I would love to get rid of the rattling garage door opener in my door pocket. I've seen Modifry's high beam mod, but I was wondering if anyone's installed one of these aftermarket rearview mirrors:

http://www.rearviewautomirrors.com/Store.htm

thanks

Mo

 

Mikes2k here has an aftermarket mirror in his, with temp, compass, and etc... Not sure if Homelink is on it though.

 

I did, but the experience turned out to be an expensive one for reasons that had nothing to do with the cost of the mirror.

I bought an auto dimming mirror with compass, temp, and HomeLink. I really like the mirror. It works great but I had issues getting it mounted.

The first thing you do to actually mount the mirror is to remove the factory button on the windshield. Honda uses what I'd call a bastard design in this department but it's probably way better than most of what I've seen used on domestic brands. Honda also uses a different adhesive. It's a rubberized glue, not the hard super glue type adhesive I've usually seen. I found a thin bladed scraper that I was able to work underneath the mount and loosen it enough to get it off the windshield. That wound up being the easy part!

Next came the process of glueing the new mount button for the aftermarket mirror. They provided me with the vile of activator and adhesive for this process and I followed the directions precisely but it didn't hold. A trip down to the auto parts store secured three more adhesive "kits" and the last one did the trick. I let it set for a couple of hours (even though the directions say you only have to wait for 15 minutes) and mounted the mirror. It held!

About a week later, I was heading back into town and ran across a set of rumble strips cut in the concrete. You know, those attention getters that are installed to wake drivers up to the fact that their approaching a traffic light in a 55 to 65 mph speed zone! Anyway, the vibration caused the mirror to pop off the windshield. Ok, now I'm just going to the local windshield installer and let HIM glue the @#%^& thing on the glass. Only problem is, not only did the little metal mount come off the glass, it took a chunk of the glass with it. A chunk about the size of the pad of my thumb.

There's no way they can fix this so I've got to buy a new windshield. That wound up being another $400!!!

When the windshield guy started looking into glueing the mirror mount to the new windshield, he found that one of the reasons it didn't hold well is because the S2000's windshield, being as small as it is, had a bit too much curvature to it for the new mount to adhere well with the super glue type adhesive I had used. He was also concerned that the new mount, having about half the surface area of the Honda mount, simply wouldn't have enough bonding area to carry the added weight of the new mirror. It is significantly heavier than the factory mirror. He didn't want to try it as he didn't want me coming back on him if it fell off again. I really can't say I blame him.

Needless to say, I wasn't happy and wanted a little time to figure out how I might work something out with the factory mount. That's another story! Anyway, about an hour later, the windshield guy calls me back and says that he thinks he's got a solution. It seems that the mirror mount on 2000 and 2001 Dodge trucks has a standard shape that the mirror itself clamps to, but the back side of the mount that actually glues to the glass, is almost twice the area, that is, about the same size as the original Honda mount. The windshield guy had the kind of glue that Honda uses and installed the Dodge mount to my windshield with the rubberized Honda glue. We let that set for 24 hours, I mounted the mirror and, "so far, so good!" **Knock on wood!!!**

It's been there for about 6 months now and seems to be doing fine and I've gone down some pretty rough roads, crossed railroad tracks, those blasted rumble strips that caused my problem to begin with, etc. and it's still holding firm. Of course, now that I've bragged about it here, it'll probably fall off tomorrow........

So, if you want the HomeLink mirror (mine works great BTW! ), I'd say go for it but I wouldn't use the little mounting tab they'll give you. Go down to the local windshield place, or even just the dealer, I can't imagine this thing being that expensive, and see if you can get one. It'll give you a lot more surface area to adhere the mount to the glass. I'd also pay the windshield guy to glue it up for you with the rubberized glue that Honda uses. The stuff I originally used proved to be way too brittle in any case.

Hope this helps!

Good luck & Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Thanks for the reply (which has made me a little reluctant to go this route). One more question, you had to run a power line for the Homelink feature - right? The specifications on the web site are a little unclear about this.

thanks again.

 

Yes, there is a wiring loom to install. You'll have to remove the plastic trim along the top of the windshield header and down the drivers side of the windshield. The main bolts you have to remove are the ones that hold the sun visors on. Beyond that, it's just a snap on and off process. I also used a dremel tool to relieve the plastic at the center section to give the wires some place to exit on their way to the mirror.

As for the power hook ups themselves, the company supplied a set of fuses with a wire connector coming off of it. All you have to do is remove the appropriate sized fuse from the fuse block and install the new one, then plug in the wiring loom. The auto dimming mirror w/home link requires two connections. One is only hot when the ignition key is on and that powers the auto dimming feature as well as the temperature and compass display. The other power connection is on all the time and that powers the home link so you don't have to turn the ignition on to open the garage door. It's very simple. In my case, I also have the temperature display so I had to mount the sensor out in front of the radiator and run the loom back through the fire wall. It took me about 20 minutes and I could probably do it in less time than that now.

Good luck & Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Mo,

I had the gentex Homelink mirror installed in 2003
The only problem I had was that the base of the mirror that attaches to the windshield had to be replace for a generic one. I took it to a windshield replacement company and they did not charge me a cent. I tipped the guy $20 for his time. You should not have any problems installing it your self. But I do have to warn you that you will need a little patience when installing.

Good Luck.

Neil
P.S. Yes, It's worth getting

 

I had homelink in my eclipse gst, loved it, I guess it can also turn on your house lights also

 

Absolutely!

Considering the issues I talked about in my story above, I wish I'd done this from the beginning. Regardless of the issues I had, I'm still glad I've got the mirror.

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

I just got another gentex Homelink mirror, I am willing to let it go for $150 if you know of anyone interested.

Neil

 

I just finished the Gentex Homelink mirror install using the Dodge truck mirror button mentioned previously, and it worked out great. I sprayed it flat black so any exposed edges wouldn't stand out.

After I finished, I got in my wife's Prius, and had to laugh - it uses the same Gentex Homelink mirror OEM, as I bought on ebay for the S2000. So an even better solution would be to buy the mirror button for a Prius, from Toyota. It also uses a black trim piece to cover the wire going up from the mirror mount to the moulding around the window. I may buy this piece, although it will probably have to be shortened a little. The black area on the Prius windshield also continues up to the frame so that it hides the trim piece. This should be very easy to do using some masking tape and black model paint.

Mitch