Here's a two-for-one mod using the Power Acoustik CCD-5XS back-up camera.



It is designed to screw through a license plate hole. The wiring comes out the end of it's metal thread (not seen in the stock photo above). The thread is much longer than in the stock photo. It's designed to screw through your license plat hole and the through the body of the car. Funny thing is that the wiring doesn't fit through the securing nut. I spoke with the company rep, and he agreed it was a stupid mistake. Anyway, I just used glue and silicone sealant to secure the camera.

First, removing the wiper is a real pain. Flip open the plastic cover and remove this nut and then the spray nozzle tip which slides out:



Pulling off my one-year old weathered wiper arm was near impossible. I got impatient and somehow hacked it off with careful hammering and wedging with a screwdriver. If you want to do it the right way, spray well with WD-40 and get a wiper puller from an auto store.

Either before or now, remove the inside hatch trim by first removing these two torx screws:



Then remove the 3rd brake light trim, then the side trims, and then the main piece which is held by lots of clips. Just pull hard carefully straight outwards. Detach the fluid nozzle and electrical wiring connector from wiper motor (on the left) and then the three screws of the plastic mounting bracket to remove it:



I then plugged the wiper nozzle with some sticky tack stuff for good measure. That motor is pretty heavy. Losing the weight is another benefit of this mod. Remove the rubber grommet and you're left with this:



Then I used come Devcon glue to secure a rubber washer disk that comes with the camera around the hole. Then I threaded the camera wiring through and glued the camera to the rubber disk. From behind, I used silicone sealant around the inside edges.



Then I attached the wiring to my old hatch handle mounted back-up camera's wiring (CCD-4XS) which used the same connector. As I wrote in that thread, this is how a ran the old wiring:
My old camera had used a 3.5" monitor from gooddeals.com that fit perfectly in the center cubby. Now I get to enjoy the view from my carpc's diy fabricated 7" touchscreen:



The view is not as ideal as my old one mounted under the hatch handle where you can see the actual rear bumper so you can get a millimeters close to objects, but it really is good enough. Notice you can actually see the rear badge. Otherwise, the quality is the same as my old one with a nice very wide, clear view with decent colors and contrasts. Here's some exterior shots:







What's nice about this mod besides the clean look, it there's no need for drilling any holes. Delete the rear wiper's function at your own peril, though.

 

wow, will you do this for me? very nice work

 

Could you incorporate the nozzle into the camera install and use it to spray oil toward those pesky tailgaters?

 

Very cool MOD! Wonder if it could be hooked up to a Garmin or other Nav system outside of the MINI in dash?

 

thanks. wouldn't mind helping if you're in the nyc area. after taking apart my car installing two prior back-up cameras as well as a laser parking "sensor", i can install these in 30 minutes.

 

i did think about it. i'll stick with washer fluid, though. there is plenty of room to fit the camera and a nozzle for the infamous squirt gun mod.

 

as long as the gps unit accepts a composite rca or headphone jack type video input. the camera wiring comes with both. only "portable" gps unit i know of that does it is the behemoth Garmin Streetpilot 7200. the Azentek Smartmirror seems like an interesting alternative. it's a rearview mirror with gps, bluetooth, and auto-sensing video inputs for back-up cameras.

 

lacning74,
I will say this you certainly have a true mechanical ability with all of the electronics you install on your Mini and also for sharing the step by step procedures.The new back up camera mod also looks great too

 

Are you gonna route that wire the proper way eventually? It looks like ***.

 

i agree. those are old pics of the wiring in progress. it is cleaned up better now and wrapped in black silicone rescue tape. eventually, i plan on passing my wiring through the existing rubber hose/grommet where i tapped the wiring for my 3rd brake-light pulser. problem is i also got to squeeze in the two RJ-11 jacks of my laser interceptor wiring. there's not much room. i guess i can fillet the hose open and reglue it or just run my wiring outside the hose and wrap it with silicone tape so i don't mess with oem wiring harness. anyone have experience passing wiring through the hose?

 

hey lacning,
first off... nice mod! but, question: as I see you went into under the rear trunk hatch panel... how did you get under there? (i'd probably be able to figure it out if i looked), but 1) im lazy, and 2)incase there are any special tricks or hidden clips etc. - i need to get a space to tap into my resistor for my rear license plate led mod, to get rid of the pesky bulb-out warning. Or, maybe you could just tell me where that rubber gromet/tube from the hatch to the body runs to? is it the right side compartment? and, any idea what color the license plate bulb positive line is? (small chance, but thought i'd ask =] ) haha thanks.

 

Just partially remove the weatherstripping and you can slip it behind the edge of the trunk trim. I too am kinda lazy and looking for shortcuts. Ideally, as a pro would, I would have removed the entire rear trim like those who have done rear speaker installs or extensive dynamating like robin casady did in this racy pic below:



From the pic, you can see the wiring bundle from the tailgate through the rubber hose to the headliner goes off to the right and down to the right trunk area.

