DL3 Mirrors, Headlight Harness, and Auto-dim mirror upgrade Feat. PGam

Texas_Native · September 27, 2017

So I took the plunge and upgraded my stock DL8 mirrors to the DL3 style along with fixing the hyper flashing turn signals and installing a auto-dim rearview mirror.

First off in this write up I want to thank PGamboa on here for all the help he gave me with these 3 upgrades. Honestly without him I would have never attempted it. If you have any kind of feature upgrade you'd like to attempt send him a message because he's probably either done it or is attempting it. Also a very kind and personable guy. Really cant give him enough praise for the work he's done.

Anyway, on to the upgrades. First the mirrors.

Of course PGamboa has a thread on here for the install and also a video on his YouTube channel. Thankfully I am local to Mr. Gamboa so I was able to go to his house and obtain his expertise in installing the mirrors. I did not take pictures while tearing the truck apart unfortunately, but Ill briefly go over what is involved. Go check out his thread for the more in-depth version.

DL3 Mirror Thread

Auto-Dimming Mirror Thread

Headlight Harness

First you'll need to take out the seven 7mm bolts that hold the door panel on. Then you'll begin to disconnect the door harness. This includes unplugging the door locks, mirror connector, and window controls. Once you have that done you'll begin poking the grey retention clips out of the door to free the harness. When thats done you'll move to the door jamb and disconnect the door harness boot and disconnect the giant wire block there. Then just reverse all that for the new one. Before you put the door panel back on you'll pop the two retention clips on the upper door trim (that piece around your window) and unfasten the bolts on the mirrors. Sadly, I didn't pay attention to what size socket he used as I was holding the mirror on the other side in case it were to come loose. You can then install your new DL3 mirror and connect the mirror harness. Put the door panels back in place and boom you're done with one.

Here are some pictures and video of the after of that install.

Mirrors Folding

Turn Signals

Puddle Lamps

Next up is the headlight harnesses.

For a little back story here, I installed LED bulbs from PUTCO that of course besides what the box said made the truck throw error codes and hyper flash anytime I used the turn signals. However, this issue wvas the original reason I contacted PGamboa because I saw he made a headlight harness when he switched to the LED headlights.

Here we are a week after I contacted him and we had everything put together for the harness last thing was to plug it in and see if it worked correctly.

Driver Turn Signal

Passenger Turn Signal

Finally, we were on to the auto-dimming mirror.

This one I almost feel like was the worst just because it involved getting into the tight space of the X51 fuse block under the dash.

So first things first, removing the overhead console. To do this you have to drop down the sunglass holder and and grab the middle lip right behind the holder. This will pop off the middle section and reveal two silver torx T10 screws. Unscrew these and then pull on the side facing the windshield. This will release the two retaining clips there and the whole thing will come down. Squeeze the tab on the front of the big connector, flip the handle up, and remove. Next you're on to the mirror itself. For this you just need to take out the single T15 torx screw. The mirror can now shift towards the rear of the truck and come off the metal bracket. Now you can remove the wire cover and disconnect the cable attached. Set the mirror aside and grab the harness from PGamboa. Take the side with the 4 terminated wires. Should be a yellow, grey, purple, and green wire. You will take these and insert them into slots 9, 8, 2, 1 respectively.

You'll start looking at this

And end with this

Wrap those 4 wires to the other harness if so desired and move on to routing the wire harness above the headliner and down the driver side A pillar. This will require the removal of the A pillar. There is a plastic "retainer" (its attached to the body of the truck and keeps the pillar trim from flying off when the curtain airbags deploy I assume) this doesn't have to be removed as the pillar can dangle with it attached. Run the harness down along the other wire loom and down to the driver side fuse box for the purple wire and continue the rest under the dash to the X51 interface panel.

Like this

Moving down to the X51 panel remove the black cover held on by 3 tabs. Two on the right and one on the upper left portion. Found it easiest if the emergency brake is disengaged. Now you can land the other 3 wires in their needed locations.

You won't have the red connector in your truck as that is a splice for my running board lights that activates them when the dome lights come on.

You can now put all the trim pieces and fuse covers back on and connect up your new auto-dimming mirror and both the rear view and driver side mirror should dim when the sensor is covered on the back of the rear view mirror.

Much like this

And that is that. Like I said if you wanna get the super detailed version go check out PGamboa's threads on the subjects. Also thanks again Phil. If any of you in the DFW area want this done hit up Phil and see the magic he can create.

DL3 Mirror Thread

Auto-Dimming Mirror Thread

Headlight Harness

Thanks for reading guys!

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