So after some suspected damage to the Panda (now fixed mostly with a bit of T-Cut) decided I'd get a dash cam that would be good quality and come on when the car is rocked etc. Decided to get the best one money could buy and the reviews seemed to conclude the Nextbase 522GW was the best option today.

Collected it today from Halfords - very handy to see they're still offering this. Currently £111 down from £150 so if you're considering one buy it this week.

I fitted it hard wired into the cabin fuse box spot 51. Think I got the fuse in fine. Only comes on when the ignition is on.

Can some of you confirm my earth point is somewhere suitable? It's on the photos below. Wedged into the bolt holding the fuse box in place - all metal.

Hid the wiring well, but you know the A pillar trim - the same plastic piece with the little tweeter speaker in it, but not perfectly. It's tucked into the top but slightly out - not too noticeable. I'd like to do it right so does anybody know how to remove this piece to tuck it in properly - under its clip. I think that's the only thing I can do to get this a true job well done.

Hopefully - if the earth point and fuse used can be confirmed to have been done right, I hope this can help others in hard wiring their dash cams in the future.

Any earth point is fine, anywhere you can attach the earth to the body is perfectly good, usually the shorter the earth the better.

The a-pillar trim on all Fiat’s is usually just clipped in place so pop the clips and pull back the trim and you’ll find some wires behind it for other things clipped in, you can use the same clips to route your new wires and then clip the trim back in place.

Just looked it up and the camera is the same price on amazon as well at the moment for anyone wanting one delivered.

AndyRKett said:

Any earth point is fine, anywhere you can attach the earth to the body is perfectly good, usually the shorter the earth the better.



The a-pillar trim on all Fiat’s is usually just clipped in place so pop the clips and pull back the trim and you’ll find some wires behind it for other things clipped in, you can use the same clips to route your new wires and then clip the trim back in place.



Just looked it up and the camera is the same price on amazon as well at the moment for anyone wanting one delivered.

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I’ll attempt to unclip and reclip the a-pillar trim tomorrow. Hopefully they’re replaceable clips ‘just in case’ I mess it up. If i do get it off I’ll put a photo on here so people have a visual reference.

Nextbase have it for 109.99 currently. It was an Easter weekend only deal turned into a ‘this week only’ deal so they’ll deliver too.

Also, I think Halfords will give the option for post delivery and Curry’s will (after a dreadful wait on the phone) price match and post it out too. Some good deals to be had on them currently!


Trying to decide between the rear view camera (fixed to the rear window) or the cabin view camera. The cabin view one main attraction to me is that it’ll show the side windows when parked in case someone was to bang a door or drive into the side (probably rare but who knows). They’re all £40-50 and I’ve another week to decide, which would you recommend between the three module options?

SB1500 said:

I’ll attempt to unclip and reclip the a-pillar trim tomorrow. Hopefully they’re replaceable clips ‘just in case’ I mess it up. If i do get it off I’ll put a photo on here so people have a visual reference.

Nextbase have it for 109.99 currently. It was an Easter weekend only deal turned into a ‘this week only’ deal so they’ll deliver too.

Also, I think Halfords will give the option for post delivery and Curry’s will (after a dreadful wait on the phone) price match and post it out too. Some good deals to be had on them currently!


Trying to decide between the rear view camera (fixed to the rear window) or the cabin view camera. The cabin view one main attraction to me is that it’ll show the side windows when parked in case someone was to bang a door or drive into the side (probably rare but who knows). They’re all £40-50 and I’ve another week to decide, which would you recommend between the three module options?

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Perhaps statistically more likely to be rear-ended, so this may add balance to your decision. If both cameras have a field of view of 140 degrees then your door-kicker would have to be Eugene Victor Tooms to be able to dodge front and rear aspects.

SB1500 said:

I’ll attempt to unclip and reclip the a-pillar trim tomorrow. Hopefully they’re replaceable clips ‘just in case’ I mess it up. If i do get it off I’ll put a photo on here so people have a visual reference.

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They are easily replaceable clips. In fact the whole a pillar interior trim is very cheap and easy to replace. I recently replaced mine as it was scratched when I bought the car. With a trim removal tool it took me all of 15 minutes to change over and that included swapping the tweeter over to the new trim piece.

A trim pry tool is very helpful.

AB100 said:

Perhaps statistically more likely to be rear-ended, so this may add balance to your decision. If both cameras have a field of view of 140 degrees then your door-kicker would have to be Eugene Victor Tooms to be able to dodge front and rear aspects.

