I call those "part on hand" fixes "deserted island" fixes. I am the grand master of said sport. I've invented literally hundreds of tools to engineer hundreds of one off fixes. It would take five minutes to remove the frame from one of those mirrors and cut to size for a proper mcgyver job.

I couldn't find a proper example of original camera phone but found one of the very first viral emails of hands free phone.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a3d30f4c49.jpg

I remember that pic. We made it into a joke about the iPhone bc there was some kerfuffle about call quality or sound or something and Apple's response was "You're holding it wrong." Of course the world went nuts and funny things like this started popping up. I found the article.. from 2010. They called it.. "AntennaGate" :rofl:

Aaaand I found the photoshop I did of the pic to make fun of the iPhone. LOL

http://my02.com/images/funny/applehandsfree.jpg

Nice. I owned the antennagate phone. I also knew a guy who copied the photo and strapped his Motorola flip phone to his head.


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How does one know if you have the autodimming side mirrors or not? Can I flash a light somewhere to see if they darken like for a rearview mirror?

I don't know where the sensor is but it should be pretty obvious at night when a car is following you the mirrors would dim. Take note that everything not car headlight becomes hard to see.


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The sensor for an auto dimming mirror is on the face of the mirror. You can block the sensor or turn the key off and back on at night with lights shining on the mirror to see if it changes, or by part number or running your VIN to see what came with your X5.

Just an FYI: to get the EC mirrors (interior and/or exteriors) to dim requires not only shining a light on the "dot" located on the front side of the interior rear view mirror...you also need to darken (cover) the ambient light sensor located on the rear side of the interior rear view mirror (the sensor that faces the windshield). If the ambient light is bright (anytime during daylight hours) and you shine a light on the dot...the mirrors will not darken that much (probably won't be able to tell) unless you also cover the ambient light sensor on the rear side of the mirror which helps determine how dark the mirror(s) will go. You need to replicate "night time" to get the mirrors to darken. :)

If you go to one of the VIN decoding sites...it will be listed if you have the option code S430 (interior/exterior mirror w/auto dip). If you're not familiar with any of them...here's one below. Just enter the last 7 digits of your VIN and answer the puzzle question correctly:

http://diagnostic-world.com/_familyC...03470.1109.jpg

The other way you can tell if your exterior side view mirrors are auto dimming (without removing the mirror glass) is to look to see if there's a thick black band around the circumference of the mirror glass. The plain heated mirrors don't have the thick black band (see pics below and note if there's a thick black band around the circumference of the glass or not):

EC it is. I always wondered why it had that weird gasket around the perimeter. I will opt to keep stock for now then since the EC aspherics are very expensive. Thanks for the help :)

Also had a question though - there was a statement made earlier in the threatd that aspheric mirrors are not DOT legal in the US. I drive a 2006 Saab 9-3 Aero that has a wide angle passenger mirror from the factory. Just like the BMW mirrors, there is a dotted line and past the line it is aspheric/wide-angle. As such, my thought was more that BMW doesn't put aspheric mirrors on US cars due to legal/liability issues rather than DOT mandates.

Are you positively, absolutely sure (like you're the 1st owner of the Saab and it was a brand new model from off the lot when you purchased it) that the passenger side mirror wasn't replaced by a previous owner?

Does it have the writing on it that says "OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR"? Because that is a requirement from US DOT on all cars imported to the US market (we as owners can change them later). If it does have the writing, then perhaps Saab was able to get away with using it on the passenger side since the aspherical mirror would meet the requirement for the "convex" mmirror requirement on the passenger side.

The US DOT requirement is to have plain 1:1 reflective mirror glass on the driver's side, and a plain or convex mirror on the passenger side.

S5...the standard requires that a flat or convex exterior mirror must be mounted on the passenger's side of the vehicle; although no specific field of view is required.

... paragraph S5 requires a driver’s side rearview mirror to be mounted on the outside of the vehicle. This mirror is required to be a plane mirror that provides “the driver a view of a level road surface extending to the horizon from a line, perpendicular to a longitudinal plane tangent to the driver’s side of the vehicle at the widest point...

S5.4.2 "Each convex mirror shall have permanently and indelibly marked at the lower edge of the mirror's reflective surface, in letters not less than 4.8 mm nor more than 6.4 mm high the words “Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.”

Anybody have a link to a good how to on swapping the mirrors? My aspherical mirrors came in and I'm jonsin' to get them installed.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...17bfcb4426.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...cc73d6ab37.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...bddc4cfd5d.jpg

I had my friend park in my blind spot then took the three pics above

1st the blind spot mirror: notice you can see the entire windshield
2nd the old mirror showing the scale of the tiny portion that is the car in the blind spot
3rd the new mirror held by hand for example: notice that save about 4" you can see the entire windshield of the blind spot car but notice that it is a much bigger size in the FOV because it's only compressed horizontally. Very smart design. Will be nice to have on both sides.