[sl8anic]

The only thing I would add is that most BMW (and Mini mirrors to an extent) are model interchangeable, the only caveat is whether you have a convertible or not. Convertible cars require a mirror with an internal keyfob remote antennas, sedans do not.

[jarvis]

Originally Posted by xradman

This was my first DIY project since getting my 2011 328iX. This DIY guide was of tremendous help, but there were some things that were not as clear from reading the instructions, and by writing this post, hopefully someone coming along could benefit from my experience.

My car came with plain mirror with no Homelink, autodim, or compass.





One thing that is incorrect in the DIY is that mirror is secured to the windshield using a spring loaded mount. It's not a screw, but a hexagonal nut that fits into a spring loaded clamp. Therefore, the mirror can be turned in either clockwise or counterclockwise direction 120 degrees to remove.

As you can see, my mirror did not have any existing wire harness.

I purchased my mirror on eBay for $95. Part number that was stamped on the back of the mirror was 015891 / 025891. It came with an existing wire harness 10 pin plug.





I followed the directions for removal of FZD. The assembly is held in place by metal spring clamp which is located in near the map reading lamp as indicated in the original post. By pushing in with a flat blade screwdriver or trim removal tool that I used, you are pushing in the metal spring clamp. FZD can be pulled straight down. It takes a little force and I was afraid that I might break the plastic, but it finally came down with no damage.

Once the FZD was removed, this is what I saw feeding down into the windshield.



I purchased the retrofit harness from ECS Tuning

https://www.ecstuning.com/ES161804/





Only thing out of the kit that I used was the wire harness consisting of 5 wires (Gry/Vi, Grn/Wh, Blk/Brw, Brw/Wh, and Brown) and Black 10 pin socket housing. First thing to do is to remove the black rubber grommet. It's held down by cloth tape and can be coaxed loose with little back and forth motion. Once you are down to 5 wire harness held together with some cloth tape, you can feed the wires through the existing rubber grommet at the top of the windshield using the straw trick shown on the OP.



Once the wires are through, just attach the 10 pin black socket from the retrofit harness kit to the wire as follows:

A1 Gray/Violet wire to Pin 1
A2 Green/White wire to Pin 3
A3 Black/Brown wire to Pin 4
A4 Brown/White wire to Pin 5
A5 Brown wire to Pin 10



The other end of the wires also have pins except for the Brown wire which is left bare.

These wires are connected to existing socket that goes to the FZD. In my case where I did not have any existing connections in my original mirror, I followed the following instructions.



Gray/Violet wire to Pin 14
Green/White wire to Pin 20
Black/Brown wire to Pin 15
Brown/White wire to Pin 16

Brown wire was tapped to much larger Brown wire going to adjacent connector X14287.

At this point, I connected the new mirror to the newly wired harness and cross my fingers as I switched on the ignition. Light to the compass on the mirror came on and I knew I was good to go. Reassembly was much easier. FZD just snaps back into the overhead slot. Mirror twists on the windshield mount and cover behind the mirror just snaps together.

I followed the directions to calibrate my compass



and programmed my Homelink. Everything works and I am a happy camper.

Hey guys, I followed the DIY step by step and pin assignments , however my compass always stay ON 24 hrs since yesterday. Calibrated it still stays ON. i'm worried to drain the battery. Any help would be appreciated.

[opjose]

Press the reset button very briefly and see if that shuts if off.

[2fast4]

Guys, this DIY is very confusing and time consuming at best...............

My car E90 335i, I think I understand the 5 wires that go to 10-pin connector at the mirror.

But I'm not clear where the "other" 5 wires with 1 BR loose wire go to on roof console. I see there are 5 connectors in the roof con...WHITE, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK, BLACK. Which connector is it?

Oh and all the connectors are blocked off from metal bracket above it. Can't get any better than this...

[opjose]

Go by the color of the wires not by the color of the plastic retainers.

[2fast4]

Originally Posted by opjose

Go by the color of the wires not by the color of the plastic retainers.

That's the dilemma...which "retainer" out of the 5 of them?
And how do you pull it out of the console with the steel bracket in the way. I posted the pics. Take a closer look. Appreciate.

[2fast4]

Originally Posted by opjose

Go by the color of the wires not by the color of the plastic retainers.

By looking at the diagram(the 14 page PDF), I think it boils down to one of the A6, A7, A8, A9. And the numbers next to them 16, 15, 14, 20, don't make sense. Almost sounds like number of wires. I know A7 is like 4 wires, small retainer.

