Jaap

My 2007 S500 has two different mirror glasses left/right:


driver/left



passenger/right

i guess the left has auto-dimming (electrochromatic) and the right doesn't.
Is that normal?
Since the auto-dimming requires 2 extra wires (and a plug) that my passenger mirror does not have, could i get a complete RHD right side mirror with auto dimming?

Arrie

Only the driver side mirror is auto dimming in these cars in US market. Passenger side is not as it is convex glass and sends way less light in your eyes than the straight glass driver side mirror does.

Wonder if cars in England of Australia or other left hand traffic country have the auto dimming function at all as in Europe both mirrors are convex? I would think they do and would not be surprised if both side mirrors are auto dimming.

US market area cars are built cheap and miss lots of features, like sound insulation, compared to European cars as selling prices here are a lot lower than in Europe.

If you find auto dimming mirror for the passenger side you may still be missing wiring for it but I don’t know. I have not opened my side mirrors yet in either of my MBs.

Jaap

Yeah my passenger side IS missing the wiring inside the mirror, i checked.
But if i get one with the extra wires/connectors, i'm afraid it might still not work because the passenger-side door module may not send the signal at all.

Arrie

If there is no wiring, I would not even think about trying to do it.

Ultrakla$$ic

This I checked for a price just for the passenger side mirror from the Benz dealer as I thought the same as you and wanted both my mirrors to match and they wanted a kidney AND liver for payment so i left.

BOTUS

if you buy a BMW you get two proper outside mirrors
if you get a Merc you get a budget one that dies, and one real one

as suggested if you drive on the wrong side of the road and want to make the car driveable at night - get an Oz or UK door mirror from the drivers side - its PLUG and PLAY the door module knows what to do and it just works

same for RHD get a mirror from Germany - off you go

my car has 3 dimming mirrors (the old 211 E class door module works the same way) - the whole idea can be done with NO effort without touching the door card - the silly black semi circle that vanishes with the door closed gets you to the wiring plugs on the door module


Opps edited muddled RHD and LHD above

.

Ultrakla$$ic

So being in the US, if I get a driver side mirror from Germany, I can put it on my passenger side and there are wires already there to receive the new mirror and I'm golden??? If I understood this correctly, this site bout to cost me some money, cuz I'm about to mod this bus like nobodys business!!!

BOTUS

NO, corrected my post above - got muddled we drive on the left in RHD cars - so UK, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Southern Africa, India, Thailand and LOTS of others have the correct drivers mirror for SOME markets where the steering wheel is on the wrong side

the only possible fly in the ointment can be the mirror tint colour and the degree of size reduction in the image (and if fitted blind-spot warning) - I did the same on my fathers E class but my first attempt getting the mirror from the USA went wrong - and it was unusable due to the weird size image it created - at one point USA drivers couldn't understand a small car image with lots of critical info in the field of view was really useful - and mandated the image was the real size, so you got an utterly pointless 1/2 a headlamp in the mirror, instead of the 17 cars behind you !!!!!

Ultrakla$$ic

Jaap

I received a RHD mirror from the UK.
Notes so far:
0. My car does not have the 2 extra wires for the electrochrome function on the passenger side.
1. Pry the mirrorglass off very very gently. I did each (reachable) little plastic tab separately first (allowing them to spring back) before i tried to pull the mirrorglass off completely.
2. The mirror base is a different shape, physically, so it needs to be swapped.
3. Getting the rubber boot on the car-side of the mirror base off is a pain. It's held on with one of those push-on nuts that will not release :-(
4. The electric connector to the blinker is very fragile and you can barely reach it.


Push-on nut

BOTUS

????


you need the drivers mirror from an opposite hand drive car (as std only drivers side gets the real mirror)
the 211 is a pain to get off due to the three 5 point torx screws you can't reach
the 221 is simple as - 20 mins start to finish swapping the whole mirror

the other method of stripping and adding wires is fun and games - the 221 mirror is insane to strip down - threading wires is time consuming, the sheath is so tight, all in to add the 2 wires u need and rebuild took me 4 hrs


.

Jaap

Yes i have an LHD car. Bought an RHD right mirror.
The angle of the mirror to the car is different (which is logical, it was driver's side and will now be used as a pasenger mirror)

BOTUS

the image on the new mirror may be how it should be - which maybe different to the wrong set up on the car already (that seems to be quite a normal feature in the USA)... on a European spec car LHD or RHD the image is the same both side and all countries.... and the housing sits in the same place both sides

Jaap

Nooo... look at the angle of the mirror housing left vs right.
Hard to find a good picture... i guess this one shows it:


Angle of the mirrors to the car is different

BOTUS

only thing I can think is they use a different angle over there to suit the wrong mirror glass beloved of - after years of dangerous driving

if I sit in the passenger side no reason one can;t adjust the mirror elements both sides as if I'm the driver

Arrie

\In the U.S. the driver's side outside mirror is straight glass, The passenger's side is a convex glass.

In Europe both outside mirrors are convex showing wide (smaller) picture to the driver, but I believe the auto-dimming feature is present in both of them. I'm not sure but I think both mirrors have it.

BOTUS

nearly - in europe both mirrors are the usual identical smaller sized image with lots of info you need - but on Mercedes unlike ALL other Brands, they fit a budget nasty non dimming glass on the nearside - whereas everyone else gives on both on the high spec models

it would be extraordinary if the USA does one good and one unusable glass in all states ? particularly as europe have both mirrors giving the data you need - yet no country allows undertaking - how can you drive safely if you can't see anything in one of your mirrors in the USA, but undertaking is normal ?

is this yet another evil overloads trick to cause more death and misery were few ever realised why they do it ?

Jaap

As suspected putting the new wire loom into the old mirror was a PITA.
I pulled the old one out into the direction of the mirrorbase/car.
But reversing that action with the new loom was a pain so instead i inserted it from the outside-side into the mirror base.
That way you only have 2 plugs + 1 rubber sleeve.
The rubber sleeve took a lot of sweat and cursing biut it made it through.

JDowney

Hi,

Does anybody know where to get one of these door mirrors repaired. Ideally some place near Toronto, but I will ship it anywhere. Essentially, my mirror opens up well beyond the fixed setting (goes all the way to the end). Any help would be more than welcomed. Thank you.

Jeff

lkchris

Some may think it nice the glass for the passenger door mirror isn't $400 like the driver door mirror.

Jaap

UPDATE: it does not work
I installed everything correctly as far as i can tell.
Everything works except the auto-dimming :-(

WRC-LVR

Maybe try BenzNinja ( Peter) to see if it needs properly coding..it may not be possible but he would be the one to know !!

Jaap

Maybe @BenzNinja is even reading this thread

BenzNinja

iTrader: (4)

NO

custom maybe, just hook up the second mirror to the other side original mirror and see if the voltage is sufficient
if it works, run a custom wire left to right
otherwise no solution

Jaap

Thank you for your response.
I read somewhere that the DMFR (Door Module Front Right) has a field for "Spiegelabblendung vorhanden" (mirror dimming available).
Can that perhaps be enabled?