Can anyone recommend a dash cam installer for the Cali?

[Lewis]

Had a scare this morning when a rock dropped out of the poorly secured side of a lorry's load on the motorway and bounced off the bonnet and windscreen. Very difficult for me to prove it happened and fortunately on this occasion no sign of damage but it's made look more closely at dash cams.

A few posts recently about self-installs but this is outside of my skill set and I'd really like a rear-facing cam too which seems much more complicated.

Can anyone recommend an auto electrician or company who might be familiar enough with the Cali to do a good job of an install?

Location is less important as we're round the county a lot over next few months.

Looking at the Blackvue DR650 2 Channel at the moment

Thanks for any help!

 

[sapto]

Had a scare this morning when a rock dropped out of the poorly secured side of a lorry's load on the motorway and bounced off the bonnet and windscreen. Very difficult for me to prove it happened and fortunately on this occasion no sign of damage but it's made look more closely at dash cams.

A few posts recently about self-installs but this is outside of my skill set and I'd really like a rear-facing cam too which seems much more complicated.

Can anyone recommend an auto electrician or company who might be familiar enough with the Cali to do a good job of an install?

Location is less important as we're round the county a lot over next few months.

Looking at the Blackvue DR650 2 Channel at the moment

Thanks for any help!

Oh that sounds scary! Great thing nothing seriously happen to you and the Cali.
Sorry, not much of a help as I based in Switzerland, however I thought about cheap alternative myself: buy to GoPros and control them with the app.

 

[sapto]

I found this (google):
https://www.dashwitness.com/car-camera-installation-service/

http://www.carcamerashop.co.uk/nationwide-dashcam-installation.html

 

[dale]

Had a scare this morning when a rock dropped out of the poorly secured side of a lorry's load on the motorway and bounced off the bonnet and windscreen. Very difficult for me to prove it happened and fortunately on this occasion no sign of damage but it's made look more closely at dash cams.

A few posts recently about self-installs but this is outside of my skill set and I'd really like a rear-facing cam too which seems much more complicated.

Can anyone recommend an auto electrician or company who might be familiar enough with the Cali to do a good job of an install?

Location is less important as we're round the county a lot over next few months.

Looking at the Blackvue DR650 2 Channel at the moment

Thanks for any help!

Halfords £30 and that includes wiring kit. it"s a very neat job

 

[Teejay]

Had a scare this morning when a rock dropped out of the poorly secured side of a lorry's load on the motorway and bounced off the bonnet and windscreen. Very difficult for me to prove it happened and fortunately on this occasion no sign of damage but it's made look more closely at dash cams.

A few posts recently about self-installs but this is outside of my skill set and I'd really like a rear-facing cam too which seems much more complicated.

Can anyone recommend an auto electrician or company who might be familiar enough with the Cali to do a good job of an install?

Location is less important as we're round the county a lot over next few months.

Looking at the Blackvue DR650 2 Channel at the moment

Thanks for any help!

Dependent on how integrated you want it they are very simple to setup and connect yourself. Most of the cameras come with enough cable to allow you to route the cable around the windscreen and dash then either to a 12v cig socket or a USB.

At the moment I have a cable hanging down from the centre to the central 12v, not idea but perfecltly usable.

..me..

 

[Skybird]

Give these guys a shout they did a very professional job on a mates car. Not cheap but they will hide all the cables and look after your cali.

www.advanced-incar.co.uk

 

[larrylamb]

Local VW van centre has Kenwood DVR 410 dashcam supplied and fitted for £210.

 

[blondebier]

Hi Lewis,

I bought a pair of DOD TECH LS360W. Easy to fit to the front and rear. The suction cups are quite good and cables are long enough to run in to the 12v sockets.

I wanted something that I could remove easily and install in my daily driver. These fit the bill perfectly.

I got them from Amazon for just under £100 I think. They are HD and the footage is excellent.

Whatever you choose I'd definitely recommend looking for video reviews before committing to anything. Some text reviews sound positive but the video is really poor. Particularly at night or when wet.

