:rofl:

I clicked that link and this is what amazon had on the top of the screen.

So we will have the same camera it seems :)

From what I could tell when I took the lip assembly off my x5 the handle isn't much easier to swap either which is why I just went with the stand alone camera.

Basically all of the plug and play camera ideas only work on vehicles that the item your replacing goes directly into the trunk lid.

The E53 X5 and my E46 323i have a lip that bolts onto the trunk/hatch lid. None of the off the shelf gadgets will fit cars that use that lip to hold the lights/handles. Only ones that go directly into the trunk itself will work with them.

For instance my wife's 528i has the tag lights that bolt into the trunk itself. No lip assembly. All of the bolt on gadgets work with her car.

^Yes, sorry I said e39/e46 in my post about how I did my reverse camera... I'll correct it so someone doesn't get confused.

Avin also advertises theirs as having e53 and e46 compatibility (unless they corrected it since I did my install, I did notify them)... which is as you say, wrong.

In light of fitment issues reported here and other threads I was looking around and found this backup cam on a YouTube demo by JD cars. What is your take on this one?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ff0432fc398a50




Garage:
E53 4.4i M62 born 2003-03-04 (SOLD)
E53 4.8iS N62s born 2006-03-16
E90 325i N52 born 2006-03-28
F30 328i N20 born 2012-09-06

Looks terrible... IMO of course. Probably functions just fine though... has tons of reviews and they look mostly favorable. Remember though, if going this route, you will have to find a way to get the wiring up and into the hatch. Then you will have to weather proof that hole. :(

Fair enough. The YouTube demo was on E90 and I forgot the lightbulb used to wire the camera in the trunk is inside the upper trunk lid on E53.



Garage:
E53 4.4i M62 born 2003-03-04 (SOLD)
E53 4.8iS N62s born 2006-03-16
E90 325i N52 born 2006-03-28
F30 328i N20 born 2012-09-06

Instead of tearing into the hatch trim and latch mechanism and down to the area under the rear floor, I chose a simple wiring route up from the hitch and into the under floor area through the same access hole as the factory hitch wiring passes. This was a priority for me in my camera selection and install.

While not a "purist" camera install, it works for me and I'm happy with it. :dunno: :dunno:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ac...Q=w852-h442-no

Mike

Better in number plate light or in number plate cover! This is very low and lens will be dirty much fastwr

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

Yes, I have found the lens to dirty quickly.

I gave some thought to lower area of number plate but that would have had me running a wire on the tailgate down under :dunno: :dunno: or drilling into the tailgate (yikes) to bring the camera wire in the tailgate and then out where the tailgate light wires exit.

So I just live with what I've got until I see a better solution.

Mike