Cheap auto-dimming, homelink mirror

[Bigbw]

Cool! I just built an extra patch cord yesterday. Now I will wait for the (2nd) truck to arrive and I'll test them both to see if my solder work is any good.

hope it all works.. my wiring is not the neatest, but it is all hidden anyway..

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[Bigbw]

hope it all works.. my wiring is not the neatest, but it is all hidden anyway..

Wow, you were not kidding when you said the pins were small.. I have to use a magnifing glass to see the holes for the wire.. I was going to go ahead and make a new plug, not sure now..

 

[BradnChristine]

Wow, you were not kidding when you said the pins were small.. I have to use a magnifing glass to see the holes for the wire.. I was going to go ahead and make a new plug, not sure now..

Those pins for use inside the male plug are not terrible, as you can solder a wire onto them and push them into the connector to lock in place.

The Female plug's pins are meant to mount on a circuit board. I chose to use 5 more pins on the other end of the pins for the male plug...so I took 5 - 7" pieces of wire and soldered a pin to each end. Then I slid shrinkwrap over each wire, pushed them onto the surface mount pins, then pushed the shrinkwrap down and heated it in place to keep the wires apart. Then cloth tape over the whole mess to keep everything in place and no movement. I had intended to use a gluestick, but the tape made everything secure. I'm careful, so ran continuity checks to make sure all pins were connected and separated. Was a pain, but it is done!

 

[SoCalMav23]

I bought a gentex hfchl4 off mercari for $15, first time user so I got a $10 credit, for $5 can’t beat it haha
So this mirror model has 4 wires, orange-blue-black-green. Black is ground as most, green is homelink, orange is dimming. Blue doesn’t work, from my research it’s for temperature display.
Just as a heads up, this model works, but it has an extended metal part where a plastic cover snaps on to cover the wire. I had to do some cutting to make it fit. The connection was also going to be in the way so I had to pry open the mirror to splice a longer cable. Once open, I found out it actually has 6 wires and they’re different colors from the plug pigtail, the light sensor is used to dim side mirrors and the 3rd unused wire goes to a temp probe.
I installed it in the day and on the night drive I noticed it stopped working, after reading here I realized it’s the dimming that kills the mirror. I’m gonna run the ignition source from elsewhere.

 

[Hcopter]

I had the same issue using the purple (switched) wire to the dome light to power my dashcam, worked during the day but not at night. I realized that the purple wire voltage drops for dimming at night and is too low to power the camera. I switched to the yellow wire which, on my hybrid, powers off 10 minutes after the truck is turned off, so I don't have to worry about the camera running down the battery.

 

[AZMavRider]

I'd like to extend a heartfelt shout-out to everyone for their invaluable contributions and shared knowledge. I recently managed to carve out some time to assemble the wiring harness.
While most of the process was straightforward, inserting the pins into the female adapter's slots proved to be an incredibly challenging task. At one point, I felt quite discouraged, but after taking a short break, I returned with renewed determination.
After a few more attempts, I finally got the hang of it.
Special thanks to those who advised ordering extra pins — out of the 25 I purchased, I ended up with only 6 spare ones, so that advice was a lifesaver!
This foresight allowed for some much-needed practice runs and the flexibility to overcome initial failures without stress. Thank you all!

 

[Mike_Sam]

I had the same issue using the purple (switched) wire to the dome light to power my dashcam, worked during the day but not at night. I realized that the purple wire voltage drops for dimming at night and is too low to power the camera. I switched to the yellow wire which, on my hybrid, powers off 10 minutes after the truck is turned off, so I don't have to worry about the camera running down the battery.

Wow, this is timely!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been having this exact same problem! I installed a basic Gentex autodimming mirror that just had a power and ground wire (i.e., two wires). I sintalled and tested it during the day and there were no problems. When using the autodimming mirror at night, the behaviour was really erratic - sometimes it would work, but sometimes it wouldn't and the status light would just flash. When I installed it, I had wired it to the purple wire to try and save the battery, as this wire turns off immediately when the car turns off. Initially I thought it might be an electrical issue (a bad connection or something).

Today I did some more troubleshooting and came to the same conclusion as above. Using a multimeter I determined that the purple wire goes down to 2.9 volts at night (the car dims the other lights at night?), which is too low to power the mirror. So I rewired it to the yellow wire, and voila!, the darn thing works perfectly now, day or night! The yellow wire turns off after 15 minutes, so it shouldn't kill the battery.

