How do I access the X5's reverse light circuit and ground wire?

[x5craze]

wait, so i will be able to find these wires (brown, and white/yellow) in the tailgate?

and just to make sure -

The reverse light is 3?


edit: i think thats what PersonaNonGrata said too, so I take it that this is correct?

[powers1]

Originally Posted by x5craze

wait, so i will be able to find these wires (brown, and white/yellow) in the tailgate?

and just to make sure -

The reverse light is 3?


edit: i think thats what PersonaNonGrata said too, so I take it that this is correct?

The reversing light is 3.

You dont need to remove the rear lights to access the wires,

PNG referred to a Brown wire but this is NOT the reversing light wire!This is Common ground wire(Negative -12v).Its the Yellow/white that is the reversing lght +12v wire.

Check out my picture of where to more conveniently find these wires

[x5craze]

hey, i was wondering if there is someway to connect it to the parking sensor wire, so that way i would have complete control over it (i would be able to turn it on/off with the button), while still automatically turning on when backing up

[drsar]

I'm in the same boat - I want to install the same wireless rearview camera but I still have 2 questions after reading this thread:

1) Can someone explain step by step how to remove the panels in the tailgate to get to the wires.

2) How do I get the wires to the outside of the car where the camera will sit on top of the license plate - are there existing holes I can thread through or do I have to run the wire over the tailgate (which would look bad) - I don't want to drill a hole.

Thanks.

[ncx]

Originally Posted by dmlgc

..... But after reading this thread it sounds like I wire the bridged 85/87 wire to brown wire and 86 to Yellow/white ?

At this point since there is mention of frying electronics I'm inclined to not do this and just mark it up as lesson learned.

Correct. Powers1 is giving you good info. Pins 85+87 connect to reverse-light-ground (brown) and cam ground. I just crimped two wires together for this and connected them to the 2 grounds. Pin 86 connects to reverse-light positive (yellow/white) and cam positive.

Here's more that may help cam install 1 cam install 2

You can do it

[ncx]

Originally Posted by drsar

I'm in the same boat - I want to install the same wireless rearview camera but I still have 2 questions after reading this thread:

1) Can someone explain step by step how to remove the panels in the tailgate to get to the wires.

2) How do I get the wires to the outside of the car where the camera will sit on top of the license plate - are there existing holes I can thread through or do I have to run the wire over the tailgate (which would look bad) - I don't want to drill a hole.

Thanks.

Try the second link in my above post for details on a license plate install.

[drsar]

Thanks ncx

I installed the VR-3 rearview camera today and quickly returned it.

Installation was fine thanks to instructions provided in this thread.

Putting the car in reverse with the engine OFF (key in position II), the picture screen was perfect.

As soon as I started the engine, the signal had so much interference. There was so many lines running through the screen that it became unusable. I don't have bluetooth or anything obvious in the car to interfere with it. I tried moving the screen to the rear power outlet closer to the camera and it made no difference. I even tried connecting the screen in a second car parked beside the x5 but once the x5 engine was started, the picture went bad. The connections were solid so that wasn't the issue.

Sherali

[ncx]

Originally Posted by drsar

As soon as I started the engine, the signal had so much interference.

What relay are you using? Check with Powers1, Wuzin, or SeattleYates who ran into that issue. Here was one of the threads about it. LINK

[ncx]

Very sorry to hear this did not work out for you. If you decide to give it another try later, maybe you can find someone on X5world that lives near you to lend a helping hand with the wiring.

[amancuso]

Originally Posted by ncx

Correct. Powers1 is giving you good info. Pins 85+87 connect to reverse-light-ground (brown) and cam ground. I just crimped two wires together for this and connected them to the 2 grounds. Pin 86 connects to reverse-light positive (yellow/white) and cam positive.

Here's more that may help cam install 1 cam install 2

You can do it

2004 X5 4.8is
Don't know how anyone got it to work this way. When I hooked it up (OEM TV module) the screen flickered between 1 and 2 seconds when in reverse. The image was there and you could see it, but it was very very annoying. The problem was the PWM coming from the reverse lights. I figured out a way to hook it up using 2 relays as follows:

Relay 1:

86: Tail light +
Relay 2

85: Join to pos. 87 and Tail light ground

30: Pin 17 at the TV module blue connector

Relay 2:

86: Cam ground
ground (used radio conenctor brown wire pin 12)

87: 12v acc. (used radio connector violet/white pin 16)

85: -> to relay 1 86

30: Cam +

That seems to have eliminated the flicker. Hope this helps others in the same predicament.

61836247919__99AF22E3-D59A-4AA6-A2FA-C14E466DC417 by Al, on Flickr
qClBLDN7Rwym2OgpaKUHig by Al, on Flickr