Installing rear dashcam in wagon - wiring help

[ohammond]

Hey guys,

just wondering if anyone can give me some tips/advice on wiring up the rear dash cam in a B7 wagon. Specifically how best to run the wires from the front to the tailgate.

Have done the front - although ive temporarily clipped the power wire down the windshield side - I need to replace the A pillar trim and run it down inside behind the airbag.

Removing the trim looks straightforward enough, although I'm not so sure about putting it back on

Thanks in advance

[Guest001]

I did mine by running the cable along the floor under the door sill trims and pulled it through the rear side trim into the rear quarter. I then put it up the boot seal and at that time i had a small loop to the camera on the taildoor.
If you want to you can slip trim off the inner top of the roof lining and by wedging off one end of the clip on the flexi cable into the taildoor it will release and you can then pull the top piece of trim off the taildoor It just pulls away from the glass edge. If you remove the roof ling trim you can pull tha cable right up to there behind rear quarter trim

Poke a wire from that end and tape up your cable and gently pull it through to the taildoor. I used some vasilene on the plug to get it to slide better and you sort of have to wiggle it through and help it in places as its fairly tight in there. Hide extra cable in rear quarter

Attached is the link for the workshop manual for the interior trims of a B7 Passat I also have the rest for car as well

Interior Passat.pdf - Google Drive

[sn809]

I hope its a keeper meaning you have tested it well. You should really get 2 dashcams to keep things simple. Use the rear 12 volt socket to power it.
There is a guide on youtube to fix a rearcam. You could use the head unit section as well. Use that to guide you plus the excellent info provided above.
As always when dealing with air bags disconnect the battery terminals and insert key into the car to try and start it to get rid of any stored current a few times-As per a sparky on the tube.
Good luck and take pictures as you go along.

[sn809]

Interesting that the manual says to disconnect battery with ignition on when working on the airbag and reconnect power with ignition on, I think that is a dangerous way to do things, anyone care to share their thoughts?

[Guest001]

I hope its a keeper meaning you have tested it well. You should really get 2 dashcams to keep things simple. Use the rear 12 volt socket to power it.
There is a guide on youtube to fix a rearcam. You could use the head unit section as well. Use that to guide you plus the excellent info provided above.
As always when dealing with air bags disconnect the battery terminals and insert key into the car to try and start it to get rid of any stored current a few times-As per a sparky on the tube.
Good luck and take pictures as you go along.

There is no need to disconnect the battery as you are not disturbing the airbags connections. Have done several different cars and hasnt been a problem. All you are doing is feeding a cable up the A pillar and pulling it up behind the rolled up bag which is in clips.
I never use the rear 12 volt and thereby have a connector sticking out to get bumped and damaged in the luggage area.
In my present car I have 2 separate cameras and ran a twin flex cable from the fusebox to the rear and terminated an earth in the rear quarter and ran the camera cable as my post above. All you can see is 75mm of cable to each camera

Why get two cameras at more expense. Mine happened as I got them at different times and were before 2ch cameras arrived.

Not all Youtube videos tell the full story either nor do they show best practice. One even showed stuffing wires down the side of fuses. Jeeeeeez


Here is how I installed them in my B7 wagon I did the rear one like that as it was easier Just bent up an old bit of colourbond flashing and slid it over the rear roof trim. Saved the hassle of getting into the taildoor

[sn809]

I suppose you could also remove the rear panel and access the connection from inside other than that, I really like the rear install you have done.

I was always thinking about it attaching to the boot glass slightly lower and having to keep a larger free wire to let the boot open and close or put it just above the wiper motor. Issue is during rain the passat rear gets a very dirty. Your way could also be done but probably need to get a bigger wiper. Could you please tell me what you have used for the velcro portion attached to the panel and post a pic from the outside the car of the dashcam thanks.

[Guest001]

I suppose you could also remove the rear panel and access the connection from inside other than that, I really like the rear install you have done.

I was always thinking about it attaching to the boot glass slightly lower and having to keep a larger free wire to let the boot open and close or put it just above the wiper motor. Issue is during rain the passat rear gets a very dirty. Your way could also be done but probably need to get a bigger wiper. Could you please tell me what you have used for the velcro portion attached to the panel and post a pic from the outside the car of the dashcam thanks.

Lucky you I sold the car last year but found these pics on an old HDD DONT put it down the bottom and the wiper is high enough as is
It isnt Velcro it 3M Dual Lock tape and is the high temp version Used the metal as it wont stick to the plastic liner, it also allows you to align the camera easily.. The fuses are in spare slots as they have power to the top of them However you cant buy the ones I used so you will need to buy some Addafuses (1Full size & 1 Mini) and just put the top one in. One is permanent power an other is ACC power and go to a Power Magic which is wrapped in the bubble wrap to give parking mode. The pics were taken before I fitted the metal as camera kept falling off the plastic A 2 ch setup would be even neater as that is a DR450 with a separate GPS module

I ran power wires to rear quarter and attached a ciggy socket and just plugged the camera cable into that If using a 2Ch you just run its cable right through

[sn809]

Ok, and thanks for making the effort to get the pics. Still waiting on delivery of rear camera, I had done a PLA 3D print to attach it at the bottom but will eventually print something to attach to the liner as above taking inspiration :O

[Guest001]

Ok, and thanks for making the effort to get the pics. Still waiting on delivery of rear camera, I had done a PLA 3D print to attach it at the bottom but will eventually print something to attach to the liner as above taking inspiration :O

Wiper doesnt go right to the bottom and the higher you get it the better All you need is a piece of colorbond the same colour as your trim and
Bend it like a u and slide it over the trim from the front Carefully smoothing edges and corners so as not to cut the roof trim

I think my bit may still be here

[ohammond]

Have installed the front nice and clean. Wires across the top, down the A Pillar behind the airbag. Fusetaps for the ACC and Batt leads, and mounted a nice earth. Have bundled up the excess cable and 12V adapter and placed it in the drivers side pull down glove box. PMP is double sided velcro on the inside of the fuse panel trim for easy access.

