This is all on a 2004 Audi S4 w/ 134k miles.
I purchased the top of the line Kenwood head unit from best buy. It has the apple car play and Garmin navigation. Naturally it has an input for a backup camera. I am sure as most of you are well aware, once you get a double din unit in the dash with the install kit getting it out is nearly impossible. I also have two amps, a capacitor, and a one 12" sub. I have alot of temporary wiring. I want to go back through, clean everything up with the proper connectors and get everything hidden real well.
The backup camera is giving me troubles.
The model I got is a black cube that must be screwed to the trim that holds the license plate lights, and it has to have a hole for the wire. So I had to drill 3 holes. IT LOOKS AWFUL! So bad in fact that I have given up on it and ordered a new trim piece and a new camera. The camera I got goes in the license plate light spot and replicates the light as well. I had to order the dude from China and its still not here yet. I wanted to get my wiring figured out before it gets here so I am ready to rock and roll.
I found the wire in the rear driver (left) side tail light that is for the reverse light bulb. I used a soldering iron and heat shrink tube to make a nice tap into the line there. I have +12v running up to the front to the Kenwood units purple REVERSE light wire. I have checked it with a multi meter and when I put it reverse it gets between 11 and 14V at that connection behind the head unit.
It triggers NOTHING in the head unit. It seems like it would at the very least trigger the head unit to display that video feed even if there was no power to the camera. It doesn't. Sometimes if you start the vehicle with the clutch in and reverse gear it makes the head unit get a bit weird and take a moment to come on, but thats all I get. So I am left to assume that if its not getting a video signal than it doesn't even switch. I have the connection grounded the a temporary ground, which is kinda sketchy but based on my multi meter its a good ground. I hooked up the ground wire in the trunk area and then strip it a little about 6" back and check for ground there and its good (I have a lot of extra wire for testing purposes. So the camera is getting 12v. It shows nothing. I am guessing I fried the camera with a short at some point during all of this, or it was faulty to begin with.
Do any of you whom have ever hooked one of these up know of some kind of stupid mistake I am making. I have positive current everywhere I should have it and ground everywhere I think I should have it, and no dice.
I sure don't want to jack up the replacement camera so it would be good to know what I am doing wrong. Any help is appreciated.
It might also be important to note that before this my passenger side mirror would tilt down when I put it in reverse. It struggled to do so, and didn't do so every time. That quit working all together. I didn't really like it to do that anyway so I'm not heartbroken but it might be a factor.
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