Apologies in advance if this has already been answered and for the lengthy post.

My rear view mirror has suffered that dreaded monochromatic liquid issue. I went on ebay to purchase an OEM replacement (used one) for what I thought was cheap ($75). The mirror is identical to the one I have and so I went and purchased it.

To my dismay however, the mirror has a connector that is different than the one I pulled out when I went to swap them out. ( should have pulled it out and looked at the connector before purchasing a replacement). The one that came with this car is a 6 pin connection and the one I bought is a 3 pin connection. Unfortunately the eBay seller doesn't accept returns but he told me that users have spliced the older connection and have had success.

I understand it now that there is a 3rd party vendor in which I could get a replacement mirror since the monochromatic liquid issue was considered a defective product. I'm still leading towards going down that road to get the correct one but before I do that, I want to try to salvage my purchase from ebay.

The only thing I care for this mirror to do is to be a mirror and to have the 'auto lights sensor' functioning properly. Any other functionality that it had is meaningless to me. I spliced my old connector to this mirror (black to black, gray to gray & white to white). The three remaining wires I can't use are green, brown and yellow. I was assuming that the three wires I was able to splice would contain the 'auto lights sensor' functionality. However it's not working. However when I click on the 'auto dimmer' button, the green small light at the bottom turns on so I know at least that seems to be working.

My question is this. Did I do my splicing incorrectly? If not, does this mean that the Vanden Plas series was the series that contained the 'auto lights sensor' in which must have been part of the three wires I couldn't splice? (green, brown & yellow).

 

The new mirror assembly doesn't have the senors that the existing mirror has so no amount of splicing combinations will work. You need a mirror with the 6 pin connector which will have the sensors in the assembly. Since the old one isn't any good you could try to remove just the mirror from the assembly and swap it possibly with the new mirror. I really don't know if that is possible but you might try taking the old one apart.
If not you will need the correct mirror assembly

 

that's what I was afraid of. I thought the sensor that's on the back of the mirror was the 'auto lights sensor' but apparently it's not.

It's not worth swapping the mirrors. I'll either destroy the casing or ruin the monochromatic liquid in the new mirror in the process...

I just have to bite the bullet and get another one.

 

Sent the original to SYBESMAS and go on with your life.
They repair YOUR mirror so it fits and works.

bob

 

Thanks motorcaarman, I plowed thru the memory cells and couldn't think of wherre it was i sent mine a long time ago.

 

If it is a 3pin connector the leads are probably ground,ign hot, and reverse interrupt.

You can pull the bad mirror apart, replace the glass with working glass, and stick it all together. It is a massive pain and you will most likely break the mirror bezel, which is plastic welded to the main plastic body.

I did this for mine since I had the free time and live near a junkyard, and already had a different kind of autodim mirror that i mated to an original x308 glass mount. The idea behind doing so was of course to keep autodim and one day hopefully retrofit autodimming outer mirrors, which also seem to be wired in the x308 differently than "standard" autodimming outers.

I took a bunch of pictures of it, the new autodim glass works as it should, all in original housing. Found a similar donnelly mirror at the junkyard which I took the plastic outer bezel off of for mine. I'll do a thorough write up sometime soon, just need to get all the pics together.

After it all, I found the auto lights don't seem to work right, and I'm not sure if they ever did. Oh well, a problem for a much later day.

If you don't mind spending the money, you can send it back to get a new element that will have the better gel in it, but i paid about $8 for the glass and bezel, along with a bit of time prying and gluing.

 

I am not sure if you can retrieve the functionality of the old one (I had 2 full function VDP mirrors), but here you go, just in case:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...6/#post1108705

2 years ago, still going strong.

 

My 'Twilight Sentinel' works as it should on Both of my X308s. I have sent half a dozen mirrors to SYBESMAS and they work when they are returned.

There is a 'sensitivity knob' on the mirror. Try adjusting to your liking?

bob