Those of us that have a factory Nav unit don't real have a usable compass on the DIC or Mirror as far as I know. The compass on our nav equipped Traverse shows up in the upper left hand corner of the nav map, and is a little pointer with a red tip which points to the top (North) or other areas depending which way you are traveling. There are no compass points or letters (N,S,E,W) to tell at a quick glance which way you are going. If we have the radio on and the display not showing 50/50 (Nav and radio) we have no compass at all.
There have been many comments on these boards about what a poor option this is. Well, I did some checking around on these boards and other automotive forums and found a very simple fix! It took less than 10 minutes to install and calibrate, and its something which should have been included to begin with. I purchased from a salvage yard a factory mirror which has the compass and switched it out with the non-compass mirror in our Traverse.
The mirror I purchased for $26.11 from LKQ on eBay was a Gentex 511 model. This is the factory mirror with OnStar, Auto Dim, and the compass. After using a Torx bit (T-20) to remove and unplug the old mirror, the replacement was a direct plug in. I called OnStar to verify that everything worked and sounded OK, because the replacement mirror had a built in microphone on the bottom, whereas there is a microphone on the overhead console of our Traverse. The operator said everything sounded 100%, and I was able to use all controls on the mirror and the steering wheel.
During my search for a replacement mirror, Gentex 261 seemed like a possibility also, but there were some differences including the type of mount used. The Gentex 511 was identical. There were many choices of mirror options, including with or without OnStar, compass, compass and temperature display, and OnStar display buttons which were a little bit different (phone symbol versus just a white dot). From what I read, if I got dual display temp/compass, the temperature display would work also if you added a sensor under the hood and run two wires to the mirror.
I have tried adding several pictures to show the mirrors and the install, but don't know if they will post.
There have been many comments on these boards about what a poor option this is. Well, I did some checking around on these boards and other automotive forums and found a very simple fix! It took less than 10 minutes to install and calibrate, and its something which should have been included to begin with. I purchased from a salvage yard a factory mirror which has the compass and switched it out with the non-compass mirror in our Traverse.
The mirror I purchased for $26.11 from LKQ on eBay was a Gentex 511 model. This is the factory mirror with OnStar, Auto Dim, and the compass. After using a Torx bit (T-20) to remove and unplug the old mirror, the replacement was a direct plug in. I called OnStar to verify that everything worked and sounded OK, because the replacement mirror had a built in microphone on the bottom, whereas there is a microphone on the overhead console of our Traverse. The operator said everything sounded 100%, and I was able to use all controls on the mirror and the steering wheel.
During my search for a replacement mirror, Gentex 261 seemed like a possibility also, but there were some differences including the type of mount used. The Gentex 511 was identical. There were many choices of mirror options, including with or without OnStar, compass, compass and temperature display, and OnStar display buttons which were a little bit different (phone symbol versus just a white dot). From what I read, if I got dual display temp/compass, the temperature display would work also if you added a sensor under the hood and run two wires to the mirror.
I have tried adding several pictures to show the mirrors and the install, but don't know if they will post.
