Guys, when I put the gear in reverse, if the mirror control switch is on L or R, that mirror will turn down. However, if the switch is at middle position, nothing happens. Is it normal for an 06?
My friend has an 03 3.2TL and both mirrors roll down when the gear is in reverse

 

The action of your mirrors is correct. That's the way all 3G TL's are.

 

 

All the 3rd gens are that way!!

 

what's funny is I was going to post a question.......WTF IS WITH THIS?!?! my switch is in the middle and it doesn't roll the mirror down while in reverse but now after reading this thread, if the switch is in L or R, then that specific mirror rolls down?

wtf? What were the 'Ac designers thinking on this one? can someone rationalize this for me?

I have an 06TL

 

It's a poor man's reverse camera.

 

I'm gonna have to check that out... I remember the salesman saying the mirrors tilted down, but I always have it in the middle so I never noticed it.

 

Isn't this explained in the owner's manual? If not, it obviously should be!

 

It is very useful when parallel parking (when set on the R). You can get close to the curb, but never touch it.

 

Ok, if you are backing up you are not going to need both of them to look down. This is designed for when you are parking next to a curb. That way you can see where the curb is and get close to it or when backing up next to a curb you can keep from destroying you tires and rims. Also, would you really want both mirrors turned down at the same time, what purpose would that actually serve? Just use a little common sense on it. Not to mention, it takes more engineering for them to turn down one at a time then for both of them to turn down.

Jason

 

On the 2G, only the passenger side mirror tilts down, and only if the mirror control is in the middle position. So it's quite the opposite of the operation on the 3G. The biggest difference is that you can control which mirror to tilt down on the 3G. But on both cars, you can't tilt down both mirrors.

 

this way you have the ability to control the left side going down or the right side going down or no side going down. Imagine you're parrallel parking back into a spot, you need the right one down to see the curb but the left side up to see traffic behind you or oncoming or the vehicle in back of you as you pull in.

I'm sure the designers gave it a lot of thought

 

All covered in the little book they give you when you buy the car. I think they call it a owners manual or something.

 

I love the feature. My CL only tilted the right side mirror. After tearing up my rims on curbs as I backed into parking spots, having the ability to actually see the curb is nice.

gurney

 

I'm unfamiliar with this "owner's manual" thingy. Where is it located in the car? Is it a remote control or something? Does it do anything cool like roll down all the windows on the car when you open it? How do I get access to it?

To the original poster, one cool thing about the 3G is let's say you are backing into a parking space and have the right side mirror set to tilt down. Midway through your approach on the parking space, you can flip the mirror control switch to the left mirror, so that you can make sure you are parked between the lines (I like to be fair to other motorists whom might want to park in the space beside me). I have my side view mirrors adjusted to reduce blind spots while driving, so I can't see the side of my car through them. Therefore, I have found this technique of switching the mirror tilt-down to be very useful.

 

The tilting of the mirrors was always a habit of mines, even in my previous cars. Just had to do it myself, for whichever side. This is a good convenience, just doesn't make sense to have both mirrors tilt down. You need the mirror to see how close your getting to the car behind you and your surroundings.

 

It's a nice feature so you don't have to stick your head out of your car to see the curb when it's on the driver's side. 2G didn't have that, only the passenger side tilts down.

 

Personally, I would prefer if both mirrors tilted down...that way, it's easier to center the car while backing into a parking space. I rarely do this when it would matter, but for the few times I do, it would nice not to have to switch L, R, L, R and/or stick my head out the window. It would also help those who back into spots in between cars that obviously can't see what they're doing as they end up on top of one car and a mile from the other one.

 

Well, I guess every function has a reason, and after several times of parallel parking (preferred spot in my apartment parking, to nobody can "accidentally" hit my baby), I begin to like it

 

That is asking for trouble. I can so see some moron, using that for parrallel parking or just ordinary backing up and likely backing into a vehicle or somebody and perhaps suing acura because the mirrors all went down and they didnt know how to change it.

