Disable auto dimming interior mirror rear view ? possible ?

 

Remove its power feed? If it goes dim, figure where to tie the sensor (either 12V or 0V).

 

How about a small piece of black tape over the sensor on the mirror that faces to the rear...

 

I asked about this when I bought my XJ years ago and was told there was no way to do it ( Except disconnect the wiring I guess ), I was thinking about sticking a bit of tape over the sensor but eventually got used to it.

 

The rear view mirror sensor triggers the dimming for itself and the door mirrors, and the X351 has two sensors (forward and rearward facing). The front sensor is for the ambient light level so it can detect the difference between the two, so simply covering the rear one will disable the functionality.

If you do not have the blind spot monitoring system you can pull fuse 3 (5A) from the rear (trunk) fuse box to disable the mirrors.

Otherwise it is not as simple as just disconnecting the sensor as it is integral to the mirror itself. Instead a hidden solution is to bridge two pins at the mirror connector. Pin 1 (grey) to pin 2 (white with brown stripe). That will permanently enable the reverse inhibit signal which prevents the auto dimming activating when the vehicle is in reverse.

 

Function is good. Fully disable is not desirable. Will have to do the plug on the mirror to close-open. In the Parking lot is dark, in reverse when Parking. I read that you can disable when reversing.

 

Colour me baffled as to why anybody would want to disable auto-dimming.


I have just returned from a trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area where maladjusted low beams or permanently on high beams seemed to be a popular way to proceed. My rental car did not have dimming mirrors so more than once I was almost totally blinded by some brain donor behind me.

 

That is automatic; you do not need to do anything.
In a dark parking garage it should not auto-dim anyway unless there is a very bright light behind the car and it is in drive or neutral.