Non-Lit Power Window/Door Lock Switches

There you are gents and ladies - transplant complete

I gotta be honest guys, I'm impressed with myself. There is nothing actually "technical" about this transplant. Just a lot of patience, precision, do, undo, attention to detail, and time. Took me all day. The whole panel is re-installed in the Mazda. All windows work as intended with OEM look and feel.

I haven't done the LEDs yet. I ordered 4000k surface mount LEDs and I can tell immediately they're not going to match the interior "white" lighting. There's a slight tinge of yellow to it, and that's not ok with me. I have the same type of LEDs ordered in 6000k and that should be a much better match. I'll be seeing those on Wednesday of this week, but I don't expect to have time to install them until next weekend. Then I've gotta get the passenger side lit up. That'll be a small one-button transplant. Should be pretty simple.

I'm certain most of you who are confident in your DIY skills will be interested in doing something like this. This is going to be a hell of a step-by-step process and I gotta think through how I'd document it. Again, it's not hard, it just takes precision, patience, and time. I transplanted 3 buttons and honestly the first one was just dumb luck, worked like a charm. The second one was a beast -- but I think I know what I did wrong which was a decision to place the guide hole dead center, and that ended up causing me heartache. I eventually got it, but took some supreme patience. The last one was easy as pie because I knew where to place the guide hole. The guide hole is the key to the whole thing. The stem can't be too shallow or too deep. It can't be too far left, or too far right. It's pretty much gotta be perfectly set. And when you see how I did it, you're gonna be like "no freakin way".

That said, I'm super stoked to get the LEDs in and do the passenger side. It's the little things in life and the attention to detail!

johnykalbo said:

Excuse my simple-mindedness. You are transplanting the switches from M6 board to M3 board, the transplant will give the 3 all four auto up down functionality. Then next week you will be adding the lighting, so in the end all power all lighted? Thanks for taking the time to detail the work involved. Hope the parts needed will be easily available and not too expensive. Cheers.

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Hi @johnykalbo

Not a simple-minded question at all, in fact, it's a good one. This will not give the auto down feature to all of the windows on the M3. The auto down feature is much more complicated and technical than a simple button. The pic below, you'll see the two circuit boards: note how the M6 board has 4 low-profile silver slabs on it (on top of pic). Those silver "slabs" are the actual switch that allows auto down to work. However, Just having those "slabs" won't magically give you auto down. The M3 only has one of those "slabs", the other 3 are just simple switch designs (bottom of pic).

I can imagine you'd need the following: additional wiring so the master panel could "speak" to the other windows, different window motors for the auto down windows (this I'm not so sure of after looking at the design though), and then you'd need similar circuit board swaps for all of the windows that passengers would control.

All in all, I do think it'd be possible, but it'd be a super complicated job. Nothing that requires re-engineering, but there'd be some in depth swapping of parts and running wires. And even after you get all of that done, who knows if it'd actually work...

EDIT: Additionally, look at how much more complicated the engineering is on the M6 board. And ironically, the engineering exists to add 3 more LEDs for the window switches and 1 LED for the lock/unlock. However, even after all the complicated engineering for the M6 board, they STILL only included 1 LED on the board. I just don't know if I can understand the reasoning for that. At first I though it must have been manufacturing cost related, and then I saw the complication of the M6 board and I was like, there has to be a more technical reason for only included 1 LED. the engineering is all there...

@Studum

You twisted my arm! I can confirm the boards are the exact same in size, and the pin connectors utilize a 12-pin setup for both. The wiring should essentially plug 'n play.

"well why didn't you check??" haha. I try not to take my car apart until I know I have a reason to. I bought M3 and M6 donor panels so I wouldn't need to take my car apart in the event this project just ended up not working. Once I got the new M3 panel assembled with the transplant switches, I then took my car apart knowing I had something to swap in there; and by that time, the M6 panel's switches ceased to exist as they were transplanted.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there -- just the reason as to why I never got around to checking. The fact that I know this transplant works, I've since order ANOTHER M6 and M3 donor panel (at another $100) and those should be delivered next Monday or Tuesday (a week from now -- I went with the free shipping this time to keep it as cheap as possible haha). As soon as I get the new M6 donor panel it'll take me literally 3 minutes to pop out the current panel in my car and plug in the M6 panel and test it. If It works, then holy crap I wasted an entire weekend for nothing; but if it doesn't work, then at least we'll know.

If it ends up not working, I'm going to use these new M3 and M6 donor panels to document the process, give you guys a parts list, and estimated price tag.

