itfcjim

Hi all

This morning I hardwired a dashcam (front and rear) into my wife's 2016 C Class (W205). Just went to give it a test drive to see what the footage is like and noticed that the radio reception seems to have degraded (seems to be if I accelerate / brake hard, or take a hard corner, the radio shows "No Reception", then recovers after a few seconds)

It's a right hand drive vehicle, and I've run the wires from the camera to the left of the interior mirror, inside the plastic shroud behind the interior mirror, under the headliner, down the A Pillar on the driver's side and into the driver's side fuse box (piggy backed onto the glove box light 5A fuse). The wiring for the rear camera is the same, but runs across to the back of the car from the top of the A Pillar, then across the headliner at the back of the car (above the back windshield).

I'm wondering if I've knocked something (antenna / amplifier) whilst running the wires? Does anyone know the location of the antenna/amplifier so I can check it hasn't become disconnected? I've temporarily removed the wiring for the rear camera and it hasn't made a difference to the radio reception (I thought perhaps the looped wiring at the back of the car might be causing some interference)

Many thanks in advance
Jim

GreekUPS

I believe the radio antenna is the top 2-3 lines of the back window. Sorry I can’t help any further.

itfcjim

Thanks - I think you're right

I unplugged the rear dashcam and the radio reception went back to perfect, so I think it's interference rather than me having broken anything. I'll try and stick some ferrite cores on the rear cable and see if that fixes it

soxtoby

Hi Jim, I have the exact same issue, after the installation of a dashcam with additional rear camera, hard wired with same cable routing.
Did you manage to resolve the rear camera interference problem?
Steve

itfcjim

Hi Steve

We've actually sold the car now, but I tried putting ferrite cores on both sides of the cable and it made a slight difference. The signal was still degraded however, it just didn't drop out quite so often.
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In the end I just unplugged the rear dashcam and lived without it (it was only 720p through a dirty back windscreen so the footage was pretty useless anyway)

Good luck!

soxtoby

Thanks for coming back so quickly. I'll try the ferrite beads but it sounds like I may end up disconnecting the rear camera.
Thanks anyway.

cheerful

I just found the same issue. Does anything help? Is it the cable or the camera that's interfering?

Thanks

cheerful

A bit quick experiment.

Power off the camera - static gone

Remove the rear camera from the rear screen -- no change
Remove the wires tucked into the top cover above the rear screen - limited improvement