2021 M3: rear view mirror blinding at night

[tuktuk]

While most folks here are complaining of the internal rear view mirror being too dark, I've the opposite problem. During the day, things are fine. But at night, if a truck, semi, high-beam idiot, or very bright light LED beams are behind, I almost can't see. In old days, I remember my mazda in the 90s, I'd just flip the mirror at night, problem solved. Now this auto dimming without any manual adjustment! I am getting ready to take a trip that involves night driving, and the last one was very difficult with lot of traffic on the freeway at night with bright headlights.

Any suggestions? Is there a sensor that is perhaps covered? I am not even sure if it dims at night...

Thank you.

 

[medphys3]

1) You can tell they have dimmed by the light ring around the perimeter of the mirror(s).

2) Have you checked your settings? The auto-dimming function might be turned off.

3) They dim based on the time of sunset at your GPS location. Mine typically dim a solid 10-15 minutes AFTER the “sunset.”

4) A good way to tell the difference in dim/not-dim is to take the car out at night, well after sunset. Make sure your lights are on and put it in Drive and watch the mirrors’ tint level. Put the car in reverse and you should see the mirrors slowly change from dimmed to not-dimmed. It’s pretty noticeable- at least on mine it is.

Hope this helps!

 

[tuktuk]

2) Have you checked your settings? The auto-dimming function might be turned off.

The only auto dimming I see is for external mirrors and not the internal one. The external mirror auto-dim is on.

4) A good way to tell the difference in dim/not-dim is to take the car out at night, well after sunset. Make sure your lights are on and put it in Drive and watch the mirrors’ tint level. Put the car in reverse and you should see the mirrors slowly change from dimmed to not-dimmed. It’s pretty noticeable- at least on mine it is.

Ah, I see. I'll try that out. Most likely it is working and just not dimming enough!

Thanks for replying.

 

[clyde]

I have the same problem as the OP: rear view mirror auto-dimming, especially of LED an Xenon headlights, is a joke.

The dimming filter seems to focus the glare of certain wavelengths of light (the bluish type with higher Kelvin numbers). The insufficient dimming has been quite tiring on long night trips to the point I now angle the mirror out of view (not exactly a safety enhancement).

I had the service tech come out and he confirmed that the mirror is correctly dimming correctly. He too mentioned that there had been complaints about inefficient dimming of white/blue headlights.

What do I do? Does anyone have a good suggestion for a replacement mirror-auto or manual- that actually dims white light better than the stock mirror?

 

[UncertainTimes]

Tint your rear windshield

 

[XPsionic]

I use this in my Model 3. Mainly because I find the OEM mirror too small (this adds a bit of width and height, making it easier to see really low cars behind me), this doesn't dim, but with the blue tint it is pretty nice for night time glare. I use the wide angle version which diffuses reflected light slightly as well.

 

[clyde]

Thank you very much. I ordered that mirror and will report back.
I also made another appointment with a Tesla mobile service technician.

 

[dxp2000]

any luck with that mirror

Thank you very much. I ordered that mirror and will report back.
I also made another appointment with a Tesla mobile service technician.

any luck with that mirror? i too have the same issue

 

[Laheyth]

SAme issue, I want a manual day night mirror...this setup sucks
I get blinded from higher truck lights or brights.

 

[CCopperpot]

Sorry for the thread necro but I'm also having a hell of a time with my model 3 at night. The mirror dimming is inadequate, IMHO, and was hoping someone came up with a solution? At this point, when I need to drive at night, I point the side views down and flip the rear view up and rely on the screen/cameras to see what's in my blind spots which is less than ideal.

On my old Ford Fusion, I was able to stick a piece of tape on the ambient light sensor behind the rear view mirror which made all of the mirrors as dark as they could get 100% of the time, which was great for my situation (eyes are sensitive to bright lights). I wonder if this would work on the Model 3 as well? I pre-ordered the S3XY knob and saw that it (and the S3XY buttons) can control the mirror dimming, so perhaps thats an option?

Whatever the case, tint isnt really an option living in NY

 

[evbuyer18]

I have the same problem where driving at night is very difficult because the rearview mirror does not dim enough (or at all), and no way to flip a lever like traditional mirrors. Just got home last night from a 4 hour drive in the dark. It was a very difficult drive because of the blinding lights from behind. I just had to adjust the mirror so it was unusable, which isn't the safest option.

The only setting for auto-dim is for the side view mirrors, not the rearview mirror. Auto dimming mirror in my RAV4 works perfectly.

 

[MikeRTX]

I'll chime in, too. Insufficient dimming, of both the inside and outside mirrors. And I DO have auto-dimming set to on.

 

[bengradish]

And here comes the next one. Been driving yesterday evening with my hand on the mirror because its glare is too strong for my eyes.
Any other solutions here?

 

[bengradish]

And here comes the next one. Been driving yesterday evening with my hand on the mirror because its glare is too strong for my eyes.
Any other solutions here?

Forgot to add, I am driving a european Model 3 (highland).

 

[CCopperpot]

And here comes the next one. Been driving yesterday evening with my hand on the mirror because its glare is too strong for my eyes.
Any other solutions here?

honestly, I just flip the rear view up so the view is barely out of my line of sight (so I can still look if I need to) and turn the side view mirrors so they're somewhat in the same sort of position (just barely out of eye sight, but can still look if I absolutely need to).

Then I just use the cameras/traffic display to see whats around me.