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Fuse 52 is constant power so the compass won't switch on and off with the auto start stop feature. Fuse 52 is also ignition on off power so once the car ignition is off the compass won't be powered.
Running to the power of the rain sensor also negates the issue of switching off with auto start stop feature, but it stays on for 15mins after the car has shut off from ignition.
Sorry o ring up an old post. I purchased a F56 auto dim review from a wrecked mini. How do you get the original mirror off? As far as auto dim and auto rain sense, the mirror has the plug for the rain but just wires for the rest. Thanks for the help in advance.
Sorry o ring up an old post. I purchased a F56 auto dim review from a wrecked mini. How do you get the original mirror off? As far as auto dim and auto rain sense, the mirror has the plug for the rain but just wires for the rest. Thanks for the help in advance.
Can you post a pic please. We all had just a plug and no wires to cut on the mirror end.
Sorry o ring up an old post. I purchased a F56 auto dim review from a wrecked mini. How do you get the original mirror off? As far as auto dim and auto rain sense, the mirror has the plug for the rain but just wires for the rest. Thanks for the help in advance.
Are you referring to removing the mirror from the windshield? For that you separate the plastic cover at the seam in the middle. A small plastic tool or screwdriver is all you need. Then to get the mirror off you pull down from the base of the mirror. No tools are required for this part. Pull down following the direction of the windshield glass. Older models twist but this one does not.
Yes! Thanks, turns out the mirror I bought was not a auto dimming mirror. I did just purchase another one with homelink from a bmw that we already retrofit for the Cooper. I will post pics and all when it arrives, thanks for the help!
Hey guys, I hate to bump such an old thread but this is exactly the project I'm thinking about tackling. We just bought a new (2019/F60) Countryman that just has the regular mirror, and I'd like to eventually upgrade it to an auto-dimming Homelink unit. I've got a couple questions.
Originally Posted by Muxor
I connected to the three wires from the rain sensor which was right above the front light cluster. I then connected the 9 wire to the A21*1B using another Audi wire.
Was there any trick to popping the light cluster out? Was the A21*1B wire behind the light cluster in the headliner as well, and easily identifiable?
Originally Posted by 6FT6
I shoved mine in the headliner, only used two taps; a double and a single.
I don't suppose you have any pics from when you did your install, do you?
Do either of you have any tips or new info to pass on that you've learned over the past year?
Did anybody ever find a better source for the X-18246 connector? Does the connector already have the metal "pins" in it to put on the ends of the wires, or did you buy those separately?
Any and all help greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.
Hi AnimusAudens. I did take several pictures and a few videos. I had planned on editing them and posting but got busy with other projects and never did anything with them. I'll post them unedited here shortly.
The light cluster pops out with minimal effort. You just need to get between the headliner and the light cluster and pull. I used a plastic trim tool that you can find on Amazon or any auto parts store. The A21*1B wire had to be added in my case. The hardest part of this for me was finding wires to use that fit in the harness for the A21*1B wire and the mirror harness. Just by pure luck I had an old Audi wiring harness and the wires had the same metal end. If I didn't have that I don't know what I would've used - sorry.
Here are some pictures from my mirror install. I also took several videos that have more detail. I am uploading them now so look for the post later today.
Mirror cable with additional wires. Mirror cable dressed and wires ready for connection. Mirror connector closeup-1 Mirror connector closeup-2 Blue/green wire from mirror harness to gray wire for A21*1B connection. A21*1B connection.
Here are my videos. Sorry there are 11 individual videos but all are relatively short. I never did edit them into one but it shouldn't take long to watch them all or just the ones you are interested in.
On the video I mention the blue/green wire for future alarm. Later I realized (with a big thanks to 6FT6) that this wire needed to be connected to the A21*1B connection. I have pictures of this connection but nothing in the video. I mention that I was leaving it coiled up in the video for future but I actually went in later that day and connected it to the A21*1B - just no video of this connection.
I'm sorry to bring back an old discussion but I'm really hoping someone might be able to help me to fit the auto-dimming mirror to my MINI F56. I've read all of the replies here, but I'm still not 100% certain about what I need to do.