When I have time, I'm going to install rear speakers, dynamat, and re-route my back-up cam and laser interceptor wiring through the rubber hose along the oem bundle, but I don't see that happening for a while. I try to limit my mod time to an hour while in the parking lot at work during lunch. Otherwise, I'll end up divorced and all my mod budget will go to alimony. It's ironic that now I have some disposable income as a responsible, working adult, I don't have the time to spend and enjoy it like I would have loved to in high-school. I'm waiting for my kids to grow up a little so hacking up my mini can be family time. A real house with a garage would help.

Oh yeah, about the license plate bulb positive line, I don't know it exactly, but if you remove the hatch handle (4 torx screws underneath), you'll see the wiring harness connector coming off the back into the car. Those set of wires supply the license plate blub as well as the hatch release button. You can then test them with a voltmeter or something. The ground is probably a brown wire. Post a thread in the electrical forum, and some guru like oPossum will probably know and have a handy diagram.

 

Yeah, I have posted on the electrical forum with 0 replies unfortunately. and, yeah i've done the fronts already, and will be doing the rears probably come spring. I too have ripped apart my old audi, ripping out my old bose system and rewiring the whole car, as well as dynamating everything. Its tedious but fun at the same time IMO. you get a lot of pride in finishing it and stepping back and seeing your work you've completed. its great. regarding the handle, i've taken that all apart and even deglued/opened the clips to the compartment for the bulbs and wiring, dumbly i didn't note the wires in there as that wasn't my intention at the time, but yeah i know theres a brown for ground, theres only 3 wires, so they must share a ground. anyhow, i'll look more into it when i get a chance. Thanks.

Btw, the thing with tucking the resistor behind the trim is that it will get pretty hot, so i dont want to melt anything etc,
I was thinking of using a hi-temp engine enamel (duplicolor) and coating a bulb so that the yellow light does not come out, and just plugging it between the pins in the license plate socket where it normally sits, that way it will draw enough current and make the bulb out warning go out. It shouldn't draw too much as a LED virtually draws nothing. Also, with one light bulb in, the other one can be out and its fine-gives no warning..

 

There's a lot of room between the hatch metal body and the trim on the other side to safely tuck away a hot resistor IMHO. In the bottom pic, there's two layers of metal before the trim so you can even put tuck it in between well protected from melting any plastic trim. Seeing these pictures in retrospect made me realize I should have had some Dynamat lying around. The oem waffle weave looking sound insulation squares in the last picture looks pitifully in adequate.

 

ah, yes thats where i was referring to originally, is it hard to remove that hatch piece?
haha oops

 

not at all especially since it looks like you have experience ripping apart car trim with the audi. as i mentioned above, remove the two torx screws, and the rest of the pieces are held by various clips. i didn't use any tools except my fingertips to pull them off. it takes a bit of force with the big piece. go around the edges. get your fingers underneath and pull outwards. you can see where the clips are in the removed trim piece pic below. your'e giving me a good excuse to post these old pictures i forgot i took.

 

hey buddy, how much would you charge to help me (most of it, im not much of an electrical guy) if i drove all the way up to nyc? =]

and did you get rid of the CD insert thing? i wonder if there is another nice spot for a screen without hacking away at some interior =]

 

if you are comfortable with removing the wiper and attaching the camera at least, BestBuy or local audio shops will do the wiring for probably $50. Although you might not trust the kids there, at least it will be insured. not something I can offer. give me a pm and we can talk.

as for the CD, the picture i realized is misleading. i didn't get rid of the CD. i wish i easily could but it's attached to the headunit and speedo controls. here's a wider view pic.



If you don't mind externally mounting a screen, there are other options that can be fashioned. One guy did this:



Another guy did this in his 1st gen cooper by modding the cupholder. It swings away to get to the controls. I know there is a new cupholder/accessory attachment being sold now for the R56. Proclipusa and Kuda also sell mounts that would work.

 

is it just me or are your toggle switches millimeters away from the cupholders? other than the routing of the wires, there arent any stubborn steps are there?

 

yeah, that's the main weakness of my screen setup besides being pretty low. good thing i have lanky arms. i may actually end up cutting away the cup holders and cig lighter socket when the weather gets warmer.

in terms of stubborn steps, the most pita for me was pulling off my rear wiper.

 

aquapel has helped keep my rear window cleaner this winter so far. i'm sure rainx would do the same. aquapel lasts for many months, though. it's made it easy to remove ice of my side-view mirrors as well. still miss the wiper occasionally but don't think i'm going back.

 

anyone know of a mod to mount a rearview camera up by the center brake light ?

 

nope, but would be relatively easy to diy or get installed at an audio shop. chubbychecker already did it. check out his post.

 

just want to say - that is so sick dude

 

Lancing74: Just wanted to say thanks for the various Posts and your great write-ups on DVR's, Cameras and How-To's in regards to video cameras. Very inspiring

With all the aggressive/roadrage drivers we get in the Puget Sound having cameras with complete coverage could be handy!

Stephen