Homelink

[Varinn]

I'm looking to make the upgrade to homelink mirrors, it looks like the majority of BMW mirrors after the early 2000's are compatible, and some have even said that range rover mirrors work just as well.

Just looking to confirm, I'd like to have it plug in and give me functional auto-dimming (preferable to keep the bottom edge sensor like the coupe has stock), clown nose that lights, and of course homelink. If I could also have it include compass or temperature etc without rewiring, that would be cool too.

[Twixboy]

Wow, that mirror is huge compared to my stock mirror so that's another benefit.

[Varinn]

I can see the size being nice on a roadster maybe, but I doubt it will make a difference on my coupe haha. I just want a better garage door remote, as right now I need to take mine out of the door pocket and hold it up to the windshield.

[Twixboy]

Originally Posted by Varinn

I can see the size being nice on a roadster maybe, but I doubt it will make a difference on my coupe haha. I just want a better garage door remote, as right now I need to take mine out of the door pocket and hold it up to the windshield.

Same here. I hate taking the bulky remote out of the small door pocket. I can barely fit my hand in there. Actually the roadster's rear window is smaller than the coupe's so the mirror is already shows the entire window. But you are right - with the top down the field of vision is increased dramatically.

[WestCDA]

If a homelink setup is all you need, then you can purchase an ex-sunvisor module off Ebay for a small amount - I paid 20 dollars for mine. A little work trimming, fitting, epoxying and soldering, and it fits nice and flush into the panel under the climate controls - out of the normal line of sight, and looks/works like it was OEM. Decent range, as well.

[Varinn]

I don't like doing irreversible mods to a car like this, perdonally. I'm looking for a purely plug and play solution like an oem mirror. From what I can see the trick is to find one with the harness still attached as most people preferto cut them off instead of taking 5 seconds to unplug it...

I called Radar Mirror this morning, he no longer does homelink installs so a mirror upgrade will mean losing that egg shape oem in my coupe. Not yet sure if having the top mounted sensor will make a difference in the coupe, I'm assuming it's down low from the factory because of the small window and height of the car in relation to the average headlight on the SUV's out there

[Twixboy]

Originally Posted by Varinn

I don't like doing irreversible mods to a car like this, perdonally. I'm looking for a purely plug and play solution like an oem mirror. From what I can see the trick is to find one with the harness still attached as most people preferto cut them off instead of taking 5 seconds to unplug it...

I called Radar Mirror this morning, he no longer does homelink installs so a mirror upgrade will mean losing that egg shape oem in my coupe. Not yet sure if having the top mounted sensor will make a difference in the coupe, I'm assuming it's down low from the factory because of the small window and height of the car in relation to the average headlight on the SUV's out there

I'm not following. You were willing to spend a few hundred dollars on a new mirror from Radar Mirror, but you don't want to spend $10 on a new trim piece to reverse WestCDA's homelink mod?

[Varinn]

I misunderstood what he was describing in the quick read and thought it was one of the roof mounted options for some reason. But either way yes, I'd prefer to stick to an easily reversed mirror. It costs more, but it doesn't require any cutting the plastics or modifying wiring. Push come to shove I could just unclick a mirror and resell it to go back to stock and get all (or most of) the money back.

With that said, I wasn't expecting the $400 he mentioned at radar-mirror for what he offers now (e92 m3 mirror). Oem BMW and Range Rover homelink mirrors go for around the $50-$100 range used, so not exactly a stretch of the budget.

[dfjaws]

I retrofitted a homelink unit out of an E39 5 series. I love it. The color match is perfect (the flash makes it look different but it isn't), it functions perfectly, and obviously has a very OE look since it's a BMW part. Best of all, it was only about $50 off ebay.

For roadsters, I know you don't have a roof to put it in but it could be easily installed under the dash or something like that.

[dfjaws]

Here's a little bit better shot of it...

[XMetal]

I've thought about most of these aforementioned solutions here and then some. Then it dawn on me to just keep it simple and used my "free" solution - velcro my opener to the bottom of the dash. If I really wanted it to be a bit more hidden, I can simply purchase a smaller keychain opener and do the same. But so far, it hadn't bothered me enough to want to swap over to the keychain opener. I've been attaching it this way for over 4 years now and best of all - it's got better range than the OE homelink in my X5!