Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Model S - Rear-view Mirror - Not dark enough

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.

SabrToothSqrl

Active Member
Dec 5, 2014
4,568
4,141
PA
so... I'm through putting up with the barely tinted super bright lights in my eyes from cars / trucks behind me.

I'm used to my 09 Tahoe where it had a tinted rear window, tinted rear-view mirror, and the rear window was a good 20 feet behind me and 5' off the ground.

Since I can't make my Model S higher, and I don't want to tint windows for trade-in on an X, (let's stick to other options regardless of options in this area).

Can I make make the rear-view tinted all the time? it seems to tint and untint WAY too easily. FULL tint 24/7 is fine. I can seriously see the cars.

Can I put window tint over my mirror?

Can I just replace the rear-view mirror? I'd take the one from my 11 year old Tribute happily. I flip it up! Instant tint. No muss, no fuss.

I can't be the only one annoyed by how bright the lights of the cars behind me are... The SC says it's all working fine...
 
Your eyes are too sensitive to light. Mine are the opposite. I've discussed with the SC that I can't see cars from the rear view mirror or the side view mirrors when they tint at night. Their solution for my problem is to place tape over the sensor location in the rear view mirror so they don't tint. I guess you could place a small LED over the same spot so that the mirrors are always tinted.
 
I hadn't noticed a problem with my mirror until I drove a loaner and noticed it's mirror dimmed much more than mine.

But once back in my car I happened to notice that only the top half was dimmed and not not the bottom (don't know why I had not noticed before).

So I reached up and tilted the mirror a bit more and the dimming then covered the whole mirror. Still not quite as dim as I'd like (I'm with the "sensitive eyes" crowd) but much better than before.
 
I love the tinting side mirrors, never had that option on any vehicle before. The centre one I find that the tint is not nearly as aggressive as you normally get from a flip up mirror. It's "ok" but I can certainly appreciate wanting darker.

My plan is simply to tint my windows, but have to sort out my finances a bit before spending any more money on this car right now (I really hadn't planned on buying it until spring, but just couldn't pass up the deal I found)
 
I agree my MS auto rear-view mirror auto-dimming isn't as robust as what I've enjoyed on my previous Lexus and MBZ. I too though on my MS, am not finding as much of a problem as the OP in the past few weeks, likely because I also had PhotoSync installed on my rear hatch window.
 
For me its just right. I tinted the rear to keep the heat off the kiddos in the back. If it got darker it would be tougher to see but, I have no problems. I can see where this would be a problem for non tinted rears.... you'd think with how advance the car is that you could adjust the level of darkness on the mirror.
 
I plan to trade it in, in 2017/2018, and don't feel it's worth the cost/time, and in PA, there are some legal issues surrounding window tint, that I'd prefer to keep off this thread.

I'm not even sure tinting my rearview is legal, but it may go unnoticed by most inspection locations...
 
I would have the service center look at your mirror, it may not be dimming properly. It s a pretty common issue that the dimming craps out on the rearview mirrors, ours crapped out after 6 months or so.
 
I had my center rear-view mirror replaced because the tinting layer was corroding, and it was only intermittently tinting. The notes from the repair said the connector was loose, which I assume accounts for the intermittent functioning, and the new mirror is much clearer -- I didn't realize how much it had corroded.

My new problem: Now it seems like the mirrors only tint if it was light out when I started driving, and drive until it gets dark. If I get into the car and it is dark already, both the center mirror and side mirrors don't tint, and I get blinded by headlights. Wish I could just control the tint manually.
 
yea, it's really not a good tinting system. If the headlights are on, just TINT and leave it tinted until the headlights are off...

Mine won't be tinted, then I'll move the mirror a hair, then it tints, then after a while of driving... is it tinted? is it not? I'm not a fan.