Thanks to all who shared their experiences. That's what makes this forum great!

 

[Lambretta]

Wow, this is timely!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been having this exact same problem! I installed a basic Gentex autodimming mirror that just had a power and ground wire (i.e., two wires). I sintalled and tested it during the day and there were no problems. When using the autodimming mirror at night, the behaviour was really erratic - sometimes it would work, but sometimes it wouldn't and the status light would just flash. When I installed it, I had wired it to the purple wire to try and save the battery, as this wire turns off immediately when the car turns off. Initially I thought it might be an electrical issue (a bad connection or something).

Today I did some more troubleshooting and came to the same conclusion as above. Using a multimeter I determined that the purple wire goes down to 2.9 volts at night (the car dims the other lights at night?), which is too low to power the mirror. So I rewired it to the yellow wire, and voila!, the darn thing works perfectly now, day or night! The yellow wire turns off after 15 minutes, so it shouldn't kill the battery.

Thanks to all who shared their experiences. That's what makes this forum great!

@Mike_Sam Can you share what mirror you got (I don’t need homelink or anything)? Also did your new mirror now not have the maddening reflection from back window from the a/c unit? Thanks!

 

[jccain47]

Can’t find the Homelink mirrors. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Mike_Sam]

@Mike_Sam Can you share what mirror you got (I don’t need homelink or anything)? Also did your new mirror now not have the maddening reflection from back window from the a/c unit? Thanks!

The model I got was the Gentex 50-GENK2AM. Probably the cheapest Gentex autodimming mirror - no other features, just autodimming.

Unfortunately, it still suffers the maddening back window A/C reflection. That said, when it dims fully, I don’t notice the reflection.

 

[Sharksforarms]

I had the same issue using the purple (switched) wire to the dome light to power my dashcam, worked during the day but not at night. I realized that the purple wire voltage drops for dimming at night and is too low to power the camera. I switched to the yellow wire which, on my hybrid, powers off 10 minutes after the truck is turned off, so I don't have to worry about the camera running down the battery.

Made an account just to confirm that this was the correct installation on my 2024 Lariat Hybrid.

Was glad I distrust the Internet enough to meter out my own voltages before tapping into the purple wire, because it only carried 3v. I didn't see these posts about using the yellow wire until about 10 minutes after I finished the install!

I wired both the homelink and compass/dimming wires to yellow and ground to black. All functions perfectly. Mirror shuts off about 10 minutes after leaving the truck. Easy install (outside of dealing with crappy T-taps) once I figured out which wires to use. If I installed another, it would probably take around 10 minutes.

That holy grail Kia mirror was sold out everywhere i checked, so I picked up a flawless used Gentex 453 mirror from eBay for 50 bucks instead. Very happy with it. The wires that came with the mirror were about an inch too short, so I had to make two tiny extension cables. The mirror was used so I'm not sure if the wires were factory length or if they had been snipped down - I feel like it was factory, though.

Never used homelink before. I'm so happy that I get to unclip my garage remote from the sun visor.

 

[deputylynch]

I had the same issue using the purple (switched) wire to the dome light to power my dashcam, worked during the day but not at night. I realized that the purple wire voltage drops for dimming at night and is too low to power the camera. I switched to the yellow wire which, on my hybrid, powers off 10 minutes after the truck is turned off, so I don't have to worry about the camera running down the battery.

Are you having any problems with the battery running down since that's already an issue with some people and these in the Hybrid Version?

 

[AutobahnSHO]

Are you having any problems with the battery running down since that's already an issue with some people and these in the Hybrid Version?

The power to accessories shuts off after about 10min, so no real threat to the battery. BTW knock on wood no power issues since I got mine in April.

 

[GotKT]

Been following this thread for a long time and finally found time to install the mirror.
Used only included parts and followed the below instructions:

• The black/white-striped wire provided by Kia connects to the purple wire. That's for ignition power.
• The center wire provided by Kia connects to the yellow wire for constant power.
• The wire far opposite of the black/white-striped wire connects to the black/blue wire for ground.
  
  
  
  
  
  

 

[raymaines]

I love my HomeLink mirror.

I love it so much that I installed another one in my wife's RAV4 and she loves it too. A total of $60 - maybe $70 counting all the clips, tape, shipping, and whatever else, and the stupid remote thing no longer hangs on the sunvisor and rattles incessantly. Money well spent!

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