[2fast4]

Originally Posted by xradman

This was my first DIY project since getting my 2011 328iX. This DIY guide was of tremendous help, but there were some things that were not as clear from reading the instructions, and by writing this post, hopefully someone coming along could benefit from my experience.

My car came with plain mirror with no Homelink, autodim, or compass.





One thing that is incorrect in the DIY is that mirror is secured to the windshield using a spring loaded mount. It's not a screw, but a hexagonal nut that fits into a spring loaded clamp. Therefore, the mirror can be turned in either clockwise or counterclockwise direction 120 degrees to remove.

As you can see, my mirror did not have any existing wire harness.

I purchased my mirror on eBay for $95. Part number that was stamped on the back of the mirror was 015891 / 025891. It came with an existing wire harness 10 pin plug.





I followed the directions for removal of FZD. The assembly is held in place by metal spring clamp which is located in near the map reading lamp as indicated in the original post. By pushing in with a flat blade screwdriver or trim removal tool that I used, you are pushing in the metal spring clamp. FZD can be pulled straight down. It takes a little force and I was afraid that I might break the plastic, but it finally came down with no damage.

Once the FZD was removed, this is what I saw feeding down into the windshield.



I purchased the retrofit harness from ECS Tuning

https://www.ecstuning.com/ES161804/





Only thing out of the kit that I used was the wire harness consisting of 5 wires (Gry/Vi, Grn/Wh, Blk/Brw, Brw/Wh, and Brown) and Black 10 pin socket housing. First thing to do is to remove the black rubber grommet. It's held down by cloth tape and can be coaxed loose with little back and forth motion. Once you are down to 5 wire harness held together with some cloth tape, you can feed the wires through the existing rubber grommet at the top of the windshield using the straw trick shown on the OP.



Once the wires are through, just attach the 10 pin black socket from the retrofit harness kit to the wire as follows:

A1 Gray/Violet wire to Pin 1
A2 Green/White wire to Pin 3
A3 Black/Brown wire to Pin 4
A4 Brown/White wire to Pin 5
A5 Brown wire to Pin 10



The other end of the wires also have pins except for the Brown wire which is left bare.

These wires are connected to existing socket that goes to the FZD. In my case where I did not have any existing connections in my original mirror, I followed the following instructions.



Gray/Violet wire to Pin 14
Green/White wire to Pin 20
Black/Brown wire to Pin 15
Brown/White wire to Pin 16

Brown wire was tapped to much larger Brown wire going to adjacent connector X14287.

At this point, I connected the new mirror to the newly wired harness and cross my fingers as I switched on the ignition. Light to the compass on the mirror came on and I knew I was good to go. Reassembly was much easier. FZD just snaps back into the overhead slot. Mirror twists on the windshield mount and cover behind the mirror just snaps together.

I followed the directions to calibrate my compass



and programmed my Homelink. Everything works and I am a happy camper.

Thanks xradman. I used your DIY and it was much easier on my car.
Got all 3 function homelink, auto-dim, and compass worked right off the first try. I spent 2 days of this so I'm not happy about that but am happy it's working like a mutha!

Your DIY should be the main DIY. The original DIY is made to confuse people.
I know it's 7 years old but it's out of here!

One thing I noticed on my install...the BROWN wire had no place to go. It's the one with open wire on one end. On the mirror side socket there is already another wire occupying it on #10 pin. So I just left it aside.
On the FZD side, it's got no place to go any how.

I had bought the mirror from a local guy for $30. Killer deal I know. Thank you. And the wire kit for $39.

Another thing I noticed...homelink signal range is poorer than visor remote...much shorter. I'm not too happy about this. Others are saying it's much longer than visor remote. I don't know why it is.

The pulling of FZD is major PITA! I broke the white plastic cover at the tabs.
I put some crazy glue while putting it back together. Hope it holds.
Thanks guys.

[jarvis]

Originally Posted by 2fast4

Thanks xradman. I used your DIY and it was much easier on my car.
Got all 3 function homelink, auto-dim, and compass worked right off the first try. I spent 2 days of this so I'm not happy about that but am happy it's working like a mutha!

Your DIY should be the main DIY. The original DIY is made to confuse people.
I know it's 7 years old but it's out of here!

One thing I noticed on my install...the BROWN wire had no place to go. It's the one with open wire on one end. On the mirror side socket there is already another wire occupying it on #10 pin. So I just left it aside.
On the FZD side, it's got no place to go any how.

I had bought the mirror from a local guy for $30. Killer deal I know. Thank you. And the wire kit for $39.

