I was looking at min rear view mirrors and wondered if any of you could confirm my assumptions. I have two rear view mirrors in pieces in front of me, from what I am seeing and other research it appears there are three configurations as follows:

1) Basic manual-dimming mirror with alarm sensor - the mirror has a bulb on the bottom that looks to be a sensor for the alarm.

2) Manual-dimming mirror with remote locking sensor - this one appears to be the same as #1 with the addition of a board that looks to be an antenna for remote locking.

3) Auto-dimming mirror with HomeLink - this one is the same shape and design but has a sensor for the auto-dimming and three buttons to control the HomeLink garage door opener. This one does not appear to have the alarm sensor bulb.

So my questions are:
a) Are these the only configurations there are for mini mirrors?
b) Are my assumptions above correct?
c) Is there a variant of the HomeLink mirror that has the alarm "bulb"? If not then how does the alarm work in a car with this mirror?
d) Is there a basic mirror that is like #1 but without the alarm sensor and bulb?

Thanks for any help you can offer, any tips would be a big help to me as I am working on a project to modify these mirrors and would need to match up the target mirror to the one an owner has currently.

Chris.

 

Remote lock and alarm have nothing to do with the mirror. The ultrasonic alarm sensor is in the headliner towards the rear of the car and the remote electronics is in the headliner near the base of the mirror.

There are only two options for the mirror: auto-dim and HomeLink. A mirror can have none of them, both of them, or either one. A mirror without auto-dim has a manual dim **** on the bottom. I don't know what you're calling a bulb, but it is probably the sensor for auto-dim (it would help if you post a picture).

Look at the configurations here: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/partgrp.d...21&hg=51&fg=40

 

Thanks rkw, I appreciate the help. What I was referring to as the "bulb" is the manual dimming control, it looked similar to the alarm sensor on mirrors in a lot of BMW models which is what confused me.

I'm still curious about the differences in the two mirrors I have here, neither have auto-dimming or HomeLink yet one has 4 wires in the harness the other only three. Inside the one with four wires has an additional circuit board mounted vertically that looks like some sort of antenna. Both mention 315MHz on stickers.

As things stand I will need to source a mirror with auto-dim and HomeLink as it needs to match the one I am replacing for a Mini owner, it's hard to say from the link you kindly posted which one has HomeLink but somehow I suspect it's the one that's nearly $600!

 

Sorry, my bad. The mirror does have the antenna for remote locking. I got mixed up about this after reading long ago about someone installing an aftermarket mirror and stuffing the remote electronics into the headliner.

 

Thanks for the confirmation, it appears then that both are probably remote locking controllers but at some point they added a larger antenna maybe. The good news (for me) is that these mirrors are nice and easy to modify, the jury is still out on the auto-dimming mirror but if it's constructed the same as other BMW mirrors it will hopefully be ok.

Chris.

 

MINI changed to a larger mirror in 2005 and I believe the mount changed as well. Make sure that the one you are modding matches the one you will be replacing.

 

Thanks, I'll check. I have three mini mirrors, an Audi mirror, a Porsche mirror and two Lamborghini mirrors that all have identical mounts although curiously they are quite different to the mounts used on BMW mirrors.