Wired LCD Rear View Mirror Cam Install

twintrbo

Member
I finally had some time to install the LCD mirror and rear view cam I bought a few weeks ago. I bought it from a company called Visor View (store.visorview.com) and they had a few different solutions for me. I changed my mind after it was delivered and they were awesome about exchanging stuff, no hassles and I got exactly what I wanted.

I wound up with a Gentex LCD mirror which has a 2.4" screen and a Sony camera with an extremely OEM looking mount. I'm big on factory look so it was essential that it looked like it came that way. Gentex makes all the OEM mirrors too so its auto dimming and you cannot see the LCD when its off, period..... Very trick piece!

Now for the install and how it all came together.

Tools required:
Flat bladed prying tool like a 1" putty knife
Phillips Screwdriver
T-20 Torx Screwdriver
Electrical Tape
Tie Wraps
10mm Socket
Multimeter or Test Light
Drill
7/8" (22mm) hole saw
3/16" Drill bit
1/4" drill bit
Alcohol pads
Wire Crimper/Stripper
~36" solid 12ga wire
Tying Twine
Dremel with Cut-off wheel
Diagonal Cutters

Ready Kids?
 
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I like method A, usually the easiest to follow.

Just wondering though, why do you need a rear view mirror cam for the 5? I've been having a bit of difficulty at the beginning backing up, mostly b/c i've never driven a hatch before, but by now i'm use to it.

I could see this being useful if you had a trailer or something?
 
Living in the city is a different animal than other places. I parallel park most of the time and there are kids everywhere. I'm used to backing it up but I had a few close calls with people walking out while I'm reversing and to really watch both sides you need to swivel your head between the side views and over either shoulder, its pretty impossible to be fully aware of whats going on without it. Here are a few teaser shots of the install and one to illustrate why its needed. Notice in the mirror shot, you do not see that garbage can. I have a 3yo and a 6mo old who will be walking before you know it. The neighbor, who I share a driveway with, has a 4yo a 3yo and a 2yo, so thats 5 good reasons to have a cam on the 5 :)
 

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Living in the city is a different animal than other places. I parallel park most of the time and there are kids everywhere. I'm used to backing it up but I had a few close calls with people walking out while I'm reversing and to really watch both sides you need to swivel your head between the side views and over either shoulder, its pretty impossible to be fully aware of whats going on without it. Here are a few teaser shots of the install and one to illustrate why its needed. Notice in the mirror shot, you do not see that garbage can. I have a 3yo and a 6mo old who will be walking before you know it. The neighbor, who I share a driveway with, has a 4yo a 3yo and a 2yo, so thats 5 good reasons to have a cam on the 5 :)

Thats quite a nice mod! the vid on the rearview mirror looks awesome, way better than a seperate console!
 
Please elaborate on which setup you bought. It's hard to match from your pictures what you bought with the crappy photos on the website.

It really looks great. I'm very impressed.
 

This was the kit I initially bought, but the mirror had a blue anti-glare coating rather than being auto dimming like the one I swapped it for.

In the end I got this mirror:
http://store.visorview.com/gentex-242br.aspx
And this camera:
http://store.visorview.com/newoemstylecamerav-v-nrv001.aspx

The camera is the same one as the kit but a different mirror. They have tons of other options though. Thanks for all the compliments, like I said an OEM look was top priority for me, and I think it was acheived. I will post the install pics a little later today, gotta go do an airport run for the in-laws! I never had these jobs til I had the 5, ah the price for utility......... :)
 
I will start out by saying you need to remove all the interior rocker trim pieces on the passenger side first. I pulled the cable from the front to the back of the car and left the slack in the hatch, in hind sight, it might have been best to do it in reverse and leave the slack under the dash. I initially thought that the run into the hatch would be very difficult so I left it for last just in case.

Step one was to remove the a pillar trim. As seen in other posts, its best to just pull it firmly from the middle toward the other side of the car til the clips release. There are 3 clips total, one at the bottom and one in the middle, the top one is not removed the same way. Once they are off then you can slide the trim upwards to release that one clip at the top rather than pull it out, I was afraid it would be damaged if I tried. Update: I believe that if you rotate the middle part of the clip, it should pull out but I have not confirmed this. I read about it in documentation on the CX-9 install for the OEM camera.

To run the wires I opened the existing clips and put my wires into them and closed them again, thanks Mazda! This way its held securely and wont interfere with the air bags. Next you can slide the cable end between the headliner and windshield over to the mirror location. Make sure you leave enough slack to make the connection to the mirror before securing the clips!
 

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This shot shows the location and the connections for the mirror to function. I left all the connections I had to make here in the passenger footwell for easy access.