Will tackle the rear tomorrow. Have removed the main trim off the tailgate.

Current stumbling blocks
- removing the upper trim from tailgate (afraid of breaking anything but looking at youtube clips of iguanas and golfs you need to pull the sides in forcefully first, then the upper edge). It feels like 2 clips on each side - and 3 or 4 along the edge.

- removing the rearmost roof trim (the plastic trim at the rear of the car beyond the rooflining). Im assuming I need to get this out so I can run wire from through the tailgate wiring tubes into the roof cavity. Ive prised it gently, but nothing seems to budge at this point. Trying to avoid removing the tailgate wiring tube on the carbody as it would be a bastard to reinsert properly.

and then hopefully its just a matter of either running it along the top of the door trims to the front camera, or using some yellow tongue cable puller from the rear to the sunglasses cubby.

[Guest001]

DONT run along tops of doors as it has a curtain airbag along there I run mine down inside trim as shown in pic of the fuses by pulling door seals off and along floor under inside of sill trims. I lifted boot trim and slid cable under there Then where there is a door in rear side trim i used a wire to pull cable up to there then pulled rear taildoor seal off a bit ad pulled cable up to above the door and as I didnt mount it on the taildoor it just hung out from under seal to the camera which was on the metal piece I fitted over the rear plastic roof trim.

If you want it on the door you can remove the wiggle tube by pushing the end under the tube towards the other end and it should pop up and off. I has a little lump at one end and a clip at the other.


If it remember rightly the trim in top of taildoor gets pulled away from the glass first and swivels upward as u look at it with the door open I never took the one in roof out

[ohammond]

Feeding the rear camera wire through the rear grommet finally got the better of me. Got some pull wires thru the channel, but pulling the cable back the end snapped off. Grrrrr. I wasn't comfortable removing the grommet from the carbody side (and my ability to reinstall it) which would have made the job doable.

Ordered a replacement - and admitted defeat and went and asked the local installer to just feed the cable thru for me. Cost me $35, and he said it was harder than they were expecting. They had to remove the waterproof channel and there is a narrow hard plastic opening on the vehicle body side. The ended up drilling a small hole in this hard plastic to get the cable through, so there was no way I was going to get it through buy using lead cables and pulling it. The install cost me less than another broken cable.

Once home - removed the roof console. Fed some yellowtongue through the roof to the console space, pulled some builders string back to the rear of the car, attached the camera cable to the strangling and pulled it forward feeding it to the camera via the trim plug at the base of the rear view mirror. Avoided any issues with interference with airbags. Excess cable was bundled up and secured inside the hatch frame.

Checked it was all working, replaced all the trim panels and I now had a clean install with the only wires visible being those from the front camera to the trim above. If I was really anal I'd look at feeding it up the rain sensor stalk as I have seen others do. I just need to pull both cables from the front camera, and wrap them together in black fleece tape for a cleaner look.

Thanks for the advice and comments everyone. Hopefully this is useful to someone else pulling their hair out trying to feed that cable thru that bloody waterproof channel.

[Guest001]

Feeding the rear camera wire through the rear grommet finally got the better of me. Got some pull wires thru the channel, but pulling the cable back the end snapped off. Grrrrr. I wasn't comfortable removing the grommet from the carbody side (and my ability to reinstall it) which would have made the job doable.

Ordered a replacement - and admitted defeat and went and asked the local installer to just feed the cable thru for me. Cost me $35, and he said it was harder than they were expecting. They had to remove the waterproof channel and there is a narrow hard plastic opening on the vehicle body side. The ended up drilling a small hole in this hard plastic to get the cable through, so there was no way I was going to get it through buy using lead cables and pulling it. The install cost me less than another broken cable.

Once home - removed the roof console. Fed some yellowtongue through the roof to the console space, pulled some builders string back to the rear of the car, attached the camera cable to the strangling and pulled it forward feeding it to the camera via the trim plug at the base of the rear view mirror. Avoided any issues with interference with airbags. Excess cable was bundled up and secured inside the hatch frame.

Checked it was all working, replaced all the trim panels and I now had a clean install with the only wires visible being those from the front camera to the trim above. If I was really anal I'd look at feeding it up the rain sensor stalk as I have seen others do. I just need to pull both cables from the front camera, and wrap them together in black fleece tape for a cleaner look.

Thanks for the advice and comments everyone. Hopefully this is useful to someone else pulling their hair out trying to feed that cable thru that bloody waterproof channel.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]48542[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]48543[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]48545[/ATTACH]

I cheated and cut the power wire as it was a separate camera in the rear and fed a wire from the taildoor end into the wiggle tube and resoldered it when I got it through. I have 3 spare power cables so could afford to cut one up LOL


Good job though

[ohammond]

Thanks. I would have liked the self satisfaction of completing the install entirely by myself - but $35 is a damn sight less than local installers wanted to charge ($230-289).

[sn809]

Replacing RNS 510 with RCD 330+

yeah that plastic bit is a major PIA to get out. I wasn't brave enough to drill a hole in it, when I was putting in my camera as I was afraid of water leakage. On the inner aspect is another grommet that you can pierce easily and then cover the wire with tape to try and maintain the water seal.

Keep an eye on the rear roof lining just to be safe.