The car is made of about 30,000 components including the smallest bolt and nuts. Interestingly, all these components play an important role in how well your vehicle performs as well as your overall safety when driving.
The rear-view mirror is one of the many components that are installed in a vehicle. Its primary function is to help promote an alert driving experience. The rear-view mirror is very important, as it allows you to see behind your car without necessarily having to turn your head. Furthermore, rear-view mirrors help to ensure drivers’ safety on the road.
In case you don’t know, rear-view mirrors often come with a mounted blue or red flashing light near them. The blue light on the rear-view mirror could either be an aftermarket car alarm or a dashcam/security camera. Either way, it’s safe to say that the blue blinking light is there for security purposes.
What exactly is the red flashing light near the rear-view mirror? What exactly is the blue blinking light near the rear-view mirror? Is it normal that my alarm light flashing? These are the burning questions that you’ll find answers to as you read through the rest of this article.
What is The Red Flashing Light Near The Rear-view Mirror?
There are several different types of mirrors in a vehicle. For instance, there is a driving mirror, which allows drivers to see what’s near the car. Apart from that, there are side mirrors, which are designed to allow drivers to areas behind and the sides of the vehicle.
The front-view mirror is another type of mirror in a car. Its primary function is to allow drivers to see images of what is nearest to them. Lastly, there’s also a rear-view mirror type – this allows people to view objects rearward while driving.
In some vehicles, it’s possible to have a red or blue blinking light mounted on the rear-view mirror. If you’ve ever noticed this, I’m sure it must have come across your mind to understand exactly what the light is there for.
Well, there are a couple of reasons why the red flashing light is near your rear-view mirror. One of the functions of the red flashing light, depending on the make or car model you’re using, is that it signals drivers, letting them understand that their car is locked and the alarm system is active.
For instance, on a BMW car, when you unlock your vehicle, the flashing light will stop. That’s so because it’s designed only to flash when the car is locked.
That’s not all; in some other vehicles, the red blinking light near the rear-view mirror could be an indicator that the has been turned off.
What is The Blue Flashing Light Near The Rear-view Mirror?
According to Jay, a Nissan, Infiniti Trained & Certified Technician, the blue flashing light near the rear-view mirror is mostly likely an after-market alarm. Here’s a brief of what Jay said regarding the flashing light below:
“When you have a remote start installed, an after-market alarm has to be installed as well to control the remote start operation. So that is what the blue light is.”
The blue flashing light near the rear-view mirror is not common on vehicles. If you currently have it in your vehicle, it’s most likely that you have installed a remote start in your car.
Remote start performs different functions in a car. For instance, it could help you lock your vehicle’s doors as soon as you start your car, preventing other people from coming inside. Apart from that, the remote start system could also help to shut down the engine automatically. This occurs mostly when you engage the brake pedal just to put your vehicle in gear.
That said, you need to understand that remote start systems aren’t always installed alone. Instead, they are usually installed along with an aftermarket alarm. The purpose of the alarm is to help you control various operations when the remote start system starts working.
So, the blue flashing light that you keep seeing near your vehicle’s rear-view mirror is most likely an aftermarket alarm that helps to control the operation of your already-installed remote start system.
However, you need to understand that the blue flashing light near the rear-view mirror could also serve another purpose. According to Drew Peterson, a Quora user, another function of the blue blinking light is that it can be utilized as a dashcam or security camera, helping to record whenever noise/motion is detected.
The bottom line is that the blue flashing light that you keep noticing near your rear-view mirror could serve a couple of functions. First, it could be an aftermarket alarm system that’s installed alongside a remote start system. Apart from that, it could also be that the light is utilized as a dashcam or security camera.
Is it Normal That my Alarm Light is Flashing?
Yes, it’s completely normal to see your alarm light flashing. It’s flashing the light just to perform its job. For instance, the red light mounted near the rear-view mirror mostly flashes to signal to you that your vehicle’s door is locked. To stop the light from flashing, all you need to do is unlock your door and everything will go back to normal.
As for the blue light near the rear-view mirror, it also flashes mostly when it’s trying to perform its duty. For instance, the blue light is an aftermarket alarm system. It’ll start flashing any time it’s working to control the operation of your remote start system.
For vehicles that utilize the blue light as a security camera, you’ll most likely see the light flashing when the dashcam is recording after noise/motion has been detected.