DIY: Backup Camera + Partial Double Din Install

26355 Views 46 Replies 11 Participants Last post by Camry_wiz, Oct 6, 2018

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · Jan 31, 2015 (Edited)

Hey TN, fairly new member to the board but not to Toyota's. Wanted to give back to the wealth of info here. I recently installed a backup camera to my double din setup. I tried to cover everything I did but there may be parts I might not have taken pics of so ill try to be as descriptive as possible. This guide is also useful for running power and signal wires for amps as it uses most of the same route as the camera.

Note: I do already have a double din installed so I will be brushing the double din install lightly, its really just me finally installing the dash kit as ive always kept it hidden.

DISCLAIMER: Toyotanation and I are not responsible for any damage done to your vehicle. This is strictly a guide and it is your responsibility to practice safety and always multimeter any wires you tap into.

To begin, I bought a stealth camera off eBay that goes where the license plate lights are:

Now we dismantle the trunk, here is pic of it all in tact:

The cover needs to go, there are roughly 14 push clips (mine we're missing some, I do not have an exact number) Here it is with the cover off:

You'll need either two flathead screw drivers or a flathead and a plastic pry tool to remove them, stick them in on opposite sides, pry the middle tab out and the rest should pull easily:

Disconnect the key tumbler, there are two parts, the pull string from the cabin and the metal rod leading to the latch. Removing the pull string requires you to detach the wire holder (gray piece) from the tumbler and wiggle it out of the ball holder. The metal rod comes out once you pull the yellow plastic piece back:

Keep looking up, and there will be 5, 10mm nuts holding the outside trim piece together, two will be with the key tumbler:

License plate lights need to come off. Take your pic of which one you want to install the camera, I liked the right light. Bulbs screw off, the left light is counterclockwise? (forgot), right is clockwise (see pic). Take a pair of pliers and work at the clamp edge of the light (pic shows the opposite light as I took the other out already):

Installing the camera requires you to put it on the trim first NOT the trunk. I tried playing around with this, no other way I found:

See less See more

11

Reactions: 1

1 - 20 of 47 Posts

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jan 31, 2015 (Edited)

Fish the camera's wire through, replace the trim, then mount the camera using its clips:

Reinstall the screws and license plate bulbs (no pics, its straigh forward).

Now we need power to the camera, and I'm taping the right reverse light:

I used a test light as my multimeter was at the time being borrowed, I do NOT recommend this and ask to please use a multimeter to test any sort of connections. The top red wire was the 12V and the white wire is ground:

Cut the sleeve holding the reverse wires:

I used T-taps with connectors, take a pick at what you like as long as it is secure and durable:

Run the RCA cables:

Make the connections at the camera and start cleaning up all wires. At this point it is time to run the RCA to the front. Use plenty of zip ties to keep it neat and follow the trunk harness INCLUDING the slack, remember the trunk opens and closes, make it too tight and you'll stretch the wire:

Run the wire behind the trunk covering:

See less See more

11

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 31, 2015 (Edited)

Seats coming out. Bottom seat is held only by 2 strong clips. Requires effort, trust me its not a joke:

Now the side trim needs to be removed. It has two pull clips and a metal clip that sticks with the trim. Get your hand under it and pull up. If you break a clip, replace it, theyre reusable but get brittle after awhile:

Next is to loosen the top seats, no need to remove completely, just enough to slide the wire by. It should have 4 screws, I remember 12mm, on the bottom of the seats, two on the out sides and two towards the center:

From the trunk, you got to push the wire towards the bottom left of the trunk. Follow the black wire seen in the pic, my amp wires also go in that direction:

This is the inside, bottom of the seat where the wire will go through. Its hard to see but look for the yellow RCA tip in the pic:

See less See more

9

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 31, 2015 (Edited)

Run the wire down the door sills, this pic is the drivers door but its the same for both:

I was able to get by with the center pillar by just tucking the RCA cord under but the pillar pulls out for larger gauge wire:

