My Home Link mirror had the orange or reddish incandescent bulb blow out. After investigating I figured it was quite a job to change, it actually has to be soldered. Not only that, opening up the mirror is a delicate task as not to cause any visible damage to the plastic casing around the mirror. I put the task on hold, until I discovered an opportunity to make this an upgrade.



I wanted to place my Garmin GPS on the mirror. I felt it a perfect unit as it was small and lightweight. Not only that it included Lifetime traffic updates and came with the traffic cable which has a small FM receiver integrated into the unit to feed the data for traffic through the charging cable.



I cut the cable down to size, leaving what I thought was enough cable to allow the receiver to work properly. Looking at the circuit contained in a small plastic box integrated into the cable, I found some coils attached to the shield cable which indicated to me this is how the receive antenna is integrated into the unit. This meant not to cut too much cable off, as it would affect the receive capability of the unit, and not process traffic updates.



I was able to insert the small receiver into the Home Link mirror unit. I enclosed it in shrink tubing and found a space behind the mirror that could accommodate the small PC board.

Of course I drilled very carefully, while the mirror unit was removed. Both for the cable feed and the mounting screws.

Here is where the bunk incandescent bulb came into play. On this forum I discovered the bulb was powered by 12v. Which should be no surprise as the car is a 12V system. However I was not familiar with the voltages that may have been available inside the mirror. This was good news as the voltage for the Charging/Traffic cable was 12 V.

I clipped the cable down, removing the cigarette lighter adapter. I shortened the cable and inserted the shorter version through the bottom of the Home Link mirror with a short piece of black shrink tubing. I re-used a piece of rubber grommet that supported the cable going into the original pc board housing. I split that cable grommet in half, and placed it around the cable at the base of the mount that I attached to the bottom of the Home Link mirror. I then slid the shrink tubing around the grommet so that it would cover and support the split in the grommet. I then took a small amount of epoxy and pushed the end of the grommet against the plastic of the Garmin mount.



This whole time I was very careful not to damage or lose parts out of the Home Link unit. All the drilling was done with great caution as I knew this could damage any of the parts inside the mirror. I took care to shrink tube wherever there was exposed wire that could short against a ground.

When I installed the Garmin universal mount, I inserted a fiber disc foot between the bottom of the mirror and the base of the mount. The kind you can buy at the hardware store that are used for furniture around the house. I didn't want to hear any noise from vibration as a result of the "plastic on plastic" connection I had made. I also used the proper length nut and bold hardware as to make sure the small bolt/screw didn't protrude too deeply into the unit. I applied a small amount of lock tight on the connection inside the Home Link unit at the bolt/screw and nut to make sure it wouldn't work loose inside the mirror.



This is the Garmin unit I purchased:
nüvi® 2455LMT

My apologies for the lack of photos during the install process. I had taken pictures but lost them along the way. This unit has been installed for almost a year now and has had no issues and the entire functionality of the Home Link unit exists (with exception of the incandescent bulb). No rattles and the mirror does not drift away or sag because of the weight of the GPS (to which I was concerned a bit in the beginning, the GPS is very lightweight). It has worked perfectly.

The only worry I have is that a police officer may give me a fix it ticket as it is connected to the mirror ( I am in California). If this were to happen I would create a quick release option to remove the mirror for inspection. I have been stopped 4 times this year and was never cited by an officer. However during one of those stops I lost my front side driver and passenger limo tint.

I am hoping this will allow me to upgrade to new units in the future. As long as the GPS has the same connector and traffic cable requirements.

I am also considering an iPhone mount, which would change everything about this install.

 

looks like a good job, not a fan of stick on equipment though.

 

Excellent job. I have the same Garmin unit and this is a great solution for keeping your dashboard free of stick on devices. Easy upgrade for my 4x4 setup as well.