JohnS

My wife just got her '99.5 1.8T about 3 weeks ago we're both quite spoiled already. It's hard to find anything to complain about, EXCEPT....<p>Why does the rear view mirror work backwards from every other day/night mirror I've used?? On every other car, when you pull the lever forward, you go to the "night" position, to cut down on glare from headlights. When you do that, the brighter reflected image comes from the ceiling, which is usually pretty featureless and undistracting. On the A4, however, the "night" position is with the lever back, such that the main, bright image comes from below the back window. When there's a car following, the inside of my car is lit up pretty well, so I see these multiple images in the mirror, including the seats and back seat passengers. It's really distracting.<p>Has anyone noticed this? Does it bother anyone else? Is there anything that can be done about this, short of transplanting a mirror from some "lesser form" of automobile?

Drew S.

1. Put the lever in the "Day" position that you prefer.<br>2. Adjust the mirror for normal daytime driving.<br>Your nighttime adjustment should be what you want now.<p>The mirror will work either way. You can put the lever in either position and adjust it to work for day driving, and then the other setting on the lever will work for nighttime driving. I think you just need to adjust your mirror a little bit.<br>

Dank

I would have thought that there had a to be a specific "day" and "night" since night definitely reflects less light.

JohnS

Precisely my point

HJohn

I've always thought that the in the day setting you receive the image from the "mirror" coating at the back of the glass. The night setting was merely adjusting the unit so that the image was refected from the face of the glass part only.

Drew S.

Years ago we had a discussion of this in one of the UseNet newsgroups (rec.autos.antique?). I asked how rearview mirrors work and I think the answer was that the front face of the mirror glass and the back face of the mirror glass are not parallel to each other. The different angle between the front and back of the glass is how the rearview nighttime action works.<p>It should be easy to test this theory with a normal handheld mirror (I don't have one to test with). If I'm correct, you won't be able to get the same nighttime reflection from an ordinary mirror.<p>Actually, you should also be able to test this with your side mirrors. I don't think you can make them project a nighttime image like the rearview mirror inside the car.<br>

DaveN

but my wife likes it the other way because she can see what the kid is up to.

leszek

If you don't believe me, put something on your ceiling at night when you have the mirror in the night position.<p>The night position is created by a secondary reflective surface. The primary reflective surface is semi-transparent.

Kent D.

Funny what different people find distracting. Of course, not as distracting as getting bonked in the head by flying toys from the kid in the back seat ;-)

Dank

If, as you say, the day setting receives the image from rthe mirror coating and the night is from the glass only, then the mirror can't work both ways. The angle between the back coating and the front glass doesn't change. <p>So say that the angle between the two is 10 degrees. When you calibrate it for day viewing, the switching to "night" will move the mirror up 10 degrees, and give you the night reflection.<p>But if you calibrate it for day viewing in the night position, then switching the angle will move the mirror DOWN 10 degrees, and your night image will be reflected down 20 degrees, not to your eyes.<p>The night view angle is always going to be a set angle relative to the day view angle. I haven't checked if on the A4 it is above or below, but It does not seem physically possible for it to work with either switch setting for day. Only one way can work.<p>Did that make sense to anyone, or am I the one confused?