[Daily1LE]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share my blackvue dash cam and battery install, and hope to provide information for anyone else looking in future. I want to first say I am no expert and doing something like this was a first for me, but I did a lot of research and feel like the result was pretty good.

While I know there are several good videos on dashcam installs, there were a few things I did different I wanted to point out that I feel like ended up being a better result.

Rather than focusing on the step by step install which I feel like there's already good detail on out there, I want to point out the things I did differently. Though if anyone in the future has questions, feel free to ask me.

The first thing is running the power wire for the blackvue ultra battery. Blackvue provides a fuse tap that you can run to the fuse box in engine bay. A lot of the vids out there have the wire running out the passenger door. Some suggest running the wire thru the grommet that is in the door jam, but even that the wire is a tiny bit visible. Being as paranoid as I am I wanted to do it differently. I have my sound tube deleted, so I had an idea to run the wire thru there. I drilled a hole in the block plate and ran the wire thru it. The wire is wrapped in 3/8 braided sleeving.


Here it is installed:


The next modification was I didn't want to just notch the fuse box. Instead I drilled a 1/2 inch hole and used a rubber grommet to make it look nice


Installed:


One thing to note is the ground ring that blackvue provided is too small to fit on that ground bolt that you can see in the top right of the above picture. I had to cut that off and install a larger ground ring. You'll want a 3/8 inch ring. 5/16 can work (which is what I used) but the ground there is a hexagon shape base and the 5/16 is a tad too small so it kinda bent it when I put the nut back on. Though seems to be working fine so far. Another note is on which fuse I tapped. I tried F45 (sunroof) which I thought would be perfect since my car doesn't have a sunroof but apperently that is a constant power fuse which I was shocked to find out (you sunroof guys can open your sunroof when car is off???) So I ended up tapping F58


The next thing is running the cable from the battery (which is in my glove box) to the dash cam. All the videos out there just sort of say to tuck the wire behind the A pillar and rubber molding. I didn't like the idea of running wires in front of the air bag, so I took the A pillar off and ran the wire zip tied to the existing wire harness that is there:


It's hard to see in next photo but you can just barely squeeze the wire below the bottom of the A pillar:


I then zip tied extra wires here:


The final challenge was fitting the 2 blackvue ultra batteries in the glove box. I wanted 2 batteries to have ~48 hours of parking mode. It took a lot of swears but it is possible to get them both in there. One thing to note is that the glove box doesn't open all the way anymore. The top of the battery hits the top and keeps it from opening all the way. But considering the glove box is pretty useless now anyway, I won't be storing anything in it anyway:


One more thing that I didn't get any pictures of is running the wire for the rear dash cam. Again most information out there says to run the wire tucked along the passenger side roof liner and rubber molding but again there is an airbag there. I ended up dropping the roof liner and ran the wire down the middle (I don't have a sunroof) which worked perfectly.

Lastly here is the front dash cam installed:

[arpad_m]

Very clean job with the braiding and cable routing, congratulations The "last mile", that is, the 3 wires near the mirror, look exactly the same as my (trunk-based) setup, this is probably the cleanest one can get with the Camaro.

Were you able to use the notch in the headliner at the center of the windshield to guide the wires into? It's as if GM knew we were going to install dash cams and radar detectors

[Daily1LE]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

Very clean job with the braiding and able routing, congratulations The "last mile", that is, the 3 wires near the mirror, look exactly the same as my (trunk-based) setup, this is probably the cleanest one can get with the Camaro.

Were you able to use the notch in the headliner at the center of the windshield to guide the wires into? It's as if GM knew we were going to install dash cams and radar detectors

Thank you! So the notch is my last step! In the photo I posted the wires run straight up into the headliner, but the notch you mention is a little bit to the left. To get the wires to run that way I have to figure out a way to force them to go that way, because they naturally are straight. I was thinking to tape the 3 wires together and then tape them down onto the headliner to force them into that notch. May I ask what you did to get them into that notch?

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by Daily1LE

Thank you! So the notch is my last step! In the photo I posted the wires run straight up into the headliner, but the notch you mention is a little bit to the left. To get the wires to run that way I have to figure out a way to force them to go that way, because they naturally are straight. I was thinking to tape the 3 wires together and then tape them down onto the headliner to force them into that notch. May I ask what you did to get them into that notch?

I left a little slack in dashcam wires above the headliner, that way they stay put in the notch. Along with that, I routed the radar detector wire in the overhead console so that there's barely any tension on it.

The only time it pops out of the notch is when I occasionally disconnect/reconnect the detector (basically when I drive to/from Virginia, oh well :/)

[EliteLT1]

This looks great, I'm going to copy most of it. Thanks for posting!

Is the firewall plug just a 3D printed one you can get on eBay? I dropped my original plug in my engine bay somewhere, never to be seen again

[Daily1LE]

Originally Posted by EliteLT1

This looks great, I'm going to copy most of it. Thanks for posting!

Is the firewall plug just a 3D printed one you can get on eBay? I dropped my original plug in my engine bay somewhere, never to be seen again

No problem, if you run into any issues or have questions just hit me up!
As for the firewall plug, I used the one that came with my roto-fab intake. It is made out of some sort of metal with some soft fabric on the back of it to help seal the hole. Though I don't think you need anything that fancy. If I recall correctly, the hole for the sound tube is 1 inch, so I would suspect a simple 1 inch rubber plug/grommet could work. This reminds me I still need to do something about the tiny gap that is present in the hole /wire. Technically fumes could get through which I don't want so need to close that tiny gap with something.