I see people ask for info on how to run a wire to the back of the car for a rear camera, and since I just did it myself, I figured I'd show what I did.
I have an aftermarket (
Pioneer
) HU (head unit) that came with the car when I bought it used. It has an RCA jack for the rear camera, so all I had to do was wire it in. I went from the HU to the right (above the passenger's feet) and then along the sill at the door. This part is pretty easy and self explanatory, so I didn't document that.
Once near the back, I looked for a way to get into the trunk area. With the top partially opened, you can tuck the wires behind the various flaps and such there, and then make your way into the corner:
Here, you can see the black wire going into a pocket. The rear strut mounts there at that bolt (green arrow). Going around this corner, brings you into the trunk, just behind the carpet there. I didn't even remove the carpet, as you can simply pull it down far enough without removing any clips or things:
Once there, you can run down the side of the trunk. I then went through the back of the tail light to get outside to the rear:
I was going to send the camera wire through the hole there, but the RCA connector was too large to go through, so I just put it through the large opening instead. Note, the lower hole is for the screw/stud used to fasten the tail light to the car, so don't use that, haha.
You can see I pulled power from this area as well. I used the reverse light output from the tail light to provide power here, since it's right there. A few tap-connectors makes this easy. I also made sure to tap the tail-light side of the connector (not the car-side!) so it can be worked on outside the car, if that ever needed to happen... I strongly recommend doing this!
Once out from there, you can tuck into the spoiler area, and down behind the bumper. The spoiler actually has slots so you can see and even tweak wires along to the rear plate area easily. My bumper has a nice big hole in the center behind the plate, so it was easy to get the wires to that area (I used a clothes hanger wire to help get it there)... and then out to the plate:
Again, this is how I did it on my car, and it was pretty easy. I didn't have to remove too much or deal with broken clips, etc... other than removing the tail light, everything else basically was just tucking into the right area, or pulling away a carpet, etc... so it's low risk as well!
EDIT: This info is also useful for people who ask how to run larger cables (for amps and such) to the trunk or back - the pocket at the rear strut mount is huge, so you can easily run thick cables that way if you wanted to... or whatever else you wanted... so keep that in mind!
Very useful write up, thanks for sharing.
See you on the roads of CT!
Thanks for this
@schwinn
- I had a Dynavin head unit installed but didn’t opt for the back up camera and now wish I had. This gives me the confidence that I can easily do it myself assuming that for the Cayman it isn‘t very different.
BTW - I notice that you have what appears to be the aftermarket 718 style tail lights. Are you happy with them and can you share the manufacturer’s name/link? Thx.
I would expect
Cayman
to be similar... the trick will be, how do you get it out of the cabin... that will be different. I was thinking of going out the vent flaps on the rear corner there originally, which I expect you have and could do as well. In my case, it didn't make sense to go to the rear, then out of the cabin/trunk spaces, then back into it in order to get out those flaps... but this may make more sense for
Cayman
. Just gotta figure it out - can't be that hard. I think there are other threads with some info on this... as mine is a
Boxster
, they didn't apply to me.
Yes, I have the aftermarkets. I was trying to be healthy, got a bike, and it tipped into the stocker and broke it... that's what you get for trying to exercise, haha! Anyway, these were from
Amazon
... work great, happy with them. I do wish the turn signals were bigger/brighter, but this was lower cost than a single stock replacement (which wouldn't have matched the worn-look of the other side). I have a thread on this here somewhere, just search for my name and you should be able to find it quickly...
