Internal mirror wiring for dimming mirror
1 Attachment(s)
A while back now I bought an auto-dimming internal mirror but due to various reason I am yet to try and fit it!
I am hoping that I can splice into the mirror loom rather than using the wiring in the car, that way if I or someone else ever wanted to change back it will be simple. As I have a facelift car with the ambient lighting I was thinking tapping into that would make the most sense as it would then activate with the headlights, what I haven't been able to find is which wires this would be. Does anyone know which these would be? I came across the picture below from Goran when fitting his dashcam which shows the reading lights circuit. in this post http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=11184 This leaves the Green/Cream, Grey and Blue wires to check. Attachment 26688 |
Racking my brains a bit on this, I fitted one to my PF S8 which has rather less wiring up there!
The best place I found to wire in was the sunroof circuit, easy to identify from the switches on PF. That circuit (checked by testing with a multimeter and I'd guess FL is the same) is live with ignition on and goes off after a small delay when ignition is turned off. It obviously doesn't matter if it's "active" when the headlights are not. ;) |
This is the thread that I referred to when I fitted mine:
http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1100 |
Thanks for the replies. I think I've read almost all there is about the wiring there but was really hoping I could use the feed for the ambient lighting and connect it all in the one harness before fitting it in.
I may dig out my multimeter and see what the blue and grey wires do, perhaps that's where I need to look first. I saw mention of blue with red stripe being illumination so there could be a link there with the plain blue in the mirror harness... probably too simple though! |
Didn't we have a thread on this recently where we decided it's possible to do it with four of the six wires on the mirror, just using things that are in there already? If I recall correctly, the only things which aren't there are the reverse signal (to disable the dimming) and the output to the door mirrors (which aren't there anyway).
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That might have been me in the sale thread
http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=15718 I'm sure it's possible, just need to identify which of the three remaining wires to use. |
Just to confuse you even more. I knew I'd posted about this before but couldn't remember when and couldn't find it last night. Finally found it:
http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=12806 |
Thanks Sean. I read your post there and it was very helpful as mine has the same coloured wires as yours.
One thing I see from that and which probably ties in with what Andrew noticed, there is a feed to the dimmer from the interior lights. I wonder if this is to cancel the dimming when the interior lights come on? Could be handy to connect this one up to make it easier when dropping someone off! |
Quote:
Though personally I'd probably avoid using that input unless you're doing a full OEM install - you just never know how the various controllers interact so KISS. I also note from that thread Sean took power from the sunroof (as I did on my PF) and similarly just found a good earth point. |
So I've been studying the wiring diagram for the interior lights and think I have the solution.
The usual plug on the mirror with/without dimming has the pins below: 1. Red - Always live even when ignition off. 2. Grey/Green - Switched live with headlights. Also same colour wire provides power to other lights (e.g. ashtray) 3. Green - Unsure. Some reversible ground from lights? Goran indicates this as being activated by driver's reading light switch but then connected it to the negative for the Dashcam. 4. Grey - Not sure but possibly related to headlights or perhaps the other reading light, only other grey I can see is between the headlight switch and the relay in the footwell. 5. Blue - Ground. Another blue on the tiptronic switch is connected to ground (brown) so seems logical this does too. So I found a 9v battery and connected the positive to pin 2 and negative to pin 5 and the red ambient lights switched on. I think this is where I need to connect pins 2 and 1 from the dimming circuit. Not sure if I can connect pin 3 from the mirror (linked to reading light switching) to pin 6 of the dimming (normally connected to interior front and reading lights) any thoughts?! |
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