venombite

Hello all, I hope this is posted in the proper location, if not, please place into the proper forum.

i had a questions about the auto-dimming rearview mirror, is there a way to rewire the mirror so that pressing the button and turning it on will dim the mirror and turning it off will undim the mirror?

The reason for this is because when I'm driving in the day and the sun hits the mirror, I'm completely blinded yet the dimming will not occur. I like my old RSX that had the basic mirror with the flip switch that will tilt the mirror up/down to give it the "dimmed" look in situations like this.

I know I can just put electrical tape on the sensor behind the mirror, but I don't want the heat of the sun to melt the adhesive everywhere. If anyone has an alternative that will not leave residue everywhere I'm willing to give it a try.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Vb

BobbyC

ghetto solution: put a piece of electrical tape over the sensor on the front of the mirror.

it should work..

venombite

Unfortunately, I believe this will only prevent the dimming from turning on. I think that front sensor detects how much light is hitting it from headlights and the back sensor (behind the mirror) senses how much overall light in the environment. I know if I put my finger over the sensor behind the mirror (with dimming turned on), the mirror will dim. This is generally what I want to happen, always be dimmed unless I press the power button to turn it off.

Also, I want to try to stay away from the ghetto solutions.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Asian Candy

I've never tried turning the mirror on or off, but just assumed that's what the button in the front did. That's how all of my previous cars worked.

BobbyC

right. so putting a piece of electrical tape over that sensor would have the same effect.
isnt that what you want?

venombite

Bobby, yes, putting electrical tape on the rear sensor would achieve what I want (overall), but I don't want to put tape on the sensor.

Candy, the button does enable/disable the option, but the senors control if it dims or not and how dark it goes. i generally want to disable the auto-dimming via the sensors and just make it so when I hit the power button on, it dims, when I press it off, it un-dims.

Without using electrical tape.

Any other options that will not leave any residue would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Vb

HondoGermany

Tint your windows. I never get blinded by sun or cars behind me, since I tint the windows black!

venombite

Hondo, was thinking about tinting the windows, but looking more for a mod/fix for the mirror alone. Was also considering replacing the mirror with a plain mirror with the flip/tilt switch.

BobbyC

This.
After I got my windows tinted, never had to deal with glare.
It actually gets almost too dark at night time with the dim

Def worth it.

iSeeYouTwo

My mirror is always dim when I turn my car on... I turn it off at night because I can't see shit through my tinted windows.

Asian Candy

[QUOTE=

Candy, the button does enable/disable the option, but the senors control if it dims or not and how dark it goes. i generally want to disable the auto-dimming via the sensors and just make it so when I hit the power button on, it dims, when I press it off, it un-dims.

[/QUOTE]

That's what I was referring to. My last 3 cars were Mazda and that's how the mirror worked. I've pressed the button on my tsx once when hooking up the mirror tap for my detector. It didn't do anything, so I pressed it again. Then once more. Nothing changed so I haven't touched it since then.

For me, it dims perfectly even with tint, so I've never worried about it.

iSeeYouTwo

So what you guys are saying is that your mirror tints automatically & you can't turn it off/on by pressing the button? Because on mine, I can turn it on & off by pressing the button.

BobbyC

it has a on mode and a off mode.
on mode = it dims when its dark out or when the sensor on the front of the mirror doesnt sense light.

off mode = doesnt dim at all.

what op is wanting to do is to be able to dim and not dim during the day time when the sensor wouldnt dim it on its own.

i agree that the whole sensor thing is kinda silly.
id much rather have a button that dims/not dim on command rather than only when its dark out.

iSeeYouTwo

And what I'm saying is that mine has a button to dim/not dim on command. When you push the button ON, it dims. Button OFF, not dim. Maybe they changed that on the 11/12 models and made it automatic instead of manual operated? You guys don't have the button on your mirror?

BobbyC

We do but it pretty much just turns on the sensor.
When I turn it on during the day. Nothing happens.

venombite

iSee, BobbyC is correct and I've got a 2010 V6 and I wish the mirror was like yours as that's exactly what I want.

I just tried blocking the back sensor during my drive home on a cloudy day and it hardly dimmed.

What I was thinking that both senors just needs the leads shorted to bypass the sensors. Well, that's assuming the front sensor allows power to flow when light hits it and the rear cuts power when light hits it. I'm not an electrical engineer and don't know much about the inards of electronics/circuits so any suggestions would be appreciated.

ceb

Sheesh. The front sensor senses ambient light (i.e. "is it dark outside?") while the sensor on the mirror senses headlights (or other bright lights) and initiated dimming.

Anything over the front sensor will tell the mirror that it is dark outside and will dim the mirror because the outside light (the sun or just general brightness) will be brighter than the light hitting the front - now covered - sensor.

A hangtag from the mirror or a post-it note should suffice, is easily removed and won't leave residue.

blutsx

How I think the mirror is set up... Switch >>light sensor >>mirror dimmer. So if our Acura's are using regular photo sensors they should have two leads to them. One input postie lead(wire) and one output that goes to mirror. So in theory if you remove the photo sensor and wired the original input wire to the orginal photosensor's output, then it should work? I think...
Keep in mind that if your gonna attempt to do this, You would have to take apart the mirror and there will probally not be wires in the mirror that you can just re-wire over. Most likely everything will be soldered in the circuit board.
I'd be willing to give it a try but do not want to take apart my mirror, nor know the drawbacks to wiring it like this.

edit-black nail polish?

venombite

Hmmm...black nail polish/paint...that I didn't think of. But there's still the issue of the front sensor that detects headlights. On cloudy days, that sensor works for crap. Gotta try cracking the mirror open one of these days.

hjahmad

ive never seen the dimming work during the day, but works great for me at night. i would assume, that the dimming is not enabled until the low beams are switched on