DurgyNess

I have owned my tsx about 2 months now and got my windows tinted at 20%
and i was wondering if there is a way to turn off the rear view mirror always.
Like i can push the off button but when i turn the car on and off it goes back to auto dim

Any way to turn this feature off completely?

synthetic

NO and why would you want to do that? With tint, the feature never engages anyway, so having it on or off makes no difference.

DurgyNess

At night its darker and if you hit off it lightens up

PJS

At 20%, I'd have thought there wouldn't be enough light entering the rear window to activate the mirror, since it uses a comparative measure between the rear and front facing sensors.
The only way, I believe, is to wire a bypass switch on the unit.

DurgyNess

That is what i figured, or to pull a fuse but just wanted to check with some guru's out there

synthetic

pretty sure you're imagining things, or your tint is not dark enough.

DurgyNess

No not imagining things, its at 20% and it does make a difference when it is off...hence me making a forum post other wise i would have just left it alone

dalieu

i have a similar situation, but not to the point where i always want it off... just when it's really dark out.

DurgyNess

I've never had tinted windows before and its odd driving with that on auto dim cause its twice as dark, so thats why i brought it up.

wackura

Try simply unplugging the wire harness from the back of the mirror.

Then as long as you have the dangling wire harness not doing anything useful, you can snip and strip the power chord to your radar detector (sold seperately) and feed the +/- wires directly into the holes on the end of the harness and place the detector right beside the mirror.

DurgyNess

Sounds good will do thanks

godfather2

Even with tint my auto dim proves to be useful

Simba91102

I've had a number of auto dim mirrors (Audi, BMW, and now Acura) and in my opinion it's an answer to a question nobody asked. Oh, and I hate it (I can't be the only one can I?). It doesn't dim anywhere near enough at night (common to all brands) and it's useless at dusk/dawn (or any other time YOU want a dark mirror). With such proliferation of light pollution out there (daytime running lights, the yahoos that insist on having the idiot lights (aka fog/driving lights) on 24 hours a day and even more yahoos converting to pretty much illegal super bright replacement bulbs (for both headlights and the idiot lights), etc, a good day/night rear view mirror is a real plus. Too bad it's becoming harder to find in much more than entry level cars. My back window is tinted the legal limit in Mass. (45 I think) and it really doesn't dim any lights behind me a noticeable amount. I think it's stopped the auto dim from working though, but it did such a crappy job of dimming the mirror that I can't really tell. Oh, and my wifes 07 (mine's an 05) doesn't work any better (and no window tint).

wackura

For sure, I reflexively grab at it to flip it to the darker mode only to be disapointed. A day migth come when I make a homemade dimmer and haphazardly hang if over the mirror. I'm amazed they put those into production being as ineffective as they are compared to the manual type.

visuelz

I have no idea what you guys are talking about but my rear view mirror still dims a lot if people's headlights are in my face and i have 30% huper optic tints.

PJS

Sounds like some of us are more or less sensitive to light and/or glare, or more distracted by it.

Simba91102

kapitan

I'll walk the plank here and say that I love auto-dim mirrors and would probably go get an aftermarket one if the TSX didn't come with it!

nh_tsx

I'm with you on that. The TSX mirror doesn't dim nearly as much as the auto-dim mirror in my wife's Subaru, though. This is especially noticeable at dusk.

supraken

iTrader: (1)

If it doesn't dim enough, you can try putting a small piece of electrical tape over the hole with the light sensor that is on the back of the mirror (that would be towards the front of the car). The amount of dimming is determined by some difference between the sensors in the front and and the back of the mirror. If you cover the one in the back of the mirror, it will think the surrounding lighting is minimal (i.e. as it would be at night), and the amount of dimming would be greater.

but then it might also be too dim for day time...

I personally think it works great as-is though Especially after I get back into TSX after driving the s2k, I think it's the best invention ever

horsetrdr

I'm with Simba. I hated my auto-dim mirror and replaced it with a good-ol' cheap manual one. I don't need electronics to tell me when I'm getting blinded. Freed up the connector for the radar in the process. I think they should have make it an option, not standard equipment, but I'm old school. I used to have a WINK panoramic mirror with no dimming at all in my Monte SS, but no blind spots either.

DurgyNess

I just unpluged the power to the unit, this worked great. Thanks for all the input

esolouki

i agree with DurgyNess it does get really dark and i also wanted to see how u turn it off. i cant even tell if theres a cop behind me anymore cant see shit

Tsx6363

cut out the wire connected to the mirror i'm guessing?

Simba91102

I certainly didn't mean to burn anyone who appreciates their auto dim mirror; just added my 2 cents. I agree that it is most likely an issue of light sensitivity. Also, I was curious if/how many (on this forum anyway) held these mirrors in disdain the way I do.

poltergeist

Hate to tell you but a stock TSX is responsible for more than it's share of "light pollution." I cranked my headlight adjustment down a little to try and give others a break, but our cars' HID's are annoying to oncoming and/or cars ahead.

And so far the auto dim mirror has worked perfectly fine for me.

Simba91102

I won't disagree with the comments concerning the lights on the TSX, although in my experience for some reason the TL's seem to be noticeably more annoying (really no good reason for that though since I'm sure they use the same lights). It seems that the new style headlights bother some people more than others, which may further support the contention that it's as much about nightime sensitivity to light as anything else.

nbtx

I hate the damned thing - one of the few shortcomings of this car. Ever have the
sun in the back window ?? The thing doesn't dim so I have to readjust it out of the
way and I'm left with only the two side mirrors. Give me back my manual mirror.