[Raspartan]

Oh boy, not again

[svache]

Originally Posted by Raspartan

Oh boy, not again

again?

[Raspartan]

Originally Posted by svache

again?

Options that we don't have in Canada/North America. Or don't behave the way they do in Europe.

[svache]

Originally Posted by Raspartan

Options that we don't have in Canada/North America. Or don't behave the way they do in Europe.

I find that hard to believe, seeing how they do advertise about it on the bmwusa.com site. If it's advertised and they didn't deliver, they will see a lot of angry people, I'm sure.

[yerffejleahcim]

I was able to confirm tonight that it is only the interior rear view mirror is auto-dimming. Not happy with this especially here in Hawaii it gets so dark and the lights from behind get annoying.

[E90Fleet]

Ok, have confirmed the "Heated mirorrs" are also Electro Chromatic (Dimming) and the North American cars have the Auto dimming mirror housing

So the parts are there to dim

Question is why are owners not seeing the dimming.
Coding ?


We need a Euro member with the option to confirm if shining a strong flashlight at the interior sensor makes their outside mirrors dim

[xit2050]

Originally Posted by E90Fleet

We need a Euro member with the option to confirm if shining a strong flashlight at the interior sensor makes their outside mirrors dim

I have ordered the option, but my car won't be delivered before mid July...

[svache]

Originally Posted by yerffejleahcim

I was able to confirm tonight that it is only the interior rear view mirror is auto-dimming. Not happy with this especially here in Hawaii it gets so dark and the lights from behind get annoying.

Especially with those trucks and civics around that think it's cool to have extra blinding lights that are adjusted way off :/

Originally Posted by E90Fleet

Ok, have confirmed the "Heated mirorrs" are also Electro Chromatic (Dimming) and the North American cars have the Auto dimming mirror housing

So the parts are there to dim

Question is why are owners not seeing the dimming.
Coding ?


We need a Euro member with the option to confirm if shining a strong flashlight at the interior sensor makes their outside mirrors dim

Thanks E90 I have send a PM to Robin, hopefully he has the dimming mirrors and some time to see if he sees anything different than us

[PrinceBarin]

Okay, so my UK spec 320d comes with auto-dimming rear view and exterior mirrors. I shone a torch at the sensor in my rear view mirror and watched the coatings of both the rear view and exterior mirrors darken in response.

You can clearly see the coating on both mirrors during the day, it gives them a subtle blue hue.

On the exterior mirrors the border of the coating stops about 8mm short of the edge of the mirror, all the way around - I will try to get a picture tomorrow but it looks a bit like a film of screen protector that has been placed on the mirror.

[E90Fleet]

Originally Posted by PrinceBarin

Okay, so my UK spec 320d comes with auto-dimming rear view and exterior mirrors. I shone a torch at the sensor in my rear view mirror and watched the coatings of both the rear view and exterior mirrors darken in response.

You can clearly see the coating on both mirrors during the day, it gives them a subtle blue hue.

On the exterior mirrors the border of the coating stops about 8mm short of the edge of the mirror, all the way around - I will try to get a picture tomorrow but it looks a bit like a film of screen protector that has been placed on the mirror.

Great, thanks for the test, that all sounds correct

[E90Fleet]

svache we now need you to confirm with a bright light at the interior rear looking sensor that your exterior mirrors do not dim while the inside one does.

Keep a good lookout on the exterior ones, maybe they just dont dim as much as the older ones

[Rdx]

I've read this thread yesterday and I forgot about posting a comment!

My 320i EU spec car has auto-dimming too and can confirm they work (ext & int), but I can confirm the issue too

On daylight, the exterior mirrors do not dim at all on mine (tested two times, will test it again after reading PrinceBarin's post). I can shine a bright light at it, it will not dim (exterior). At night, they work occasionally. I cannot pin-point when not and when they do, but they do not work always when the interior mirror dims, like the 5-serie one does (drove a F10).

Mostly if a car comes from a direction they work, but if a car comes straight from behind, they do not seem to work most of the time. Sometimes they do, so I'm really confused about when they work and what triggers it (direction? brightness?).

If I shine a bright light at it in the night, they all work nicely. The exterior has some kind of film over it that dims and it 'undims' smoothly, very nice.

[svache]

Originally Posted by E90Fleet

svache we now need you to confirm with a bright light at the interior rear looking sensor that your exterior mirrors do not dim while the inside one does.

Keep a good lookout on the exterior ones, maybe they just dont dim as much as the older ones

Thanks, I will do this during day time today and when it is darker. I will report back later tonight after I did all this =)

[Raspartan]

Well the good news is that the exterior rear view mirrors DO in fact dim!

The bad news is that they seem to take their sweet time. I shone a light onto the interior rear view mirror and it started dimming almost immediately. I think it had completely dimmed in about 2 seconds.

The exterior rear view mirrors started to dim maybe 1 second after the interior one started, but the progress is much slower. From my seating perspective it seems to start dimming from the top which is odd and takes maybe 5 seconds to completely dim. The strength of the dimming also seems to be less than the interior. I will post pictures shortly.

I'm not sure why I'm not noticing this at night, possibly no light has shone onto the interior sensor for long enough.

[Raspartan]

Here are side-by-side shots with the mirrors normal and dimmed as tested during my flashlight experiment.

Obviously my testing wasn't very rigorous or scientific, but it clearly shows that the dimming is actually occuring in spite of what I'm experiencing while driving at night.

[svache]

Well, I just checked with a strong flashlight and Raspartan is indeed right. It does get darker on the exterior mirrors but slower than the interior. Also I noticed it needs a LOT of light to actually get darker.

I think that we didn't notice it before as much as I did with my other car because of this delay and because it needs to be a lot stronger.

Also, something I noticed, is that there was no blank parts on the edge of the mirrors like I had with my X5 or like I see in my interior mirror. This especially made the difference very clear at night because you'd still see a bit of 'normal' mirror on the outer edges.

So yeah, it does seem to work, just not as obvious as the older cars had



edit: I just realize I also often have my rear window shade up at night (basically almost always) and this, of course, also stops light from coming onto the interior mirror.

[Rdx]

Mm, E90Fleet do you know why EU cars have that film over the exterior mirrors and others don't?

I do see the outer edges not dimmed, but as seen on the picture above, there exterior mirrors have full dim like the F10.

[Raspartan]

I should add that the camera makes the dimmed mirror appear a bit darker than it actually is. My impression was that the interior mirror got darker than the exterior ones.

[jpa74]

This is interesting. My exterior mirrors dim, and I feel like the light is too dim. Interior mirrors are just right.

[Raspartan]

E90Fleet, how does these work? Rather, how is the intensity regulated?

[Micleg]

I just realised yesterday that the difference between auto dimming on E90 and F30 might be that the F30 mirrors have cameras built into them! Surround view requires dimming external mirrors and people here are writing that the mirrors don't seem to follow the internal mirror. It might be that each mirror now is managing itself!

That could be something good! If I have the trunk in the F31 filled to the ceiling it normally could not make the external mirrors dim since no light from behind reaches the internal mirror, but with these external mirrors they would independently dim based on the amount of light that reaches the mirror from outside the car, regardless of the dimming status of the internal mirror.

Could someone test this?

[Micleg]

Did anyone test my theory in previous post? I am about to order a car and can't decide if the exterior dimming is worth it.