Backup Camera Install

So I recently installed a backup camera. There are not many good tutorials on how to do it. The instructions from CAI Stereo are the best but they want you to drill a hole in the bumper and in the engine bay which I didn't want to do. Overview- I routed me camera from the console--->passenger side--> under the umbrella holder for the door sill--> Into the rear side panel--> into the engine bay--> spliced the reverse wire from the tail light--> routed the wire around the inside of the engine bay-->into the bumper--> to the license plat through one of the screw holes for the license plate light. Tools- 1) Glow rod- This is a flexible rod used to route wires through drop ceilings. It made things very easy. Some people use extra large zip ties 2) Philips screw driver large- I used this to poke a hole in the gromit that separates the interior from the engine bay 3) Torx 20 (or 25) to take off the rear speaker and door sill 4) Velcro - keeps it neat baby 5) Wire splice or soldering iron- To tap into the reverse wire and connect the reverse wire to the stereo harness Warning- I have a cabrio and I suspect that made things a lot easier. Step one- take out your camera and connect the RCA cable to the appropriate connection to your stereo Step two- Solder or connect the reverse wire to your stereo Step 3 (optional)- connect the speed wire (grey/pink) to the stereo. If you have the PCM1 its in the Blue NAV harness I slid the pin holder from the blue connector than keyed out the speed wire Step four- Route the wire under the carpet around the passenger compartment. The carpet folds back very easily you can just push the wire under the carpet Slide the wire under the carpet starting here continue until you hit the passenger wall and bring it toward the door along the wall the wire should now be at the edge of the passenger door Step Five- remove or loosen the umbrella slot of the passenger door sill. Pull up the rubber bottom and unscrew the two T-20 screws Step Six- Route the wire between the carpet and the now removed door sill than replace the sill place the wire under the carpet here. NOT in the gap where the sill was When your done you should be at the junction between the front and rear seats Step 7- Route the wire between the carpet of the sill and the rear passenger compartment wall Step 8- Remove the rear speaker. Carefully place your fingers through the side panel and grab the wire Once you grab the wire it will pull it into the side panel Step 9- From the rear of the car if you have a cabriolet put the top in service position and remove the cardboard floor cover (sorry no pics). Than advance the glow rod over the top piston to the speaker attach the wire and pull back to rear of car glow rod routed to speaker Step ten- There is a grommit in the far right (passenger) rear. At about two o'clock on the grommit there is a indentation. Use a screwdriver to poke hole in the grommit The rusty thing is a big philips screw driver. Advance this through the grommit. It went very easily Step 11- Remove the passenger tail light. Open the engine bay. Unscrew the two screws next to the tail light and slide it out. Disconnect the wiring harness Step 11- pull out the grommit that separates the tail light from the engine bay. Step 12- Attach the camera to the glow rod and push it through the hole you punched in the passenger compartment into the light bay Step 13- Tap into the reverse wire I routed the cameras activation wire through the grommit for neatness. the reverse wire is the black/blue wire in the connector Step 14 - place the camera in the engine bay The left side of the picture is the passenger compartment the hole on the right goes to the tail light. I routed the camera around the edge of the engine compartment Step 15- Care fully route the wire around the edge of the engine compartment. Avoid anything that looks like it might get hot Step 16- In the left (drivers) rear of the engine compartment there is a connection to the bumper From the inside looking toward the bumper from the outside looking in Step 17- My camera came in two pieces. The actual camera and the wire. Unscrew the left license plate light and using a drill enlarge the hole in the light enough to pass the wire through the light. Step 18. Use the glow rod an push it from the engine compartment into the bumper and through the screw hole in the bumper that corresponds to the one you enlarged on the light Step 19- Use the glow rod to pull the cameras wire through the light into the bumper and into the engine compartment I routed the wire from my camera up through the license plat lights left screw hole Step 20- Attach the camera to the frame Step 21- Feel certain that this will work as you have made the blood sacrifice A small scratch but enough to satisfy the car gods Step 22- Turn on car and test. Realize you forgot to ground the camera wire. Ground wire This was a close, easy and weather proof ground Step 23- Start car. Yeah it works. Reinstall the head unit if you removed it to attach all the wires at the beginning Hope this helps M

Wow, quite the effort and nice write up. One of the many things I love about the 911 is it�s abundance of glass. Happy motoring!

