I'm having problems with my auto-dimming rear view mirror, but I can't convince my dealer that there's anything wrong with it. The problem I'm having is that it seems to work intermittently and when it does, it's slow to respond and doesn't dim sufficiently. The mechanic says that it responds to light changes, and I agree that it does, but just driving out of the sun into a dark garage will not tell them how much dimming they're getting or what the response threshold is. There are times at night when I'm almost blinded by cars behind me and looking into my side mirrors show that the rear view mirror is not dimming. At other times it seems to work. They're trying to tell me that's normal and I might believe them if I didn't have a Solara with an auto-dimming rear view mirror. The mirror in the Solara works as expected, dimming as well as a mechanical day/night mirror.

I called Toyota Customer Care and they're pressuring the dealer to resolve this. I would be interested in knowing what other people's experiences are with the auto-dimming mirror.

 

Mine has never caught my attention so it must be fine.....

 

How hard would it be to just swap the mirror out to makeyou happy? Keep complaining, and keep us posted, please.

 

I am not happy with mine either. I wish it had a manual switch so I could just set it for dark at night and leave it in that state. Mine also continually switches and is very slow to respond. This is my only dislike about the car.

 

In terms of time it only takes a couple of minutes. The problem is monetary. They claim that when they swap out a part, it's sent back to Toyota for failure analysis and if it tests good, they don't get reimbursed for the part. I also asked if they would they could temporarily swap out the mirror and let me test it at night to see if that fixed the problem. I think it would only take me a few minutes to determine if there was a difference between the two. if there was no difference, then they could return it to stock. The dealer refused to do this, saying that they don't do troubleshooting like that. I also offered to drive both my TCH and Solara down so they could compare the mirrors in the two, but they said that would prove nothing. After that, they said they weren't going to do anything more about it.

I feel that this is a safety issue, so I called Toyota Customer Care to get them back on it. The dealer's service rep called me yesterday and we arranged to bring the car back next week at night for more testing. They said they would pull a new TCH from the lot so the mechanic and I could compare the mirrors in the two. I'll post an update afterwards.

 

If I understand properly how the mirror works, make sure you have nothing blocking the sensor, which is located near center, on the other side. Also the mirror needs voltage to dim, it seems to me like intermittent electrical connection, could be wire itself, do the compass still show direction when mirror doesn't work properly? if the power supply doesn't work properly, exchanging mirror won't help. Also, if mirror stops working, is tapping on it any help? It would be easier for dealer to fix it if you could demonstrate that it is faulty and knowing how to make it misbehave at will. Any intermittent problem will disappear when the car is at the dealer, that's part of Murphy's law and I experienced it myself on more than one occasion.

 

I once lost the FM on my '94 Corolla. I kept messing around and found it was a fuse problem. Although the fuse tested good. Strange that the radio played find on AM but no FM at all. The FM had worked ok for years.

I disconnected the negative side of the 12 volt battery. I used needle nosed pliers to press or bend the contacts toward each other. I also put in a new fuse and the FM worked fine for years till I sold the car.

I'm also thinking you could be loosing power to the mirror. Intermittent fuse? Look at the fuse list in your manual. Could be the mirror is paired up with some other items on the car. See if the other electrical circuit stays on when the problem is happening with the mirror.

 

The dimming rear-view mirror has two light sensors. There's one on the back of the mirror housing, that looks out through the windshield to sense the ambient light level. The second sensor is on the side of the mirror that you can see, near the dim green LED. It senses the headlights of cars behind you. If there are bright lights that shine on the front sensor, they confuse it to think that it's daytime, and so the dimming action won't occur when headlights approach from behind. I've found that streetlamps (amongst other things) can confuse the front sensor.

Stan

 

I'll have to check that out. It seems like that would be a bad design, since oncoming cars on a two lane road would shut off the auto dimming. It would probably make more sense to use the sensor that turns the headlights on at night, since that would be less likely affected by the streetlights and such.

Pete4 and rburt07, thanks for your suggestions. There's nothing obstructing the sensors either front or back, but I'll check the electrical.

 

SciFi Guy — Here's more information on the TCH's rear view mirror, from the TCH Repair Manual.

Stan