DIY Tutorial for Hardwiring a Dashcam and Radar Detector

[harrysiii]

Mine fit perfectly in 1-2.

and you can see I cut off the connector that came on the Micro 3 and added one that would connect directly into the Escort Direct Wire kit.

 

[Fat Mach]

I purposefully wanted people to see it as a deterrent. Respect your choice tho! On that side I have my FasTrak.

Do you have a picture of your radar detector and Fastrak toll tag setup? I just applied for my CAV Fastrak toll tag.

 

[DevSecOps]

Do you have a picture of your radar detector and Fastrak toll tag setup? I just applied for my CAV Fastrak toll tag.

Radar on driver's side. Toll on passenger and behind the mirror you can barely see my dashcam.

 

[Fat Mach]

Nice! Thanks.

 

[JoshV]

How do you like having the rear camera in that position? I have mine at the top center of the rear wiper coverage but I'm thinking of moving it to the bottom of that coverage because it's a little in the way right now.

 

[Warren Peace]

Something I thought I would just share that my installer ran into (he fixed it the next day) was regarding the hardwire kit This was a A129 pro duo with a Cellink battery for parking mode. The kit wires were black, yellow and red, so he hooked them up to the black, yellow and red of the cam (or car? sorry I'm not very technical).

But apparently while one color is always supposed to be constant the other acc, the kit had the 2 colors reversed. So my cam would power on and work when the car was on, but parking mode never worked because it wouldn't draw power from the battery pack.

After reading the fine print and cussing out the manufacturer he swapped the wires and easy peasy, everything worked.

(Sorry if this was already mentioned in this thread, I did not read the whole thing)

 

[Wonky_Donkey]

I just wanted to thank all the contributors to this thread for all the tips and tricks.

I’ve just finished hardwiring my Nextbase 622GW in my new 2022 Mach-E, and having all the photos and guidance was a massive help.

One tip I can offer for anyone attempting this on a RHD model. Don’t worry about getting the side dash panel off (which has the passenger airbag disable switch as part of it) …. it’s real easy once you have the A pillar trim off to just feed the cable down the hole into the fuse panel area - so one less bit to pry off and put back on

You can trace my cable route by following the yellow cable ties in the photo.

 

[babyplex]

Would a direct connection for a dashcam void the factory warranty on the car?

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Would a direct connection for a dashcam void the factory warranty on the car?

No.

 

[tobin1920]

Thank you to everyone for their contributions to this thread - it gave me the confidence to attempt the install myself. It took me a long time but now everything is all buttoned up and looks super clean. Successfully installed:

• Thinkware U1000
• Rear Camera
• Radar Module
• iVolt Mini Battery, Micro3 tap on 15/16

The rear boot was indeed a pain. I tried all of the remedies in the thread and just couldn't get it. I watched @Benjamin Kegele 's video (again) and heard him mention using a coat hanger. I thought there was no way but this made it VERY easy to fish through. For anyone struggling with this part - give it a shot. The trick was to carefully disconnect the top and bottom parts of the boot, then try to straighten it out as much as possible, and slowly work the coat hanger through the boot. You can see and feel it moving through, and can guide it through with your fingers. I felt silly spending so much time with the other methods before realizing that this was so much easier. I started on the top/left connector, moved to the bottom/right.

Thanks again all, especially @MachDoc for starting this extremely useful thread with the excellent guide.

 

[ItsFootballTim]

This is a lengthy tutorial with photos showing how I added my dash cam and radar detector to my Mach-E

A few points before we get started:

• While this is not a difficult project, it is not for the faint of heart. Messing with a brand new car could potentially void your warranty or cause more serious problems.
• There are sharp metal edges behind all of the pretty stuff - wear gloves!
• This is my fifth or sixth vehicle doing similar upgrades. The rest were 2 BMW's, an Audi, a Tesla model S, and 2 Subarus. This car was by far the easiest to do but that also could be because I have more experience.
• Never pry plastic panels with a screwdriver. Either use your fingers or a simple plastic pry set similar to this one on Amazon:
  • Pry Tools
• When you do pry these plastic components with your fingers or a pry tool, occasionally the little plastic retaining clips may break. While you can buy these from Ford, AutoZone sells them in bunches of three or four at half the price. I found out the hard way that Tesla was charging large sums of money for clips that I could easily have purchased for a Subaru at less than $.50 a pop.

Obtaining switched and constant 12 V power

The radar detector needs a switched 12 V power supply and the dash cam needs both a switched 12 V supply and a constant 12 V supply to record problems while the car is parked. In previous vehicles, I had no trouble finding both switched and constant power somewhere in the overhead mirror compartment but could only find switched on this car.

I also do not like to overly strain the built-in wires. When possible, I prefer to run new circuits from the fuse box up to the windshield to power both toys. That is what I did in this case. There is a fuse box behind the passenger kick panel. With a little experimentation, I found high capacity circuits of both types. Page 278 of the owners manual will show you how to remove that kick plate.

From page 279 of the owners manual:

While I previously would simply tap into an existing wire, I like my toys to have their own fuses in case something goes wrong. I recently started using these "add a tap" products to make tapping-in easier and safer. The existing fuse gets moved into the bottom slot and a new 2.5 amp fuse goes to my toys.

