Oh I know. I remember looking into this and finding those old forum posts and going "THEY PAID THAT MUCH?? Damn, maybe I shouldn't have bought a Lexus..". Honestly, I just wish I tested fitted the JDM modules before ordering these ES ones. The only part I got to use for this project was the wiring. Officially the most expensive wiring I've ever bought LOL
Yeah, I'll probably put them up for sale. Just have to make sure to include that they won't fit on US/LHD cars. I already know someone is going to ignore my warning, buy them, and then complain they don't fit.

So I can actually give an answer on this but not a very good one. I did notice 1 big difference between the JDM ones and the ES ones.
From first glance, everything looks identical. Other than the stamped LHD/RHD of course. The ones I got even had a bit of dirt on them, so clearly they were used. However, since I had JDM mirrors, I harvested the blue and green wiring/connector. But it wouldn't actually plug into the ES modules. They looked similar but were slightly different. Even where the connector was on top of the modules was slightly different. I was confused, and curious, so I opened the modules up and what do you know? The ES modules have a PCB in it, while the JDM ones don't.





The JDM modules only had a long "tub" that goes into the actual gears that rotates it? (I honestly don't know how that works so don't quote me on that lol). The rest of the internals were identical though. So I just swapped the "tub" and top cap from the JDM modules into the ES modules, mainly because a. the wiring from the JDM mirrors was already available, and b. I felt like the PCB would be an extra point of failure. It worked perfectly fine and everything lined up as it should.

This was my "well, this is from an ES, so maybe they're just different.." moment lol

 

Small update but the RHD modules did fit in the LHD housing. However, the RHD passenger side folds in more than the LHD driver

driver side:


Passenger side:

 

Yeah that's how my CT is from the pictures above with JDM actuators..lol

You gotta use the USDM driver side and the JDM for the passenger.

Or is that what you did?

Those two pictures look identical to what I have!
Did your driver side mirror fold in that much with the other actuator that you had initially on the first go round?

-Nigel

 

I only replaced the passenger side with the JDM ones. The driver side is the same LHD/ES one.

It's very strange that the JDM ones fold in way further than the LHD.. I have to wonder though.. what if they don't actually fold that far in when they're in the correct mirror? I never actually plugged the JDM mirrors in when I bought them so I didn't get a chance to see how much they fold in.

I'm going to switch back in the LHD on the passenger side because at least the difference wasn't that jarring..

 

I can answer that actually. When I bolted on the complete JDM mirror housing without touching anything they folded in identically to what your pictures show right nowl

Everything that I have researched shows the same thing. The passenger side folds in significantlly more for some reason.
I wish we could find someone that had a true LHD RCF to be able to take measurements.

I just measured mine and the passenger mirror extends 4" and on the driver side it extends 4.5".

Driver RCF:

Passenger RCF:




On my CT (same style mirror as original RCF's) you can see how much it folds in on the passenger compared to driver.

CT driver:


CT passenger:




Here's a BMW picture that they deal with as well.



-Nigel

 

Yep, I switched back in my LHD module on my passenger mirror and it looks exactly like yours now. I didn't think the difference in the RHD modules would be that drastic though. I guess for your CT, you'd have to switch out the passenger side to get them closer of a match.

Also, since you have LHD mirrors from Europe on your RCF, doesn't that mean it's a true LHD conversion? I guess mine would also be considered true LHD since it's using LHD modules (well ES LHD modules but same thing lol).

 

Are you able to take a picture of the front driver/passenger now that you swapped back, just like how when you did the jdm, just so we can see the difference. Nothing is documented anywhere so it's nice for reference :-)

The funny thing with the CT is that when I had manual folding mirrors they BOTH folded in the same distance to the window. They both looked just like the pasenger side. So I thought that was odd that by adding the actuators it changed slighty...lol

Manual fold driver:


Manual fold Passenger:



How weird right?!..lol I figure for what this cost compared to the RCF, the fact that I even have it now on the car that never had the option, I'm OK with the minor folding difference. Annoying but still extremely happy power folding mirrors is a thing.


I guess you are right on the conversion I did since they are entire mirror assemblies for the RCF are from a LHD European country (I never looked at it like that). I just figured if someone out there from the UK/Europe had the mirrors folded we could see if theirs too looked like it or had measurements we could go off of. What makes me now want to venture into looking for used updated mirrors from Japan and taking the actuators out and put them in my manual folding RCF mirrrors and see if that retrofit can be done (I can't see why they wouldn't be able to)... something about modding is fun when there's not really a lot of information out there and then when you are able to get it working such satisfaction out of it!

Side note did your JDM mirrors come with aspherical glass? I ask this because my Norway mirrors did and it's so much better for visibility. The European mirrors have a vertical dotted line section and to the left or right depending on the side acts as a blind spot angled mirror. The JDM mirrors I got for the CT, as ALSO aspherical but they lack the blind spot glass. I will also note that the European mirrors have a yellowish/gold tint to them, while the JDM ones were normal glass color. Anyways, wasn't sure if you looked closely at the glass but the JDM/UK aspherical to me is so much nicer to drive with.

