Lincoln LS Compass Mirror Upgrade

vfuentes80

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I am aware there are many threads asked about this so heres how I accomplished it on my 2000 Lincoln LS V8

I went to a local Salvage yard and found a perfect mirror from a 2004 Lincoln LS V8 as a donor paid $10.00

You will need the mirror, the lower base and cut off the harness, the clip will be reused to convert the 3-pin to a 5-pin.

Take apart the base and unscrew the screw in the back of the base, it also has the magnet cliped on you will need to reuse that base and clip to mout the magnet later, becareful with the wires going to the magnet as they can easily be pulled off, if that does happen do not panic, just resolder into the correct location an it will work again.

To install remove the 3-pin clip and mirror, I choose to have the local Lincoln dealer cut my mirror off as I did not have the time to, and I did not want to risk damaging the winshield ( very expensive to replace ) once the mirror is off it's time to work on the harness.

You can use a sharp object to push the pin in then out and the wire will come out, repeat this step with the 5-pin harness and make sure to insert the correct color wire in the correct slot ( sorry I did not take pictures of this )

after all 3 pins are swapped to the 5-pin harness, mount the new mirror with compass on to the metal plate on the windshield, take care not to pry too hard as it will damage the windshield.

Do not plug your 5-pin harness yet!, with some glue, I used clear emblem adhesive, glue the base with the compass magnet to your rain sensor cover, this will allow you to swap the mirror if it ever becomes damaged and will place the magnet in a good location to read the poles.
Once it's glued in place, make sure your in a clear parking lot with lots of room and the car off facing North, plug in your 5-pin harness into the mirror

Turn the car on and the compass should read "C"

This is where we calibrate:

*** Note if you ordered your mirror from ebay or another region, you will have to adjust your region also, very easy!, for my particular mirror it was done as follows: wait till "C" is displayed, hold the "COMP" button down till numbers are displayed, press the "Mirror" button until the correct region number appears, then press the "COMP" button again ***

Region Instructions

Face the car north and drive counter clockwise at 3mph till the compass calibrates and your all set!

Total time for install, less than 20 minutes

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I have a base model mirror, I really don't care about the compass as much as I want the auto dimming feature. Does the systems pretty much only need power from the domelight area since I don't have any power at all running to my mirror currently?
 
I have a base model mirror, I really don't care about the compass as much as I want the auto dimming feature. Does the systems pretty much only need power from the domelight area since I don't have any power at all running to my mirror currently?

Yes, ground and switched power is the minimum that you need. The power to the map lights is switched, it's just that there's a twenty minute or so delay before it turns off. The mirror doesn't take much power at all, so that should be no problem.

The factory wiring also adds a reverse signal. Its purpose is to set the mirror to full brightness when you are in reverse. In my opinion, you don't really need that.
 

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