I’ve found the LS360W excellent in these conditions too. There are a few reviews on Youtube.

I hope that helps.

 

[pjm-84]

Local VW van centre has Kenwood DVR 410 dashcam supplied and fitted for £210.

Do you have this fitted Larrylamb?

Had this fitted by my local dealer and has been nothing but problems. Seems to constantly cycle between record and pause. Refitted the replacement today and they thought that they had fixed it but alas this is the same. I haven't checked their installation but they have spent a few hours on it this morning (I was waiting for the vehicle) .

Have a plea for help out to Kenwood before telling Breeze the bad news (remove it).

 

[hirsty]

I self-installed a front Nextbase 512 - it's 'okay' - which got a lot easier when I read somewhere on here that the central bank of our three rows of fuses are wired to the ignition. Camera then turns off after 5-mins on its built-in battery.

Very easy to push the cable into the roof lining above the windscreen, down the a-pillar & under the dash to the fuses on the gearbox tunnel. I can imagine it'd be harder with a rear cam, but I'm not interested in one for the back - 90% of the aggro is out of the front window in my experience!

 

[larrylamb]

Do you have this fitted Larrylamb?

Had this fitted by my local dealer and has been nothing but problems. Seems to constantly cycle between record and pause. Refitted the replacement today and they thought that they had fixed it but alas this is the same. I haven't checked their installation but they have spent a few hours on it this morning (I was waiting for the vehicle) .

Have a plea for help out to Kenwood before telling Breeze the bad news (remove it).

No, I just saw the offer when the Cali was being serviced, not many reviews on the tinternet but no horror stories. Hope you get sorted. We have a Nextbase 512g, no problems so far.

 

[Teejay]

Do you have this fitted Larrylamb?

Had this fitted by my local dealer and has been nothing but problems. Seems to constantly cycle between record and pause. Refitted the replacement today and they thought that they had fixed it but alas this is the same. I haven't checked their installation but they have spent a few hours on it this morning (I was waiting for the vehicle) .

Have a plea for help out to Kenwood before telling Breeze the bad news (remove it).

Apologies if you've already tried this but is there a motion detection option on your device?

These should typically be turned off if you want constant recording. Meant for parking only, at least in the Nextbase cameras.

..me..

 

[pjm-84]

Looks like it was the micro sd card. Kenwood came back on Friday with the suggestion. Popped a new one in and its been fine on the trip to Salisbury CCC and back.

 

[hirsty]

My SD card failed after 10-months in my Nextbase camera - I had some footage I really needed, taught me to transfer down ASAP if there's something you need to keep off the camera.

 

[Borris]

Had a scare this morning when a rock dropped out of the poorly secured side of a lorry's load on the motorway and bounced off the bonnet and windscreen. Very difficult for me to prove it happened and fortunately on this occasion no sign of damage but it's made look more closely at dash cams.

A few posts recently about self-installs but this is outside of my skill set and I'd really like a rear-facing cam too which seems much more complicated.

Can anyone recommend an auto electrician or company who might be familiar enough with the Cali to do a good job of an install?

Location is less important as we're round the county a lot over next few months.

Looking at the Blackvue DR650 2 Channel at the moment

Thanks for any help!

I have had three fitted by Halfords. They did a very good job in each case. I am very fussy and couldn't fault there work. I can't remember how much it cost. I think it was £30 for each fit which included the fitting kit at about £20 so the actual fit only costs £10. They usually take about 45 minutes to fit.

 

[Erbster]

I have had three fitted by Halfords. They did a very good job in each case. I am very fussy and couldn't fault there work. I can't remember how much it cost. I think it was £30 for each fit which included the fitting kit at about £20 so the actual fit only costs £10. They usually take about 45 minutes to fit.

You weren't worried about affecting your warranty?


Charles

 

[Borris]

You weren't worried about affecting your warranty?