-Nigel

 

Just wanted to add to this, based off this photo from your RC, the housing is the exact same as the 3IS (2014-2020), see picture below showing the same part number.
Therefore the motor to fold the mirror from the IS should work on the RC.





IS housing:

 

Yeppers any of the same style mirror years, this should work which is awesome. Ie: You can take the actuators from an ES, IS, RC, or any of the preface mirrors that look identical with that round shape that are power folding you should be able to grab the actuators.

I never updated on mine with the uneven folding, but on the CT, I end up swapping out the actuators from right hand drive to left hand drive. This fixed the uneven folding on the driver/passenger side.

You can see the difference in the fold-in.

The driver side folds in slightly more now which is nice. Passenger side doesn't fold in as much as the right hand drive / JDM one did. So now their symmetrical.

Driver side. Left side of picture is RHD actuator. Right side picture is LHD actuator. You can see how the LHD actuator pulls the mirror in just ever so slightly more.


Passenger side:
Left picture is RHD actuator. Right picture is LHD actuator.
Noticed all the LHD actuator doesn't pull the mirror in nearly as close as the RHD does.



I took everything apart in terms of the board and gearing. The USDM and JDM actuator, motor, and board are identical. Even down to the same part numbers.
So it's the actual actuator housing itself that's geared slightly different...here's a picture of the JDM and USDM when I measured it with a piece of tape.



Definitely a much easier cheaper mod if you have the round style mirrors.

I'll be taking my facelifted mirrors apart here once I change out the chrome piece to black chrome, I hope to at least take some pictures and update with how the actuator looks on the facelifted mirrors.

-Nigel

 

Still wanting to do this to my IS500, and my RCF. I have purchased the actuators for my RCF, and bought a new mirror switch that includes the auto/fold buttons.

 

Nice post an update when you get everything!

Actuators for the prefacelift RCF should be super easy to source, and relatively cheap... Around 70 bucks for each actuator. Pretty much plug and play, since they bolt into the mirror arms. Just have to run the wiring.

On the facelifted mirrors, They might be slightly more difficult (and slightly more expensive) however it still should be pretty easy to do.

I took my mirrors apart to change some things last week, so here's a few pictures that I took to show what the mirror arm looks like and the actuator. Still looks to be a bolt on operation but you should be able to snag them from either an ES, IS, or an LC. (Note that you probably not going to use the entire mirror arm, You simply going to detach the actuator from whatever car you're getting it from and then attaching it onto the RC mirror arm).










You can see the actuator is held in by four screws. Same blue and green wires that the preface lift actuators use as well. (I'm pretty sure this is like a standard Lexus color code for wires for the power folding mirrors).

If I had a spare/broken updated mirror, I would take it apart so we could see the actuator (minus the housing) and what it looks like... I actually wouldn't be surprised in the least if it's the same exact actuator in the prefaced Just placed differently in the facelifted mirror). If someone has a link to one that's cheap or broken send it and I'll get it to take apart to take more pictures. That way at least we'll have the information out there.







The above three pictures are from what I looked at when I did a Google search image of the actuator on my car.
This is from an LC and you can see that the actuator assembly that connects to the arm looks identical...(Ignore the red square on the wire bundle, that's from whoever took the picture).

So this definitely can be done and retrofitted. I'm sure on the updated RCF without having to purchase all new mirror assemblies like I did years ago... This should be significantly cheaper than the price that I paid, by a lot!
The only crappy part is we won't have the auto function... It would be phenomenal if we could somehow get someone to flash that feature on the window control switch (It's there but it's completely grayed out when you look at it through tech stream), So nothing can actually be changed to enable that...

-Nigel

 

By any chance did you have to buy the actuator wiring or did it come with it? unfortunately im stuck in my retrofit fit since one of the motors didn't come with the wiring harness attached other motor. I am trying to find it but I have no luck online.

 

On my RHD mirrors since they were complete it was the entire harness from the connector all the way up to the mirror actuator. On the LHD actuators it was only the actuator and no wiring.

The good thing is it should be super easy to wire even without the wiring harness/clip. It might be a little more permanent but not really. When you look at the top of the actuator you can see there is that little tan connector and two pins. You could easily solder two wires directly onto the pins then fill the void with silicone or "pot" that end that way no water can get in.
Then just make a break a-way connector mid way through so if you have to remove the actuator you can easily do so.

I can't think of having to remove the actuator short of the mirror breaking or you need to rebuild it. And even rebuilding is easy. I did it to the USDM ones I had because the JDM's were near pristine condition and I swapped over stuff.

Unless you can find just the connector for the actuator to make your own plug/harness, I'm pretty sure you can't just get the wiring harness as is. I'm at work now but when I get home, I can snap some pictures.

I wouldn't let the harness halt the progress though. You could check eBay and other places for a complete mirror to grab the little two pin connector, but you'd be looking at the entire cost of a mirror unless you can find a broke one super cheap. At the time I picked up multiple sets from Japan the entire mirror assembly was like $16... it was silly cheap. Even looking at them now they are still pretty cheap but you'll get hit with tariffs and shipping which probably wouldn't make it worth it.

-Nigel