My 993 Aero/Teardrop Mirror Installation

[Carrera3.5L]

Never have been a big fan of the elephant ear/flag mirrors, so I decided to "update" my '88 Carrera to the late 964/993 "aero" mirrors as IMO they look much better on '74-'89 cars.

Anyway, ordered a set of 993 "teardrops" set-up for electric (my Carrera has electric mirrors for both driver & passenger sides) from Brad at BW Motorsports in Illinois. Super nice guy and a pleasure to deal with. His mirror kits are all Genuine Porsche parts at a significant savings over going to your local Porsche dealer (at least in my instance). Many also know that Brad supplies many of the larger Porsche parts houses. The kit from Brad or Porsche (or anyone else for that matter is a whole jumble of parts that must be assembled). Fortunately, Brad offers a free service where he will assemble them for you as far as he can before installation. Perfect! It doesn't get much easier or convenient.

He sent me the 993 mirror housings & bases which I had painted to my match my car's "Marine Blue" color and then I carefully wrapped them up and sent them back to Brad in Illinois so he could assemble them. A no-brainer as far as I was concerned. No hurry for time as far as I was concerned, this car has had fugly mirrors for 17 years, what's a few more weeks?

BW Motorsport offers the 993 mirrors kits in a variety of different flavors: manual or electric, heated glass or non-heated, for 911's, 944's, 928's, etc. The wiring modules that he provides makes it quite easy for those of us wanting the use of electric mirrors. There is virtually zero weight savings over the manual set-up and even if it was a pound or two I am too lazy to adjust the mirrors manually.

Anyway, here are a couple of "before" pics (not great quality or photogenic but get the job done):






Here is what I did to install them, bearing in mind that this should be directly applicable to '87-'89 Carrera's but other models may/can/will have variations in wiring. Sorry, no step-by-step pics, just text:

1. Insert a small screwdriver through the access hole in the bottom of the mirror housing.

2. Turn the plastic locking ring counterclockwise to release the mirror glass. This can be tough to do if the mirrors have never been off as they can stick.

3. Disconnect the (2) heating element connectors from the back of mirror glass (models where applicable I suppose).

4. Remove the (3) bolts that secures the motor to the mirror housing with an 8mm socket.

5. Remove the mirror motor from the housing.

6. Disconnect the round wiring harness plug.

7. NOTE THE WIRE ORIENTATION ON ROUND PLUG! Making notes will come in handy when crimping the connectors into the proper terminals in the module. You can bypass all this wiring mumbo-jumbo if you are going to install manual mirrors.

8. Carefully cut the wires behind the round plug. It made me grimace doing it but is necessary.

9. Remove the small allen bolt that secures the mirror base to the door using a 4mm allen wrench or socket.

10. Lift the entire mirror assembly (w/ gasket) from the door.

11. Slide the wiring harness out through the provision in the mirror housing/base, but don't let it fall back in through the door! While this wouldn't be the end of the world, it does mean extra work.

12. The newly exposed area on the door where the flag mirrors once were mounted now needs to be cleaned. The 993 mirrors, while close, do not quite line up perfectly. I used a bit of rubbing compound, Meguiar's car wax and most importantly elbow grease which cleaned up the area pretty darn close. Not really noticeable now unless judging for a concours event. My car in a concourse event? Not bloody likely!



13. Interestingly, but the color codes for my wiring differ slightly from driver to passenger sides. Here is how mine (all '87-'89 models in theory) worked out in conjunction with the BW module:

Driver's Side:

Brown/White = Brown/White
Green & Green/White = White
2 Browns = Brown
Gray/Green = Brown
2 White/Green = Black/Brown
Black = Black


Passenger Side:

White/Light Blue = Brown/White
Green & Green/White = White
Brown = Brown
Gray/Green = Brown
White/Green = Black/Brown
Black/Blue = Black

14. Once that is figured out, mount the new rubber gasket onto the 993 mirror base.

15. Slide the wiring harness through the provision in the mirror into the housing itself.

16. Using the newly supplied allen bolt in the kit (or the old one if you choose), fasten the 993 mirror assembly to the door with the 4mm allen wrench/socket.

