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This "simple" task has been the most confounding, challenging, and frustrating project I've ever done with any car (and I've done a lot of projects). I don't know how much variation there is between individual Aston Martin builds, let alone models, but I never expected that there would be so much grief involved in simply trying to run a front camera wire through the firewall between the cabin and the engine compartment.
So - to hopefully spare others at least part of the pain - here's my experience with my '06 DB9 Volante LHD:
1) I could not find any firewall grommets near the passenger-side footwell (right side) where the cabin fusebox is, so I tried looking under the bonnet but had no success. The legendary James Hawkes-Reed of Aston Installations told me that there are two large rubber grommets for engine loom access on either side of the engine bay, one under the engine fusebox and another on the other side. He noted that the grommets have nipples you can snip to run wires through. I loosened the engine fusebox, but I couldn't find the grommet, even with my fiberoptic scope.
2) I removed the glovebox and cabin fusebox cover, but still couldn't find any grommets. LHD DB9 Volante passenger footwell with glovebox and fusebox cover removed. (Red wires are temporary power feeds for front and backup parking cameras just to make sure everything worked).
3) Next I jacked up the car and removed the passenger-side wheel-well liner. Still couldn't find any grommets. Passenger-side (right) front wheel-well with liner removed. The washer fluid reservoir is at the bottom right (I repaired a leak in mine, which is why there's a black coating at the top). The X3 is a factory mark.
4) I went back to the passenger footwell, peeled back the carpeting, and removed the fusebox frame. '06 LHD DB9 Volante passenger footwell with glovebox and fusebox cover and frame removed, carpet peeled back.
5) I still couldn't find a grommet through the firewall. I was uncomfortable, tired, and frustrated, but I started to focus on the wiring conduit that I began calling the Pi Harness. It's the black corrugated harness in the picture below that reminded me of the symbol for pi (π). That harness is quite rigid and I couldn't move it aside, however. The "Pi Harness" above the right-hand side of the cabin fusebox in an '06 DB9 Volante
6) I started exploring with my scope in earnest. After a while, above and behind the Pi Harness (toward the engine) I spotted a dense bundle of wires: Zeroing in on a firewall grommet in an '06 LHD DB9 Volante Light from my scope shows wires heading through the firewall!
7) I finally spied the grommet (and even a grommet nipple!) through the scope and snapped a couple of scope pictures! Poor quality scope photo of firewall grommet and nipple, '06 LHD DB9 Volante
8) I have a 12" long, 1/8" drill bit, so I lined it up with the nipple (which was concave on the cabin side) and twisted/pushed it through by hand. It wasn't easy. I then cut a metal coat-hanger, straightened it out, and pushed it through. Coat-hanger penetrating the grommet above and behind the "Pi Harness" in the right-hand footwell of an '06 LHD DB9 Volante (it's the white wire below the green wire on the right side of the image) White metal coat-hanger entering a firewall grommet in the passenger-side footwell of an '06 LHD DB9 Volante. You can see the end of my fiberoptic scope next to the coat-hanger.
9) And here's the white coat-hanger emerging in the right-front wheel-well. I am quite sure that I could never have found the grommet from the engine-side of the firewall! Passenger-side front wheel-well of an '06 LHD DB9 Volante with liner removed
10) Final picture of coat-hanger on wheel-well side:
Good luck if you try this yourself. I hope I saved you some misery! There may be a simpler route, but it's escaped me...please post details if you have a better way!
-Mike
you're right, finding the hole from the engine/wheelwell side would have been impossible.
after having shoved a coathanger through it from the cabin side, like you, and after having removed the right front wheelwell liner, i had a devil of a time (honestly!) finding the end of the stupid coat hanger.
