All Things Retrofit

[Hoofty]

If you (like me) find yourself without an option you might now value, perhaps add it here in case anybody has given it a go and achieved success (or otherwise).

Some starters we probably already know about:

Facelift Infotainment into pre-facelift cars covered in All things Infotainment (to date, a sad face )

OE17" rims onto big brake cars covered in The A110 wheels thread (OEM and aftermarket) (Also sad face )

Intake sound pipe onto non-sports-exhaust cars - apparently OK but not seen anybody do it yet

I have a couple more to start with...

Nick

[Hoofty]

Reversing camera into cars without

I drove a 23MY GT today and was reminded how useful reversing cameras are (if I'd been able to I'd have specced camera-and-no-sensors). A couple of folk have mentioned successfully retrofitting one and frankly I'm all ears.

Intrigued to know if you used OE parts or something else, if the wiring loom was already there, where does the image show up if you're pre/post facelift?

TIA, Nick

[Hoofty]

"Mirror Pack" interior mirror

I didn't spec mirror pack as I like taking photos of the car (and hence dislike the mirrors being folded in). Didn't realise it also came with the dimming interior mirror. I can kid myself that the standard mirror is super lightweight etc, but by comparison it looks cack, and doesn't even point in the same direction when manually 'dimmed'.

Believe the dimming mirror is about £340 to order, and I presume it runs on battery rather than power feed from the car? It's only powering LCD I think.

Swapping it might raise the risk of cracking a screen if circumstantial info is true, so it might be one to save for if/when a replacement screen is needed.

Edit: Info may be added to this thread if not here: Raer view mirrors: Changing to dim/dip rear mirror?

Edited by Hoofty on Saturday 9th March 09:39

[7en]

Hoofty said:

Reversing camera into cars without

I drove a 23MY GT today and was reminded how useful reversing cameras are (if I'd been able to I'd have specced camera-and-no-sensors). A couple of folk have mentioned successfully retrofitting one and frankly I'm all ears.

Intrigued to know if you used OE parts or something else, if the wiring loom was already there, where does the image show up if you're pre/post facelift?

TIA, Nick

Pre-facelift - Remove O/S/R wheel arch to check for vacant plug, although some say you don't need a vacant plug/just a car with rear sensors. Install a rear bumper harness with same part number as a car with camera, as the camera plug will not be there otherwise. Install the camera and cradle, then activate via OBD and it will show in the instrument cluster. A side note, some PEs this didn't work and they had to run a new wire to the cluster.

Facelift - I haven't heard of anyone retrofitting yet but the camera is supposed to display on the infotainment screen. All the parts involved on camera and non-camera facelift cars are the same, except for the rear bumper and main RH harness. I think the plug must be there at the infotainment side as it's the same part number IHU and harness.

My research ended there for now... I have a facelift car and would have looked into it more if I didn't find the rear sensors excellent. Having a camera is nice and had the option of two almost identical cars, one with and one without then sacrificed the camera as didn't like the look of the central front sensors. I was worried I was making the wrong decision but the rear sensors and the head up diagram are all I need.

Heated Comfort Seats into cars without

This past weekend I installed heated comfort seats into my Pure/PE spec car and thankfully they were plug & play. I had to put a lot of work into the seats previously as even though they only had ~2000 miles on them, they had been sat in a car with no windscreen in a breakers yard for months and clearly had all sorts of parts stored on them. I had to strip the upholstery from the cushions, dry them out, replace rusty hog rings, remove dents, clean and condition the leather to get them looking like new. So very grateful they just plugged in and worked!

Edited by 7en on Tuesday 6th February 19:32

[Hoofty]

Mega, thanks very much!

[worldwidewebs]

7en said:

Heated Comfort Seats into cars without

This past weekend I installed heated comfort seats into my Pure/PE spec car and thankfully they were plug & play. I had to put a lot of work into the seats previously as even though they only had ~2000 miles on them, they had been sat in a car with no windscreen in a breakers yard for months and clearly had all sorts of parts stored on them. I had to strip the upholstery from the cushions, dry them out, replace rusty hog rings, remove dents, clean and condition the leather to get them looking like new. So very grateful they just plugged in and worked!

Would you be interested in selling your bucket seats?

[7en]

worldwidewebs said:

7en said:

Heated Comfort Seats into cars without

This past weekend I installed heated comfort seats into my Pure/PE spec car and thankfully they were plug & play. I had to put a lot of work into the seats previously as even though they only had ~2000 miles on them, they had been sat in a car with no windscreen in a breakers yard for months and clearly had all sorts of parts stored on them. I had to strip the upholstery from the cushions, dry them out, replace rusty hog rings, remove dents, clean and condition the leather to get them looking like new. So very grateful they just plugged in and worked!

Would you be interested in selling your bucket seats?

I'm not planning to sell currently as still undecided on either seat to be honest.

Given how much they cost new and how much second hand seats go for, I don't think I'd ever let them go.

Edited by 7en on Wednesday 7th February 20:06

[Hoofty]

Bit of admin to gather up couple of threads related to this topic:

Retrofitting a subwoofer - some details in retro fitting a subwoofer

Brief summary - possible but slightly 'involved':

7en said:

I've come across 2 retrofits for the sub, one where the owner fitted the OE enclosure, amp and woofer, which requires dropping the rear subframe to fit the enclosure. Another where someone built their own enclosure out of wood and glue with access via the woofer hole.

