Ok, trying to wrap a few items up before returning to California next week.
Finished routing the wiring for the microphone used for hands free telephone stuff. Sound quality is fantastic, works better than the factory handsfree I had in my Tacoma.
Next up was installing the back up camera. When I put the head unit in I went ahead and made the composite video and 12v connection needed for the camera and ran the wire out into the passenger's side foot well. From here I pulled floor trim pieces and routed the wire back toward the B-pillar (cleaning everything under the trim and carpet as I went, OCD).
Who ever owned this thing before went to the beach quite I bit...there's sand everywhere!
Once at the B-Pillar I came up under the trim and started running overhead under the headliner as I didn't want to fish wiring behind the complex trim pieces next to the third row seating. The grommets for getting wiring into the liftgate are up top anyway.
Once I got close to the back of the vehicle I realized there was an issue.
That wire isn't going to make it the next 6 feet or so needed to route it into the lift gate and down to the camera. I went on the hunt through my "I never throw any spare electronic item or cable away" boxes in search of another composite video cable and a coupler. I ended up finding a composite video cable but had to steal the coupler from my home stereo setup...I'll need to replace it soon, watching movies with no subwoofer is dumb.
Next up I started pulling trim pieces from the lift gate. Everything unsnaps easily except for the large trim piece. There's a screw hidden under the strap used to pull the lift gate closed, after removing that it's easy to pull away from the gate. Once inside I located the factory wiring for a rear view camera (green arrow) along with the plate it would mount to (orange arrow).
I pulled the two nuts holding the factory plate in place and removed it.
The camera I purchased mounts behind the license plate using a bracket so that it's almost completely hidden. I modified the factory plate so that the camera wiring would run through it and into the lift gate. Like this:
Everything was working out great except for the fact that I needed to extend the power cable to the camera. The cable that came with it (the one that was too short earlier) carries the video signal along with the 12v signal to the head unit and power to the camera. I extended the video side with the coupler and composite video cable but needed to extend the power cable now. This meant cutting off the connector and splicing some very tiny wires. Fun times.
This involved some delicate moves and tiny tubes of heat shrink. In all of my concentrated effort I didn't take photos...that one's all you get.
Back at the vehicle I pulled a metal plate that contains some sort of wiring interface on the back side. It appears that all the wiring outputs in the lift gate (tail lights, reverse bulbs, door lock / latch and window controls) are routed through a black box containing electrical pixie magic. I'll have to do some more research and see what that thing is. After pulling the mounting plate I routed my now extended video wire and power wire and connected them to the camera cabling.
Before buttoning everything back up I wanted to make sure it was all working correctly...just one problem. I need to give this thing 12 volts to get it to turn on. The ideal solution is to tap into the reverse light circuit and siphon it off from there. The problem is the wiring for those lights is virtually inaccessible inside the lift gate. I tried to trace them back out to somewhere I can splice into them but didn't have any luck. For testing purposes I grabbed a 12v battery from a Milwaukee power tool and hooked things up.
Success!
From here it was a matter of routing all the wiring against the factory loom inside the lift gate and closing everything up. A bit of advice when wiring inside doors (or lift gates): Always follow the factory wiring loom! Whenever you're in a door with windows that go up and down there are a moving parts everywhere! Window regulators, sliding tracks and the glass itself are there with the sole purpose of tearing apart your best laid wiring plans. If you hug tight to the factory loom that was laid out by some intern engineer somewhere you'll be fine and won't spend the next week tracking down broken connections and shorts.
After closing everything up in the gate I routed the power wires down through the side of the vehicle and out underneath the rear storage bin. I'm going to drop the power wires down under the vehicle through one of the MANY grommets here and tie into the reverse wire on the trailer connector. Only problem is my Sequoia has just the 4 pin connector so this won't be finished until my OEM 4/7 pin connector arrives from Amazon later this week.
Until then I just won't back up...or if I do I'll use my new rear view mirror!
While I was running wire everywhere I installed this Gentex auto dimming mirror with compass. I ordered it to fit the factory Toyota mount so it was as easy as pulling the old mirror and sliding this one on. Tighten down the set screw to keep it from flying off and you're good. I pulled the wiring up into the overhead console and picked up the factory connector from there to feed it a switched 12 volts. I replaced the stock mirror because:
1. It had some bubbling and warping in it, almost looked like it had been put in an oven or left in the sun...odd.
2. It wasn't auto dimming. I'm an American and I don't reach up to flip my mirror down at night darn it! That mirror should do the work for me! First world overlanding problems...
While I was tackling easy to do modifications I threw these in as well:
When the trailer connector comes in I'll document tying in the power for the rear camera and connecting the trailer harness. I should also mention that I have a second camera coming for the front of the vehicle. The rear view camera I ordered (
this one) promised the ability to disable the back up guide lines by cutting a jumper wire. This feature didn't work, however, so the seller is sending me another for free. The head unit I put in will display it's own guidelines so I didn't want the ones from the camera. Turns out the camera ones line up pretty well so I turned off the head unit ones and I'll put the other camera up front so I can see what's in front of the massive hood this thing has.
