bimmerconvert

Anyone done this before on a W213? ... seems to be plenty of info out there for W212, but none that I can find for W213.

I'm trying to figure out the best approach to doing a high mount for a V1 Gen2.

Wondering what the procedure is for pulling off the head liner/A-pillar covers is and which side the fuse box is on--the shop foreman at my local dealer seemed to think it was on the driver's side but the diagrams in the manual seem to indicate that it's in the passenger footwell.

And I don't think it has changed anything w.r.t. fuse box locations/etc, but this is a MY21 car.

Thanks in advance for any/all advice help!

RevisionCuda

I use mirror tap for radar detector and use fuse box on passenger side for dash cam

All wires tucked , very clean look inside and out.

I suggest thinkware for dash camera because it has built in voltage cut off and uniden for radar.

tvitarel

I am also interested in adding a dash cam front and rear and would like to hardwire a radar detector. Anyone have recommendations for cameras? The thinkware lineup seems to have some nice compact ones. Where are people pulling power on the rear dash cam?

RevisionCuda

Rear you can pull power from fuse box in trunk. pull down seats and wire it through that way.

bimmerconvert

I don't see a way to mirror-tap, so I'm looking to wire up through the headliner, down the a-pillar, and down to one of the fuse boxes. Do you happen to know how to pull the headliner and a-pillar covers off to accomplish that without too much disruption?

RevisionCuda

Ill take some pictures for you tomorrow.

For the Radar ,i took off the plastic panel above the mirror and tapped power.
For the dash cam , theres a fuse box on the right side of the passenger panel.

You dont need to pull the headliner at all , the wire is small enough where you are able to squeeze the wire between it and i think i did take the a-piller off to make it look more clean.

ygmn

be careful of tapping for power in overhead.

I read something about I think BMW owners or maybe corvette who did that and owners tapped into wrong wire (was power wire for Can module or seomthing.
Ended up ruining module and costing in over $1000 to get a new one.

Was about 1-2 weeks ago... Made sense then - makes sense now...

Best to go to fuse panel or behind cig (12VDC outlet) lighter for power. IMHO

ShaneN.

I did a mirror tap into my Acura because there was a plug there but I can't see a way to do that on this car. I tried on my c63s and there was no way since there was no where to tap into. They ended up running a cable all the way to the fuses in the trunk. Is there somewhere closer on the e63 to do it?

Pbl1

I think I recall prying off the little plastic cover which says "airbag" on "A" pillar and than gentle prying up the A pillar cover with plastic tools. I tried unsuccessfully to run wire to passenger fuse box in footwell as I only found fully live voltage at each fuse. I than ran wire all the way to trunk fuse panel but come to find out there was too much voltage drop with the 22 gauge phone wire I used and could not run the V1. Ended up running wire down passengers A pillar through/behind glove box and behind center console until I got to OBDII diagnostic port. Probably in retrospect you could go over to drivers side A pillar but not 100% sure on that getting around center mirror as I have not looked at that. I purchase a SAVVY from Valentine to plug into OBDll, clever little unit which is so nice around town not to be annoyed with false/alarm signals. Works great except every time I start up the car the computer recognizes it is plugged in so have to press "ok" on upper left steering wheel button, no big deal and well worth it for me. It is also very easy to tuck wire under headliner as mention using a plastic tool and get it to the A pillar.

Hope this helps,
Peter

bimmerconvert

I'm not tapping into the camera/mirror area--too much risk--definitely going the fuse box route. My main concern is figuring out how to pull the a-pillar and other dash panels off without breaking anything. Also I'm still not sure about going driver or passenger-side for a fuse that shuts off with the car--I've heard conflicting things and would like to avoid having to pull panels off on both sides. That's really my main question at this point: how to safely remove panels overhead (near mirror), a-pillar, and anything on the dash that's covering the fuse boxes.

And this car already has the built-in dash cam a la this thread: https://mbworld.org/forums/w213-amg/...ash-cam-2.html @HBerman had the great idea to use a portable SSD as primary storage on that front and I'm following his lead. I plugged mine into one of the USB-C ports in the center armrest storage... so far, so good.

