Rep Power: 511

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM! Or rather good afternoon... civicforums.. whatever. It might be morning when you're reading this. Could be evening. But I digress..

Today, I bring you some exterior safety gear I just picked up for my 2018 Sport Hatch.





These are convex, anti-glare, hydrophobic side-view mirrors from Suma Performance. I know they say "turn signal LED mirror," but I bought the basic ones with no turn signals. They offer 3 variants: Plain ($150; like I got), with defroster ($170), or LED turn signal/defroster combo ($200), and they'll fit any 10thgen civic: coupe, sedan, hatch, Si, Type-R, and whatever other category you can think of. They also offer for 9thgens, but without defroster capabilities. I'm sure the install will be similar for the 9thgen, but I can't tell you with any certainty. For the purposes of this DIY, it'll be valid for only 10thgens.

Here's the technical details from their website
Without further ado, here's how it do.

Estimated time: 10 minutes

How it do:

1. First things first, turn your mirrors fully inward to expose the outboard edge of your mirrors
   
2. Insert your pry tool or flathead screwdriver between the mirror and the white piece you can barely see inside the mirror .
3. Carefully separate the mirror from the white piece. There are 4 clips holding the mirror on, one each at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions of the mirror. You may have to work your way around. Luckily, with my pry tool made for plastic trim, I was able to shove it in the space between the two and twist to release those clips. If you manage to pull the white piece out with the mirror, don't worry. You'll just have to remember where more crap goes in order to install the mirrors properly. It's just infinitely easier to take the time to separate the mirror from the white plastic piece than it is to mess with ball joints and crap. If you feel like the ball joint is gonna come off and you don't wanna tread down that avenue, stop prying and attack it from a different angle. I felt that a few times, and I managed to remove the mirror without any issue. Also, I couldn't tell you how to get it back on without doing some research, so you'd kinda be on your own during installation.
   Here's a video tutorial for removing the mirror from Suma Performance themselves.
   If you've done it this way, you should see this:
   
4. After you've removed the OEM mirror, set it somewhere and grab the new ones. Meet the backside of the mirror. Like I mentioned, these are direct replacement mirrors. They will snap right into place. In fact, you can see the 4 clips at the aforementioned locations, and looking at the picture above, you can kinda figure out where they go. The only different clip is the most outboard one, and that'll sit in the square hole on that "ear" of the white piece. Notice the "peel" part. That's a adhesive filler bit. These mirrors were modeled after the legit JDM ones, and they have a slightly different design. The filler is there to make sure the mirror doesn't vibrate during normal operations. Peel that sucker off.
   
   
5. This is the part where you should be wiring up your turn signals and/or heated mirrors if you bought those versions. The turn signals, you will have to tap your turn signal lines and run wires. The defroster, if your car came stock with them, you'll probably be splicing the mirror into the existing wiring. If not, you'll have to get creative with it. I'm sure running a +12VDC line in and routing it to a pushbutton switch on your dash would work beautifully. However, I did not get that version, so you're on your own here. In my mind, it'd be really, really easy to wire those up.
6. Take the new mirror and bring it to the car. Line up one of the clips to orient it properly and push it on. You should feel/hear it click into place. What I personally did was line up the bottom clip and pushed it in, then laid the rest of it down and pushed it down firmly.
   
   If you have any doubts of whether or not it's pushed in all the way, adjust the mirror (by hand or motor) and lightly pull on the edges. If it comes up a bit, peek behind the mirror and pull gently again. If you see separation, push harder right in the center of the mirror. Once you're satisfied with the install of that mirror. repeat the removal/install steps on the other mirror
7. After you've completed both mirrors, pop in your driver's seat and adjust your mirrors. Below, I'm gonna post both the OEM and Suma mirrors side by side.
   
   Before; driver's side
   
   After; driver's side
   
   Before; passenger's side
   
   After; passenger's side
   Direct Comparison
   

Initial impressions: Holy crap, they blue af. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm really more worried about the blue during night driving, but pictures I've seen from other people with the same mirrors gave me hope. However, that blue is supposed to be the anti-glare part of it. Also, the driver's side is going to take some getting used to. I like the difference in angle. Definitely much wider view. You can see the big white stack at the edge of the OEM ones, and in the Suma ones, they're damn near on the inside edge. If you install these, you'll have to keep the "Warning: Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" in your head every time you look in these mirrors. I was really apprehensive about separating the mirrors, but after I got the first one off, I was smacking myself for being apprehensive, considering how incredibly easy it was. There's no way in hell it took me 10 minutes to install both. Honestly and realistically, it was about 5 minutes. The only reason it might have taken me 10 minutes is because I kept stopping to take pics and I was walking between the garage and my car during the install.

 
Rep Power: 511

Just finished taking it out for a test drive. I was honestly a bit skeptical about daytime driving with the blue, but I'm feeling it. Glass clarity on these things is crystal clear. Field of view is amazing with these. As soon as an adjacent car on my left side left my peripheral vision, they showed up in my side view mirror. Effectively zero blind spot now with these guys. One thing I should've looked at was car position vs my rear view mirror, too, but I have a 240mm convex broadway mirror, too, so I'm pretty sure I've completely eliminated any driver's side blind spots. I'll update this thread after I take her for a spin after the sun goes down.

I was also worried about the perspective while backing into parking spots, since I primarily back my car in. Zero issues. I didn't have any feeling that I was too close or far from the line, and I've made it habit to look at my backup cam to check front to back distance. So far, these mirrors are amazing, and I highly recommend them

 
Rep Power: 222

Nicely done dude

 
Rep Power: 511

Morning commute to work before the sun came up, but not quick "black of night" status. Good visibility. Had zero issues seeing people sitting in what used to be my blind spot.

 
Rep Power: 229

Ohhwww, pretty. 😁