Originally Posted by fishbulb

Just completed the factory retrofit on our late 2013 MCS Hardtop. Here are a few thoughts.

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Purchased the following from ECS Tuning. They were great to work with, sales rep and techs were very helpful.

Rearview Mirror - 315MHZ Fequency - Autodim & Homelink & Compass
51169302886

Retrofit Wire - Int Mirrror EC And GTO
61120416436

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General

- The MINI connectors are numbered on the face to show you what pin number you are dealing with. They are tiny, make sure you have plenty of light!

- Use a small, thin awl to carefully seat the pins into the connectors.

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Mirror

- The mirror comes off by turning it 90° in either direction. It feels like you might break something the first time you do it, but then you see how it attaches and its no big deal.

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Wiring Harness

- Run the wire along the front side of the A-Pillar. There is enough wire to go this way, and it looks like it should not interfere with the A-pillar airbag.

- Do not leave much slack, you will need everything to go from the mirror to the fuse block.

- Pop the side cover of the passengers side vent to run the wires down to the box. Open the door to access.

- Pull back the plastic surround around the fuse panel, you will need to install one of the wires into a connector that is located at the very bottom of the box.

- The connectors at the fuse box are two piece - the part holding the pins slides out of the main part. Carefully pry the release tab and the center block with the pins slides out. It is MUCH easier to insert the pins this way.

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Wrapping it up

- My mirror had a 'C' in the compass area which means the mirror needs to be calibrated. The procedure is in your owners manual. Short story: Press the button on the back of the mirror (the hole closest to the top of the mirror) has to be depresses with a thin tool (use your awl from before). Based on the manual, you first select your map zone. Then slowly drive the car in a circle until it picks up the directions. Took my car less than half a circle to pick it up.

Originally Posted by komet155

^ Thanks!

Does anyone know if there's any coding needed after such an install on late model (2013) R56?

Originally Posted by komet155

Thanks. Just out of curiosity, what functionality would I be missing by not having the coding added?

Originally Posted by komet155

^ Thanks!

Originally Posted by SVDave

• The 10-pin wiring harness plug has all 5 pins filled on one side, and three filled in on the other. I'd assume one could quickly confirm a car was pre-wired for this mirror by popping off the existing mirror and looking at the pins in the connector.

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Originally Posted by komet155

Does anyone know if this connector needs to be opened up or otherwise "unblocked" before sliding in the additional terminal pins?

Originally Posted by bmrguy03

I can't quite remember but if you don't see something easy to pop up then I wouldn't worry about it.

Originally Posted by komet155

I can't quite seem to get the tip of my jeweler's screwdriver under the tab to pop it out.

Originally Posted by bmrguy03

Hmmm...ok. Let me take a look and I will get back to you.

Originally Posted by cvittas

When the mirror is installed, need to coding ? I mean only for the self dimming feature..

Originally Posted by ECSTuning

Yea, just need the size of the box end pin , then i can look up and find the parts.