Hi guys,

I have the base headunit. Was trying to find the easiest way to put some kind of backup sensor or camera without needing to drill holes. Decided to forgo the idea of a camera due to the need to mount and power a screen. Found this lovely product on Amazon that seems promising ( ), but slightly worried about feeding the wire into the trunk wiring it up to the reverse lights (which aren't connected to the trunk lid).

Anyone know which wires to splice into (Reverse & Ground)?

Any help would be great!

 

Success! Not the most aesthetically pleasing, but I can put up with it for the purpose it serves. Now I don't need to worry as much about damaging the rear bumper.

 

Nice ... 1 more thing, try to paint that black wire white.

 

Thanks. I thought about it, but I would have to match the white paint and does not really seem worth the effort imo.

 

How does this possibly work? The sensor looks like it's pointing up?

 

The sensors are adjustable to accomodate for cars with angled plates. The sensors are actually pointed slightly downwards.

 

Do you have any wiring instructions you can share. I just damaged 2013 e350 bumper and need to protect this from after I repair so I do not do stupid thing again.

 

It's not that bad to wire up. All you need to do is wire tap into the reverse light (grey on my C300) with the positive (red) and two into the ground wire (brown on my C300) with the ground (black). The wire tap connectors are included with the kit. Then connect the small speaker and place it somewhere in the trunk (best if within the ceiling of the trunk/below rear parcel shelf); volume is adjustable on the speaker. You can easily hide all the wires with a little planning. I ran them within panels, within the trunk arm trim, and behind trunk lid trim. If you want to install a license plate frame, before mounting, you may want to consider using a drumel and cutting more space behind the sensors. Just be sure not to cut the wires underneath.
You may need to take off some exterior trim on your trunk lid in order to do a neat install (this is what took the most time for me). The license plate light panel had a plastic blank spot on the inside where I suppose the backup camera would have gone; drilled a small hole on the inside layer (large enough to run the wire/plug through). You also need to go to the hardware store to buy new screws since the old ones are too short and the ones provided are too thick. Before you screw everything back together, make sure to test it by setting the parking brake, turning the ignition to II (DO NOT TURN ON CAR), and putting car in reverse. If you don't hear beeps, check to make sure you fully wire tapped the wires on the taillight; may need to press harder for them to make better contact. Put everything back together and you're done.
If you know what you're doing, it should take less than a couple hours. It took me a bit since I've never done anything like this before and I was really doing a lot of planning to make sure wires weren't showing.

 

Something else I found that may be a pretty good product and easier to install would be this license plate frame that integrates rear view cameras and wirelessly sends the image to your phone. It's a bit pricier and I don't want to rely on getting my phone out every time I reverse. Something to consider if you don't want to wire up anything.

http://pearlauto.com

 

thats pretty cool. My phone screen is similar to the little LCD in my C300 so might be worth it...

I want a rear view cam, but I think more importantly I want rear few sensors. I have no problem backing up or into spots, but I worry that i'll hit the concrete barrier or something low to the ground I can't see. Hasn't happened yet though in my 10+ years of driving so

 

That has not happened to me in 20 years. My wife backed into the retaining wall and we put off getting it repaired. She felt really bad but when I did same thing she did not feel so bad. I am sure glag I did not get it repaired yet!

Thanks for the link to the Pearl camera. That is really nice. It still needs to get power from somewhere so Ill have to read up on that.

 

It supposedly has solar panel, so no wiring needed.