Rear View Mirror AD to AD, C, T - additional wiring?

[whodah]

hello all!

been lurking a month or so, first post!

just got a '00 solara SLE from a neighbor. car is growing on me more and more each day!

at any rate, i've always wanted a compass/thermometer in my car. was disappointed not to have one in this. i do have the autodim though. (and the ac does have the thermometer)

i searched here, found some posts on it. basically came up w/ this store:
http://www.toyotaworld.com/accessories/mirrors.htm
for this part number: PT732-06000
for this price: $210

i've read that i may need to run the thermometer probe to the ac's thermometer probe. but there has been no mention if any additional wiring is necessary for the compass? is the compass self-contained, i.e. the compass sensor itself is in the mirror? or should i expect to have to run additional wiring for the compas sensor?

secondly: for those who have it: does it work well? point north when yer facing north? heh! do you have to do any sort of calibration to it or anything? if so, is it all button pushing or do you have to 'tweak the guts'?

thirdly: does the mirror show the temperature and the compass direction at the same time? or is it a 'one or the other but not both' type of thing?

fourthly: is the temperature designed to show the inside or outside temperature? (or both if hooked up to the ac?)

thx!

-Who Dah?

PS: if i do this, i might have a rear view mirror w/ autodim for sale

[Jon11582]

Ive been looking for the same thing, although Im more of a Ebay bargain hunter when it comes to "unnecessary things" like this.

The compass should be self contained. Also, you should be able to put the probe anywhere, but where you put it will determine what it takes the temp of. That the purpose of the probe. If you put it right next to it, it will take the temp of that pocket of air. If you stick the probe out the window, youll get outside temp.

Doesnt it display temp on the SLE's Climate control already? I have an SE, so I wouldnt know. If it does, to ge the two temps to match, the probes would have to be side by side, since air in one part of the car can be substantially warmer than another part.

On ebay, Ive seen ones with a one line display and a two line display. The one line display toggles between the two every few seconds, and the two line display shows both simultaneously.

I think two pairs of wires have to be run. One pair is for the probe, and the other pair is for electical. (It should come with instructions to show you what wire is hot while the engine is on near the rear-view and tell you to splice into it.)

[whodah]

heya!

yer ebay skills must be better than mine...

could you provide a link or two to the two different examples?

thx!

-Who Dah?

[whodah]

ahhh, broadened my search.. found some one liners!

didn't find any w/ two lines of display though, would greatly apreciate a link to a sample of that!

oh, forgot to answer your question: yes the SLE climate control displays temp. so maybe i'd just be ok w/ the compass one.

thx!

on a different note: what other kinda "unnecessary things" do u have in your solara? i must have them!

[Astro]

Is this the one your talking about? The only thing I don't see listed is the temperature. Starting bid $99 and buy it now at $139. $12 shipping. That's sounds like a better deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7905038378&category=6779

[whodah]

Is this the one your talking about? The only thing I don't see listed is the temperature. Starting bid $99 and buy it now at $139. $12 shipping. That's sounds like a better deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7905038378&category=6779

much better price indeed! that does look like the one, minus the temperature guage as you mention.

still hunting for the '2 line' one that shows the temperature and direction at once...

[whodah]

ok, searched mroe on ebay (thx Jon11582!) and came across what i think i'm after.

there appears to be 2 major manufactures. there are others, but it appears at least that the two big ones are:
gentex
donnelly

this guy sells both on ebay

i think what i'm after is the donnelly which has a cool light blue led, and displays both direction and temperature at once versus the gentex where you have to hit a button in order to toggle between temp and compass. incidently, the gentex looks an awful lot like the plain auto-dim mirror in my solara currently...

in my solara, the mirror is 10.5" long, and so is the donnelly. the donnelly has dual map lights on it, my mirror does not have any map lights on it. i went to go see what kind of mount my solara is using (wedge or camlock) but my car is out in the sun and the black mounting pieces burnt my fingers, heh!

there's also an onstar one out there and appears that nissan has their own too. but at any rate, there's a whole freakin section to interior mirrors at ebay. and i feel sorry for those mercedes folks!

thx for all the help! hope this helps someone else out down the road!
-Who Dah?

[Jon11582]

Its wedge for sure. I took mine out just to see it. To take it out, just jam a flathead screwdriver in the slot until it comes out. Its got to be pretty long, so you cant use those eyeglass repair kit mini-flatheads. Wiring would require a ugly wire between the windshield mount and the roof carpeting, but i imagine it wouldnt be that noticible.

Ive never seen the Donelly one, with the temp on the bottom. Since its camlock, it wouldnt fit the '00 Solara anyways. I like the info down there better though.

The one I was talking about had two lines, both on the upper right, with the temp, and then the direction directly underneath it. I cant seem to find it anymore, so it might have been for another car, or just very rare. I think it was a Gentex model as well, but perhaps for GM vehicles, but still had a wedge mount. I heard there may be two kinds of wedge mounts as well, so just because its wedge may not mean it fits the Solara.

The only choice may be the one-line Gentex, which OEMs for many companies, including Toyota.

[whodah]

i did see the onstar gentex which had 2 lines in the upper right, perhaps that's the one? lets see.. ah here we go:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... eName=WDVW

it's not lit up, but if yuou look close at the led, it appears to have 2 lines? thoughts?

on the donelly: they offer both wedge and camlock version. if you look at that guys link who is selling them, there are two donelly ones. one part ends in 9, the other in 7. based on your info that we need wedge, we need the one ending in 7 or here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 7904548935

thoughts?

cya!
Who Dah?

[whodah]

oh hey, on the donnelly ones: i didn't even notice that the info was BELOW the mirror till you said that!

ok, i think then that the nissan mirrors are donnelly's. (that nissan mirror i mentioned a few posts up)

cya again
WhoDah?

[Jon11582]

Yep, thats the two line one I saw before. Im not sure about the mount though.