2016 Tow Mirror Swap

KennethH · June 17, 2016

I purchased a 2016 1500 Chevy in January with the standard mirrors. My truck is an LTZ and the mirrors do it all including power fold. My salesman at the time said that tow mirrors could be added. When I got into it, they wanted to sell me mirrors that would not power fold. I don't want them...

My question is, would mirrors off a 2500 that do power fold work on my truck? I have part numbers of 23241465 for the Driver Side and 23351798 for the passenger side.

My feeling is that this should be plug and play! They keep talking harnesses and reprogramming. I don't understand this since my truck does it all now! Honestly, I don't think the dealers know enough about their product!

Any help from someone that knows, I would appreciate it!!

newdude · June 17, 2016

I purchased a 2016 1500 Chevy in January with the standard mirrors. My truck is an LTZ and the mirrors do it all including power fold. My salesman at the time said that tow mirrors could be added. When I got into it, they wanted to sell me mirrors that would not power fold. I don't want them...

My question is, would mirrors off a 2500 that do power fold work on my truck? I have part numbers of 23241465 for the Driver Side and 23351798 for the passenger side.

My feeling is that this should be plug and play! They keep talking harnesses and reprogramming. I don't understand this since my truck does it all now! Honestly, I don't think the dealers know enough about their product!

Any help from someone that knows, I would appreciate it!!

They are informed correctly, its just the two mirror kits GM sells are not power folding. Most dealers will give you that pricing setup. To do the LTZ DL3 mirror to the LTZ DQS tow mirror, you have to buy each mirror individually. You would need mirror part #'s 23351794 (driver) and 23241467 (passenger). You might need to do the door harnesses, but I'm not 100% on that. No reprogramming as we did the exact same swap and everything worked (memory and fold).

Edited June 17, 2016 by 15HDriver

Doug_Scott · June 17, 2016

Most manufacturers are now putting most features into the BCM(or whatever specific manufacturers call it), so that they can be disabled by default. A good example is the remote starter option. In this case I know for sure it is done this way on a 2010 GMC Sierra 1500. You can buy a kit from GM Accessories to add on remote start. The kit comes with a hood latch, an antenna, key fobs and some minor wiring. The customer can install all the parts quite easily, but, remote start will not work out of the box. Dealer must contact their GM Techline to get new firmware for the BCM. GM will activate the feature and send the newly updated firmware to the dealer so they can install it. GM charges the dealer for this service, so you can pretty much figure out who ends up paying. I realize this has no direct impact on the issue being asked about, but, it is background knowledge that can help with the understanding.

This type of marketing has been around for decades, but was almost exclusively for large companies use. 3Com used to sell enterprise level routers that had this type of add-on management. The system has trickled down into consumer level apps now. This is one of the main reasons it is so hard to hack BCM/ECMs now, manufacturers are doing whatever they can to protect their future income stream.

I added the factory mirrors with signals, heat, and power folding to my 2010 Sierra. The truck came with heated mirrors originally. I swapped the mirrors over with no other changes or additions, and the heating still works, the signals work, but the power folding does not. I do not have the switch or wiring in place for it, and have no need for it anyways. I wanted the signals only.

KennethH · June 17, 2016

There is a kit with both mirrors, 23372181, they are what I want except for power fold. I just cant believe they make this that hard! I do appreciate the input!

jhplak325 · June 17, 2016

You will need new door harnesses. Without replacing them, the front clearance lights will act like the puddle lights on current mirrors.

My truck needed programing to have the LED's work correctly in park, neutral and reverse. Others on this site and other sites claim no programming required.