You are out for a nice evening drive, (93 NX 2000 for me) and some HUMMER, or YUKON, or some other HUGE SUV,or TRUCK, comes right up to you, 3 inches off your bumper, and blasts the eyes out of you SOCKETS, with his headlights, driving lights, etc., :eek2: Here in the Denver area their are alot of SUV's, etc., so I had to come up with an answer to this problem.

I just got an Infiniti I 35, and it had a mirror with auto dimming, and a compass, so I looked up the wiring for the unit and found out that the mirror is self contained, and only required power and a ground to make it work. It seems that I found the answer to my problem. :biggthump

I located a mirror off a 2002 Maxima at a junk yard, got the power plug for it with it, as well as the plastic cover for the wiring that runs up the windshield(it is adjustable for length, so it worked well.)


[http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/IMGP0431.JPG


Step 1: Remove the old mirror, (keep the spacer piece for the mirror you will need it later) the drivers sun visor, and the drivers windshield pillar trim. Move the headliner as necessary to get access to run the wire. Replace all items after running the wire.

Step 2: Run two wires, positive and negative from the old mirror mounting though the roof, down the pillar and under the dash. Connect the power wire to a power source that is only on when the key is on, the negative to a good ground.

Step 3: The new mirror was a little wider and taller that the stock one( the view out the rear is much better now!) so you will have to place the mirror so it will clear your sun visiors, mark the windshield with a marker so you can glue the metal tab that the mirror is now mounted to, in the proper location.
Any auto parts store can sell you a metal tab, also buy the glue so you can glue it in place, some of the tabs come with a tape to mount it, using the tape is asking for trouble, it doesn't last.

Step 4: I went to the junk yard and found a cover off a Stanza rear view mirror, that was black, so I could cover the original mounting area of the mirror and provide a clean looking way for the wires to run into the roof. Get the spacer off that mirror, it had the two slots that the cover snapped onto, to hold it in place. Or you could use the original cover and trim it to fit, I liked the look of the Stanza one better.

Step 5: I used a dremmel to fit the spacers into the cover, had to sand and trim them so they would be the correct height and size to hold the cover in place. You need the second spacer because it is taking the place of the mirror height under the cover.

I tried it last night, and was it nice. No more blinding light coming from the rear view mirror.

A lot of the Maxima's 2001 to 2003, have just the auto dimming mirror, they are much more common than the ones's with both the auto dimming and the compass. My upgrade cost me around $70, for the mirror and the auto parts supplies.

The Irish Poet
PS Feedback is welcome.


http://www.sr20forum.com/gallery/data/500/IMGP0432.JPG

Cool. Too bad you didn't find one with Homelink.

The maxima's that I have seen have the homelink on the sun visor (2000 to 2004) what year has the homelink on the mirror?

Nice job!

Although, I first panned down to the pic and thought I saw something else. I thought you had put an extra rear-view mirror on the back window facing back to shine the lights back at em! That would be cool as well. :D

I think the G35 and a few others have it in the mirror. The current body style Maxima too, maybe.

R51 Pathfinders do have Homelink in the mirror.

All G35's have homelink in the mirror as an option.

Cool. Very inventive! :biggthump

whats homelink?

whats homelink?

Device that syncs with your garage door, home alarm, etc.

Cool mod, ive been wanting to do something like this with my 200sx. Do any of them come with the outside temp?

When the power is turned on, the compass area shows both a "C" and "F" with a degree symbol for an instant, and their are many more places for wires to be attached and run to the mirror(in the power plug, on the back of the mirror). Maybe the Nissan engineers use it with additional features, and sensors in other places, or countries.

Cool, thanks. I guess getting the temp part to work would be a royal PITA. Finding which plug to use, sensor and location is another thing too.