Pull out the kick panel, it has a plastic push screw towards the back and clips inside. Requires door sill to be removed first. Remove the screw and pull:

Next is the radio, remove the vents first, they pull out towards you, use SOFT tools, the dash scratches easily. Do not tug it out, the Hazard Light harness is right behind it:

My radio is a stealth display, so this is where I branch from most installers who already have their double din installed:

But it comes out one way and thats by first taking the shift knob (turn it counterclockwise) and the two plastic pillars next to the push draws (pull them):

Pull the trim plate by where the shifter is:

Rest of the center console pulls up too, I pull from the back. WATCH for the cigarette lighter:

See less See more

15

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 31, 2015 (Edited)

Push tray comes out by two philips screws where the pillars pulled from and the cigarette lighter/ AUX plugs from the back. Put the car to the "ON" position, shift to L and it makes it easier to remove:

See less See more

2

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 31, 2015 (Edited)

To remove radio and heating controls its 4 10mm screws, 2 up top and 2 on bottom:

Once those are out, pull all plugs from your radio and heating controls (no pic, I assume this is straight forward).

I did a trim install too, showing that here:

Once that installed, I ran the RCA wire I left at the drivers seat up the kick panel.
Wire goes below the steering column and into the back of the radio:

Leave it hanging and run the reverse wire lead for the headunit. It taps into the 12 pin connector at the kick, red wire. Always meter wires before tapping. Heres a thread I followed to find it: http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...4140-2009-camry-le-reverse-wire-location.html

Ran the wire with the RCA to my headunit (hard to see but Im holding it):

Reinstall and clean all wires with zip ties where possible. Didnt document this but its just working backwards.

Finished result:

See less See more

9

Reactions: 2

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jan 31, 2015

Thats it, thanks for reading such a long post, hopefully it was helpful to those wanting to tackle it but just needed some guidance. Any questions just ask, Id be happy to answer.

Reactions: 1

matix33

· #8 · Feb 3, 2015

Great job, very specified and lot info, marked. Will upgrade mine very soon.

Reactions: 1

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 7, 2015

Thanks! Hope it goes smooth for you as it did for me.

kingnba6

· #10 · Feb 7, 2015

very nice and pretty detailed install.

camry2008a

· #11 · Feb 7, 2015 (Edited)

Hi,
I bought a rear camera that used Wifi instead of routing the wires to the front.
My camera sits on the license plate but I am stuck on figuring out how to pass the wire into the car without drilling a hole in the body.
It is unclear to me how you were able to pass the wire from the camera into the inside of the car without having to drill a hole in the license plate light. Can you please explain?
(Also, I ended up breaking the key lever but that is another post).

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #12 · Feb 7, 2015

camry2008a said:
Hi,
I bought a rear camera that used Wifi instead of routing the wires to the front.
It is unclear to me how you were able to pass the wire from the camera into the inside of the car without having to drill a hole in the license plate light. Can you please explain?
(Also, I ended up breaking the key lever but that is another post).

My camera goes where the license plate lights go. So I had to remove one of them to install it, wires goes behind it so no holes are drilled, which is exactly what I wanted. Heres pics regarding it:

These are the license plate lights:

Here it is mounted to the trim before mounting it to the license plate light:

The result, with no holes (but lots of wiring) and the other half of the camera itself is still a license plate light:

See less See more

3

camry2008a

· #13 · Feb 7, 2015

Thanks for replying but it is not clear to me; the rim of the license plate light is tightly flush with the trunk lid - there is no space to route a wire in.
I assume the wire from your camera has to be inserted through between the plastic rim of the light and the metal trunk - is that correct?
So how did you do it...?

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #14 · Feb 8, 2015 (Edited)

camry2008a said:
Thanks for replying but it is not clear to me; the rim of the license plate light is tightly flush with the trunk lid - there is no space to route a wire in.
I assume the wire from your camera has to be inserted through between the plastic rim of the light and the metal trunk - is that correct?
So how did you do it...?

