Car Truck SUV Side Mirror Features

In this video, we're going to talk about side mirrors. We're going to talk about options they come with and the options that your car has in it. First, I want to talk about a manual mirror, which is one that you just actually physically grab with your hand and push the mirror glass back and forth till its right proper adjustment. Second one would be the cable operated mirror, which is for older vehicles, probably stopped production in the early 70s.

And that is actually like a little cable that moves around instead of electrical wire, and the mirror awkwardly moves around. Then we have the power mirror, which is only power, no other options, and your connector should just be a three-wire connector. You have your power ground and the actual operation source. So when you hook this up and you use your switch, the mirror will go around. Then we have a stationary mirror, which means that there is no fold to it at all, whether it's manually or electrical. This is just one big mirror.

This does not go in and out. You can tell by there's no crease there, and there's no button for that control. And then you have manual-folding, which means you physically have to get out and fold the mirrors, and you'll see a crease in the base where the mirror meets the actual mount. Unlike one that is non-folding, there's no crease in the plastic so, therefore, the mirror cannot go in and out.

Then you have power-folding, which has a crease, but there'll be a button inside that indicates you can press the button and manually open and close your mirrors, let them out and close them in. Heated mirrors, commonly noticed by the symbol that's put on the glass. It looks like a little square with wiggly lines going up. That means that that glass is heated glass. The way you would find out if the glass was outside of the mirror, there'd be two wires going to it, but obviously not going to do that. To check it out, you also have your wire connectors here.

Now, this is where it comes into play that if you don't have heated mirrors in your car, you cannot put in heated mirrors and automatically have it. The other end of this plugs into a harness that's inside the vehicle. If that vehicle is not equipped with heated mirrors, this is not going to work. If your mirror is equipped with the turn signal in it, you will see visual lines of where the bulbs are. The other type of turn signal inside the mirror would be an external one, not on the glass, but on the actual housing. And you'll see the light right there. It should have an amber bulb in it. Puddle lights, some mirrors come equipped with puddle lights. That means that this little light right here shoots down where your step is on the outside of the door so you can see as you step into the vehicle.

Memory mirror, so that is when you have an actual button to preset where you want this mirror to look. So when you sit in your seat, everything looks great right where you want it. There's an actual button you press and it locks it in there. So every time you get a new car, you can hit 1. And if somebody got in and memorized program 2, the mirrors might go up if they're taller or shorter. And if you get in and your number is 1, you press it to 1, the memory mirror automatically goes back in memory where you set it at the original setting.

Auto-dimming. Now, that is pretty common in the center rearview mirror when you have a car. That's where I see it mostly, but they do make side mirrors with it where the sensor of an oncoming car from the headlights, the sensor hits a sensor, and this mirror will automatically tilt down and dim it so that it doesn't glare back into your eyes. Blindspot mirror. It's always an additional mirror to the actual glass. So sometimes it's a round mirror that gets mounted on the outside right here, or it can be a mirror that's underneath the big mirror.

Blindspot detection system, that is in the glass. It's part of the computer system in the mirror. Connects to the blinker, so, therefore, it has indicator on the outside here, and it will show a car feature coming. So when you put your left blinker on or your right blinker on, if that sensor detects a vehicle or something in the way, it goes,