I have an alarm fitted to my car, but the factory-fit manual mirror did not have a flashing LED. I slotted the new, auto-dimming mirror into place, plugged it in to see what happened - and, upon locking the car, it has a flashing LED. However, the auto-dimming feature isn't working (unsurprisingly!).
Please could someone help me to identify what I need to do with the wiring? I will add images to this post. Thank you very much for any help you can offer!
I'm sorry to bring back an old discussion but I'm really hoping someone might be able to help me to fit the auto-dimming mirror to my MINI F56. I've read all of the replies here, but I'm still not 100% certain about what I need to do.
I have an alarm fitted to my car, but the factory-fit manual mirror did not have a flashing LED. I slotted the new, auto-dimming mirror into place, plugged it in to see what happened - and, upon locking the car, it has a flashing LED. However, the auto-dimming feature isn't working (unsurprisingly!).
Please could someone help me to identify what I need to do with the wiring? I will add images to this post. Thank you very much for any help you can offer!
you need to add wiring into slot 3 and 6 on the connector to the mirror from the roof console. 3 is the power and 6 is the lin. You could tap into the rain sensor.
Hi all,
I purchased the Homelink mirror some weeks ago but unfortunately I cant use it. I live in Italy and this mirror is available only on US/Canada market, where garage openers work with specific frequencies (315Mhz vs 433Mhz).
If someone would retrofit on his car, I'm selling it.
art. 6821264
auto dip, homelink, alarm led, compass
Did anybody ever find a better source for the X-18246 connector? Does the connector already have the metal "pins" in it to put on the ends of the wires, or did you buy those separately?
I'm trying to do this same retrofit on a 2020 F54 Clubman and ended up buying the BMW harness from ECS Tuning for $80 just to get the connector. A complete rip for a $2 part but anyhow since the bars are all closed I have other places to waste money I guess. ANYHOW, I also was trying to add the pins for the two new wires and figured out what the pin is that you need for anyone looking or finding this post later. I ended up stumbling on the connector and pins which is the most economical option so while I had already spent the $$ you can do this for a lot less by just buying the parts you need plus some wire and tap connectors.
Connector (you need 1 of these if you don't have a powered mirror of some sort already that you're replacing):
X-18246 connector is the same as BMW part 61136909008 (also available from ECS - https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...g/61136909008/)
Contactor (You need 3 of these as described in this thread):
You can get these from DigiKey with some measuring and guesswork (which is what I did) but you can also order them for an exact fit with BMW part number 61130006663 (available lots of places as individual contactors and ECS might even have an assembly with a wire and crimped contactor)
I can also confirm that this works great on an F54 as my 2020 F54 now has the mirror installed. The only real difference is that when using the rain sensor wire as described, with the F54 you just make the connections behind the rain sensor because it branches up above the headliner so there isn't a good spot and not any slack. However, it's not a big deal as it should fit behind the plastic cover which is big enough to fit the rain sensor, forward camera, and all your wiring. F54 Before install - you can't really tap up above the headliner because the rain sensor wiring joins another harness right above the cutout you see in the headliner Mirror wiring for F54 - taps are the stuff to the left of the camera which loops back and around to the right to have some slack.
Last edited by LLWarrenP; Aug 31, 2020 at 03:16 PM.
Fantastic that it all worked out. The coding needed is to turn off auto dim when in reverse gear, that’s about it. Give it a try and see.
The only other thing I can think of is running pin 3 to fuse 52 in the distribution box. Seems like the rain sensor power works in a delayed way.
Glad that we were able to prove everyone that said it couldn’t be done wrong, kudos!
@6FT6@Muxor Any idea about coding to turn off the auto dim in reverse for the mirror? I'm looking around and I found several references to it but I don't see anything listed on Bimmercode: https://www.bimmercode.app/cars/f56/
I also read that you could simply enable the factory option as if you bought the car with option 431 but am not sure. I haven't coded anything before but I get the concept.
you need to add wiring into slot 3 and 6 on the connector to the mirror from the roof console. 3 is the power and 6 is the lin. You could tap into the rain sensor.
Thanks very much for this. Sorry to ask; Am I tapping into the rain sensor for power or to access the LIN? Thanks again!