 

yea there is no shortage of idiots out there and some shmo will sue 'Ac cuz they used the automatically tilting down mirrors...

 

I think this was discussed WAYYY back.. And it made sense.

Look at this senario:

If you are driving, then decide to parallel park. You will:

1. Drive up enough past your spot so that you could go reverse into it.
2. Place the the switch to R so that the right mirror goes down.
3. Once you are going reverse, you need to watch out for traffic comming behind you or passing you by, therefore you need the LEFT mirror looking straight back, not down.


It serves the purpose of you not hitting the curb nor hitting other cars passing you by.
It makes sense to me. Hope it helps.

 

1) Avoid parallel parking.
2) If you must, park on the end or pull through so you're basically just lining up along the curb while going straight.

Don't really follow step 3...if I want to look back to the left, I'll turn and glance. Around here, most people will wait until you back in and are out of the way before trying to drive past; therefore, there's not much to really look back to the left for anyway.

Regardless, it would still be useful to have both go down at the same time.

 

This feature is fantastic for parallel parking!

 

You might want to check out the owners manual...

Or the not so nice answer is RTFM!!!

 

please tell me this is a joke???????

 

I think he is serious.

 

Dead serious...this isn't New York, you don't have to parallel park here...plenty of parking with no chance of scraping your rims. Actually, I find people who do it annoying (when they are in the process of doing it) as I have wait on them to get out of the way for me to proceed. That and it takes more effort and/or steps to do it...I just don't understand why anyone would want to do something that takes more effort to do (and this applies to everything in life, no just parking your car).

 

I owned a 2G TL Type-S and the passenger only mirror went down when in reverse. I dont know how your buddies mirriors both rolled down, that must be a factory freak.

 

Let me start by saying that I usually keep my right mirror in tilt down mode. This morning I was running late for work so I was in a little bit of a hurry. As I was backing out of the driveway I noticed that when I hit a certain speed the mirror tilted back to normal untill I slowed down again. I thought I was seeing things, so when I got to work I went to that back empty part of the parking lot, put it reverse and tried it again. It seems to tilt back to normal at around 15mph then it tilts back down to reverse mode when the car hits a sane logical reverse speed. I just thought this was pretty cool and wanted to share with everyone.

 

FYI.....I just had my drivers side mirror replaced because the motor was faulty. About a week ago, I noticed when I put it in reverse the mirror made a horrible popping sound. I took the car in two days ago and found out I needed a new mirror. Come to find out there was an internal problem with the motor. The dealer gave me a new mirror assembly.

 

Or the L, for that matter, if you ever parallel park on a one-way street. Fairly common in New York City, for example, to parallel park on the driver's side (used to do it all the time when I visited relatives in Brooklyn).

Funny thing about the mirror tilt-down is that I find it more useful when I want to parallel park in an unusually large space (say, a car length and a half). Did that just last night, actually. I find that a large space robs me of my usual reference points as to the car behind me as I back in, so the tilt-down mirror is useful to aid in spotting the curb in those situations. Otherwise, in a standard parallel park, it's not a feature I particularly need.

 

If you know how to do it, it's hardly difficult and doesn't require all that much effort. Not to insult you based on where you live, but when I lived in Durham I noticed that a lot of people there weren't very good at it and had to go back and forth way too many times, so who knows if it's just a regional thing. I grew up in Northern Virginia and didn't have to learn to do it to get my driver's license, but when I went off to school in Charlottesville I taught myself really quickly because the parking outside my dorm was all parallel parking. My car then was a 1982 Accord with no passenger-side mirror, so that's probably why I don't generally need my mirrors to do it.

 

Love this feature. I didn't use it initially, but now I use it all the time and I love it.

 

I use it all the time and I wouldn't want it to work any differently than it already does. When I back down my driveway, I check the right side with the mirror because there are some larger rocks near the corner of the driveway that sometimes get bumped into my path. I can see them as I back down and make sure they're where they belong.

And I'm glad Acura didn't omit them just because there are regions of this country where people don't need to parallel park.