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Perhaps I'll need to go for the rear window mounted 'ping pong ball' looking second camera.

Is getting the wire hidden along the headlining going to be simple or will all hell break loose along with the clips?

Okay guys, well I've had my Dash Cam installed for a week now - and due to the lockdown, have driven very little...

The PC / Mac app for viewing footage is utterly amazing. It shows you a speed gauge, compass, G-Force gauge and a map - they all update in real-time, and you can click a particular part of the map and it'll take you to the footage from that moment. You can also zoom and move frame-by-frame in case you're looking to find a specific detail in your footage (e.g. a reg plate or face). See the attached screenshot.


Today I also fitted the rear-camera add-on. As per you guys advice in getting this over the cabin view camera.. The wide angle pretty much shows people on the extreme left and right - hopefully between this and the front wide angle it'll pick anyone causing trouble up sufficiently. With the Panda having the built in phone holder and the rear view mirror, the only position to fit the other modules (cabin view / back facing view) would completely obstruct your view out of the windscreen so is perhaps not suitable for the Panda?

I've attached some photos of the finished job. Thanks for the advice on popping off the panels - Managed to revisit last weeks installation and properly tuck away the cable as well as ensure the 6 metre cable for the rear camera is neatly and properly routed inside the headliner.

There is a considerable 'stack' of cable left given that the Panda is so short in length. I made a tiny cut in the boot rubber seal and the headliner (part that's tucked under the seal) to allow the cable to pop out in its own right and not be under pressure / causing pressure to warp the seal or headliner over time. This excess cable tucked under the headliner which had a nice air gap space in it... but if you are doing the same, please occupy the full length of this air gap (from extreme left to right) so that the bundled excess cable you're storing inside it is a 'thinner' package all in all as I think I'm pushing it a bit. Still neat enough though.

I still need to do something about the slack cable on the back glass. The instructions showed to leave excess so that the cable has plenty of length to not pull off when the boot is opened.. So I did that. But now, there's a lot hanging and the weight of the connection pieces causes the little ping-pong ball camera to move out of its perfectly set positioning each time I open the boot. Any intelligent solution to this problem that I could implement?

If any of you are reading this in the future doing a similar task and could do with any advice or help send me a PM or post below and I'd be happy to help.

Hot glue gun to stop the mount. Moving?

chris3234 said:

Hot glue gun to stop the mount. Moving?

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Potentially will have to tbh!

Hope you don't mind me asking; did you have to remove the glovebox? I have the kit and a quick look at the area; accessing the fusebox from the door pillar looks a bit fiddly. (I am the original Mr Hamfisted)
Thanks
Richard

[mention=167844]sb1500[/mention]

Paclampet said:

Hope you don't mind me asking; did you have to remove the glovebox? I have the kit and a quick look at the area; accessing the fusebox from the door pillar looks a bit fiddly. (I am the original Mr Hamfisted)
Thanks
Richard

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Hello,

You do not need to remove the glovebox for this. Just empty it!


There is a little hatch you can pop out of the back, it exposes the fuse box sufficiently to see your fuses.


You can also reach around underneath and route wires up that way


I routed mine down the passenger A-Pillar, down to the trim near the front door sill / bonnet release latch and up through this gap behind the glovebox and no cables are showing.


I hope that makes sense. I can take a quick video to show this if it would help you

Thanks for that. Managed to suss it all out today but... my old dashcam (Nextbase 402g) is a bit big for the small windscreen. Ill treat myself to something a bit smaller.
Wiring looks pretty straight forward although I'm a large 6'5 so I'll have my chiropractor on standby!!

SB1500 said:

Perhaps I'll need to go for the rear window mounted 'ping pong ball' looking second camera.

Is getting the wire hidden along the headlining going to be simple or will all hell break loose along with the clips?

Click to expand...

I bought exactly the same dashcam as you and fitted it EXACTLY the same way as you (same earth point etc.) I set the dashcam to record if bumped but I found that it was running the dashcam internal battery flat after several hours, of course you could then connect it to a permanent live but I found that I was getting a lot of false alarms so I just set it to off when the ignition is off. I contemplated buying the rear view golf ball but it seemed like a bit of a faff really, especially running it along the roof lining and such. If there was one thing I would definitely recommend and that is a set of trim tools off Amazon or Ebay - so useful and safer than a screwdriver or stealing a knife out of the cutlery.