My Tbird came with the auto dim system, but it isn't working. Does anybody have any ideas for troubleshooting? It isn't covered in the car manual.
Well, the system is very basic. aside from a few pots and relays you have the photo switch that hangs from your mirror. The relays being located inside the car and hardly ever being used (the system sucks major donky balls) don't usually go bad. The photo switch hanging from the mirror does. Alot of cars used the same design for many years so you can easily find one at a yard. Heres a hint, get one out of the newest car you can find. The unit looks more like a bigger oval than a square box. It plugs right in and screws right to the mirror base. The different' designed unit. It has a better reflector to catch light better and it has a timer built in instead of brightening the lights as soon as the light from ahead goes away. But as I said before, the system really does suck, more of a novelty item. Its cool when it works.
its a great place to mount up a radar detector or accelerometer though ;)
i use the auto on /off feature but other than that, the auto dim is just silly...
Thats all I use it for too. Honestly I swaped the setup in my car, it wasn't optioned with it. That auto on/off thing is the best feature to the car.
87 Tbird LX 5.0
When I turn on the autodim my windsheild wipers don't park all the way down. About the same place as interval puts them.
Both systems work ok otherwise.
I can't see any relation between the two systems.
Anybody got an idea?
THANK YOU CLAUDE!!
That is my one gripe with the auto dim feature. I live out in the country and it works great on the roads around here because they don't have any street lights to "confuse" the auto-dim. The things that confuse it are street signs. They reflect the light back into the sensor and they flash from bright to dim very quickly in the '87 I have now. The '90 XR7 I used to have had about a two second delay before going back to brights from dim. I didn't know that delay was built into the sensor! I'll start looking for one from a newer car. You have made my day man. Thanks again!
The auto dim really doesn't work well. I just use the auto lamp.
I've only had one hickup with the autolamp setup. Down in florida my lights began to go off at the most inopertune times. Well seeing as Sarasota and Bradenton have enough street lights to give you sunburn at 2 A.M. they were triggering the system off when I would stop at a light.... I just lengthend the delay and problem aleviated.
Where I live in Ohio there are A LOT of street signs seeing as the roads are twisty as hell down in the foothills. With the autodim setup the lights flash 100 times in the 20 mile stretch home and there wont be one car!
Hmmm. Mine has always worked pretty well. The key is to get just the right amount of sensitivity and then don't touch the dial ever again.
:rollin:
That is the funniest thing about them. On this one road I travel, there is a sharp left downhill turn. They put 6 of those yellow arrow signs up and the sensor catches the light and my lights dim and brighten on ever one. It's hilarious. I don't use this feature at all unless I'm demonstrating it to someone who doesn't believe me.
Thanks for the info on that too Claude. I did not know that about the later sensors.
My sensors just flat out don't work (from what I know right now); how can I get just the auto lights to work?
You probably need to replace your sensor that hangs from the mirror. The autolight will turn on once the sensor reads a certain lack of light.
Make sure it's properly plugged in though. Possibly a wiring connection problem by the sensor. Especially if the mirror has ever fallen off the windshield.
I thought the auto dim was controlled by the sensor on the rear view mirror and the auto lamp was controlled by a sensor under that little square thing in the middle of the dash. I could be wrong but I've never had to mess with mine. Oh wait auto lamp is controlled by that sensor on the dash because my car came with a "rug" dash cover and the auto lamp was constantly on:hick: . I always wonder what approaching drivers think when they see a car a mile up the road who's headlights keep flashing from low to high beam every few seconds when one of theses cars has the auto dim on :giggle:
Okay so maybe it is. I don't know, never had any problems with mine so I assumed.
And you know what happens when you ass-u-me...
The system is simple. The light sensor on the dash is for the auto lamp and the light sensor on the mirror is for the auto dim. Two relays and switch. Any car can have it added in too. If you take off the cover for your headlight switch and look back behind that area you will see a connector with a simple jumper in it. Thats how the harness for the auto lamp interfaces with the dash harness.
Hmmm...if only it were that simple to convert from the auto climate control to manual.
Ok I guess somethings wrong with my setup because my auto lamp thing has always just popped on when the key is turned on and then waits a few seconds until after the key is turned off to shut off depending on the setting on the dial. Ive never had them go off they stay on constantly.
As for the auto dim part mine has a delay after a car passes Ive never had it pop right back up to high beams even with no street signs or anything reflecting light back. It always takes it a couple seconds to brighten back up. It could be a possibility someone has replaced the sensor with a newer one but it looks exactly like the one in my other 87 so Im guessing its the same. The only way I can get it to brighten right back up is mess with the dial and almost turn it off.