Rear View Camera Install

dc2002

Active member
Joined
Aug 27, 2013
Location
Roswell, GA
TDI
2013 Passat SE Roof Nav
I have a 2013 Passat TDI SE Roof Nav with the RNS315 headunit.
Kit was from Bold Sport and I followed many of the tutorials and grabbed what I thought were the best of all the writeups.
Basically the process is as follows...
1. Take license plate off - not sure if this is absolutely necessary but I did
2. Remove the trunk upper liner cover - remove the 2 torx screws in the pull down recesses and yank like hell - half of my clips stayed in the trunk and had to be yanked out with pliers and slid back into the holders in the liner cover.
3. Remove the 2 X 10mm bolts that hold the trunk handle plate in place and pull the plate out of the way, you can leave the plug in place for now.
4. The Handle will come out from inside the trunk to the exterior if that makes sense, the new handle goes in from the outside of the vehicle.
5. Remove the wire harness from the handle and plug it into the new handle. Push the new handle back into its opening and replace the plate and 10mm nuts.
6. I made the 3 electrical connections necessary in the trunk. The power, reverse light trigger and ground. The more complex connection was the power which I connected to the trunk light on the passenger side wall towards the rear of the car. I made the ground connection to the passenger side tail light plug with a tap and I made the reverse light trigger connection to the drivers side tail light plug with a tap. I should mention that the power connection was soldered, taped and shrunk wrapped - highly recommended to use an Add A Fuse here.
7. You need to remove the trunk hinge cover on whatever side you want to work on. I chose the passenger side since feedback was that it was less crowded to run all the wires. You need to run the power wire and the video cable up whatever trunk hinge you decide. You can see there is a channel molded into the cover where the wires run so there is not a lot of room.
8. Now it is time to work at the front of the passenger compartment. Remove the trim surrounding the radio.
9. Remove the radio 4 X torx 20 nuts (might be larger but 20 worked for me)
10. Plug the video cable into the back of the radio - it is obvious where it goes.
11. I removed the side dash cover on the passenger side and with the radio out you can see where the video cable needs to go...I used a coat hanger to help or any official fish tape will do.
12. Now basically you just fish the cable down the kick panel, under the door sills, and up along the rear wheel well (from the inside). You dont need to necessarily remove all the trim pieces - just enough to work the cable through. Use patience and it is not that bad.
13. Run the video cable along the power wire from the trunk light up the hinge. Now the troubling grommet. So what I did was pop out the grommet and with a razor blade slice from the outside to the center of it and placed the video cable and power wire there and popped the grommet back in.
14. Replace the hinge cover ensuring the wires are all in the channel
15. Now - before the rest of the trim is put back and the radio fully re-installed it is time to break out VAGCOM.
VCDS
Open VCDS, Select control module
Select 37-Navigation
Click on Coding-07
Click Long Coding Helper
click on byte 3 (it is the 4th window from left....color will change from green to yellow)
checkmark Bit 6 (Rear-View-Camera(RVC) installed/active)
click exit to get back to prior window
Click Do It!
Coding Accepted, click OK​
16. Fire up the car and put 'er in reverse for some rear view camera goodness! If everything works put all your trim and stuff back on permanently.
Power connection

Ground wire

Reverse light trigger wire

Trunk hinge passenger side

Voila

A special shout out to mpistone from the other board as I borrowed most heavily from his post.
A last thought - it is not wise to take on such a project without a multimeter. There has been mention of the proper color of wires for power, trigger etc..although one universal thing - to Germans Brown is ALWAYS ground. One last quick check for power with a multimeter can save a lot of headaches.
All in all not too bad - took just a little under 2 hours from start to cleanup.
Oh yeah...one final final thought...dont forget to take the protective cap off the camera lens...
 

BarryT82

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Location
Charleston, WV
TDI
‘12 JSW TDI
Thanks Barry what radio do I have in a 2012 passat sel?
I have a '13 Passat SEL. The SEL's all come with the RNS-510. My '12 Tiguan has the 510 also and I added the camera to it. I had an '11 JSW with an RNS-315 that I added this camera to.
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
Finally getting around to this, regarding picking up power from the trunk light? Is it "hot" all the time? The camera came with enough wire to reach the battery posts if needed.
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
All installed, works perfect except now I get a airbag error- when routing the cable I had a heck of a time getting past the B pillar anyone know if there is a side impact sensor hiding in there? I thought I was snagged up on the seatbelt anchor- maybe not :(
 

BarryT82

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Location
Charleston, WV
TDI
‘12 JSW TDI
Did you turn the power in the car on with the airbag light on the center console disconnected? If so, that's the issue and you'll need to clear the code.
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
(updated- that worked! It had a open ground error on airbag disabled light) OMG YES- thank you for this awesome news :D I owe ya a beer or three! I used one of my clear syphon hoses to route the camera coax down from the kick panel to the rear seat wheel well, it was very ridged (cold) and curly so as it hung up I just twisted it and it moved on down the line further- did this for about 10 minutes and it poked its way out of the rear sill, sprayed the inside of the hose with silicone and pushed the coax inside the hose- when the coax reached the rear seat I pulled the house out- worked perfect with almost zero interior panel removal required---- I just took a peek with my bore scope and I spotted 2 side impact sensors- one at the rear of the rear door and another exactly where it hung up at the B pillar- the coax goes between the yellow plug and that tiny 28G wiring, I will clear those in the AM and report back!
 
Last edited:

Jesse_James

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 13, 2003
Location
Stamford, Connecticut
TDI
2012 Passat TDI SEL DSG
Can I install a backup camera in this head unit?

I have a 2012 Passat SEL. Here is a photo of the radio/head unit. Does anyone know what model this is and if I can install the back up camera kit into it?

I could not figure how to upload a small image of my own radio so it's the same radio as in this Edmonds webpage,

https://www.edmunds.com/volkswagen/...en-passat-tsi-i-like-the-audio-interface.html

Jesse Parris
 

redbarron55

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Location
Navarre, FL.
TDI
2012 Touareg TDI Executive
The first picture is of a RNS-510 and it has an input for the camera.
You will have to use the VCDS to enable the camera
 

Jesse_James

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 13, 2003
Location
Stamford, Connecticut
TDI
2012 Passat TDI SEL DSG
redbarron55, thanks. Can I still use the same kit as BarryT82? I don't want to post the link Barry posted because people will think I'm pushing the auction, but it's a few posts up. I have a friend with the VagComm setup.

Jesse
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
that's a nicer camera than what I put in, my connections were not as robust and the trunk handle was way skinner than the OEM one that came out- didn't even have the side keepers in it and the trunk release connection didn't clip in, just friction holding that plug
 
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