So its been a while since I installed the power folding mirrors and as nice as they are, they are also kind of annoying!
The mirrors only fold when you move the mirror switch inside the car to the '6 O'Clock' position which is fine until you have parked up and taken the keys out of the ignition, almost out of the door and then realised that you want the mirrors folded in... because at that point you need to get back into the car and put the keys back into the ignition and start the electrics in the car otherwise the switch is totally useless.
Now I would have preferred to have the mirrors automatically fold when I lock the car so I started looking into it to see if it is possible.
Now the main issue here is that Audi don't have AUTO folding mirrors on the A3, so its going to be a totally custom install.
Now after looking into it for over a month and getting some ideas from other cars I managed to find a solution that requires the use of a relay and some diodes, wires etc...
So I got ordering and waited for the parts to turn up... Then I had to wait for a sunny Saturday afternoon which in England doesn't come around much in the month of March!
I got lucky one weekend and I got started taking the car apart to do this install. Now as I was basically making up the install as I went along it took a fair bit of time and again I didn't remember to get may pics, though here is a couple of the car in pieces with the wiring hanging all over the place:
 |
| Car doors stripped and fuse box out to test install |
 |
| Relay hanging on bits of wires while other wires running into different areas |
So after about 2 hours of messing about, trying to send wires through the door grommets and testing
out which wire does what I managed to get the drivers side mirror to fold when I locked the door with the keyfob!!!
So I spent another half hour wiring up the passenger door the same way I did the drivers side and I was pleased to see that the install was successful!
I spent another hour tidying up the wiring and securing the relay behind the dash so it wouldn't rattle or come apart.
Now after a couple days of testing I found that my mirror glass motors no longer worked and I couldn't move the actual glass to the position that I wanted it in from the switch. So again I stripped the doors down and after an hours investigation and some help from a friend I found that I had to change over a couple of wires and a bit of coding on the door control modules which were interfering with the mirror glass motors.
Happy to say that the mirrors are now working perfectly and fold as soon as I lock the car from the Keyfob and unfold when I unlock the car. The mirrors don't fold when the car is locked from the central locking button inside the car so its on the correct circuit and won't randomly fold whilst driving. I still need to get another switch inside the car to manually fold the mirrors if I get in a tight spot and need to fold them in but I have another plan for that coming up soon.
I took this video of the mirrors on the first day I had completed the install, it got dark by the time i had finished but you can still see how it works now.
out which wire does what I managed to get the drivers side mirror to fold when I locked the door with the keyfob!!!
So I spent another half hour wiring up the passenger door the same way I did the drivers side and I was pleased to see that the install was successful!
I spent another hour tidying up the wiring and securing the relay behind the dash so it wouldn't rattle or come apart.
Now after a couple days of testing I found that my mirror glass motors no longer worked and I couldn't move the actual glass to the position that I wanted it in from the switch. So again I stripped the doors down and after an hours investigation and some help from a friend I found that I had to change over a couple of wires and a bit of coding on the door control modules which were interfering with the mirror glass motors.
Happy to say that the mirrors are now working perfectly and fold as soon as I lock the car from the Keyfob and unfold when I unlock the car. The mirrors don't fold when the car is locked from the central locking button inside the car so its on the correct circuit and won't randomly fold whilst driving. I still need to get another switch inside the car to manually fold the mirrors if I get in a tight spot and need to fold them in but I have another plan for that coming up soon.
I took this video of the mirrors on the first day I had completed the install, it got dark by the time i had finished but you can still see how it works now.
Continue onto Interior make-over Part 4