RevisionCuda

Whats the risk?

I used this to tap the power for the radar.

bimmerconvert

So it sounds like the driver-side fuse box is the way to go? And I'm mounting it on the driver side of the center camera unit, but I think I'm going to run it through that center camera box for a cleaner look (even though I'm not going to piggy-back the wires there).

As for SAVVY, I took a look and I think I'm just going to use the V1 companion apps to silence it around town--probably have a "city" profile and an "open-road" profile since the LAPD/BHPD don't use radar much in my experience.

bimmerconvert

I can appreciate that our appetites for risk are different here. I'm just wondering how you snuck the wire for the dash cam down to the fuse box and which panels you removed to do so--I'm intent on doing the same thing, but with the RJ11 for the detector.

tvitarel

For a rear camera in a wagon where would one find the fusebox in the back of the vehicle? Trying to figure out things before my wagon finally arrives.

bimmerconvert

Remove the obvious panel on the right side of the trunk (you will know it when you see it) and you will see a cut-out of the insulation. Fuse box (with a folded up wiring/fuse diagram sneakily tucked in), is hiding behind the cut-out.

I can upload pics later if you want more detail.

Correct_Map

I'm running front+rear blackvue dashcams along with a uniden R7 which currently has an ugly cable dangling. Would love to convert to a mirror tap, would you mind sharing pics on how you tapped it?

MBS E53

I am anxious to find out how well this works. I am still using the "cigarette lighter" plug for power for my V1 Gen.2 How do you like yours, BTW?

Pbl1

That’s a little pricey for a mirror tap

E634Me

OK, I'm back after my Preparation H treatment. Ouch that's insane for a RJ crimp connector and a couple wire pin connectors.

BACnMercedes

I know very little about this but I was scratching my head trying to figure out why in the heck “the wire” was so expensive too when I looked at the link. I was trying to figure out what the heck I was missing. Apparently nothing!

zukmeister

old thread here... what fuse are you tapping into on passenger side? I'm looking for one that powers on with the car and off with the car

Thanks

S63AMG888

iTrader: (3)

Had my front and rear dash cam hardware to the OBD port underneath the steering column.

Olds403

Will install a VIOFO A139 in our E63s this week. The E63s should be easier as it has access to the front and rear fuse boxes. I did this on our E350 a few weeks ago with the Viofo A139 with the parking mode cables.
The E350 sucked and had to pull the rear seats and took me all day. I have a dual cam blackvue in our F250 but with the rear window screen on the E63s we went with front facing only. The VIOFO seemed like a good cam as it fits well and looks good.It will be a lot of work pulling cables from the trunk fuse box like on the E350.
Can hardly wait LOL

zukmeister

let me know which fuse you end up tapping into? I still need to do this

I don’t my camera to be always on though, just in and off with the car

Olds403

Viofo A139
Parking Mode Harness kit
Pulled everything to the trunk fuse box.
Pushed down rear passenger seat
Wires ran to the front fuse box as that is where the Viofo voltage selector box fit best
Ran the cables behind headliner and down the A puller using plastic pry tools
Fuses, wire, and wire taps from Amazon, Used 3amp fuses.
The white tape on the red wire is the ACC power
Not hard just takes time

12v constant was the 120/220 fuse on the top
12v ACC was the rear 12v socket fuse.

The fuse numbers are in the fuse paper in the rear
no connections were made in front passenger fuse box
ground stud in the rear fuse box was used for ground
yes pictures are duplicates due to hosting site.

Updated with the fuse pictures. Fuse was 449 for the 12V constant and 456 for the 12V switched ACC power. This was pulled from the rear.

If someone just wants to hardwire for switched on and / off use the paperwork in the rear fuse which has the E63 fuse diagrams.
The rear fuse panel is where all the accessory connections are for 12V front and rear powered sockets. Unfortunately I had to do this on our E350 as well and pull from the rear.

hope this helps

questions email me sigtauswt@yahoo.com

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