The write up took almost as long as the install. The camera install took about 90min (I had previously done the reverse and speed wire) M

Good writeup. I ran my wire from the radio down the center console then under the rear passenger seat into the rear side speaker panel. Don't know if it was easier than this way or not just an alternate.

I spent several hours on this today, and we've had a helluva time getting either this RCA end (with or without a guiding cap)... CyB9s31.jpeg ...or this end... Ze2ek8t.jpeg ...though that damned grommet. We drilled a pretty big hole through it, too. We even tried tying it to a string we fed though the grommet... ktPSqP6.jpeg ...to no success. Any suggestions?

I wired my camera into the left side rear fog light. Simple. All I need to remember is turn on the fog light when I back up. My camera is on a wifi connection, or maybe blue tooth, can't remember at the moment, to my phone. When I get in the car I light up the fog light, connect to my phone, and off I go. There is a convenient hole left in the engine room bulkhead, and another in the left side rear light assembly, so no drilling.

Quotes source post: 17939626

I used a glow rod, which is a semi-flexible rod used for fishing wire through drop ceiling. You can buy one at Lowes for like $10. Pro tip. Put the glow rod through to where you want it and than PULL the rod and wire complex where you want it. Are you trying to get into the tail light to splice the reverse wire or just the engine bay to route the camera. I assume you are trying to get from the rear of the interior to the engine My recollection was I 1. Put a hole in the grommet (2 oclock) with a screw driver 2. Placed the glow rod partially through the hole 3. The glow rod should now be through the hole in the grommet with a portion of the rod on both sides 4. Now tape the camera wire to the rod. Try to create a taper with the tape if you can. 5. Now pull the rod through the grommit. The wire should come with it. If you are trying to get into the tail light assembly the access for that is adjacent to the grommet you just cam through to get to the engine bay. The tail light has its own grommet which is very tight. I undid that grommet from the body and slid my wires through with the grommet removed so i had easy access to both sides. I still used the glow rod because it's added stiffness helped push things through. I was able to push both the wire and that fatter connection through without applying undue force. Once i spliced I routed the wire back into the engine bay.

Not sure of the exact configuration but if the rigid guide method above doesn�t work, is it possible to remove the grommet, fish the wires through, and then reinstall the grommet? That was a trick we used back in my car stereo installation days.

Quotes source post: 17939959

The tail light grommet you pretty much have to do it that way as it's tapered and tight. I don't know about the grommet between the interior and the engine bay. I expect you can but you will need small hands to put it back as it's in an awkward location

Quotes source posts: 17939797, 17939797

We're trying to get between the interior of the car and the engine bay. The problem we're having is that we can get all kinds of rigid items through the grommet, even items that are of a much wider diameter, but as soon as we try to run the actual cord itself through, it just won't go. (The string we attached it to in that last picture? The string broke off before we were able to get it through.) We've enlarged the hole with a drill three times already, and the cord just keeps getting stuck. Maybe we just need to enlarge it even more. I don't know. I'm just concerned about overdoing it. Before we gave up last night, our latest plan was to try to put it into something like a metal pen, so we have a rigid metal housing for it that is tapered on one end. Though where we're going to find a metal pen that is wide enough at the rear to accommodate the cable, I have no idea. Did you have any difficulty keeping the wire attached to the glow rod?

Maybe it's just me but you guys seem to be making this way more complicated than it needs to be to have a back up camera.

Quotes source post: 17940297

Well, I certainly didn't expect it to be this much of a pain in the ***, if that makes you feel any better. 😆

Quotes source post: 17940273

No. Just tape it to the rod with 3-4 inches of overlap and taper the tape at the front end. If you create a wedge with the tape it will gently stretch out the opening. I used painters tape as it's easier to put on and off. If you don't want to invest in the glow rod a metal clothes hanger bent straight will work in a pinch

Quotes source post: 17940398

Oh, my dad is a retired mechanic and has a million things in his garage that we can use. We were using an old metal wire that is probably six and a half feet long to get back and forth between the hole in the rear tail light and the interior of the car. It's just that attaching the cord to it wasn't working. But we've got some good ideas now, so I'm going to give that a shot. This guy on YouTube had a good idea of using tapered cap to a bottle of caulking or something, and that's what we're trying next.

Great info in here Thank You vetfever

Quotes source post: 17940297

You turn your fog lights on to get your camera on. I'd say the effort is worth it to have it working properly and not a workaround