To remove the kick panel, you must first take off the door sill. This just pulls straight up fairly easily. Then you will remove the expanding clip by your feet by prying out the middle pin that locks it. The spackle knife works well for this. Then you just pull the plastic cover straight back towards the seat and it pops right off.

Behind the kick panel is a large wire loom with both of the wires you need. The ground can go to the bolt holding the harness connector in place. +12v Ignition power will come from a GREEN wire with a BLACK stripe and silver dots in the back of the harness. +12v Reverse signal power will come from a RED wire with a YELLOW stripe and silver dots.

I saw 3 wires of that color so please check that its the right one before taping it. They should all be the same signal anyway but I did not verify it. They should be the one from the switch at the shifter and then it branches off to each of the tail lights. If you are nervous about testing (don't be) then you can always tap the reverse signal at the tail light itself. Remember, to test the reverse signal, the car does NOT have to be running, just put the ignition to ON, pull the handbrake and then press the brake to shift to reverse. The wire should only have 12v when its in reverse.

The kit supplied those great splice connectors for the connections. They tap the wire and leave a connection for an insulated spade connector to join it. No cutting or taping required! Now the wire can lay in right next to the factory harness following its path. This is the end of the difficult wiring, everything else is a plug. The power for the camera comes from the mirror so you will not have to make any other connections to the vehicle.
 

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Under the passenger seat there is a channel that the wire loom runs through, I figure if the factory felt it was a safe place for wires, then I should follow their lead. To get at both sides you now need to remove the sill trim from the rear door area. Once again, this comes up with a gentle pull. When its off, there is a push pin holding down the carpet, this also will pry out easily and you can have access to the channel. Using the wire, it should be easy to pull the drag through and then the cable.
 

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Once you get the cable to the front of the second row, you will encounter this plastic box that you must pull through to get the cable to the back of the car. The factory installed this as a “step” to get to the third row so its very sturdy and will protect the wires easily but it was a little tricky to pull through. Best bet is to use the wire to fish the drag line from one hole to the next in order to get it to go the path you need. First pic shows the white and blue string I used for a drag and the entry path to the box on top of the factory harness. Second pic shows one of the middle points I used to get the wire on the right path and the last pic shows where I eventually exited the box and how I went behind the seat belt anchor in order the keep the cable away from where it could be stepped on and it could then be routed away from the rear passenger floor and behind the rear quarter panel trim.
 

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First picture shows the next obstacle, there is some bracing under the quarter panel trim cover and I wanted to keep the wires tucked away from harm. This pic: http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=160764&d=1263329805 shows what lies beneath and what I wanted to go behind that brace. If you keep the snake straight and push it along the frame, you should pop out right where photo #2 shows. At this point your cable will be under the frame brace and behind the seatbelt anchors keeping them safely behind the trim panel and out of sight.
 

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Routing through the D pillar area and up to the roof. For the next step you will need to remove the roof trim in the hatch area and the cover for the spare tire. As with most trim pieces, you just pry it straight off, down in this case, and its off, just be careful not to lose the little metal clips so ease it off, dont yank it. Then you need to remove the one phillips head screw holding the lower trim piece to the body so you can pull it away to fish the wires up. The first picture is where the drag line will start but you need to fish the wire from the middle down and then from the middle up, its just too hard with too many obstacles to do in one shot. Going down you need to be behind the storage box molded into the panel to get the where the spare tire is. Going up you should fish from the roof down and then make sure you are behind all clips that secure the trim before pulling the cable through. When you put back the trim pieces make sure the weather stripping is pulled out from under it so the seal is maintained. In the third picture there are 2 areas for clips, I went between the two spots, not where the cable is in the picture.
 

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Wiring into the hatch from the roof. Once you have the cable through the D pillar trim, then there is nothing to get in the way of the cable to the rubber boot to the hatch. Just tie wrap to existing wiring to support the cable. To get the boot off from the car side, its best to pull from the side towards the middle of the car to get it past the tab that retains it. For the Hatch side its the opposite. Once its pulled off, its best to remove the plastic insert and reassemble the 2 pieces which then snaps back in easily. You can see how this works out in the second picture. Now you can fish the cable through the rubber boot, a little liquid soap will help ease the cable through the boot. I did not use anything to lube when I did it, but I was just being lazy :) It can be difficult, so get the soap out before you start so you dont have an excuse!

