I installed a rear view mirror with homelink and auto dimming

ibedgen said:

I installed a plain Gentex mirror today on my 2011 Jetta that has no homelink, compass, nor temperature... just a plain dimming mirror. I ended up tapping into the headlight circuit since I wouln't need the mirror to be powered any other time except when dark. The wire I used was from the 4 wire blue plug, the color of the wire looked like a brownish purple. From the 4 wires it was the one on the end that was separated from the rest. Maybe this helps someone.

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Ibedgen, that's great thinking. I never imagined on turning on the lights and trace that last cable. I have now pluged in the dimming portion of the mirrors and now, the mirrors don't draw any power when the cars are powered off. I have made the change to both Jetta's and it works for the manual and DSG models. Great thinking and will make the edits on the original post. Do the dimming portion of the mirrors turns on when your turn on the lights. The garage portion is not affected, and you can open your garage door with out the keys.

THANKS Ibedgen!


Changes made to the original post now.

Just order one. Big thanks to JOEELMEX and IBEDGEN for the info and help on install!

Does anyone have a link to where I can buy a mirror that has homelink and compass, as well as a link to the adapter required for a 2012 Jetta?

superskid said:

Does anyone have a link to where I can buy a mirror that has homelink and compass, as well as a link to the adapter required for a 2012 Jetta?

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Just search on Amazon, they always have them there with/without the compass on it.

kjake said:

yeah...it happened this morning. a big delivery style got right behind me at a light and parked one of his headlights smack in the middle of the rear-view mirror and I almost went berserk with rage.....haha
maybe I _will_ do this mod and another car thing ends up on my xmas list...

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Weird to quote myself, but I finished my install tonight finally...

I found a model that had homelink, autodim, and compass and they had multiple display colors for the compass readout - so I got red (ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/171279236963).

I decided against tapping/splicing into the wires and had enough wire to run to the fuse box and wire as designed; used ATM add-a-circuit 10A to allow constant 12V from fuse 24 for homelink and ATO add-a-circuit 10A to allow switched 12V from fuse 30 for autodim/compass. There's also some nice bare metal by the fuse box for connecting the grounding wire, which I wasn't exactly sure where to go with in the overhead option. The wire was only long enough to reach the fuse box if I went down the a-pillar, so I made sure to run the wire _over_ the side-curtain airbag.

I've also heard of some rattling issues by using the cam-lock to wedge adapter, so I got out a lighter and heated the cam-lock until I could twist it lightly with pliers to take it off, then heated the adhesive puck left over and slid a putty knife under it to get a smooth surface. Cleaned and dried the area and stuck a new $3 wedge up on the glass and gave it 1.5 hours before mounting the mirror on it.

Red matches nicely:

Mirror, in the dark.

Looks really good. Most people don't take the time to go to the fuse box.

I've been doing research on all the different models of Gentex. I'm trying to go the uber cheap route and get a used one off Ebay. Looks like they can be had for $50-$75 pretty easily. I can then fab up a harness myself and decide if I want to buy a VW mount, or just remove the oem mount from the windshield and glue on a universal.

Reading this, there are two styles.. the 313 vs 453

http://www.wembleysells.com/mirrortech/GentexHomelinkMirrorComparison.htm

The 453 is just a newer version introduced in 2006 that is new hardware. Better board inside, better sensors, stronger mirror swivel mount, etc.

When I look on Amazon and Ebay, I'm guessing the GENK20A, 40A, 41A etc is the model that describes the functions of the mirror. If it has compass, temp, color, back up camera, etc.

It's really confusing looking at all the model #s but I think I might stop by a Pull A Part after work and try to snag something out of a 2006 and older car and then get a mount.

If anyone can point me towards anymore information on model numbers associated to cars, or features, etc I would appreciate it!

Based on that info, I can say that mine is a 313. The 453 looks nicer, which is probably why mine was cheaper

I bought my GENK50 from Amazon, it was worth the $250 I paid for it. I wired it to the fusebox FWIW