A word on the auto-down feature and why Studum's inquiry may prove valid: when using the M3 panel, if I unplug the circuit board from my car, and then replug it in, the auto-down feature actually ceases to work (kind of freaked me out the first time...oh no, what did I do?!). However, you actually have to "program" the auto-down feature into the circuit board -- at least I presume it's the circuit board. To do this, you hold the auto-down switch all the way down, let the window go down completely and hold for an additional 3 seconds (same thing with the auto-up). After you do that, the auto-down/up feature works. So to Studum's point, if the M6 board has this capability, why wouldn't it just be plug and play? Man...in a perfect world, it would work. The passengers wouldn't have the functionality, but if the master switch board is controlling it, theoretically the driver should have the capability of this function if it all runs off of the circuit board (which would also explain the crazy price differences between the M3 and M6 panel).

I think we all believe the motors have something do to with it, and I'm not so sure the motors have anything to do with it. The difference in the motor may simply be a mechanism that allows it sense if something is in the way when using the auto-up feature. We'll find out in good time.

Who's excited?!

And btw. They're all lit up. The pic looks to have a green tinge, but they're not green - they are lit white. I should've done it in a slightly dim lit area; instead, I was in the pitch black bathroom. Anyway, you get the idea!

@Chazzy J

OK, same physical size and same connector are a really good start. But I personally wouldn't go just plugging the M6 switch into your car just yet - I really don't want you to fry anything in the exciting possibility that this may work as we hope it might.

What we should look at before you plug into the car are the pin-out schematics for the connectors in both cars to make sure the wiring I/O's pair up correctly between the cars, and that nothing is missing. I'm imaging the connectors should be the same pin-out based on what we've seen so far (as long as nothing is missing from any of the pins) but I'd still like to be sure. I can help read these diagrams if we can find them.


Why I'm wondering if the controller is built into the circuit board is because I believe (though I can't confirm) that they work by basically holding the switch until they sense the added load in the system of the motors being at the end of their travel. This is why you have to re-program the switch for the auto up and down features after disconnecting it.

What I'm not 100% sure of is if this "sensing" is done in that switch circuit board (hopefully it is!) or in a body control module elsewhere in the vehicle (which would suck for us!).

Regardless before you plug in the M6 control board I would like to make sure that all of the wires in the harness are in the right spots so nothing gets fried by mistake when you try to operate the switches.


With that all said - solid work so far. The switches that you've modded look perfect. And if the M6 control board is plug and play I know what my first mod will be

This thread has the potential to become 2 great things:
- Illuminating the OEM switches = DONE (Nice work!)
- Converting to auto down, and making illuminating the switches easier??? (Fingers crossed here!)

Mazda6 Wiring Diagram:


Hopefully this link works:
2014 Mazda6 - 0912-2a Power Window System (Auto-Open/Close Function For All Windows)

I think diagrams confirms the need for a particular window motor...

I can't get the similar diagram to open for the Mazda3...grr. I am able to locate this though which is the same spec sheet for the M6 as it is the M3 (0912-5a)

http://www.eecs.tufts.edu/~stephen/2014wsm/workshop manual/n6d09/html/0912_5a.html

So my excitement has dwindled and I guess I won't leave work early because those harnesses aren't the same and it appears the motors required do need what they call a "hall effect switch". Which my friend google tells me it basically stops the window when an obstruction is detected, but I presume this also stops the window motor when it detects the window is fully up or down. Looks like a pretty simple system. But from what I can tell, it's not a direct swap...shame...had me all excited!

Here's the master manual for the M6 I was using in the event you want to do your own research:
http://www.eecs.tufts.edu/~stephen/2014wsm/workshop manual/n6d09/_STARTHERE.html


One M6 member made this handy diagram (pic below)

I agree, I believe we're dead in the water. Thanks for the link to the service manual as I now have it - I took some time to dig in because it's all I could think about LOL. If you haven't already ordered a second switch I wouldn't bother. If you have I would try to cancel it.

The good news is that from the diagram it DOES appear as though the power window control module is built into the switch. The bad news is that even if the connectors are the same it does confirm that there are additional sensors in the window regulator that's used in the auto up/down applications that are not in the standard window motors. At least if they are, they are not shown in the diagrams. The wiring connectors at each motor appear to be the same but I highly doubt they would've put the more complex motors and the additional wires in the other doors and just left the control module out. I would think that would negate any real cost savings.

What I'm not sure of is if the M6 board would still work as standard switches for the other 3 doors without the auto motors in those doors. Of course the danger there would be if auto mode tries to work but doesn't have the safety stop and you burn out a motor...

Oh well, it was worth a good look at.

Attached are some clips I grabbed from the manual for the 3 to show what I mean.

EDIT: I didn't see your pics the first time I read your post. We picked out pretty much the exact some things.