So I pull over today to get gas. When i get back on the interstate I notice my rear view has completely darkened like it was night time. The problem is it is 3pm and sunny. I could barely see what was behind be it was so dark. Is my mirror broken? It has never done this before. Thanks for the help.

 

I did have something like this happen once. I had to make a rather abrupt stop on the freeway and the whole thing went black. Tried the on/off switch on the bottom of the mirror, etc. Nothing changed. Anyway, I went into my office for several hours and when I came back out everything was back to normal. That was a couple of weeks ago and the problem hasn't replicated itself yet. No idea what happened. I'm very interested to hear what ends up happening in your case, however.

 

That s pretty much what happened. i tried hitting the auot button on and off and there was no change in the darkness. I have not checked on it since I got home so I hope it is fixed in the morning.

 

I would think it is a problem with the light sensor, do you have any parking decals or anything else blocking the view of the sensor?

 

Exact same situation... only happend once in 2 years.

 

Mine did it once on a sunny day bout a month ago .. not since.

 

Hasn't happened to me yet...knock on wood. And dont mean to scare you guys but I heard of this happening on 2G TLs were the mirror bursts and theres this acid type liquid inside which will ruin your interior!! I would have it checked out by the dealer asap!

 

I once had this problem when I put a hang-tag parking permit on the mirror. But turning off the auto-setting fixed the problem.

Sounds like a loose connection for the photocell and on-off switch. If the photocell were disconnected (i.e. broken solder lead, etc), it would probably not conduct electicity (same as when dark at night or photocell covered by tag). If on-off switch is broken, then unable to turn off auto-sensing, so unable to ignore disconnected photocell.

That this problem occurs when slowing down also suggests something loose.

But that's my 2 cents -- I have not actually seen interior of this mirror, and based on other postings about earlier versions leaking, I would would not want to open one up.

Good luck and if you find out source of problem, let us know.

 

I had this issue in my Grand Prix GTP... it would randomly have that issue... then one day it died altogether and I temporarily had a Tinted Rear View.

Keep an eye on the issue!

 

it's happened to me 2 times in the last 6 months or so. I thought the photocell was failing, but then the switch would just make it all dark.

Weird thing was when I covered up the photocell it would lighten up.

I was baffled, then took like a 5 minute break, and restarted the car, back to normal.

I think its a sign of the mirror failing. Good thing is the mirror is only $80

 

if you cover up the photocell it should get lighter; the purpose of the auto dimming mirror is to dim when it detects bright light; maybe something horribly bright like someones windshield or chrome something was reflecting directly at it and it over compensated?

not sure.. knock on wood but mine has been fine so far..

 

uuuh theres a button under it to shut it off??

 

Really?!!! I had no idea!!! Okay, I'm joking. When this happened to mine, the On/Off button on the bottom of the mirror did nothing to relieve the problem. After the car had been shut off for a while, the problem went away.

 

interesting....now u know just press the button....lol. sounds weird thats never happened to me....maybe a bad sensor?