"Mirror Pack" interior mirror - detail may be added to Raer view mirrors: Changing to dim/dip rear mirror? (will add that link to post about it above).

Add info to this thread or the linked threads, doesn't matter - but now they're accessible from here.

Cheers,
Nick

[LGC-Adams]

Hoofty said:

"Mirror Pack" interior mirror

I didn't spec mirror pack as I like taking photos of the car (and hence dislike the mirrors being folded in). Didn't realise it also came with the dimming interior mirror. I can kid myself that the standard mirror is super lightweight etc, but by comparison it looks cack, and doesn't even point in the same direction when manually 'dimmed'.

Believe the dimming mirror is about £340 to order, and I presume it runs on battery rather than power feed from the car? It's only powering LCD I think.

Swapping it might raise the risk of cracking a screen if circumstantial info is true, so it might be one to save for if/when a replacement screen is needed.

Edit: Info may be added to this thread if not here: Raer view mirrors: Changing to dim/dip rear mirror?

Edited by Hoofty on Saturday 9th March 09:39

Some information on this..............

I have a 2018 Pure, that has a non-dimming mirror.
Behind the cowl on the screen there are (obviously) no wires to the mirror housing, but there is a brown connector on the mirror unit, that then has wires going to the circuit board that ( I think??) contains the sensor for wipers and auto-lights. That sits on the screen and aligns with a small (~3mm) window in the black painted area on the screen.

I bought a salvaged 2018 A110S dimming mirror.
That has an additional white connector block that takes wires into the mirror, as expected.
It also has the brown connector to the circuit board, BUT the board looks to be very different to my 2018 Pure board. Strangely, I see no obvious optical sensors on it, but there is a small (~5mm) black disc/puck, with slots in it, that looks like it could be a microphone (??).
CORRECTION: The circuit board attached to the brown plug is the same on both manual and dimming mirrors (same part number label)

I was hoping the dimming mirror would be a simple swap, with the mirror loom, and connectors, already in my car (but redundant). Unfortunately, I do not see any white connector to link to the mirror unit (unless its under the headlining). Shame!

Of course the brown connector and board may be attached but unrelated to the mirror function, so I could just keep the existing set-up of those parts.... perhaps?

I will explore further, and report back, but I fear a very simple swap may not be possible.

Edited by LGC-Adams on Sunday 10th March 14:20

Edited by LGC-Adams on Sunday 10th March 15:52

Edited by LGC-Adams on Tuesday 12th March 10:10

[7en]

^ I'm having a new windscreen fitted soon and have the electrochrome mirror option, if you need any info which may help please let me know.

[LGC-Adams]

Aha! That's a kind offer - thanks.
Pictures of the white connectors and path of the attached wires into the headlining would be handy.

I think the brown connections, and circuits board, are actually entirely separate from the mirror and it's functioning.

Pictures of auto-dim unit.....

[CliveJ7]

All very interesting and frustrating...

My possibly useless penny-worth is that the sensor and circuit board and therefore the brown connector are indeed the sensor for the photochromic mirror ONLY, since the sensor for the wipers is actually separate and can be seen in the windscreen black area.

Probably doesn't help much, but entering part numbers in this sometimes works;

https://partsouq.com/en/catalog/genuine/vehicle?c=...

Good luck, and I watch your progress with interest!

[LGC-Adams]

Thanks Clive.

My non-dim Pure has the brown plug and a board, so it's not related to the dimming mirror function. I agree that it does what you say.

BUT.... the auto-dim unit in the pictures has a very different board, with no obvious sensor. Odd.
Also there are no wires from the brown plug, or board, to the mirror itself. SEE CORRECTION BELOW

• ***** CORRECTION ****** The circuit board attached to the brown plug is the same on both manual and dimming mirrors (same part number label)

One extra point is there is a small lense on the back of the mirror (see white square on pics). No idea what the role of that is !!

Nothing is simple on contemporary cars but it's fun learning

Sorry, no pics of non-dim unit yet.

Edited by LGC-Adams on Sunday 10th March 19:23

Edited by LGC-Adams on Sunday 10th March 19:35

Edited by LGC-Adams on Tuesday 12th March 10:12

Edited by LGC-Adams on Tuesday 12th March 11:09

Edited by LGC-Adams on Tuesday 12th March 11:10

[CliveJ7]

Ah, yes I think I'm wrong....

I reckon there must be two sensors, one inside the mirror casing (behind the little square window, for the auto-dip) and another for the auto-wipers behind the large plastic cover - both attached to the white connector?

I wonder if the puck thing with brown connector is in fact, as you mentioned, the hands-free microphone? I see there are two small grills on the back of the unit which could be for voice commands...

If that's right I would have thought that there still would be wires for that brown connector and also for the white connector sprouting from behind the headlining somewhere!

Sorry if I've confused things even more...!

[7en]

I believe the microphone is above the drivers forehead as there's a plastic grille with holes just there, easy to miss as it's black like the headlining.

[LGC-Adams]

7en said:

I believe the microphone is above the drivers forehead as there's a plastic grille with holes just there, easy to miss as it's black like the headlining.

Hi. First see my CORRECTIONS above about the circuit board attached to the brown plug. Its the same on both manual and auto mirrors, and has the same part number label attached.
I suspect the black 'puck' thing on the board is a microphone - there may be others of course, like the location you suggest..