14+ Towing mirror wiring for amber turn signal

hegsz71 · July 1, 2015

Well after countless thoughts and seeing what others are doing or wanting to do Jakewake23 On here seems to have nailed down how this should go. I made a very crude drawing on paint to explain, but with a resistor and 2 diodes this should be the current best way to get your amber marker lights to flash with the signal.

I will be doing this over the weekend and hopefully it will work perfectly as I think it will. I'll be using a 180ohm resistors since I wanted to keep the marker light as bright as possible, but still dim enough to flash bright when the signal is engaged. I will see if this is enough resistance this weekend. Others have used 200-400 ohms and they seem to be anywhere from half to a little more than half brightness.

This will be done with the door panel removed and on the mirror harness side of the truck. If there is a spot under the dash that works I will try and update this with that location. As for color of wires I will be splicing into that is still a mystery to me since it seems getting a schematic for that and the colors actually matching is very hard as of right now.

Note: this is how to do it for a truck that came with towing mirrors from the factory.

The diode behind the resistor is to prefect back feeding when the signal is used and the parking light/headlights aren't on.

Well turned out perfect! I think the 180ohm is the way to go.

troyhawkes · July 13, 2015

Let us know how it is

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hegsz71 · July 14, 2015

Let us know how it is

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Posted a video at the bottom there. They work great!

troyhawkes · July 14, 2015

Thank you

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05cyclone · July 22, 2015

Well after countless thoughts and seeing what others are doing or wanting to do Jakewake23 On here seems to have nailed down how this should go. I made a very crude drawing on paint to explain, but with a resistor and 2 diodes this should be the current best way to get your amber marker lights to flash with the signal.

I will be doing this over the weekend and hopefully it will work perfectly as I think it will. I'll be using a 180ohm resistors since I wanted to keep the marker light as bright as possible, but still dim enough to flash bright when the signal is engaged. I will see if this is enough resistance this weekend. Others have used 200-400 ohms and they seem to be anywhere from half to a little more than half brightness.

This will be done with the door panel removed and on the mirror harness side of the truck. If there is a spot under the dash that works I will try and update this with that location. As for color of wires I will be splicing into that is still a mystery to me since it seems getting a schematic for that and the colors actually matching is very hard as of right now.

Note: this is how to do it for a truck that came with towing mirrors from the factory.

The diode behind the resistor is to prefect back feeding when the signal is used and the parking light/headlights aren't on.

Well turned out perfect! I think the 180ohm is the way to go.

Can you list what wires that you used to do this? Thanks

hegsz71 · July 22, 2015

Can you list what wires that you used to do this? Thanks

Orange was the amber marker light wire if I remember right, but I forget what the led was. I didn't write it down since I figured these light may be different depending on model truck. I just popped the mirror glass off and used a flash light to see the wire running to either the turn signal or marker light and made my splices.

05cyclone · July 23, 2015

Ok thank you. I will look when my mirrors get here Friday.

SRoy · July 26, 2015

Stopped today to pick up resistors and diodes. The diodes I bought have 4 different in the package. Which did you install? Are you just slicing along side the wire to install the resistor or cutting that wire.

Thank you for sharing

SRoy · July 28, 2015

Did the turn signal mod last night. Used the 180 ohm resistor and looks great. Works great as well. Installed the resistor and had to cut the wire so the resistance is there. Don't know why I thought different as electricity takes the path of least resistance. Schematic was a good start point but did not work for me so had to change it up a bit so no back feeding. Mine was Orange wire for marker lights and red with purple tracer for signal on both sides. Small detail but like the change, thank you for sharing this info. Was able to do this without removing the door panel as well. Loosened the upper section of door trim and let the mirror hang and did all my connections on the mirror harness on the exterior of the door.

TBL911 · September 23, 2015

Great post! Been looking to do the for some time. What are the specs of diodes you used? I went to buy them thinking a diode is a diode and found that's no the case... Thanks for your help

SRoy · September 23, 2015

180 ohms worked great. google band stripes and you will see the color pattern you need. I had to purchase a package of about 100 resistors to get the 180 ohm I needed. They were about $5 for the pack. Also needed a package of diodes for about the same money at the source.

hegsz71 · September 26, 2015

Sorry I have been super busy lately with work and coaching hs football. The diode's I used were called whisker diode. We use them at work quite a bit. I honestly have no idea what size they are, but for what it's doing there isn't a whole lot of current or amps and I know the ones I used were over kill.