Has anyone installed a gen Toyota auto dimming rear view mirror ?

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

Is your rear window tinted Tony?

My one doesn't dim noticeably at night unless there is someone behind me with very bright lights AND nobody in front of me. It's fairly easy to tell if it's dimming or not as everything goes a bit green tinted when it is  

 

I have privacy shades similar to tint windows. I don’t know if the tint can affect that. My one works fine though. These mirrors help reduce glare but they won’t complete stop the light reflection. 👍

[Guest]

20 hours ago, olonas said:

Never experienced that Tony. Always only "dimmed" when sensing headlights to the rear.

I don't think it dims and remains dimmed with dark ambient light.

Front sensor detects darkness but the mirror will only dim when the rear sensor detects bright light, e.g. headlights.

Anyway, I don't think they are adequate when confronted with these ridiculously bright trendy headlights. There was nothing wrong with the old pull lever at the base of the mirror housing, in my opinion.

What should be fitted is an automated parabolic mirror that when triggered by 2000000 lumens springs up and reflects back to the plonker behind!

[TonyHSD]

8 hours ago, olonas said:

I don't think it dims and remains dimmed with dark ambient light.

Front sensor detects darkness but the mirror will only dim when the rear sensor detects bright light, e.g. headlights.

Anyway, I don't think they are adequate when confronted with these ridiculously bright trendy headlights. There was nothing wrong with the old pull lever at the base of the mirror housing, in my opinion.

What should be fitted is an automated parabolic mirror that when triggered by 2000000 lumens springs up and reflects back to the plonker behind!

You are right about it.
The mirror doesn’t goes darker at dusk but only makes the auto dimming function active.
The mirror needs a bright light directly into it most likely the sensor can sense that and the mirror goes darker. I tested that right now and here are the results. 
Huge difference between on and off. 
The tint most likely stops the mirror from going dim as reduces the glare from the lights. Spot on guys👍

[Toyohta]

On 2/15/2023 at 5:26 PM, Tim1974 said:

Solved it !! 
pleased to report its now installed and working.

I purchased the connecting lead from a breaker as per the picture. Despite being a five pin lug, it only has two wires installed, a sky blue ( live ) and a black and white ( neg).

I also found this pinout diagram in the net, describing sky blue cable as a positive feed for radio, so assumed the same colour code used ( this proved correct.)

I connected new lead to the vanity mirror over the driver side sun visor. So can be switched from either there or on the mirror itself, or left on as all accessory 12v are turned off after 5 minutes or so after ignition is turned off.

I’ve tested it and it works perfectly. 
hopefully this helps others attempting the same install. Cheers, Tim

Hi @Tim1974

Absolutely fantastic post by the way. I wanted to do exactly the same on my 2009 Auris (that didn’t have a autodimming mirror)

I bought an auris autodimming mirror with some cable attached and have managed to tap into the drivers side vanity light, and it works perfectly.
 

HOWEVER this feed does not seem to go off after 5 mins in my car (I left it over an hour and the mirror was still on). I tested it without my connections being present initially and there seems to be power present here all the time (I could turn the vanity light on if I sat in the car for a bit with it all locked up).

 

Just wondering if you may be able to advise what wiring exactly you tapped into and how you went about it. In my case there are 3 wires and I’ve tapped into the two that are 12v and 0v (other one assumed to be the switched connection for the light).

 

I don’t really want to leave it like this, as invariably I will forget to turn it off one time and run the Battery down potentially.

 

Thank you for any help you may give !

[Toyohta]

So… the tl:dr of it is that you can install an autodimming rear view mirror in a non-facelift mk1 Auris, but it’s a bit of a job, and therefore probably not worth it for most people.

If you are interested in doing it however, this is what I did.

 

Part 1: Power source

 

As per my post above, the vanity light is no good; as it seems permanently live, even with the ignition off and key removed (why??) so they must have changed this behaviour on the facelift model.

 

To get around this I bought some small awg mains cable from Toolstation and a fuse tap using 5amp fuses (circled in red) which I got off Amazon so I could tap into a spare fuse in the fuse box under the dash. (low profile mini fuses in the Auris btw) I also used a spade connector to go under a bolt into the car body near the fuse box (circled in yellow) in the pics. I used my multimeter to test that I’d got a good 12v across the tap and the bolt earthing point I chose and that it was only live while the ignition was on. 

I tucked the wire away behind the rubber weatherseal up the door, and into the a pillar, finally up into the front of the headlining so that it popped out near the rear view mirror housing. I had already joined to the Rear view mirror wiring tail with crimp connectors wrapped in electrical tape.

