I have had My MINI for about a month and I noticed that my Auto dimming mirrors go dark during daylight specially when I drive west toward the sun in the evening (around 4-5PM). has anyone experienced this? I think there is something with the sensor on the mirror (the one that is between mirror and windshield)

 

The mirrors don't know whether the lights are on; they just compare the rear lighting coming to the mirror, with the front lighting ahead of you, and reduce the rear if deemed appropriate

 

I had auto dimming mirrors on past three cars that I owned non of them dimmed during daylight like the MINI, actually the way it suppose to work I think is that if the front Light detector detects light it should not dim the mirror, but if the front one dose not detect enough light and the rear one detects some then it goes dark...

here is a video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDotJGk0lqI