Another thing I noticed...homelink signal range is poorer than visor remote...much shorter. I'm not too happy about this. Others are saying it's much longer than visor remote. I don't know why it is.

The pulling of FZD is major PITA! I broke the white plastic cover at the tabs.
I put some crazy glue while putting it back together. Hope it holds.
Thanks guys.

is your compass always on? Mine is. I followed the DIY correctly but it lits permanently and my battery is drained. Pls anyone can shed light...
help !!!

[2fast4]

No mine turns off. It only comes on with ign switch on or engine on, same way with compass. But I can't imagine compass take up enough to drain the battery out. That's way too strange to me unless there is short somewhere in there with always on wire. I'm not aware which one is always on though.

You might have connected to wrong pin.
Before you take it apart again take a look at the diagram first. Read Xradman's post was very helpful to me. Hope it works out. Keep us posted.

[jarvis]

Originally Posted by 2fast4

No mine turns off. It only comes on with ign switch on or engine on, same way with compass. But I can't imagine compass take up enough to drain the battery out. That's way too strange to me unless there is short somewhere in there with always on wire. I'm not aware which one is always on though.

You might have connected to wrong pin.
Before you take it apart again take a look at the diagram first. Read Xradman's post was very helpful to me. Hope it works out. Keep us posted.

thanks for the quick reply. I will take it apart and re-check wiring and keep u posted.

[SpeedyPeedy]

Good morning. I am studying this thread intently and very much appreciate the knowledge shared. My situation is that I have a new to me E90 that, according to the factory window sticker, came with auto-dim, home link and compass - none of which are currently functional. The wiring from the mirror into the headliner has been modified by a previous owner - the visible wires are all black. In theory, would kit 61120434330 contain the requisite pieces to make up a stock sub-harness between the mirror and FZD module? Thanks.

[2fast4]

Originally Posted by SpeedyPeedy

Good morning. I am studying this thread intently and very much appreciate the knowledge shared. My situation is that I have a new to me E90 that, according to the factory window sticker, came with auto-dim, home link and compass - none of which are currently functional. The wiring from the mirror into the headliner has been modified by a previous owner - the visible wires are all black. In theory, would kit 61120434330 contain the requisite pieces to make up a stock sub-harness between the mirror and FZD module? Thanks.

Yep it should work fine with the kit.

[SpeedyPeedy]

In some cases, prior to installing the retrofit harness, there are three wires already present on the 10 pin connector at the mirror (Red/Violet on pin 8; Gray/Black on pin 9; Brown Black on pin 10). Does anyone know the function of these wires and where they would connect at their other end in the FZD (or elsewhere)? Thanks.

[ThomasW]

Thanks a lot for this! It helped me out retrofitting an auto dimming mirror to an E91 from 2006 (EU car).

[Nicholas Bentley]

In that first picture of the mirror on post #118, there is what appears to be a sensor of some kind in the oval hole on the left side of the mirror. Does anyone know what that is for? It's not the rain sensor, and I don't think (could be wrong) that it is the feature that turns on the lights in dark areas.

[ptpending]

this sensor is part of the mirror's autodim feature

[MtBMW73]

I am looking on eBay for a full-featured mirror to replace my standard mirror on my 2013 E92. It seems like some of the mirrors that have compasses have a small window in the upper right (presumably where the compass heading is displayed), while others do not.

For those of you with the rearview mirror with compass, does your have the small window? Or is the compass heading displayed right in the mirrored section?

Here's an example:

[gamesfrager]

Originally Posted by MtBMW73

I am looking on eBay for a full-featured mirror to replace my standard mirror on my 2013 E92. It seems like some of the mirrors that have compasses have a small window in the upper right (presumably where the compass heading is displayed), while others do not.

For those of you with the rearview mirror with compass, does your have the small window? Or is the compass heading displayed right in the mirrored section?

Here's an example:

It's very faint, not like the picture you posted. A way to tell is if the bottom of the mirror trim has a tiny hole. That's used for resetting/calebrating the compass.
Also, if you see one in person and shine a light in that corner; you should see it there.

[6ixSpd]

Am I correct in understanding that if the car already has auto-dimming or a compass, or an alarm, then no additional wiring is needed and the homelink is completely PnP without any other parts?

[salpone]

in my 2008 E92 mounts normal rear-view mirror, I took in America, on ebay this mirror that has the gate opening function, we hope I can make it work with the frequencies of my Italian 433Mhz gate

[Gangplank]

Looking to do this retrofit. This thread looks helpful