I like exploring without maps and would love to install some kind of compass in my SC

I have a pioneer with android auto but would love an option like this ritchie compass or something similar installed to look stock in place of maybe the now non functional volume ****.

Open to any ideas or suggestions.

Thanks

Edit: would I be able to swap one of these in, the connector looks similar but is a different color. not sure if the color makes a difference?

 

I have also taken to exploring and very long drives with my SC at times and I looked into this myself in the last couple of years. I never landed on any one elegant solution that I liked more than using my cellphone with a map/GPS program or my standalone Garmin GPS unit.

I have seen those Ritchie and other brand simple compass units but they tend to be a little bulky. For a permanent and long term mountable compass solution I wanted any solution that would be compact and fit into the dash/interior layout well.

Gentex (the original OEM supplier of our SC rear view mirrors) makes several aftermarket rear view mirrors with built in compass options. These do, however, require a totally different mount to be professionally fitted to your windshield. I found this to be tempting but I just have not wanted to change from the factory mirror mount on the glass.

Dakota Digital also makes a 52mm size gauge (intended for motorcycles but easily fitted to cars) that has a combination of compass, altimeter/elevation and outside ambient temperature. This is what I considered as well until I used up all my available mounting spaces for other gauges (with the gauge mounting interior parts for the SC300/400/Soarer that AutoExtrude makes).

See below:

 

Hey Kahn

I picked up this cheapo gps speedometer and removed the useless casing

nice small thin unit, now i just need to figure out where to embed it and how to power it only when the car is on

 

Nice find! I'm not sure of the best place to install it. The first location that comes to mind is the cupholder area just behind the gear shifter. For manual cars especially it's a terrible place to put a drink. AutoExtrude makes a replacement 3D printed section that can install right there which (I believe) has a fixed top. Perfect to do your own drilling with to install this compass gauge. And it would be totally reversible if you want to go back to stock. They also make an ashtray replacement panel for 52mm size gauges or a version that is totally blank. Additionally there is a vent gauge part they also many for additional mounting locations for instrumentation of whatever kind you want.

 

With something that flat, I'd be seriously tempted to try building it into the sun visor. Just gotta figure out a L-cable attachment.

 

Hello,

Toyota actually made OEM Center Mirrors with the Compass included in them, I know Avalon came with it a while back, maybe some Lexus models as well, below is the video demonstrating one of the models. It may be a great option if you want the OEM aesthetics of it.



Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Arsenii, they absolutely offered them in several models and Gentex was probably their OEM supplier for these once again. However for SC300/400/Soarer owners the issue is how these other OEM mirrors are designed to mount. The SC's windshield mirror mount system was only used on a couple of other cars: the 1993-2002 Supra MKIV, a few model years of the ES300/330 and in the Lexus LFA supercar.

Most other Toyotas from the late 1990's and far later model years use a totally different type of windshield mirror mount.

It's not a question of what other better OEM rear view mirrors Toyota/Lexus installed in their other vehicles but rather are they bolt in replacements without removing the factory SC300/400 windshield mount entirely and replacing it with a non-standard mount.

 

I actually just remembered a thread I found a long while back about fitting IS300 mirror to the 1st-gen GS300, the author describes replacing the mount on the mirror itself instead of messing with the one attached to the windshield, here is the link. The mount on GS300 is basically the same as the one used in SC300/400, and despite the cruelty involved in this method, it may be worth a try in your case..

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

Now that is ingenious! Thank you for bringing this up! I was not aware that we could swap over the mount on the mirror. I will be trying this out, thank you!

cboog3105 -- in light of this info, assuming it works, this may open up some options to fit another factory Lexus mirror with built in compass functions with a bit of custom swap work.

 

i have a few in my ebay watch list but i might let you have a go at it first so i can copy your homework

 

Ha! Well... I'm not jumping into it right away since I have a couple of maintenance projects to do first but I'll do a little investigation on this soon and get some notes down.

 

Any idea what this loose cable might be? It was tangled with the rear view power cable.

 

^^ Is it coming from inside the mirror itself or is that cable coming from the headliner?

It might be leftover from an aftermarket hard-wired installation of a radar detector. Usually most detectors use an RJ-11 "telephone" style connector like that. Hard-wiring kits are available for most detectors with long cables that are often extended up through the front windshield pillar and headliner with the cable exiting up near the rear view mirror so as to be able to mount a detector up high in that location.

That's most likely what the loose and unused cable was for. It's not factory.

 

Figured I will help you out a bit with the homework..

From wiring diagrams, it seems like the compass doesn't require anything special, meaning that the unit is self contained, and only needs power coming in, just like a factory mirror. Below are pinouts for both connectors, which does contain an unpleasant surprise with Ground being flipped from Pin 2 to Pin 4.. 12V is the power from Ignition, EC+ and EC- are there for for Electrochromic element in exterior mirrors. though pre-facelift SC300/400 didn't have dimming exterior mirrors, so they won't have those.

Other problem is that the male and female pigtails got flipped between IS and SC, so it is not even possible to just swap out connector housings. I am not sure what's inside of the SC mirror, but judging from pictures in a linked thread, IS300 has another connector on the inside, which is a generic one found in most electronics, so it shouldn't be that difficult to make an SC wiring work with the IS mirror, replacing the internal housing, if there is one that is..



Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

This does help a lot, thank you for the detective work!!! It may be possible to buy the SC connector to swap onto the IS300 rearview mirror. All one really needs is too inspect the SC mirror connector and hopefully find five numbers embossed onto its casing with which to derive a "90980-xxxxx" Toyota part number (that is... assuming the connector that part number references is still stocked and available through Toyota/Lexus). We can even identify the associated connector terminal repair wires with another TSRM.

It appears to me that simply repopulating the IS mirror wires into an SC300/400 mirror connector in the right pin locations would be sufficient for making this work. The only thing is that I don't believe the SC300/400's early rearview mirrors or 97-00 auto-dimming mirrors ever had a full +12V going into them. It might have been +5V but I'm not certain. I have a 97-00 SC auto-dimming mirror installed in my '93 SC and it plugged right in and works perfectly.

So we'd need to make sure that the IS300's mirror operates on the same main input voltage so as to allow its auto-dimming and LCD compass functions to work. If the IS mirror needs a full +12V in that connector wire then we'd have to tap and pull an extra positive wire from somewhere else in the car. Also... it would then need to be determined if the rearview mirror functions are intended to operate on the equivalent of Accessory/Switched +12V power or if they are intended to operate on a constant power circuit. I would guess that even the SC's mirror connector power wire is cut off when the car isn't on and when the key isn't in the Accessory position with the engine off.