JiBBeL

So my new-to-me 07' S8 has been a handful with the learning curve... but I'm coming along with the help of this forum, and a lil trial and error Also should note, I don't have an owners manual. But anyway, tonight it did something interesting and I haven't been able to find any answers after a good deal of seaching: my rear view mirror has an LCD screen that usually says "AUTO". Great, I assume that's for auto dimming right? I was approaching a stop-light and happen to look in the mirror, and I see 150ft, Red Light. 100 ft, Red Light. Come to a stop, 50ft, Red Light. First of all... how'd it know the light was red? 2nd of all, I haven't been able to find the right search terms apparently, but does this thing have some kind of navigation function built into the rear view mirror? Thx in advance!

ltooz_a6_a8_q7

My 06 doesn't have any, just an LED and a button. Green or Red when you push the button - yes it's self dimming mirror. It doesn't have any word display on it either.

Cheers,

Louis

JiBBeL

I'm beginning to think it's aftermarket... It looks alot like the Beltronics STiR install post I see over here at VWVortex. Also... that would solve the other little mystery of the electronic gizmo that's installed in the ashtray. Might also explain the owners manuals for a V1 radar detector and M25 X-Treme laser jammer that I found in the glovebox lol. Shame I have no idea how any of this crap works

JohnnyJ A6Q

Hello JiBBeL,
Welcome Aboard !

Post some pictures of that, I am going to guess that to be an aftermarket setup, but that does sound very cool, do you have any unexplained buttons or dials around the console, steering column, speddo/tach cluster, or possibly in the glove box ?

Johnny J J

MP4.2+6.0

Since those aren't strictly okay, the pretend work around is to call them a parking sensor unit when the cops start looking closely at whether its a jammer if their gun jams but they pull you over anyway. Can be a fix it ticket to misdemeanor, depending on state and sometimes on how many laser transmitters. Nevermind that your car aleady has parking sensors of course. Better systems stop jamming after a certain number of seconds or if you hit a kill switch and get it into pretend parking sensor mode while their gun starts to work and gets a reading after you slowed down if needed. Then a guess of what you may be seeing is the display is picking up the sensor distance readings and its in parking sensor mode.

Look for either a clunky license plate frame with some protrusions that look sort of look like light bulb housings (more likely the rear set up if it has rear transmitters), and either the same frame or some separate transmitters (usually two) buried in the grill work in front up to almost the size of a pack of cigarettes. Assuming it's there, those transmitters, plus (sometimes) a display set up and some kind of controls are a laser jammer set up masquerading as a parking sensor add on for the now rarer stop if the LEO's start to get agitated and ask pointedly.

JiBBeL

A couple photos here... I also noticed during startup, the rearview seems to show some initialization messages indicating it's got an Escort 9500ci hooked into it.

Mister Bally

Outstanding accessory; Two thumbs up!