This provided the power source for the mirror.

 

[Toyohta]

Part 2: Removing the old mirror

 

This was an even bigger Faff really than the wiring.

First problem I had is the mounting metal button stuck on the windscreen is totally the wrong type and in the wrong place and does not fit at all with the autodimming mirror that I bought. Groan.

 

I read some good articles and YouTube vids on getting the old button off. In the end I taped round the mirror to protect the screen, then followed the guidance of using some locking gland type pliers on the button, then heating it up with a lighter flame for a minute or so (which heats up the bonding glue) then gently twisting the button off, which worked like a charm in the end. 
 

You are then left with a sticky mess with the glue residue. I carefully scraped this off with a new razor blade and some acetone, to leave the screen nice and clean.

The next part was my first and second mistake here. I then tried to stick the mirror bracket to the screen using double sided number plate/automotive tape, which did technically work, but the mirror wobbled like crazy so was awful to use and wasn’t ideal and I have doubts about its longevity. You can buy the 3M VHB stickers or a Ford one apparently but again these may or may not hold reading comments  on the net.

[Toyohta]

Part 3: Fixing the new mirror

 

Last but not least, trying to clean up the old sticker off the button (which came with the scrap mirror I bought).

 

I scraped off the residue with a razor and then cleaned up with acetone. I originally used auto double sided tape to stick this to the screen; but this was bad so I don’t recommend it. Instead reading online I ended up using the loctite mirror adhesive stuff for about a fiver. 
 

I also had to sit the mirror lower down the screen than the black outline was for the button, as when I had it stuck on in that position, it fouled on the light cluster on the roof, and I couldn’t quite adjust it to where I wanted it. In the end I had to sit the button just over half in the black area and half into the dotted area. I hope this will hold, time will tell. I tried to chase out the bracket a little with my drill to allow the button to sit further in the bracket but I started making a bit of  mess with this so left it in the end.

I cleaned the screen again with acetone (it must be spotless) and let that dry, then applied the glue exactly as instructed to the button, then stuck the mesh on and more glue, then held up onto screen for a full minute and left to fully cure for 3 days before trying to attach the mirror (it says 24h but I wanted to give it the best chance).

Then I slotted the mirror on, cut the cover with some tin snips and plugged it into the wiring I made in part 1 and it’s working well so far and much better than the naff mirror it came with. 
 

 

[TonyHSD]

So useful information here. 
Thank you 🙏 

[VmR]

On 15.2.2023 at 19.26, Tim1974 said:

I should find a counterpart for this connector because I bought this mirror, so what name would I be able to search for or would it be possible to post a link where I could find it in online stores? So I only have the connector that is in the mirror itself

 

Ratkaistiin!! 
ilo ilmoittaa, että se on nyt asennettu ja toimii.

Ostin liitäntäjohdon kuvan mukaisesta katkaisijasta. Huolimatta siitä, että se on viisinapainen, siihen on asennettu vain kaksi johtoa, taivaansininen (live) ja mustavalkoinen (neg).

Löysin myös tämän liitäntäkaavion verkosta, jossa kuvataan taivaansinistä kaapelia radion positiivisena syöttönä, joten oletettiin samaa värikoodia (tämä osoittautui oikeaksi.)

Liitin uuden johdon meikkipeiliin kuljettajan puolen häikäisysuojan päälle. Joten voidaan kytkeä joko sieltä tai itse peilistä tai jättää päälle, koska kaikki 12v lisävarusteet sammuvat noin 5 minuutin kuluttua sytytysvirran katkaisemisesta.

Olen testannut ja toimii täydellisesti. 
toivottavasti tämä auttaa muita, jotka yrittävät samaa asennusta. Tsemppiä, Tim

 

[VmR]

I think this is a suitable connector for this mirror connector?

 

https://he.aliexpress.com/item/1005006028840301.html?srcSns=sns_Copy&spreadType=socialShare&bizType=ProductDetail&social_params=60481036819&aff_fcid=14639a4a7419420ca1a0ff809a6b4b85-1706651373984-01203-_EuQbPgv&tt=MG&aff_fsk=_EuQbPgv&aff_platform=default&sk=_EuQbPgv&aff_trace_key=14639a4a7419420ca1a0ff809a6b4b85-1706651373984-01203-_EuQbPgv&shareId=60481036819&businessType=ProductDetail&platform=AE&terminal_id=24b79fefcd754e40a26287cb9266d478&afSmartRedirect=y&gatewayAdapt=glo2isr