Our Boxster has parking sensors but MrsEldavo is used to a reversing camera and given the blind spots caused by the roof shape it seemed a good idea to fit one - especially as the Parrot Head Unit has dedicated connections for one.
This nice deep lip between the number plate lights seemed ideal:
So it was "spoiler up" to remove that and get to the first few fasteners:
Then the lights out to reveal some more fasteners, another 8 underneath and the bumper simply slides off:
The camera kit was about a tenner off eBay and came from China, it included the camera, all the cables and even a hole saw. After a quick check that it worked, I measured the centre point on the bumper and fitted the camera:
The grommet for the bumper wiring was as slack as a hooker's chuff, so held it open with a screwdriver (the grommet, not the chuff) and fed the video and power cables into the boot area:
Took a 12v and a ground off the rear light cluster wiring, the positive is tapped into the reverse lights so that the camera will automatically power on when reverse is selected. I'm not a fan of Scotchloks so stripped back the insulation, soldered the wires into place and reinsulated with electrical tape:
A neat touch is that the video RCA cable also has a separate signal wire attached to it, I hooked this up to the positive wire that fed the camera. The other end of this signal wire connects to a cable on the back of the head unit, when it sees 12V it automatically switches the display over to the rear view camera input. Saves me running a separate wire for this purpose from the loom in the driver's footwell:
Everything back together and ran the video cable around the edge of the boot floor, under the roof mechanism, into the cabin by the roll bar, then tucked under the carpet around the engine panel and then under the central transmission tunnel into the back of the unit. You select reverse, the camera powers up and the screen changes to the relevant input:
Works well at night too:
This nice deep lip between the number plate lights seemed ideal:
So it was "spoiler up" to remove that and get to the first few fasteners:
Then the lights out to reveal some more fasteners, another 8 underneath and the bumper simply slides off:
The camera kit was about a tenner off eBay and came from China, it included the camera, all the cables and even a hole saw. After a quick check that it worked, I measured the centre point on the bumper and fitted the camera:
The grommet for the bumper wiring was as slack as a hooker's chuff, so held it open with a screwdriver (the grommet, not the chuff) and fed the video and power cables into the boot area:
Took a 12v and a ground off the rear light cluster wiring, the positive is tapped into the reverse lights so that the camera will automatically power on when reverse is selected. I'm not a fan of Scotchloks so stripped back the insulation, soldered the wires into place and reinsulated with electrical tape:
A neat touch is that the video RCA cable also has a separate signal wire attached to it, I hooked this up to the positive wire that fed the camera. The other end of this signal wire connects to a cable on the back of the head unit, when it sees 12V it automatically switches the display over to the rear view camera input. Saves me running a separate wire for this purpose from the loom in the driver's footwell:
Everything back together and ran the video cable around the edge of the boot floor, under the roof mechanism, into the cabin by the roll bar, then tucked under the carpet around the engine panel and then under the central transmission tunnel into the back of the unit. You select reverse, the camera powers up and the screen changes to the relevant input:
Works well at night too:
