Will a Rear View mirror from a Z4 fit our M3?

[repoman89]

Who drives their old classic sports car in traffic at night lol

#poorpeopleproblems

🙄 anyone coming home from the track or a day trip? What even is this post lol. Have you never been on an interstate? Doesn’t need to be traffic for other headlights to be annoying.

[Tbonem3]

Take a breath

[Shonky]

That's what happened in my original oval mirror. It leaked and I had it sent out to be repaired. It worked for a while then went bad again. From what I understand BMW started using a different company for the auto dim mirrors after 04?

My August 2004 build mirror died. Didn't get to leaking but the auto dim was stuffed and the bottom of the mirror was discolored.

Had it rebuilt by Sybesmas but that was about 12 years ago now. Doubt they're still doing it as even back then there was a shortage of parts. They couldn't do exchanges so I had to send it and wait a couple of weeks with a temporary mirror. Meant I got mine back though.

I did see someone recently that was offering it. Mirrorjohn or does he only do wing mirrors?

Edit yes he does

https://www.mirrorjohn.com/

[Thoglan]

I got one of mirror johns units and installed myself. Pretty simple except for some of the essentially one time use clips around the shroud piece but enough of them survived to still hold it together. So far so good.

[thegenius46m]

Bought a brand new E39 M5 rear view mirror a few years ago. If you want to retain the original

[nextelbuddy]

I’m a big fan of the auto dimming, surprised to hear people don’t like it. It’s next level in the E39 though since it dims the side mirrors too. Too many big stupid trucks and SUVs out there these days to not have it.

love this on my e53.

on my sedan with M3 mirrors, I used e9x pre lci electro chromatic mirror glass since its the same size and shape as e46 m3 glass. I created 2 new door wire harnesses for the electro chromatic plug on the glass and routed it through the door body harness PINS and wired into the car up the headliner and wired into the auto dimming wiring in the mirror so t hat side glass would auto dim with the rear view mirror.

[old///MFanatic]

The original Oval mirror in my 2001 recently fall apart from age and I was looking at replacing it with a Oval Mirror from a Z4. Will this directly fit without any issues?

Yes, I installed one on my car once long ago. I went with the Z4 M manual one. Can’t recall if needed to move the wiring pins to match. Two things I really like was the shape of mirror actually covers the back window better. The other is that the “clown nose” is not red but a much darker smoked. The LED inside it is red though so it blinks the same red.
I got my original replaced through BMW under original warranty and decided to just put original auto-dimming one back in to go back to M3 oval look.
Here it is compared to non-M E46 mirror size and stock clown nose.

[CarbonBlkM3]

Where did you send yours for repair?

I can't recall as I got it repaired over 10 years ago. I remember someone from M3Forums recommended. It worked well for a while untill the plastic retaining clips for the plastic housing started to dry rot from age and come apart.

[dukeofchen]

Inspired by this thread and just fitted an E9x rectangular mirror off eBay. Homelink, compass, and a non-flooded auto-dim FTMFW 👌

For anyone doing something similar had to fudge around with the connector pins - followed this DIY.

Bought from this seller - it was listed as one without compass so I guess I lucked out, it has the compass that is invisible when ignition is off vs. having a distinct window.

[9kracing]

Inspired by this thread and just fitted an E9x rectangular mirror off eBay. Homelink, compass, and a non-flooded auto-dim FTMFW 👌

For anyone doing something similar had to fudge around with the connector pins - followed this DIY.

Bought from this seller - it was listed as one without compass so I guess I lucked out, it has the compass that is invisible when ignition is off vs. having a distinct window.

Interesting. I have that mirror and I just plugged it in and I thought it all worked. I know for sure the compass and Homelink do. I've actually never really driven the car at night so maybe the auto dim isn't working.

[dukeofchen]

Interesting. I have that mirror and I just plugged it in and I thought it all worked. I know for sure the compass and Homelink do. I've actually never really driven the car at night so maybe the auto dim isn't working.

You could be right, I just followed the DIY as-is since it seemed more conservative to omit pins 4-7 and I was too lazy to dig into the supposed reports that in some models plug and play fried the auto dim function. Too many different models of mirror and model-specific pinouts – wiring and electrical is not my jam.

The unit has power and homelink / compass are working, will see if the auto dim is working properly tonight. But just having a non-flooded mirror and homelink is exactly what I wanted.


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[CarbonBlkM3]

Just wanted to update everyone ~ Upon randomly searching E-Bay, I happened to find a later model rear view mirror in good condition from a salvaged M3 with the auto-dim feature for $150.00. Part # shown confirmed fitment corresponded so wouldn't run into any issues. It was an offer I couldn't pass up and so far it's working as advertised. 👍

[CarbonBlkM3]

You could be right, I just followed the DIY as-is since it seemed more conservative to omit pins 4-7 and I was too lazy to dig into the supposed reports that in some models plug and play fried the auto dim function. Too many different models of mirror and model-specific pinouts – wiring and electrical is not my jam.

The unit has power and homelink / compass are working, will see if the auto dim is working properly tonight. But just having a non-flooded mirror and homelink is exactly what I wanted.


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That's an awesome upgrade on the E46. I've heard the concealed compass mirror from the E90 isn't easy to come by. I saw a few for sale that had the black square for the led readout but i'm sure most would prefer it to be unnoticeable.

[old///MFanatic]

Just wanted to update everyone ~ Upon randomly searching E-Bay, I happened to find a later model rear view mirror in good condition from a salvaged M3 with the auto-dim feature for $150.00. Part # shown confirmed fitment corresponded so wouldn't run into any issues. It was an offer I couldn't pass up and so far it's working as advertised.

Yeah that’s looks like a Z4M mirror. The way I read your post it kinda sounded like you got an M3 one. In which case for $150 you’d be better off getting your oval M3 one repaired at Sybesma’sElectronics. But yeah this is Z4M with the smoked “clown nose”.

[CarbonBlkM3]

Yeah that’s looks like a Z4M mirror. The way I read your post it kinda sounded like you got an M3 one. In which case for $150 you’d be better off getting your oval M3 one repaired at Sybesma’sElectronics. But yeah this is Z4M with the smoked “clown nose”.

The plastic housing on my original mirror cracked & split from age, and I previously repaired the failed mirror with radar mirror years ago. The current one I have now seems to have more of a durable plastic housing and from what I understand BMW used a different vendor on the glass with the later models.