What Have You Done to Your Cougar Today?

Matt, you know how much I like them as they've appeared in different colours on both my previous Cougars and one of those sets are now back on yours. It's taken a fair while to source a pair in these colours though. They are a fantastic reminder of the days before everything ended-up being made out of plastic.

David, the sensors are contained in the mirror and only need 12v and an earth, although most of them also have a third wire which is supposed to linked to the reverse lamp circuit so they don't operate when you select reverse.

Very few UK Ford mirrors have the auto dim facility and the correct screen mounting fixture. Scorpio and early Mondeo Mk3 mirrors were commonly used for the mod as were some BMW mirrors.
I sourced this one from the US where there is a much greater selection of Ford OEM models to choose from.
 
As Dan says the sunroof wiring should be there; the thicker, purple wire is the positive and is live with the ignition.

You can use the interior lamp wiring as long as you use the two wires on the same plug and not the one on the separate plug which is for the delay; the orange/white wire is positive and is always live.
 
This one has the correct mount:


Congratulations Andy on your pics and mods. I am definitely adding one of those mirrors to my list ! However, I did a quick trawl ( who am I kidding, more like an hour ) over flea bay and there were very few that look suitable and none with the connector included. Some of the later model mirrors seem to have taken additional steps to hide the wiring inside the stalk and have lost the plug / socket arrangement off the back altogether.

Question is, is there any way to reuse an existing Cougar compatible stalk, to make it fit the more readily available, later mirrors ? I also note that a small minority of sellers include additional fittings, covers etc., or the bit that glues to the glass. I don't know if any of that is going to help, but I guess I'm looking for a way to circumvent the apparent lack of available mirrors....
 
Thanks Noel.
The main problem is the change from the 'slide' fixing on the Cougar to a 'twist' fitting on the later, more abundant mirrors.
I did think it might be possible to separate the ball and socket joints at one end or other of the Cougar stalk and mate that to a newer model with a similar stalk but I thought the re-assembly of the joint could prove problematic.
It would be possible to remove the windscreen side of the slide fitting from the Cougar and replace it with an OEM twist type fitting. A word of warning though; my mirror arrived with the windscreen slider in it along with a chunk of the still attached windscreen.
This would give you access to all the newer types and the covers for the stalk which also house the rain sensors, front view cameras etc but not necessarily the mirror wiring and connector. Having just recently helped my youngest to retro fit an auto-dimming mirror to his 2018 Fiesta we had to utilise the power feed to the interior lamps as the mirror wiring wasn't present.

I noticed 3 or 4 Mondeo Mk3 mirrors on eBay which would be suitable. Although the plugs are missing it would be easy enough to insulate a couple of suitable female connectors apart from each other and push them on to the relevant pins in the back of the mirror. You only require a power and earth unless you want to add the reverse gear interlock.
C44F7D89-F1F6-469A-ACAA-251B7853F8A7.jpeg

There are several OEM 'slide fit' mirrors complete with connectors on US eBay; examples:


 
  • Like
Reactions: Mako and Foobar
The twist-fit mount on later MK3 Mondeos is IMO inferior to the slide-on; my kids' mum briefly had such a car and the mirror was at best insecure; I struggled just to reattach it.

Be aware of sensor aim on LHD mirrors compared to RHD. If you angle the mirror to suit a RHD view, the sensor will no longer point out the back window, instead it'll point towards the driver. I don't know if that will have an adverse effect on operation.
When I had a LHD car with auto-dipping headlights, the sensor to detect oncoming cars' lights had a slight aim to the left, and thus didn't always react promptly to cars passing on the right. It wasn't an easy thing to correct.
 
Thanks Noel.
The main problem is the change from the 'slide' fixing on the Cougar to a 'twist' fitting on the later, more abundant mirrors.
I did think it might be possible to separate the ball and socket joints at one end or other of the Cougar stalk and mate that to a newer model with a similar stalk but I thought the re-assembly of the joint could prove problematic.
It would be possible to remove the windscreen side of the slide fitting from the Cougar and replace it with an OEM twist type fitting. A word of warning though; my mirror arrived with the windscreen slider in it along with a chunk of the still attached windscreen.
This would give you access to all the newer types and the covers for the stalk which also house the rain sensors, front view cameras etc but not necessarily the mirror wiring and connector. Having just recently helped my youngest to retro fit an auto-dimming mirror to his 2018 Fiesta we had to utilise the power feed to the interior lamps as the mirror wiring wasn't present.

I noticed 3 or 4 Mondeo Mk3 mirrors on eBay which would be suitable. Although the plugs are missing it would be easy enough to insulate a couple of suitable female connectors apart from each other and push them on to the relevant pins in the back of the mirror. You only require a power and earth unless you want to add the reverse gear interlock.
View attachment 18506

There are several OEM 'slide fit' mirrors complete with connectors on US eBay; examples:



I've just made on offer on a later model mirror that seems cheap enough to play around with. I take it that the tubular joint is 'crimped / swaged' once assembled over the ball and hence difficult to disassemble ?

Does anyone know if there is any kind of spring inside to increase the friction ? I feel sure that somebody was attempting to repair / mod a standard mirror fairly recently ? Thanks in advance...
Post automatically merged:

The twist-fit mount on later MK3 Mondeos is IMO inferior to the slide-on; my kids' mum briefly had such a car and the mirror was at best insecure; I struggled just to reattach it.

Be aware of sensor aim on LHD mirrors compared to RHD. If you angle the mirror to suit a RHD view, the sensor will no longer point out the back window, instead it'll point towards the driver. I don't know if that will have an adverse effect on operation.
When I had a LHD car with auto-dipping headlights, the sensor to detect oncoming cars' lights had a slight aim to the left, and thus didn't always react promptly to cars passing on the right. It wasn't an easy thing to correct.

Thanks for the heads-up Norman, I'll bear this in mind...
 
Noel, I thought with 'brute force and ignorance' the ball and socket joint could be separated but I was doubtful about how it could be made to go to back together properly so decided that would be the last resort.

With reference to Norman's comment about LHD mirrors; I've just performed an experiment with my US sourced mirror and found it will react equally well to an illuminated hand torch placed centrally between the headrests whether it was set-up for a LH or RH driver. (y)
The sensor is towards the LH side of the mirror so ends up more central when the mirror is adjusted for RHD.
 
You only require a power and earth unless you want to add the reverse gear interlock.

I've got one of the earlier (MK1 Facelift, post-N-reg Mondeo?) ones that I never fitted yet, and it has three wires, the 3rd being the reverse interlock.

I tested it on an external power supply and can confirm that not attaching the 3rd wire is fine. I vaguely remember it being the grey-and-white one?
 
Today took the dash apart to once again try to find that annoying creak when going over bumps / pot holes. Thought it might be from the clock binicle. So put some foam tape in places that could be rubbing. While everything was out hooked up the earth to the dash dimmer. Reassembled dash and will see if cures the knock / creak!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: David`