Rearview Mirror Replacement

[SHOclass]

Out of the three SHO's that I've owned all of them have some sort of gunk or flaking right in the center of the rearview mirror that does not come off, and it just looks like crap. I want to upgrade from that ancient style one. I would like to get one with the auto-dim function and possibly a compass. Is there one that is wireless? or has anyone installed something similar? if so how difficult? TIA.

 

[zach44102]

getting the original one off will be the hardest part.....i think taking a heat gun and heating up the mount attached to the glass till it loosens up....

 

[mrecoolgar]

Previous owner(s) pressed their thumb on that spot when adjusting.

 

[kevinspann]

There aren't any wireless auto dimming mirrors, but the most wires they'll usually have is three.

For a cheap replacement, a Contour mirror will fit, but it is not autodimming.

 

[Cl-Slick]

I've seen a write up on here before about someone taking a Continetal mirror and hardwiring it into their SHO. Looked quite nice.

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

I have a mirror from a 2002 Chevy Silverado. It has the compass, temp. and it's auto dimming. I can take pics tomorrow.

 

[kevinspann]

I have a mirror from a 2002 Chevy Silverado. It has the compass, temp. and it's auto dimming. I can take pics tomorrow.

I had one of those, but I think I fried it. When testing it, I could only get the temp to read 140 degrees.

I'm going to be going with an autodimming mirror with compass.


Where did you make your power and ground connections?

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

Your temp wont read unless you hook up an ambient temp sensor from a 2002 Chevy silverado. I ran my own power wires from the fuse box to the mirror.

 

[kevinspann]

I had the temp sensor hooked up to test it, I think I fried the mirror. No matter, it fell off the shelf and broke anyways. Mine was from a 90s Suburban.

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

Mine is from a 2002. I am about to do the same mod in explorer.

 

[SHOclass]

I have a mirror from a 2002 Chevy Silverado. It has the compass, temp. and it's auto dimming. I can take pics tomorrow.

How hard was it to hook up to the SHO?

 

[kevinspann]

How hard was it to hook up to the SHO?

The hardest thing to do is run the 2 wire harness to wherever you put the temp sensor. Other wise, its the same as the others as far as wiring goes.

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

How hard was it to hook up to the SHO?

It wasn't that hard at all, the power and neg. wires I ran from the fuse box up the pillar and under the headliner to the mirror and the ambient temp sensor wires I ran from the mirror down the pillar through a hole in the fire wall I use for my amp wire and I mounted the ambient temp sensor on my front bumber cover.

 

[jmpSHO2nd]

I keep forgetting but I will take pics tomorrow.

 

[93_SHO_FL]

Any pics of this install? Would like to do the auto dimming as well.

 

[StreetlightSHO]

I might want to do this..... so yes. pics would be great. haha

 

[jelloslug]

I have an auto dimming mirror from a very old Town Car. It's so old that it's a motorized mirror, not an electrochromic. It actually moves to the dim position.

 

[typhoon5000]

I installed an electrochromatic autodimming/compass mirror from a newer Grand Marquis I found at a junkyard for $10 into My Crown Vic Police Interceptor and it was just a case of hooking up a switched power in the fusebox and ground to it, very simple. The install should be the same in a SHO if it doesn't have the temp sensor.

The mirror in my '95 SHO had some weird staining or corrosion between the film and glass so I tried sliding on my clean OE mirror from my '03 CVPI and it fit just fine!

Also, there's no need to heat it up and remove the button that's glued to the windshield. The mirror will slide off (upwards) of the button once you pop the tab up that's holding it in. Be careful though, as it will take some effort to get off, but it's not too hard to break the windshield. When I pulled the one off of the GM at the junkyard, I just pulled really hard and it took a chip out of the windshield with the button still glued on.

 

[kevinspann]

I just put one, with compass in my car. Make sure you get at least 16-18" of the wiring harness, or you will have to extend the wires.

You only need a ground and 12v+ to make the mirror work.

There is usually another wire to cut off the auto-dimming feature in reverse. If you want, you can run a wire that taps into the wiring for the reverse lights to have this feature as well. If/when I take the interior out of my car, I may do this.

First, make sure you can remove your rear view mirror without popping the button off of the windshield. I couldn't, so in my pic, I'm holding the mirror up.

To be noted - the mirror button in my 92 was different than the one for the auto dimming mirror - I do not know if later gen 2's switch to a different button style or not.

The mirror button for the auto-dimming mirror is on the left, the one the car had is on the right:

If you have a sunroof, your mirror install will be easy, you just need a ring terminal, and a wire tap.

Crusty old mirror:

I removed the sunroof switch assembly from the headliner, and also the removed the two clips for the sunvisors, to allow me to pull the headliner down enough to fish the wires through.

Wiring info is here http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?TID=8560&KW=177

The mirror I had was from a Ford, so the colors were different - for ME black was the ground (obviously) and purple with a red/orange stripe was 12v+. If you are unsure, just use a drill battery to power up the mirror to find which wire requires the 12v.

For the ground, I just put a ring terminal on the end of the wire, and removed one of the screws holding in the sunroof motor, and, put the ring terminal there.

And for 12v power, I checked the wires that go to the sunroof switch to see which one had 12v when the ignition was on. That was the blue w/black striped wire, so I tapped into that.

Plug it in, turn the key to on, and, mirror:

 

[pejohnson]

What did I do wrong? I pulled 3 different mirrors out of late 90's Cadillac that have the compose and auto dimming features. I went on the Cadi forum and found out which wires a the hot and ground. Following the directions above and the mirror only display N and NW regardless of which direction I'm going. Is there a reset button I need to push? Not really sure why it's not working properly.