Hey I was searching the AW forums and found something about you retrofiting a autodimming compass to your car. I bought one from a junkyard off a 2003 and received it today. Plug has 6 wires in it, a few more than I thought it would. Have any instructions?

 

ah - good mod to do - I don't know if I could ever have a vehicle without that now.

Well, here's a slight explanation of what I did (mine came from a 2001 Avant)

first I removed the old mirror - put a towel around the base of it (to prevent scratches to the plastic) and used vice grips to twist it until if came off (clockwise if i recall correctly)

You should be able to reuse the same mounting button thats on the window (unless the newer mirrors are different)

The new mirror came with a small plastic type housing that covered a small space from the mirror base to the headliner (concealed wiring). it was a little too long so I cut a small piece off the tip to make it fit. Twist the mirror on and voila.

Wiring is not hard if you know what wires to use. Didn;t take long to figure out what was what. with a multimeter and a few pieces of black tape to cover the sensors. Assuming wire the colors havent changed, this is what you need...


Some people have not bothered with the reverse inhibitor (which undims the mirror when you go in reverse). All you really need to do is to find the wire that goes to the brake lights and hook to that. When the brake lights are on that line has voltage, thus sending voltage to the mirror and undimming it. I found the wire at the taillight, then looked for the same wire up in the drivers footwell behind the kickpanel (I also verified the voltage using a multi-meter - with a needle stuck in the wire so I did not have to cut it to check it).

I ran the main power up the A-pillar and under the headliner from the fusebox, but you could easily run it from the 75X power post behind the knee bolster. Just make sure you put an inline fuse on that power line. Some people have even gotten the power by hooking to the sun roof motor. I looked into this but decided not to do it. It simply has to be Accessory Power - powered only when the ignition is on.

Hope that helps - lemme know if you have any questions...


NOTE: My mirror does NOT have a compass... I am not sure if the compass requires one of those extra wires. My mirror had them attached, but I don't know if they were used on the Avant from which I got the mirror.<edited><editID>brrman</editID><editDate>38037.5110416667</editDate></edited>

 

Thanks man! I can always count on you for answers. Goign to try and wire this up tonight.

 

sweet - lemme know how it turns out.

 

It turned out pretty good. I ended up tapping into the fuse box and running a wire. </P>

 

exactly what I did. I would probably do it differently now, but that was one of my first mods on the car and it works just fine. Did you get the reverse inhibitor working?

 

nahhh I didn't even bother to hook it up. I'll let it go unless it bothers me.

 

heh heh...I found it was hard to see anything in a parking garage or anytime during the night when a car was behind me and I was backing out, so I went ahead and did it.

Most don't bother with it though.

 

hey brrman, how much did u have to cut off of the trim piece? I just got mine in from the dealer. It looks like i'm going to have to cut off about an inch. Either that or move the mirrow down the glass. Is the cut noticable?Thanks</P>


Jared </P>

 

An inch sounds about right to me. Oh - the small sun visor that comes down in the middle of the windshield will not come down perfectly anymore after this. I can still use it, but it touches the mirror (since this mirror is bigger than the stock one). Just wanted to make you aware of that. It wasn't bad enough to make me want to move the mirror down the glass...

But no it is not noticable when you cut the trim as long as you make it flush with the headliner - it looks perfectly stock to anyone who sees it.