I see what youre asking, what I think isnt clear is the way my backup camera is built. I needed to throw one (right side) of my old license lights out to fit it in. That leaves a hole, it is made to match the bracket of my license plate light so it uses the actual hole that the license plate light uses for its wiring to allow the camera's wires in, I literally remove one of my license plate lights and it goes in place of it and the wire is allowed into my trunk behind the camera itself. No tucking. Here are pics to hopefully make a little more sense. Mine is up top, as you can see, it has the license plate light built into it and it fits right into the hole which is why I had to remove the trim and one of my lights. The bottom is a generic backup camera where you would have to drill holes as it has to be mounted to the trim and also needs a hole to tuck the wire whereas mine uses my license plate light.

This my camera:

If youre thinking of using these, then drilling is required:

See less See more

2

camry2008a

· #15 · Feb 23, 2015 (Edited)

ok, I understand now. This is the camera I purchased. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Jn67tisag
I was hoping to somehow pass the wire in through the license plate lights without drilling.
I ended up breaking the key hole lever and am thinking of returning the camera to the store - very frustrating.

If you have expertise on how to repair the broken part, please help - no replies so far. see my post here
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...c-part-connecting-latch-lever-lock-trunk.html

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #16 · Feb 23, 2015

camry2008a said:
ok, I understand now. This is the camera I purchased. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Jn67tisag
I was hoping to somehow pass the wire in through the license plate lights without drilling.
I ended up breaking the key hole lever and am thinking of returning the camera to the store - very frustrating.

If you have expertise on how to repair the broken part, please help - no replies so far. see my post here
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/1...c-part-connecting-latch-lever-lock-trunk.html

Im sorry to hear about your frustrations, I did check out the one you used and yes it needs to be drilled in order to run the power wire. Also for the trunk piece, youll need to buy a whole new one, they dont sell small pieces like that. Junk yards are your best bet, im looking for the key tumbler myself as I broke mine on another occasion.

KonKet

· #17 · Apr 18, 2015

Thanks for posting. This is the best looking camera, what's the brand and where did you buy it? How's the image quality? Thanks!

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #18 · Apr 19, 2015

KonKet said:
Thanks for posting. This is the best looking camera, what's the brand and where did you buy it? How's the image quality? Thanks!

Thanks! It is a generic no brand Chinese camera, I bought it off ebay. Look up "rear view camera camry" and it should pop up. I had to have it shipped from Hong Kong as there were no US distributors. Image quality is pretty good, considering its not HD nor expensive. There are markings it puts into the display that really help (you can see it in my pictures).

Here's a link (if this is not allowed, mods please remove):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CCD-Color-R...059?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c5128f95b

brianvu

· #19 · Apr 17, 2016

Camry_wiz said:
Thanks! It is a generic no brand Chinese camera, I bought it off ebay. Look up "rear view camera camry" and it should pop up. I had to have it shipped from Hong Kong as there were no US distributors. Image quality is pretty good, considering its not HD nor expensive. There are markings it puts into the display that really help (you can see it in my pictures).

Here's a link (if this is not allowed, mods please remove):
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CCD-Color-R...059?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c5128f95b

Will this camera work in the low light condition? Does it have the night vision feature? And how long can it last? Thanks.

Camry_wiz

Discussion Starter · #20 · Apr 17, 2016

brianvu said:
Will this camera work in the low light condition? Does it have the night vision feature? And how long can it last? Thanks.

Technically no but I have LED license plate lights along with LED reverse lights which produce a lot of light so my view is clear and fairly bright. And no, this does not have night vision, that option was not available nor do I think it will be. I've seen other types of cameras with it though. And not sure what you mean by how long will it last but it's been about a year with it and no problems also it stays on as long as my car is in reverse as it uses the reverse light power.

1 - 20 of 47 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.