17. Strip the wire ends at the end of the wiring harness.

18. Crimp the supplied connectors onto the individual wires of the harness.

19. Insert the connectors into the appropriate terminals in the module (see step 13 for orientation)

20. Connect the BW module from the wiring harness end to the 993 mirror motor end. Test the side/side and up/down operation before proceeding further. If it doesn't work, I can't help you, as mine works perfect! Doublecheck your wiring orientation would be my suggestion.

21. Neatly tuck away the wiring harness & module inside the mirror housing.

22. Reconnect the heating element connectors (if applicable) to the back of the new mirror glass. Note that the flat mirror glass is for the driver's side and the convex glass is for the passenger side. You'd think it was common sense but...

23. Place the appropriate mirror glass for applicable door into position (don't break it!)

24. Insert small screwdriver through the access hole and locate the "tabs" on the plastic ring. Turn clockwise this time to "lock" the mirror glass in position.

25. Step back and enjoy your new "look"! I know that I did!



Sorry for the lack of pics and for the quality of the pics that are present, but unfortunately I am not even remotely close to a decent photographer. Hopefully the info above can be useful to someone else that may be interested in doing this conversion.

One bummer (or good thing I guess) is so far my wife hasn't even noticed them yet. Than again, she never noticed the H4 headlights that have been on for months either!

Ralph

[chgrec]

Very nice documentation.....Thanks for taking the time...

One more thing for me to buy now...and just when I thought I was about finished...

Thanks
Chris

[CarreraDan]

Ralph,

Thank you for the great detail in this thread. I am going to definitely print this out and save it. The 993 mirror conversion is one that I hope to do in the near future as every time I look at my car I cannot help but think the mirrors make the car look dated. Do you have a ballpark on the price to have them painted? PM me if you don't want to post it. Thanks again.

[Carrera3.5L]

Originally posted by CarreraDan
Do you have a ballpark on the price to have them painted?

Daniel,

I had my mirror housings and bases painted to match for $150. I would assume that this is a reasonable price?

Ralph

[mmasse]

Ralph,

Does BW Motorsports has a web site? I can find them.

Thanks

[Carrera3.5L]

Originally posted by mmasse
Ralph,

Does BW Motorsports has a web site? I can find them.

Thanks

No, unfortunately they don't. BW does have a full page ad in Excellence though that highlights some of their product line. Brad is a good guy and seems to bend over backwards for customers and from talking to him briefly I get the impression it is a small 1-2 man operation.

I do know that he buys the OEM aero mirror kits in all the different flavors from sources in Germany rather than through the dealer network here in the States, which is one reason why we all save some money. Compare his prices with the dealer for confirmation.

Porsche part numbers for the 993 mirrors for fitment on an earlier 911 are as follows:

964 731 901 00 Power mirror kit, left & right

964 731 901 02 Manual mirror kit, left & right

He also seems very willing to customize for you, meaning that if you want a power left mirror but a manual right, he will build a kit to reflect that and price accordingly. He also has heated and non-heated mirror glass depending on what your needs and wants are.

I would strongly encourage those of you that are interested in the power versions to have Brad assemble them (after the housings & bases are painted) unless you are a glutton for punishment. The kits come as a box of parts with no instructions and can be a real PITA to assemble on your own without patience and the proper tools. Take the easy way out like I did. It only took me about an hour on each side (not counting cleaning the door where dirt had accumulated from the old mirrors) to install & wire them up after getting them back from Brad. The optional wiring modules that Brad sells are also worth it IMO. Manual versions are virtually a no-brainer, I would estimate 15 minutes a side for installation.

Ralph

[MotoSook]

Oh stop showing off Ralph! What you should really post...is a "My life with 280 HP" thread.

Really though..nice thread.

Brad at BW is an excellent guy to work with. As Ralph indicated, Brad supplies some of the usual retailers with parts, and the not so usual, like us...MotoMotions.

He WILL bend over backwards to help.

[Carrera3.5L]

Originally posted by Souk
What you should really post...is a "My life with 280 HP" thread.

Hey Souk,

My life is certainly not all that it's cracked up to be!

A more appropriate title at this point in time is "Watch Ralph sell his 3.5L 911 so he has cash to make double mortgage payments because he bought a new house that closes escrow on September 14th on a non-contingent basis but hasn't yet sold his current house and thus hasn't slept much for the last couple of weeks stressing over it and driving everyone around him more crazy than usual"

Ralph

P.S. - It's a decent car, it has new mirrors on it that hopefully won't fall off anytime soon.