Now comes the hardest part of the install, fishing the wire from the top of the hatch, around the window and into the bottom half. I thought I was going to be here for days doing this but it turned out to be so simple in the end. First off remove the little rectangle plug on the side of the rear window, in here you will see the wire for the defroster grid. If the factory got the wire through, so can you! I bent my fishing wire to about the path I wanted it to follow, this helps it go where you want it to. Then I fished it into the hole where the boot was and just slowly pushed it in, jiggling if it hit any obstacles. Surprisingly it went pretty easy but I could not locate it even though it was where it should be. The thing here is that when you look into the rectangle hole, you can see some body structure, and even though you would expect it to wind up on top where you can see it, it comes out under the channel, not over it. You will need to fish through a fairly narrow opening to get to the void under the glass (with the hatch up) but its very possible. Picture 3 shows the exit point. At this point you can crack a brew and enjoy being past the halfway point.
 

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Wiring through the hatch to the camera area. Now you will need to remove the trim panel on the inside of the hatch. Hmmm Maybe this was the hardest part of the install. The trim panel did NOT want to move, I thought I was going to break it for sure but it did go, stubborn thing had me cursing! I used my putty knife to pry off the top by the wiper and it did not go easily at all. I was able to get enough room to get my fingers in on one side and just pulled as hard as I could over as wide an area as I could manage. I thought it broke when it finally let go but it turned out to be in one piece and totally unharmed. Whew! Now that it was off there was a very convenient hole that youwill see in the pictures to fish the cable into the bottom part of the hatch. Once you have the wire down there, you can pretty much close up all the trim panels you took apart in the previous steps.
 

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Hole for the camera. Now the most nerve wracking part, drilling a hole in the body of the car. I will not be specific on any measurements here since there can be large deviations in the style and type of camera used. As you can see, under the lip where the release handle is, there is an area where the camera would be if we had it available in the US. I decided the factory knows whats good so I used this location. For my install, I made the hole with a 22mm or 7/8” hole saw, this would accommodate the harness from the camera. This is a circular bit with a center pilot bit. I wanted my camera to be as far back as possible so I made the hole accordingly. I put a towel over the hatch paint to avoid the drill scratching anything. It would be best to wash the area first too, so no dirt gets ground in, and use a clean towel too. Then I turned the torque down on the drill to its minimum since you are only going through plastic and you dont want it to catch and toss the drill or bend the bit, etc..... Remember, GO SLOW. Measure twice and drill once, there is no hurry to get through and you will get a cleaner cut by using less pressure. On the other side of where the hole will be the factory put a piece of self stick insulation over the hole. You can see this through the hole I made. In order to preserve it, push it out of the way carefully so you can stick it back on after to seal the cable. Now that you made the hole, time to mount the camera. My particular camera uses a threaded stud that goes into the camera housing and the other end uses a nut, bolt and lockwasher. In addition to this, there is a custom cut piece of body tape to secure the camera a second way. I measured for the stud hole and drilled that the appropriate size, your model may vary :) Next step is cut the stud to length with a dremel and clean both surfaces with alcohol before you use the tape. Its a good idea to fit the camera once without the tape in order to verify fit. Now stick that camera on and tighten the stud, this might be a little tight to get into the area but its easier than taking the hatch apart! Now stick down the insulation you pulled up and adding a little duct tape inside the hatch area on the other side wouldn't hurt either. Its a pretty well protected area for weather intrusion but better safe then sorry.
 

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Securing wiring for the camera in the hatch. In these pictures you can see where I chose to secure the excess cabling. Looking back, I would have done the wiring in reverse so I could hide all this stuff under the dash instead. If the harness does not lend itself to wiring the other direction because of size, etc.. then you must do what I did. The entire hatch is composite so I did not hesitate to drill for support wherever I needed it. I used a 1/4" drill bit and found nice out of the way locations that would not interfere with latches or lights or anything of that sort. Just loop the tie wraps through and pull tight. Take your time to loop the wires neatly, sure you wont see it, but its just more professional looking and thats the goal! You will notice in the first pic on the left side there is a control box for the camera, I mounted that with double stick tape. Make sure you clean both surfaces with alcohol first so no grease or oil will make it fall off and rattle after its all closed up. I also wrapped the RCA plug connections with tape so they would be somewhat insulated and protected against coming loose too. Now plug it all in and hit the drivers seat for a quick test before you button it all up. Does it work? Then put all your trim pieces back and go show the wife how awesome you are! lol
 

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Inside view of the mirror with and without display active. With the booster seat in the back the rear window gets pretty small so having the camera really makes things easy when backing up. I can imagine how hard it would be with 2 adults back there, or a full load of luggage for a trip. Whats also nice is that you dont need another thing cluttering the interior and you get an auto dimming mirror to boot! The second picures proves why I felt it was needed. That garbage can is there in both shots and it could easily be a child or pet that you just cant see otherwise. (the 6 wagon and the 5 was purely coincidental, my neighbor has a 5, an RX-8 and the 6)
 

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