Rearview Mirror Upgrade Question from Maxx Owner.

[Tru Blu JD]

I was going to post this in the Malibu Maxx section but the G6ers may have more experience on the topic.

Has anyone upgraded their manual rear-view mirror w/On-Star to one that has a compass, auto-dim for headlights and On-Star? I did a search and found a couple of posts that have converted to auto-dim mirrors. But they did not have On-Star.

My wife gave me a new mirror for X-mas. Install was easy and the connector matched perfectly. I believe it was a 14 pin connector. The buttons all illuminate and the On-Star buttons work...but, the compass doesn't light up and the mirror does not dim.

Does the car's computer need to be reprogrammed?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Regards,
JD

[ragingfish]

Does the back of the mirror have the numbers 015322 GNTX-261?

If so, I have the exact same mirror sitting on my desk waiting to be installed.

You have to get power and ground into the harness in the car in an additional location to power the compass and auto-dim features. Pin 13 needs ignition positive voltage, Pin 8 needs ground. I've been too lazy to try and get wires into the harness, hence why I have yet to install it.

[e2helper]

Actually if you have OnStar the ground is already at the mirror. You need the ignition circuit and if you want to do things right you also should feed the mirror the back-up lamp circuit so that when you are backing up the mirror automatically goes to full reflectivity

[ragingfish]

So you think pin 8 doesn't need a secondary ground connection also?

e2helper: any idea which pin feeds the backup circuit?

Also, any advice for inserting wires into a harness without the actual pin? In other words, how can I best put wires into that harness so that I can just plug it into the mirror and get it to work?

[e2helper]

Pin 9 at the mirror. Both circuits are fed from the rear electrical center which is where the headliner harness is plugged in.

There must be somewhere you can purchase the proper terminals

[ragingfish]

any idea what that kind of terminal is called? or should i just look for GM terminals...not sure if they use multiple types throughout all the different harness types...

[e2helper]

P/N is 15355438 but I think you would go broke buying actual terminal kits from somewhere like e-bay. The kits GM has for dealers with all terminals runs in the thousands even though any particular terminal cost fractions of a penny.

Of course even if you had the terminal crimping it properly so it fits in the connector would be next trick because special crimping tools are used and there are various types depending on terminal style.

[ragingfish]

Yeah, I remember seeing something that said GM terminal at pep boys, but looking at this site:

http://www.rowand.net/Shop/Tech/Automot ... ectors.htm

confirms my fear that there are a significant number of various terminals.

Looking at those pictures, i *think* micropak is the type i need...

I was hoping to find just a wiring harness on ebay from a totalled car with an onstar mirror so i could just extract the wires from it, use a pre-crimped wire, and splice it in to whatever i need...

[Tru Blu JD]

Wow, I am impressed. Ragingfish & e2helper your feedback is great.

First I will have to go out to the car and check the number on the back. In the mean time the GM part number is 25743653 per the sticker that was on the mirror. Other info on the sticker: EC/COMP BL/ONSTAR, DEALER TO REMOVE.

Don't know if this helps.

JD

[ragingfish]

i got mine second-hand from a trashed caddy. yay ebay!

so i have no GM info on it, only manufacturer...

[e2helper]

Looking at those pictures, i *think* micropak is the type i need.....

Although that site as good info it is a little dated back to when Delphi Packard was part of GM and almost all connectors were of a Packard design that used these terminal types. That was situation in the early '90s but things are much different now with connectors used from a bunch of suppliers.

The current situation was realized to be out of hand a few years ago and so the USCAR consortium took on definition of standardized connector and terminal types across all manufactures (at least members of USCAR).

http://ewcap.uscarteams.org/ConnectorCatalog.htm

Current situation with something like the G6 is that is has mostly Delphi connectors but many that are not. The USCAR initiative is just starting to impact vehicle designs that are coming out now.

I said all that to say I think this mirror uses a connector design originally developed by AMP (bought by Tyco).

[ragingfish]

Thanks for the info e2.

I think I'll just do the same thing I did with my iPod interface kit. For that, I just jammed the stripped end of the wire into the molex connector (or whatever the term for the plastic block is), and then I electrical-taped the loose wire to the rest of the harness wiring to keep it from backing out. It's been working trouble-free since I installed it...

I'm going to tackle this tomorrow. Stay tuned for details!

[MONTERACER]

i got mine second-hand from a trashed caddy. yay ebay!

so i have no GM info on it, only manufacturer...

EBAY FTW!!! That's where I got mine from(not onstar though)

[ragingfish]

SUCCESS!

Mirror is installed and working exactly as it should. Auto-dims, compass is calibrated, and onstar works normally. Even wired up the reverse trigger wire so it automatically kills the dim when the shifter is in R. Only issue is that this one had a temp sensor, and the mirror displays OC where the temp should be because of the absence of that sensor. GRRRRRR.

e2helper: Do you know if these mirrors normally pickup the temp from the databus, or if there is a separate sensor? If it's separate, I might just try to hunt one down to make that damn "OC" go away.

[MONTERACER]

Usually there is a front end mounted sensor that senses the temperature. I'm not sure where the factory sensor is located.