Autodim mirror - addition possible?

[ericole]

I have a 1995 525i with a standard rearview mirror. I called a BMW dealer for the part to add the autodim one in mine and he gave me this part# (51168193885). He said that I could put it in my car. I have done a little searching on this topic before, and found this:

Roof area, accessed via the sunroof control panel. Took all of 5 mins to install. Twist the old one off, twist the new one on, fish the wires under the headliner & plug it into the existing connector above the sun roof motor. Works fine.

Well, I can buy one of these much cheaper than the dealer price, but I looked in the location this poster mentioned and I can find no loose wires in that location. After looking at it, I have to wonder how wires would go from there to my mirror location as it is now anyway. The mirror's stem is attached to the window, and not to the headliner area. How would wires get into the new mirror if I just twisted off the old one and put the new one on, without them being exposed at some point? The current mirror and stem are not in any way attached to any part of the headliner or car, just to the window.

Does anyone know anything about this? I would love to put this in if I could, but I am not going to buy one if I can use it.

Thanks,
Eric

[winfred]

i used one from a 94 740il in my 90 535, it fit right on the mount on the glass, the plug has 3 wires, i don't know what the 3rd one does but you only need a ground and a switched hot, you can steal that from the sunroof. some of the later e34's had them so it's possible you have the plug taped back on the harness in that area

[gordon]

The wires are in there... just remove the courtesylight under the driver's sunvisor and you will see them... actually, I found a two wire set...then a 3 wire set closer to the passenger side of the sunroof switch panel... got the auto dim wired but only had the controls light up...couldn't get it to autodim????

[Jon M.]

the third wire is for a lead from the reverse switch, to override the auto-dim feature when the car is in reverse.

[ericole]

Great responses, thanks!! But I am still confused on how the wires get from their location up inside the celing to the new mirror w/o being exposed inside the interior of the car? There is no path from the ceiling to the mirror. The wires can't run inside the mirror's stem b/c it is attached to the window. Do these wires just run exposed down the stem or something? Then, where do they come out of the ceiling. If they are in there (I haven't looked under the driver's side light yet), where do they come out to go to the mirror?

Thanks,
eric

[Jon M.]

I slipped mine out from under the headliner right above the mirror location. if you were so inspired you could cut a small relief in the headliner board, either right where the board fits against the windshield, or cut an actual hole big enough to feed the wires through, which is what you see on E38's that don't have the big infrared pod around the rear-view mirror mounting location. they have what looks like a two-inch rubber hose going from the headliner to the top of the mirror

[ericole]

Gordon, you wrote the following about wires:

The wires are in there... just remove the courtesylight under the driver's sunvisor and you will see them... actually, I found a two wire set...then a 3 wire set closer to the passenger side of the sunroof switch panel... got the auto dim wired but only had the controls light up...couldn't get it to autodim????

Well, following what you said I pulled out the driver's lights and there was the end of an unused wire package. It was the same wire I had tried to pull on from the other place, but it was connected to one of the wiring harnesses. After getting it freed and pulling it through, I was surprised to find a 10-wire plastic connector with female ends - sort of the square type holes. It was 2 rows of 5 holes. Just above this was a rubber "boot" with a big round end that was obviously made to be the interface between the hole in the liner. The boot was just like a flexible, accordian type boot like you see on stick shifts - about 2 inches long. It certainly would fit with being the interface between the liner and the mirror.

Any info on this? It is NOT a 2 or 3 wire bundle - that is for sure!

Thanks,
Eric

[632 Regal]

Gordon, you wrote the following about wires:



Well, following what you said I pulled out the driver's lights and there was the end of an unused wire package. It was the same wire I had tried to pull on from the other place, but it was connected to one of the wiring harnesses. After getting it freed and pulling it through, I was surprised to find a 10-wire plastic connector with female ends - sort of the square type holes. It was 2 rows of 5 holes. Just above this was a rubber "boot" with a big round end that was obviously made to be the interface between the hole in the liner. The boot was just like a flexible, accordian type boot like you see on stick shifts - about 2 inches long. It certainly would fit with being the interface between the liner and the mirror.

Any info on this? It is NOT a 2 or 3 wire bundle - that is for sure!

Thanks,
Eric

[ericole]

My car was from the last 1/2 of the year of the run of this model (1995) - there were some minor changes. What would that plug be for then, if not for such a mirror? I am quite sure that there is power and all sorts of other functions represented in that plug.

eric

[David Chen]

the alarm receiver antenna into the auto-dimming rear view mirror. That accounts for the extra wires.

Before tackling this, realize that the auto-dim feature does not work nearly as well as a manual flip mirror. It's slow to darken and slow to lighten and even at full darkness, is not as dark as a manual mirror. This is especially annoying when being tailgated by a tall SUV or pickup and their headlights are reflected right in your eyes.

,

David

My car was from the last 1/2 of the year of the run of this model (1995) - there were some minor changes. What would that plug be for then, if not for such a mirror? I am quite sure that there is power and all sorts of other functions represented in that plug.

eric