Rear/ Side mirrors auto-dimming in Model S, and my attempt to disable it

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

i haven't updated this thread since the mirrors still dim as un-wanted. they're so dark that at night, you cant see lines on the road or cars via the mirrors. when there's a car in view, you can see two spots of headlights. it's tuned WAYYYYYYYYYYY too dark to be usuable.

Tesla HK has NOT gotten back to me regarding this. as my scheduled date for annual check up was coming up, they called me in mid Dec, regarding that. zero mention of the mirror issue. I've just gotten used to turning my head and body to look round at night, which is stupid, but preferrable to having to deal with tesla HK. i've done my best to be civil and patient with them, it hadn't really worked so far. i dont like kicking up a fuss tho, otherwise tweeting Elon directly would've happened long ago.

Okay, Thanks. I just tinted my windows to 18% and now I'm having a little trouble seeing through my auto dimming mirrors. i should have gone with the 25% instead.

 

[mattse]

I do not want to disable my auto-dimming, this is great stuff given the number of illegal, retrofit HID headlamps in HK is always on the rise, but I may find a way that could help you

To cut long story short, as the time when I drove at night but found my cabin brighter than daytime has increased to an unbearable level (thanks to TD spending all their time banning the calendar in our cars instead of illegal, disturbing retrofits), I finally decided to block the rear window and replace the rear view mirror by the parking cam

I ended up having a peaceful cabin without disturbing bright lights, which is good news for me and my girlfriend, but side mirrors that do not auto-dim...

 

[Spyder14]

So my next step would be to look up fuse diagrams and see if there's a simple fuse i could pop out to let me actually drive safer at night.[/QUOTE]

Good luck getting the correct fuse box diagram...

 

[ediot]

Good luck getting the correct fuse box diagram...

upon some google fu, i've found that the model S has undergone AT LEAST two fusebox changes, without definite announcements. i've spent a while comparing and found a diagram which i believe to be accurate for my car, but with unannounced/ publicly documented changes like this, you never know.

the car takes up a too-significant proportion of my wealth to go YOLO on, so i'm leaving it as is for now.

 

[seira321]

My Model X sensor is located near lower left middle area(?). I hope a thick hair tie can cover the sensor enough to disable auto dimming.

 

[ediot]

My Model X sensor is located near lower left middle area(?). I hope a thick hair tie can cover the sensor enough to disable auto dimming.

thanks for the picture. I've previously stuck a small piece of tape there to cover the camera but it annoyed me to no ends, so I'm looking for a real solution/ a better work around

There is now hope for possibilities of getting some small stuff in my car sorted without the joy of visiting Tesla HK service:

Tesla is working on opening up its service tools and helping owners repair their own cars with replacement parts

 

[darent]

I also suffer from this problem, especially on a rainy night. It is too difficult to estimate the distance between the rear cars as I can only see their headlights.

 

[ediot]

having gone thru annual check ups and mentioning everytime i have contact with Tesla HK, my mirrors are still way too dark when they auto-dim since they have never been properly addressed. now i just use the rear camera (always set to top half of main screen) and physically turning my head.

oh, i've never put on extra tint on my windows, but i'm going ahead with that now. the summer sun is just so unforgiving.

 

[EscoguyS75]

My wife is having this issue with our Model 3. I don't mind but it is too dark for her to drive at night.

 

[dc443]

Driving back from NYC this weekend I noticed my dimming mirrors had stopped dimming. I don't know what the cause might be but it may be somehow related to the fiddling around I did with the rearview when I was originally trying to run the 12V ACC to dashcam hardware kit. I ended up giving up on the rearview unit since it was not behaving as expected and had signals coming over the wires and I ended up tapping switched 12V out of the passenger footwell fusebox instead.

I also installed additional little convex mirrors onto my side mirrors.

I'm suspecting that I broke something while fiddling with the wire plug for the rearview while I was poking around it with my mini oscilloscope. At one point I saw a small spark so I suppose that had to have been it (No wait, that was when I was fiddling with the port in the mic panel, so it can't be related to this!). I am going to miss the dimming functionality on long drives though so I will bring this topic up next time the car is in for service and have them tell me what's broken with the dimming.

Since you want it never to dim, you can definitely just open up the rearview assembly (yank down/pry on plastic cover, it will be only a tiny bit nerve-wracking, and the risk of cosmetic damage is very low) and unplug the cable and that ought to make damn sure the dimming will stop working for you. As shown here

even though this assembly may not exactly match your car (my 2016 S has a different shape) you can see in the video the cable and clip you can disconnect in there. and then you can pop the cover right back on there.

 

[markwj]

Supposedly, firmware version 2021.24 has the ability to turn off auto-dimming of side mirrors on some models:

Mirror Auto Dim
Model S 2021+
Model 3
Model Y

Available Worldwide



You can enable or disable automatic dimming for your mirrors. To access, tap Controls > Mirror > Mirror Auto Dim.