Running Backup Camera Wire

[Tony Mac]

Does anyone have any detailed information on how to run the wire from the trunk facia to the head unit? I've never pulled panels apart to run a wire before. Also I'm not particularly sure how to get the wire from the drivers side doorsill to the head unit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Tony Mac]

Looking at audio installs I found a very detailed video on removing all the panels, it's the install video for the OEM Audio Plus System 400+.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LytAyXbgS5w&feature=player_embedded"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LytAyXbgS5w&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by Tony Mac

Does anyone have any detailed information on how to run the wire from the trunk facia to the head unit? I've never pulled panels apart to run a wire before. Also I'm not particularly sure how to get the wire from the drivers side doorsill to the head unit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I had never done anything remotely similar either and can tell you this car is extremely easy to work with. All panels just snap off. making it really easy to run the wires.

[lordtakuban]

You need to remove a lot of panels (dirver side rear, door sil area, under the steering wheel, the metal piece there, the plastics around the radio, ... etc. You will need some zip-ties. Once all is exposed, it will be pretty easy to route the wires.

The hardest part I dealt with was feeding the wire with the bulkier collector section through the rubber connector that goes from the trunk to the body. Everything else was super easy after that.

Good luck.

[chadstyle]

Start at the camera and work your way forward...feed it through the rubber grommet and then behind the side panels in the trunk. Remove the bolt holding down the rear seat cushion so you can route the wire behind the panel. Remove the sill panel and pull the rubber seal up so you can route the wire behind the white plastic that holds the carpet in place and then the sill panel clips into it. Once you make it up to the kick panel you can lay on your back and look up under the dash. You will see a few wires routed under there already so you can run your wire with these towards the center of the car. You don't need to remove the under dash panel. Remove the trim panels in the dash and then remove the radio. You will be able to see down to the bottom of the dash where you ran the wire and then find the best way to route it up to the radio. Be sure to leave enough slack in the wire so the radio can be easily removed in the future...I keep the plug the same length as the factory harness plugs. Find a nice spot to zip tie the remaining wire as you will have a few extra feet since our cars are so short.

Take your time if you're not familiar with panel removal or routing wires. The run I just described took me about 10-15 minutes but I do this stuff in my sleep...for others it may take way longer. Don't rush. Take your time when disassembling and reassembling the car so you don't break anything.

[tiz22]

Reviving an old thread here but...


I just installed my reverse cam and everything works fine except it doesn't come on when I switch the car into reverse...I read that you DONT hook it up to the reverse light because then you have to start your car in reverse..

Instead - I hooked it up to the DARK GREEN amp wire in the trunk...However, it still doesn't seem to be working properly.

So in summary here's what I did:
- Reverse light wire connected to dark green amp wire
- black GND wire under metal nut near amp
- Yellow RCA cable into "Reverse Cam" cable coming from HU
- Red wire hanging off the yellow RCA into the purple/white "Reverse Signal Input" wire from HU

The camera works if I hook it up as a "video input" instead of "rear cam input" and just switch the AV source to that video input (and I can drive with it on, kinda cool) but when I had it plugged into "reverse cam input" it wouldn't switch to the camera when I shifted into reverse...

So my question is..
- Did I hook this up improperly?
- What wire actually tells the camera the car is in reverse?
- Is there a way to troubleshoot which wire is causing me issues?

Perhaps @chadstyle can help me out??

[ChiefG]

Originally Posted by chadstyle

Start at the camera and work your way forward...feed it through the rubber grommet and then behind the side panels in the trunk. Remove the bolt holding down the rear seat cushion so you can route the wire behind the panel. Remove the sill panel and pull the rubber seal up so you can route the wire behind the white plastic that holds the carpet in place and then the sill panel clips into it. Once you make it up to the kick panel you can lay on your back and look up under the dash. You will see a few wires routed under there already so you can run your wire with these towards the center of the car. You don't need to remove the under dash panel. Remove the trim panels in the dash and then remove the radio. You will be able to see down to the bottom of the dash where you ran the wire and then find the best way to route it up to the radio. Be sure to leave enough slack in the wire so the radio can be easily removed in the future...I keep the plug the same length as the factory harness plugs. Find a nice spot to zip tie the remaining wire as you will have a few extra feet since our cars are so short.

Take your time if you're not familiar with panel removal or routing wires. The run I just described took me about 10-15 minutes but I do this stuff in my sleep...for others it may take way longer. Don't rush. Take your time when disassembling and reassembling the car so you don't break anything.

Do you run the wire driver side or passenger side? Starting my install tomorrow.

[chadstyle]

Originally Posted by ChiefG

Do you run the wire driver side or passenger side? Starting my install tomorrow.

Driver's side man..easy install but take your time and double check all connections and test fully before reassembling the car.

[ChiefG]

Originally Posted by chadstyle

Driver's side man..easy install but take your time and double check all connections and test fully before reassembling the car.

Yup. Tested the cam per your suggestion last night, and read everything I could find on the site about cam installs, stereo installs, and how the car comes apart and goes together.

I'm keeping the iPad handy in the garage while I work.

Here we go....

[ChiefG]

Tip: when you feed your cam cable through the rubber conduit between trunk lid and body, put a few drops of silicone lube down the conduit and on whatever you are going to use to fish a string through. I used a piece of rebar tie wire, but a coat hanger will work.

Lube the fish wire with silicone and thread the string through. Then bend your cable and tape a loop. Tape over the connector too. You don't want to pull the connector through first. Tie your string through the loop and then pull/work the cable through. It goes MUCH easier with lube.

I ran my cam cable without lube, then decided to run my SiriusXM antenna cable through too. That's when I decided to lube the cable. The antenna cable also has a connector on it. The second cable went through much easier than the first and I did it in 1/4 of the time.