@6FT6@Muxor Any idea about coding to turn off the auto dim in reverse for the mirror? I'm looking around and I found several references to it but I don't see anything listed on Bimmercode: https://www.bimmercode.app/cars/f56/
I also read that you could simply enable the factory option as if you bought the car with option 431 but am not sure. I haven't coded anything before but I get the concept.
Ive done it, can’t be done in Bimmercode only E-sys. You have to add the option to FA.
Well, so my OBDLink MX+ came today and so I started poking around just to see what I could do. No real joy and I was about to give up when I went into Expert Mode and looked and lo and behold, I was able to find the mirror. I guess it isn't something that is supported in the user friendly mode but IDK why they don't have it in there since the software is more than able to do it. I wasn't able to figure out how to enable the option but with some Google-fu I was able to figure out the settings to do the equivalent.
You need a compatible OBD interface module (OBDLink MX+ worked great but it is pricy at $100) and you need to upgrade to the full version of Bimmercode ($39). Here's what I did:
1. After you connect to the car and it scans everything, go into the Body Domain Controller (aka BDC)
2. After it scans the BDC (maybe 2 minutes), Turn on Expert Mode and then scroll down until you get to section 3120 PfInternalMirror
3. Inside 3120, there are a lot of settings but you only need a few it seems (some are already set such as what country the car was sold to, etc.).
ISP_EC -> Active ISP_KOMPASS -> Active LIN_ISP_VERBAUT -> Active PF_INMI_LIN_VAR -> Either ISP_k_MINI_EC_DWA for alarm or ISP_k_MINI_EC for no alarm (could be others but IDK offhand)
4. Go back to the BDC page and hit "CODE" at the top and wait a minute or two. You'll get some weird errors like Headlight failure or frontal crash warning system failure but that can be ignored and it goes away after you restart the car.
I wasn't sure if it worked (nor for that matter if the mirror was connected to the coding line correctly) so I went in and noticed the setting in 3120 to change the language on the compass to German or English so I set it to German and within a minute I was getting compass directions in German (NO for NE, etc.) so I'm confident it took the coding. My first experience coding a BMW as the last BMW I owned you would only describe coding in the sense of "yeah that guy coded in his BMW" as it was a '73 2002. Bad jokes aside, I'm glad that I got this all to work.
Well, so my OBDLink MX+ came today and so I started poking around just to see what I could do. No real joy and I was about to give up when I went into Expert Mode and looked and lo and behold, I was able to find the mirror. I guess it isn't something that is supported in the user friendly mode but IDK why they don't have it in there since the software is more than able to do it. I wasn't able to figure out how to enable the option but with some Google-fu I was able to figure out the settings to do the equivalent.
You need a compatible OBD interface module (OBDLink MX+ worked great but it is pricy at $100) and you need to upgrade to the full version of Bimmercode ($39). Here's what I did:
1. After you connect to the car and it scans everything, go into the Body Domain Controller (aka BDC)
2. After it scans the BDC (maybe 2 minutes), Turn on Expert Mode and then scroll down until you get to section 3120 PfInternalMirror
3. Inside 3120, there are a lot of settings but you only need a few it seems (some are already set such as what country the car was sold to, etc.).
ISP_EC -> Active ISP_KOMPASS -> Active LIN_ISP_VERBAUT -> Active PF_INMI_LIN_VAR -> Either ISP_k_MINI_EC_DWA for alarm or ISP_k_MINI_EC for no alarm (could be others but IDK offhand)
4. Go back to the BDC page and hit "CODE" at the top and wait a minute or two. You'll get some weird errors like Headlight failure or frontal crash warning system failure but that can be ignored and it goes away after you restart the car.
I wasn't sure if it worked (nor for that matter if the mirror was connected to the coding line correctly) so I went in and noticed the setting in 3120 to change the language on the compass to German or English so I set it to German and within a minute I was getting compass directions in German (NO for NE, etc.) so I'm confident it took the coding. My first experience coding a BMW as the last BMW I owned you would only describe coding in the sense of "yeah that guy coded in his BMW" as it was a '73 2002. Bad jokes aside, I'm glad that I got this all to work.
Not really sure what you solved with Bimmercode. No one had to code anything for the mirror to work (except for dim on reverse).