Author Topic: Rearview mirror w/ compass and outside temperature - Low Cost Retrofit  (Read 7382 times)

Offline shadwolf

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Guys,

New to posting here but thought this info would be useful to others.  I always found the rearview mirrors that could display outside temperature and compass heading desirable, but thought the electronics were integrated into the ECM.  After doing some research, I found that a company called Gentex specialized in rearview mirrors with integrated electronics so that such a mirror could be put into any vehicle, which is why you'll see these things in 2000 era vehicles of all makes and models, both domestic and foreign.

They are *incredibly* easy to retrofit into a squarebody of any year, as all you really need to do is provide the thing a power and ground, hook up the autodim wire to your back up lights (to disable autodim when in reverse), and for the temp, run two wires to a sensor you mount on your core support.

A stop at my local wrecking yard netted me the mirror and sensor out of a Yukon for $5.  Here's what it took to wire it up:

                           GM wire harness color                      Function

PIN 1                   PINK                                                 POWER +12 volts

PIN 2                   BLK                                                  CHASSIS, GND

PIN 3                   LT GRN                                             BACKUP LIGHTS

PIN 4                   GY                                  TO AUTO DIM OUTSIDE MIRROR (unused in my truck)

PIN 5                   PINK                              TO AUTO DIM OUTSIDE MIRROR (unused in my truck)

PIN 6                   DK GRN/WHT                                   TEMP PROBE

PIN 7                   BLK/WHT                                         TEMP PROBE

Below is a post on a Jeep site I found that was incredibly helpful to me with pics.  This guy's post is not mine; I'm not taking credit for his work, just passing the info on to others with the hope that it's as useful as it was to me.  It doesn't get any easier or cheaper than this...

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/compass-temp-auto-dim-mirror-swap-detailed-lots-o-pics-952705/

For the compass to work right, you have to set the mirror to the zone in which you live.  Here are the instructions from Gentex's site that will tell you which zone number you reside in and how to set it.

http://www.gentex.com/sites/default/files/CompassReferenceGuideAndTroubleshooting.pdf
« Last Edit: September 16, 2013, 08:24:00 AM by bd »