I searched and couldn't find anything referencing this, so here goes....

I will try to get a good picture, but I'm not sure it will show up well.
both driver and passenge mirrors have a bluish tint on them.
I never noticed it until recently, it "disappeared" from the bottom 1/2-3/4" of the driver side.
Almost as if it burned out our something.
The whole mirror looks fine, and then the bottom is "brighter", or looks like any standard mirror looks.

Thinking back, this may have happened after I turned on the front and rear defroster.
Is the heated mirror tied into the rear defroster?
Is it possible that the heated mirror burned out the coating on the bottom?

I'll try to get a picture.
THanks.
josh

 

Your side rearview mirrors have defroster elements in them, and also auto-dimming electorchromic elements as well (tied in with your auto dimming interior rearview mirror--i.e. they darken when a car is behind you at night to minimize rearward glare). The side rearview mirror defroster elements turn on when you turn on your rear defroster. Anyways, what is causing your bluish tint is that your autodimmer electrochromic elements are probably broken, and it's "on" when it should be off--something is broken in regards to it. You might need a new mirror. . .

Get a picture to show what you have.

 

I too have the same problem. Both of my side view mirrors do not brighten. The rear view mirror works fine. I suspect a faulty circuit. It might at the rear view mirror harness.
The Lexus CD (factory manual) recommends taking the door panel off, fdisconnecting the side view mirror, finding the right wires and using a voltage from a D-cell battery, see if the mirror brightens. If it does, it a circuit problem (no continuity). If not, the mirror is bad.

Let me know if you try it. I don't know how hard to get the door panel off.

 

Sorry for the quality, had to cut in half and decreas color to get this on the board.

 

picture 2

 

try to turn on/off autodim on the rear view mirror, does it change anything?

 

Attached is a *.pdf for the door panel removal to get access to the side view mirror--it doesn't look too bad, a few bolts and some clips.

 

Attached is how to replace the side view mirror.

 

Lastly, reinstallation of mirror and door panel.

 

I was just looking at the information, and you do NOT have to remove the side door panel to replace the mirror. You can just pop it off using the mirror replacement procedure, and it has a small connector that you can utilize to remove it. You can use the small connector to test to see if to works properly. Good luck.

 

my gs300 had blue tinted mirrors which i think are cool and my gs400 has smoke tinted mirrors which i dont like ! i think the blue looked better like the jetta blue tinted mirrors . was there something wrong with my blue mirrors or just a lower model for no heated mirrors ? is there such thing as heated mirrors ?

 

In my case turing off the auto mirror does nothing to the mirrors in the daytime. I'll try it at night and see what happens.

Thanks everyone with posting ideas, tips and directions. If I get a chance I might try to take a few things apart this weekend.

Neil

 

If you don't want to wait until night--try this:

1. Turn on your headlights (to activate the electrochromic mirror sensors).
2. At the front of the inside rear view mirror, there is a light sensor, put your hand over it, and see if the interior mirror and outside side mirrors darken. Once you remove your hand over the front sensor, the mirrors should lighten. The differential of light sensed between the rear and the front is what causes your mirrors to activate (more light from the rear light sensor in the inside rearview mirror, simulates a car behind you in the dark, causing your mirror to darken, and vice-versa).

Good luck! For inspection/replacement, remember to remove just your sideview mirror (i.e. only the glass), you don't need to remove the whole door panel, just pop out the mirror (my 2nd set of factory instructions--out of the 3).

 

I am sorry, but for some reason, I cannot get the pdf files to download. Has anyone else been able to see these files? All I have in the corner is a square with a red, blue and green dot in it. The bottom of the page says "done". Hope I can get this file soon!
Thaks

 

I'll send you it via email. The links on the thread work fine for me (I'm using Adobe Reader 6). Let me know if it doesn't work.