Rear dashcam wiring
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Rear dashcam wiring
I've been installing a dashcam into my '17 GTS and have some advice to share.
There's enough space above the headliner to run an electrician's flat tape 'fish'. You can slide that from the front A-pillar to all the way back to the rear of the passenger door (is that the C-pillar?). This eliminates the need to pull the headliner away from the B-pillar and along the tops of the doors. The headliner material isn't particularly rugged and seems like it'd be pretty easy to bend/crease it. You just have to gain access at the top of the A and C pillars.
There's also enough room to run a fish from the rear hatch ceiling toward the right-rear passenger door. Again, saving you a LOT of trouble trying to pry the headliner away.
And, to my dismay, the factory glued used to hold the headliner plastic velcro was already detached. I'll have to remember to dab some glue on there...
There's a square hole in the sheet metal leading up from above the headliner into the cavity where the hatch wiring connects. You do NOT have to interfere with the hatch wiring connectors. Since it's a metal edge you'd probably want to put a grommet or at least some tape around it to prevent fraying the camera wire over time. I used a spare panel grommet I had laying around. Kind of like one of these:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...-736-ND/316717
I didn't measure the hole or the grommet I used, sorry.
Running the wire out to the hatch is tedious. The segmented conduits running from the top of the body out to the hatch are VERY narrow. The one on the right-hand side of the vehicle has almost NO room inside of it for anything else. Certainly not for the barrel connector on the end of my dashcam wire. The one on the left-hand (US driver side) has a bit more free space, just enough to get the connector through.
After trying a couple of things it finally occurred to me that using a bit of plastic tubing might work. I cut a 16" section off some spare ice maker hose I had in the basement. If I had to guess, it's 1/4" tubing. I use a phililps screwdriver to ream out the end the tubing just enough to very snugly slide over the end of the dashcam wiring barrel connector. I then secured it with a piece of electrical tape laid lengthwise along the tubing and connector. This to provide a lot of adhesive surface to prevent pulling apart, while not increasing the diameter too much. With the tubing attached, I then gently eased it through the hatch conduit. I had to 'knead' the conduit a bit to help ease the connector through it. But the tape held perfectly and the wire came through!
There's not a lot of room in the hatch for any added wire. So it's probably best to only pull through enough to get the camera positioned where you need it. I then bundled the rest of it with a twist tie up inside the cavity behind where the conduits come out of the body. I plan on going back and using adhesive zip-tie mounts when it's done.
The fascia panel on the hatch comes loose without tools. It has a spring post fitting in the middle. This is toward the "top" of the hatch, which will be on the downward side when you have the hatch open. Give a little pull to the lowest side of the top panel while the hatch is open and it'll pop loose. Then there's several (four?) L-clips molded into it that hold it onto the hatch. Slide it toward you on the glass (this being an upward motion on an open hatch). Take care, the defroster wires are not very thick. You do not want to break them.
My suggestion is make sure you secure the wire you put inside the hatch. You do not want anything rattling around or rubbing. Either against itself or the fragile defroster wires.
I've yet to climb back in there with the hatch closed to position the camera. I'm planning on positioning it at the top/center. If just to avoid having it get knocked around when I have the cargo area stuffed with duffel bags for boat trips next Spring. The sweep of the wipers doesn't clear enough of the rest of the top to allow for anywhere else along the top.
I may have to consider fabricating a small piece of sheet metal to provide a mounting bracket is the supplied one doesn't reach below the wiper sweep area. That shouldn't be too difficult, but we'll see.
Reinstalling the center fascia is a little tricky. Again, take care not to damage the thin defroster wires. Position the panel, centered and align the L-clips to their mounts on the hatch. Slide it toward the top of the hatch (this being a downward motion with the hatch open) and once the bottom edges align give a bit of a whack to the center of the panel with the side of your hand. This will get the post to pop into it's socket. Repeat that on the left/right to get them seated.
There's enough space above the headliner to run an electrician's flat tape 'fish'. You can slide that from the front A-pillar to all the way back to the rear of the passenger door (is that the C-pillar?). This eliminates the need to pull the headliner away from the B-pillar and along the tops of the doors. The headliner material isn't particularly rugged and seems like it'd be pretty easy to bend/crease it. You just have to gain access at the top of the A and C pillars.
There's also enough room to run a fish from the rear hatch ceiling toward the right-rear passenger door. Again, saving you a LOT of trouble trying to pry the headliner away.
And, to my dismay, the factory glued used to hold the headliner plastic velcro was already detached. I'll have to remember to dab some glue on there...
There's a square hole in the sheet metal leading up from above the headliner into the cavity where the hatch wiring connects. You do NOT have to interfere with the hatch wiring connectors. Since it's a metal edge you'd probably want to put a grommet or at least some tape around it to prevent fraying the camera wire over time. I used a spare panel grommet I had laying around. Kind of like one of these:
http://www.digikey.com/product-detai...-736-ND/316717
I didn't measure the hole or the grommet I used, sorry.