[MotoSook]

I don't know if I should laugh or cry, Ralph. When we bought our house (my first home purchase), I was driving everyone crazy too as we also did the non-contingency thing. We had two mortgage payments for 4 or 5 months (thank goodness!). We got over it, and we're better off. Good luck with the situ. Things always work out for the good guys

Ok..now I'll go cry over the thought of you parting with the 3.5

Best of luck buddy.

[450knotOffice]

Good job Ralph! Those mirrors look great. Would you say that they've decreased the wind noise near the side windows a bit? I've noticed that a lot of my wind noise seems to come from that area, so I'm assuming that the flag mirrors are partly to blame.

On a different note, I may need to call on you to help me split the two circuit boards in the DME soon.

Good luck on the house sale. I just wanted you to know...we're all counting on you...

[slow&rusty]

Wow..awesome thread and we must be on the same wavelength...as I have been thinking about this install for quite some time. Just the motivation I needed - thanks! Can you share the approx cost?

Regards - Yasin

[Carrera3.5L]

Originally posted by Souk
I don't know if I should laugh or cry, Ralph.

Souk,

You should laugh. The 911 isn't going anywhere, one of the reasons we bought the new house is for the large 3-car garage where I now have room to eventually set up a little "workshop" for the car. Be kinda stupid to than get rid of the car, right?

Ralph

[MotoSook]

Yep...be stupid. It'd also be stupid, not to buy another car now that you have extra room

[Carrera3.5L]

Originally posted by 450knotOffice
Good job Ralph! Those mirrors look great. Would you say that they've decreased the wind noise near the side windows a bit? I've noticed that a lot of my wind noise seems to come from that area, so I'm assuming that the flag mirrors are partly to blame.

On a different note, I may need to call on you to help me split the two circuit boards in the DME soon.

Good luck on the house sale. I just wanted you to know...we're all counting on you...

Thanks Scott. I haven't noticed whether or not there is an increase/decrease in wind noise, the rest of the car is loud anyway and drowns everything else out. Wouldn't matter to me anyway, I did it purely for aesthetics.

Let me know when you want to do the DME, I would be happy to try and assist.

Our current house will sell, the only question is when and for how much.

Ralph

[Carrera3.5L]

Originally posted by slow&rusty
Wow..awesome thread and we must be on the same wavelength...as I have been thinking about this install for quite some time. Just the motivation I needed - thanks! Can you share the approx cost?

Regards - Yasin

Yasin,

It is real scary if you are on the same wavelength as me. I wouldn't go telling that to people, especially in a public forum.

There are a myriad of options available for these mirror kits. Base costs (without looking at the Excellence ad for confirmation) are $300 for the manual version and $400 for the power version. You can also choose between heated and non-heated glass, flat and convex mirror glass, power on one side and manual on the other, etc, etc. All can affect the final price.

Call Brad at (616) 622-0524. He would be the guy to speak with about the different options and prices. If Souk can get them also through his company, contact him and let him do some investigative work on your behalf.

Ralph

[fredmeister]

Does anyone have instructions or exploded view diagrams so I can assemble the pieces of my 993 aero mirror kit. I have alot of bushings and gaskets that are impossible to figure out where they all go to assemble the mirrors.
Pictures of assembled parts would be great if anyone on this site has done this before.
You wonder why they don't supply instructions with the kit.
Damn it!

[CBRacerX]

Lots of pics here

Aero Mirror Install - Experiences?

[stormmaster]

Beautiful car....yours is the second Marine Blue I have seen....the fist being my 87

[Carrera3.5L]

Originally posted by stormmaster
Beautiful car....yours is the second Marine Blue I have seen....the fist being my 87

Thanks Don, here is another pic of mine (professional photographer) before aero mirrors and H4 headlights:



Let's see some pics of yours.

CBX, thanks for posting a link on how to assemble the jumble of pieces. I was chicken and took the easy way out.

Fredmeister, good luck with the install!

Ralph

[stormmaster]

Here is mine....I just bought it a few weeks ago...PO (brother) did all the work on it....I have a few more mods planned for it...rest assured as details come together more photos will be posted.