My Donnelly mirror, like many, has succumbed to the liquid failure. Instead of having it repaired or taking my risks with a used one I decided that a Gentex replacement would be my best bet since its more readily available and considerably cheaper.

Pictures > Words

Broken Donnelly on the right, Gentex on the left


The mounts, Gentex is round


Cut both mirror mount ***** off with a hacksaw


Attach them. Mine is welded, however JB weld or a metal epoxy will work just fine for this task. There are some other options, like a roll pin that would also work if you do not have (or have access to) a welder.


Paint to match


Wire it up




Mount and done - $25 well spent.

 

Nice job!


What vehicle was the Gentex intended for?

 

I believe this one came out of an XK8 but possibly an XJ8 is the same.

 

Awesome write up with pictures! Thanks!

 

To OP,

What functionality did your original mirror have? I'm guessing as a minimum, Auto headlights with light sensitive dial?

Are all these features available and functioning correctly with your Gentex mirror? If so, are the wires the same colour?
​​​​​​
Thanks.

 

I had a Gentex mirror set up using this method temporarily until I was able to repair my original - the Gentex mirror stuck out a bit further than OEM (mostly my fault when building) and I don't believe it had the auto headlights feature. I actually have the pinout for my gentex, ill pull it up at the end here. The gentex I had was GNTX-177 which has the compass and temp features. The compass is a separate module you just need to sticky tape somewhere, and the temp gauge seems redundant (climate controls have it) so I didn't bother to wire it.

I repaired my Donnelly since I wanted the auto-lights feature... Naturally it doesn't work for some reason, but the mirror's been fine so far.

Pinouts:
gentex
1-12v ign
2-ground
3-reverse interrupt
4-outisde +?
5-outside -?
6-temp sensor
7-temp sensors

oem
1-white-+12v ign
2-grey-reverse interrupt
3-blk-ground
4-yellow-"cell"-
5-green-"ti s"-
6-brown-"hood"-

The pinouts will be different for the OEM if you have a 00+ or rain sensing I believe. I don't remember what pins 4 5 6 were on the OEM, I think those bits in quotes were from the circuit board inside the mirror. My guess would be that "hood" would be the auto-headlights output. One of those will be the outside mirror feed. Not sure about the remaining one.

 

Thanks for the reply nilanium. I saw another post later, also stating that the auto lights would not work. This is a feature that I've been using for almost 10 years and would like to maintain.

My preferred option is to have my original unit repaired with the 'non leak gel' . But I'm in the UK. I understand some people have had their unit shipped internationally to this US company. So perhaps I'll contact them.

​​​​As this issue affects a few other makes - BMW M3 seems to come up often - I was hoping for a local company for the repair.

 

Probesport,
Great job.!
How did you extract the large pivot ball from the gentex mirror.
I did figured out the donnelly,
But the Gentex, I just don't want to start yankin'and breakin'.
Thanks!!
Bill

Broken Donnelly on the right, Gentex on the left


The mounts, Gentex is round

 

If the back of your Gentex has the extension with the ***** on each end, then you could do what I did. I cut the ball off the OEM window mount, cut the mount off the Gentex's ball nearest the gentex mount, tapped the ball, ran a bolt thru the oem mount thru to the ball, then jb welded it all tight. You still get the mirror-side ball for adjustment, the only difference being that this setup moves the mirror back a couple inches.

If yours has a different mount setup that won't work of course.