm sure I probably missed a few things so PM me with any questions.

[Gumby]

great write up! and an even better job on that hand drawn wiring diagram, it looks great

i copied it into the tech section for you :)

[Vinchenzo51]

Holy... hell-ofa writeup

Sort of on-topic. Anyone know how I can wire up my power folding mirror to fold when I shut the car off, then fold back out when I turn it back on? My buddies S5 does that from the factory and its a nice little feature.

[blkrhyno]

Holy... hell-ofa writeup

Sort of on-topic. Anyone know how I can wire up my already power folding mirror to fold when I shut the car off, then fold back out when I turn it back on? My buddies S5 does that from the factory and its a nice little feature.

I was originally going do it that way but since I installed the alarm deicided just to use the lock and unlock, it's possible but was having a hard time figuring out how to close them when shutting off the ignition.

[allroad-drvr]

Great Write up..

[blkrhyno]

Great Write up..

Thanks much appreciated.

[8520]

I was originally going do it that way but since I installed the alarm deicided just to use the lock and unlock, it's possible but was having a hard time figuring out how to close them when shutting off the ignition.

Keysense is key. :)

[teckjoel1320]

I've got a nice DEI alarm in my a6. i'll be attempting this once i get my hands on a set of powerfoldings

[blkrhyno]

Keysense is key. :)

I didn't think of that, Dre you're the man. I'll post another diagram to give the the option of doing it that way.

[8520]

No worries.

Personally I wouldn't recommend wiring these up to open and close every time you run the car. I doubt the motors in the mirrors are designed to see that sort of use.

If you're integrating with an aftermarket alarm, I would simply tie it to an auxiliary channel and try to figure out a way to set it to auto open, but only if it was already closed.

Honestly, a 530T would be a much better option in my mind as it has current limitation built in as opposed to relying on a timer. Just some food for thought.

[Vinchenzo51]

^That, just blew my mind... Care to enlighten us less knowledgable wtf that means?

[8520]

In short, the way he posted interrupts the factory switch and sends voltage directly to the mirror motor itself for a predetermined amount of time, in essence bypassing the factory safeguards. Window and mirror systems are generally designed with some sort of current limitation built in so that the motor doesn't burn up from trying to close the window even more when the window is already fully closed.

The 530T is an aftermarket window control module that is designed to give window motor systems both one touch up & down as well as auto-close on alarm arm & the ability to roll down/vent through an auxiliary channel on your aftermarket fob (think trunk pop on your factory remote). The nice thing about the 530T is that it has adjustable tolerances to prevent over-exerting electric motors.

[8520]

Bumping this because I never got a response.

[mike's machine]

so use 530T instead of 528T?
How is the wiring going to change?
I see 2 plugs on 530T...

[TheSupervisor]

I know this Is a pretty old thread but I just did this a couple days ago. Worked great a couple times until something shorted and burned out one of the timers, i do have a new one on the way. Meanwhile I thought I would add a couple things. First of all, thanks to the OP, I found the mirror wires under the kick panel (the one with 2 screws by the hood release). They go into a black clip right by the foam grommet that goes to the door boot. This will make it so you dont have to run wires through the door. I still ended up pulling wire through the drivers side because I tied into the wires that go to the locking module inside the door because I didnt have the patience to pull up carpet to look for the lock controller. The wire colors for the factory lock are the same in the door as noted above however you will need to cut the blue loop to make this work because the factory locks are looking for a ground input. You can check this by taking a voltage measurement from one of the lock signal wires to ground. You should have 2-3 volts. Cant remember exactly what it was now.

Also i couldnt find any 530t anywhere. There seems to have been problems with them so I think they have been discontinued. Anyway thanks OP for an awesome write up.

[blkrhyno]

Sorry about that, I don't remember saying it but they should be a fuse inline on the power line @ 5amp witch will protect the 528t. I did this on my allroad without going into the door and forgot to update the DIY. If you look at pic #8 & #9 you can see the yellow and blue wires clearly in the light brown clip.

[A6Rick]

Just picked up my 4.2 Widebody, one of the mods I wanna do is this automatic folding mirrors. I'll shoot you a text bro.

[blkrhyno]

Already started working on it for you.

[Space_Engineer]

OK, I understand this is a /REALLY/ old thread, but, as an EE, I want to know why you just didn't tap into the factory switch, and keep all of the factory safeguards? (Hell, I'm really surprised it can't be done in VAG-Code!) This would be safer, and save a lot of circuitry?

[pohsib]

OK, I understand this is a /REALLY/ old thread, but, as an EE, I want to know why you just didn't tap into the factory switch, and keep all of the factory safeguards? (Hell, I'm really surprised it can't be done in VAG-Code!) This would be safer, and save a lot of circuitry?

Curious to know what you'd suggest in terms of wiring up to the factory switch. I was just thinking about this the other day too.

[LakeTahoeQuattr]

OK, I understand this is a /REALLY/ old thread, but, as an EE, I want to know why you just didn't tap into the factory switch, and keep all of the factory safeguards? (Hell, I'm really surprised it can't be done in VAG-Code!) This would be safer, and save a lot of circuitry?

As an ee you should know that there is no motor driver in the factory installed system that did not come with power folding mirrors. You need to have some form of drive circuit control the mirrors. This guy bypassed the factory system which I would also not have done, however he did get it to work which is unique.

To do this correctly you should use oem components from a donor car.

Being an ee as well tried to do this once with rs6 mirrors from my neighbors rs6 donor car and the wiring loom differences were substantial. The work load to make the retrofit was insane. Being that the audi mirror motors would probably burn out in a year of auto closing daily anyway I decided to forfeit the project.

If you can figure out a way to do this with a little more simplicity, please post it up

[blkrhyno]

OK, I understand this is a /REALLY/ old thread, but, as an EE, I want to know why you just didn't tap into the factory switch, and keep all of the factory safeguards? (Hell, I'm really surprised it can't be done in VAG-Code!) This would be safer, and save a lot of circuitry?

I actually did tap into the factory switch, I burnt out 3 of them before I went this route.