Charles

The fit consists of sticking a suction pad with the camera attached to the windscreen and tucking the cable behind the roof lining and A post pilar trim. The fused connection to the fuse box is I believe done using an appropriate unused fuse socket. How would any of this affect the warranty?

 

[SimonB]

We had dash cams in all of our vehicles at work. A couple of incidents that happened to other drivers convinced me of the value of having one.
Some only operate reliably with a certain size of memory card. They do operate with a larger card but sometimes not consistently.
I have found having two memory cards in the vehicle very useful. If there is an incident you want to hang on to, remove the card with the incident on and insert the spare one. Cards are so cheap these days.
Buy good quality named cards. They overwrite on a regular basis, the frequency depending on how high you have set the resolution. I don't have mine set at the highest resolution, but at a level or two lower. Mine does record audio, but all I seemed to get was the chat in the vehicle and the odd profanity from me when a nearby driver did something stupid. It took extra memory space so I turned that off.
This is a thread from 2015 which has a lot of information on it.
https://vwcaliforniaclub.com/threads/dash-cams.10865/page-3

 

[Erbster]

The fit consists of sticking a suction pad with the camera attached to the windscreen and tucking the cable behind the roof lining and A post pilar trim. The fused connection to the fuse box is I believe done using an appropriate unused fuse socket. How would any of this affect the warranty?

I had assumed that at least one wire would need to be cut to pick up a live feed. If it's that simple, I should do it myself. My dealer has a special offer to fit a camera for £290 that Halfords sells for£100...


Charles

 

[Teejay]

I had assumed that at least one wire would need to be cut to pick up a live feed. If it's that simple, I should do it myself. My dealer has a special offer to fit a camera for £290 that Halfords sells for£100...


Charles

The fitting kit from Nextbase supplies a fuse tap. Hardest part was finding a earth connection. After I found a suitable one I discovered another which should make it a 15 minute job.

 

[Erbster]

So, do I understand correctly: you chop off cigarette lighter plug? Where did you connect your live/earth?


Charles

 

[Trebor]

I have Thickware front /rear . Neat and works really well . View on I pad and store video if required. I did try a couple of the more well known ones but took them back as picture quality so poor .

 

[ArunAlec]

So, do I understand correctly: you chop off cigarette lighter plug? Where did you connect your live/earth?


Charles

Don't chop the lighter plug!!
It drops the voltage down to 5volts ( Nextbase). The fitting kit for direct wiring to a fuse is not included in the basic kit and needs to be purchased as an extra.
My Nextbase 212 needed a new memory card after 6 months and according to Nextbase memory cards should be reformatted every 2 to 3 weeks!

 

[B J G]

Just had a Nextbase 512GW fitted by Halfords who for an extra £45 fit it, supply hard wire kit, 16Gb memory card and a case if you remove the camera.
Only problem I had was the fitter took the side panel of the dash, the one with the passenger airbag switch, and switched the ignition on, which left me with an Airbag warning that meant a trip to get it reset.
T6 fuse box is in a very difficult location to access behind the lower centre console.

The Nextbase one met my criteria of having GPS, shock saving incident, high resolution and fairly compact.
I had one for years but Google changed the map software & I lost the map info on playback.
My old one recorded a fatal accident on the opposite carriageway which the Police used as their main evidence resulting in the guilty party getting 4 years for causing death by dangerous driving.

 

[hirsty]

So, do I understand correctly: you chop off cigarette lighter plug? Where did you connect your live/earth?


Charles

My front facing Nextbase has a single cable with a 'piggyback' fuse connector at the end, there's no separate earth & no chopping of wires. As above:

- sucker camera up behind mirror
- power cable tucks behind roof lining, down a-pillar & along under bottom of dashboard to fuse box
- pull a smaller fuse from middle of the three rows & insert connector, replacing fuse back into connector (hence piggyback)

My only problem was dropping fuses into the void til I worked out I could ball up kitchen roll to catch any that fell! - ridiculous design, should be much more accessible.