The physically smaller fuse it is called a Micro 2 and the larger one is called a Micro 3.

Here are the links for the add-a-taps:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082YZWSSY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R8R2T7T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I normally have extra three conductor wire around the house however I had to purchase some for this project. I normally like 20 gauge wire but somehow accidentally bought 22 gauge wire. This is definitely capable of carrying enough power for these two small devices.

Routing Wires

I was able to easily route this wire up towards the mirror housing. First I removed this side panel using a small plastic pry tool. It is held on by six plastic clips:

Next, I carefully pried off the A column cover with the pry tools. There is an airbag in here. Any wires you run must go behind the airbag. I prefer to zip tie them to ensure they do not fall in front of the airbag.

I next removed the cover over the mirror housing. I did this with gentle finger pressure pulling downward to release the 5 clips.

Next, I connected the appropriate switched power to my radar detector, switched and constant to the dash cam plug and both to negative. I prefer to solder all wires and cover with shrink wrap tubing. I also have serious OCD therefore labeled everything however in this picture you cannot read the labels because they are facing away from you. Red is constant, green is switched and the white is my negative.

I almost forgot, speaking about the negative lead, I could not find a good metal anchoring point anywhere in that fuse box. Everything is plastic in there. Therefore, I found a nice piece of steel in that side compartment below the A column. There were two round holes. I took a metal machine screw, washer and nut and fastened the raw white wire directly to that piece of the frame. Again, with the OCD, I used thread locker liquid on the bolt to ensure it never came loose accidentally.

At this point, I connected the red and green leads to the add-a-taps below in the fuse box, plugged everything in, and made sure everything worked as I expected with the car on and off.

Connection to Rear Camera

The next step was to run the video lead to the rear camera. Fortunately, the ceiling liner is not strongly attached to the roof as in the other cars I had to work on. Simply pull down gently using a pry tool to work under the rubber gasket. Going between the front and rear doors around the B column required a little work. Instead of using my fish tape, I took a small diameter wire hanger to thread the wire through. Once the wire hanger is visible on both ends, I simply used electrical tape and pulled it through. Note: I could not pry the B column cover off easily and didn't want to risk breaking anything. Likewise, going to the trunk, the plastic holding the liner in place felt too sturdy and I simply used fish tape to pull the wire all the way into the trunk.

To make the job as neat as possible, I also pried off the plastic cover noted in the photo above. It is held on by six retaining clips. I then mounted the rear camera as high up as possible on the window.


Normally, I would run the wire to the rear camera through the "boot" between the main compartment and the hatch. This is the first car that I was not able to do so. The boot is sufficiently deep under the liner and into the hatch, that no amount of manipulation with fish tape would let me get a string through there. Therefore, I will have that little bit of wire hanging down between the liner and the hatch on the right side but it is not visible when I look in the rearview mirror.

Once that was done, it was simply a matter of putting everything back together. The only difficult part was getting the A column to sit properly. Work slowly. There is a vent built into that column that has to be seated at the base in order for the column to fit properly.


The final result:

Please write with any questions. I am happy to help out anyone trying a similar project.

Jeff

Hi, was hoping you can confirm which side of the 15/16 fuse the power is coming in from. Can’t seem to get a reading from my probe so I looked at your pics for that fuse tap. It seems that the power is coming from top (where the label is for 16) going to bottom (where the label is for 15). I am basing this from seeing your tap cable going downwards. Can you please confirm that my thinking correct?

 

[MachDoc]

Hi, was hoping you can confirm which side of the 15/16 fuse the power is coming in from

Hi,
1. Unfortunately my car is at the dealer for a bit to recieve a zillion updates to hopefully let it get OTA updates.

2. I'll be happy to test when for you when I get it back. But you should remember, my car is from the 1st 10,000 cars and they may have changed the fuse box. If I were you, I would buy both sizes of taps and find constant and switched 12V for yourself

 

[ItsFootballTim]

Hi,
1. Unfortunately my car is at the dealer for a bit to recieve a zillion updates to hopefully let it get OTA updates.

2. I'll be happy to test when for you when I get it back. But you should remember, my car is from the 1st 10,000 cars and they may have changed the fuse box. If I were you, I would buy both sizes of taps and find constant and switched 12V for yourself

No worries and best of luck on the patches. I’m going to pick up a new probe today to test it so no need on checking. Thanks for providing the original post, very helpful.

 

[generaltso]

• When you do pry these plastic components with your fingers or a pry tool, occasionally the little plastic retaining clips may break. While you can buy these from Ford, AutoZone sells them in bunches of three or four at half the price. I found out the hard way that Tesla was charging large sums of money for clips that I could easily have purchased for a Subaru at less than $.50 a pop.

I next removed the cover over the mirror housing. I did this with gentle finger pressure pulling downward to release the 5 clips.

Anyone know the part number for these 5 clips that are holding the mirror housing on? Or better yet, an equivalent from AutoZone or Amazon that will work? I'm working on a project.

 

[MachDoc]

I literally went to autozone with a clip and visually compared them to the supply in the store.

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