Well the day is done and I have a new windshield (no pits!) and the mirror is completely installed.

The glass installer removed the button on the new windshield and EPOXIED the one I supplied onto the windshield (they said it's better than regular adhesive). All I can say is let the professionals do this part.

I ran a wire up the whole way from the backup light to the front kick panel and started looking for the white wire that the Gentex installation guide calls for. It wasn't there! After calling MITO and talking with a design Engineer, I found out they stopped putting that wire in the harness "because 90% of the time it isn't hooked up." Wow. How stupid, this is a safety feature I really liked about the mirror in my 3.2TL (esp. pulling out of the garage) and they just stopped putting a wire in the harness, even though the mirror is still wired inside for the feature. I asked the guy to send me out an old harness wire if he can locate one!

Now as for the electrical hookup, since I pulled the radio to run the wires behind, I went ahead and soldered the constant 12V ,and the switched, 12V to the radio harness. Then since the dome light sensor and ground wires were longer, I ran them over to the keyless connector and soldered to the ground (black) and light (green-yellow) wires.

Now for the temp sensor, I dropped it in front of the condenser and clipped it to the grill. Then I cable-tied the harness the whole way back to the biggest grommet at the firewall. I patiently removed the electrical tape, put a small slice in the baggy part of the grommet, pushed the harness through, and re-wrapped the electrical tape.

I hadn't got your answer about the big connector, so I did my best to locate it where it had the thinnest profile. Somehow it fit, although the trim piece not perfectly flush over a few inches (only I can tell). I'm good with that.

As for running the mirror wire out to the mirror, I cut a 1/4" hole near the back edge of the top trim piece and cut from the edge down to the hole to make a rounded channel. This allowed the trim to be flush with the windshield and not pinch the wires.

Operation is wonderful (with the exeption of back-up dim-off not being available). The compass is very accurate and consistent (though only giving 8 ordinate points N-NE-E-SE-S-SW-W-NW) and so is the thermometer. Dimming is a nice greenish hue, and the map lights throw a nice amount of light at and around the shifter. I don't think it's LED's, it's hard to tell but the color of the three sources is closer to incandescent.

So I'm quite happy that I've now got a fixed garage door opener in my car, more interior lighting, compass, thermometer, and automatic night-day mirror operation.

Who says the S2000 can't have more luxury?

 

If you can take a couple of pics, that would be really interesting.

 

Alright, but I need a new digicam first. Hope to have pictures later this month.

 

Great write up I have some more pics somewhere of the instal...I will try to dig them up!


Oh and it was 54

 

From the inside the mirror looks great, you can only see a little bit of the wiring. The clarity is great and the compass helped me confirm my direction while driving on unfamiliar roads this past weekend.

But I don't like how the mirror looks from the outside. Before I show pictures I'm going to apply some 20-35% tint across the top of the windshield.

The messy appearance from the outside is mainly because the mirror has another wire and big lump of plastic around the bracket that extends beyond the black rectangle on the windshield. I think this functions as the transmitter for the garage door opener. It's made to look good from inside the car but isn't made to look good from the outside. I don't want the wires, connectors, and gray metal bracket (in the mirror's back) to show up as much as they do now.

The windshield tint shall also help to protect the mirror's from direct sun while parked.

 

I painted a larger "black spot" on the inside of my glass to hide all the ugliness from the outside....I will take a pic and post it.

 

I tried tinting just the area of the mirror with 20% tint. Looked like a baseball cap brim of material - I didn't like it and took it off. If I try again, I will probably do a full width of material that starts as 3" at the A-pillars and 5" in the middle, just enough to catch the bottom of the mirror bracket plastic. The max amount of tint in PA is 3", hopefully I can get away with more in the middle.

As for the gray metal bracket, I found a rubber washer just the right size to cover the shiny part. I slit one edge of it and wrapped it around. And I moved the power wire under the bracket instead of over it. Looks much better. Even if I don't get to the tinting for a while, these measures make it look a lot better.

 

This is the best pic I have....if it ever stops raining I will shoot a head-on shot for you. I tired to replicate the OEM mirror "black spot" just make it bigger to accommodate the guts of the mirror.

 

I correct myself, the lights on my model are definitely LED's. I think they are mixture of RGB, instead of being discrete "white" LED's that are really blue/UV led's doped with phosphorous. This is what fooled me into thinking they were incandescent bulbs... but they go on and off way to fast to be filament-based.

What kind of black paint did you use, Mike? That looks pretty good... I'm curious what sticks good to glass, and looks similar to the stock patch from the outside.

 

The second pic up-top shows the individual LED's of the map lights...not the best pic but you can see them.


I used flat black spray paint (automotive kind) tapped off. Here are some better pics