Running the wire out to the hatch is tedious. The segmented conduits running from the top of the body out to the hatch are VERY narrow. The one on the right-hand side of the vehicle has almost NO room inside of it for anything else. Certainly not for the barrel connector on the end of my dashcam wire. The one on the left-hand (US driver side) has a bit more free space, just enough to get the connector through.
After trying a couple of things it finally occurred to me that using a bit of plastic tubing might work. I cut a 16" section off some spare ice maker hose I had in the basement. If I had to guess, it's 1/4" tubing. I use a phililps screwdriver to ream out the end the tubing just enough to very snugly slide over the end of the dashcam wiring barrel connector. I then secured it with a piece of electrical tape laid lengthwise along the tubing and connector. This to provide a lot of adhesive surface to prevent pulling apart, while not increasing the diameter too much. With the tubing attached, I then gently eased it through the hatch conduit. I had to 'knead' the conduit a bit to help ease the connector through it. But the tape held perfectly and the wire came through!
There's not a lot of room in the hatch for any added wire. So it's probably best to only pull through enough to get the camera positioned where you need it. I then bundled the rest of it with a twist tie up inside the cavity behind where the conduits come out of the body. I plan on going back and using adhesive zip-tie mounts when it's done.
The fascia panel on the hatch comes loose without tools. It has a spring post fitting in the middle. This is toward the "top" of the hatch, which will be on the downward side when you have the hatch open. Give a little pull to the lowest side of the top panel while the hatch is open and it'll pop loose. Then there's several (four?) L-clips molded into it that hold it onto the hatch. Slide it toward you on the glass (this being an upward motion on an open hatch). Take care, the defroster wires are not very thick. You do not want to break them.
My suggestion is make sure you secure the wire you put inside the hatch. You do not want anything rattling around or rubbing. Either against itself or the fragile defroster wires.
I've yet to climb back in there with the hatch closed to position the camera. I'm planning on positioning it at the top/center. If just to avoid having it get knocked around when I have the cargo area stuffed with duffel bags for boat trips next Spring. The sweep of the wipers doesn't clear enough of the rest of the top to allow for anywhere else along the top.
I may have to consider fabricating a small piece of sheet metal to provide a mounting bracket is the supplied one doesn't reach below the wiper sweep area. That shouldn't be too difficult, but we'll see.
Reinstalling the center fascia is a little tricky. Again, take care not to damage the thin defroster wires. Position the panel, centered and align the L-clips to their mounts on the hatch. Slide it toward the top of the hatch (this being a downward motion with the hatch open) and once the bottom edges align give a bit of a whack to the center of the panel with the side of your hand. This will get the post to pop into it's socket. Repeat that on the left/right to get them seated.
Last edited by wkearney99; Nov 21, 2016 at 06:25 AM.
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Here's a few pix.
One is the connector on the rear dashcam wiring. The other end is a 3.5mm plug (headphone-style) and is just as large. So it made more sense to deal with this end.
The other shows the tubing reamed and jammed on the end of it. Along with the ubiquitous bit of coat hanger wire that was part of a previous failed attempt. Heh.
The right side of the body, where the conduit is attached. This didn't work as the conduit doesn't have enough clearance to get that connector through it. The body side of the conduit has a click-in tab that holds it in place. Pretty easy to R&R.
The left side Note the conduit had just barely enough clearance inside. Note the lip around the conduit. This is different than the body-side. It pulls out pretty easily from the hatch and is likewise reasonably easy to reinstall. Just BE SURE TO DO IT RIGHT. Otherwise you'd risk water leaking in there. Double-check when you're done to make sure the lip is seated properly and evenly around the entire connection.
I'd have taken more pictures but the temp was dropping rapidly and my hands were too darned cold to keep fiddling around with it.
One is the connector on the rear dashcam wiring. The other end is a 3.5mm plug (headphone-style) and is just as large. So it made more sense to deal with this end.
The other shows the tubing reamed and jammed on the end of it. Along with the ubiquitous bit of coat hanger wire that was part of a previous failed attempt. Heh.
The right side of the body, where the conduit is attached. This didn't work as the conduit doesn't have enough clearance to get that connector through it. The body side of the conduit has a click-in tab that holds it in place. Pretty easy to R&R.
The left side Note the conduit had just barely enough clearance inside. Note the lip around the conduit. This is different than the body-side. It pulls out pretty easily from the hatch and is likewise reasonably easy to reinstall. Just BE SURE TO DO IT RIGHT. Otherwise you'd risk water leaking in there. Double-check when you're done to make sure the lip is seated properly and evenly around the entire connection.
I'd have taken more pictures but the temp was dropping rapidly and my hands were too darned cold to keep fiddling around with it.
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Registered User
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From: Bethesda, MD USA
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At some point I'd love to find out how the factory rear camera works. If it uses regular video then it could potentially be used to feed into a dashcam. But it'd have to use exactly the same video format and voltages. No idea what the factory cam uses (ntsc, pal, analog, etc) nor the dashcams. That and I'm guessing the factory camera only gets powered up when needed, which would be less than ideal for dashcam use. Then there the risk of frying the PCM just to skip installing a cheap rear dashcam accessory. This being a new GTS I didn't want to go down that road, yet.