How To: Rav 4.2 Aftermarked Head Unit And Reverse Camera Installation

[Sensei]

A few weeks back I bought an aftermarked head unit going by the name TP09X1 from a seller named dig_options on eBay. It basically has everything I wanted and then some; GPS, bluetooth, USB, DVD, etc. and it came bundled with a reverse camera. For those who might try this and dont have much experience (like me) you might find some of this useful. Follow these instructions at your own risk. I may have done something wrong or just harder than need be, but this worked for me!

(Click on images for larger version)

The trim panel in the back door pops off rather easy. The location of the white plastic clips can be seen in this picture.

This is the inside of the plastic panel from the outside of the back door. I was excited how this would turn out because the panel was rather loose due to hitting the hitch ball when it was mounted. (Previous owner has probably closed the door hitting the hitch ball) The spare wheel needs to be removed along with the cover, if you have one. behind the wheel there are three clips. Use a flat head screwdriver to pry the center of the clips out a bit and then remove the entire clips. Note the location of the other clip holes on the picture and carefully separate the panel from the car. If you are able to get a hand in and squeeze on the clips while pulling the panel off that might help. In my case most of the clip attachments tore off the panel. It's all plastic so I used a soldering iron to weld them all in place. It fit nicely and there's no more rattle from the back door. There were also three lights going into this panel. Turning the light bulb with socket will release them and they can be pulled out. Also note the hole drilled for the camera. It's slightly off center (between spare wheel and license plate area) but it is also angled a little to the side. When looking at the reverse image it feels pretty much centered, but judging by the lines drawn on the camera image (see last picture) the camera should have been mounted higher with a more downward angle for the lines to be perfect. My main reason for mounting the camera was extra reassurance that there's no hazards behind me before reversing, and an easier and more precise way of judging distance to objects. To align the car in parking spaces and such I prefer using side mirrors.

Back door with lower panel removed. Note which hole I used for the reverse camera wire. I had to do some precision cutting there to expand the hole through the rubber seal.

Inside of the back door. There's a plastic cover here which needs to be pulled up. That sticky black fudge-like stuff needs to be reused, so dont scrape it off or anything. You can run the wire within the door if you'd like, but I chose this route because it was quicker, and securing the wires to the door with lots of duct tape will eliminate rattling. Make sure you put on some kind of padding (e.g. duct tape) wherever the wire passes one of the sharp edges on the chassis.

The reverse camera is supposed to turn on automatically (switches from radio, DVD, GPS or whatever you have on the screen) whenever the car's gear is in reverse. To achieve this the brown cable from the back of the head unit marked "REAR PWR" needs to be attached to the reverse light power. This can be done by connecting the brown "REAR PWR" cable to the small red wire which goes through the RCA cable and hook the other end of the small red wire up to the reverse light at the rear of the car.

The black wire from camera goes to ground. I attached this to a black ground wire I found near the tail lights. It is easily recognizable as it ends in a screw attached to the chassis.

The red wire from camera gives the camera power. If you only want to be able to view the camera when the car is in reverse this can be connected to the reverse light just like the reverse trigger wire (small red one from RCA cable). However if you want to be able to view the camera manually, even when driving, the camera needs constant power (and also a RCA Y-split cable, more on this later). I connected this to the rear driving light, so whenever I turn my lights on I will be able to manually view the reverse camera via the A/V function of the head unit.

I ran all the cables through the flexible rubber tube between the main chassis and the back door. It's a tight fit, but you can do it manually. I looked through my stuff and found a small pistol cleaning rod which has a patch holder on the end (kinda like a big needle head). I put some string through it and tied it to the cable and used the cleaning rod as a guide.

Small red wire from RCA cable (reverse trigger) is connected to the black cable on the reverse light.

Red cable from camera (power) is connected to green cable on rear driving light.

Once everything is connected in the back (make sure you have enough wire for the camera to reach the hole) it's time for the RCA cable to make it's way to the front. There are two plastic clips on the top front of the side trim panel over the wheel. Popping out these two clips gave me enough room to get my arm in and pulling the RCA cable through. If you need more room there are a couple of screws on the bottom of the panel that can be removed. You might also have to remove the bolt securing the seat belt.

Both the small trim panels hiding the wires can be pulled up, starting with the front part of each panel. The white clips seen on the pictures is what holds them down, dont put the RCA cable into them. You can also remove the kick panel by removing the screw closest to the firewall and then simply pulling it out. I ran the cable behind the components already there and made my way behind the glove compartment (See next picture) and up to the space behind the head unit. Tie down the RCA cable in suitable places behind the glove compartment using zip ties or similar. Oh, and be careful not to mess around with anything that could be connected to the SRS (airbag), or you might be in for a surprise.

Removing the glove compartment is a good idea as it will gain you access to the side and partially the back of the head unit. I also ran a few wires via this area. To remove the glove compartment, first open it all the way. Next push the right side to the left and pull that side out and vice versa. The compartment is hinged by a couple of polymer pins which are removable by hand or small pliers.

To remove the head unit on 2000-2003 models first unscrew the four hex socket/allen screws securing the silver trim around the head unit. Using fingernails or a tool that doesn't scratch the dash, it can be pulled straight off. Now there are four screws holding the unit in place, unscrew these and the unit can be pulled out. Be careful not to drop the bolts when unscrewing, they dont always come out the other end! The bolts farthest in are especially prone to disappearing. Inserting a hand through the glove compartment should enable you to cath one if it falls. On the other side you'll have to go in via the ash tray and hope the bolt hits your hand if it should fall. Unplug the cables and make sure they dont disappear back into the hole. Once the unit is out there are four screws securing the mounting brackets on each side. These were really tight on my unit. The material was also rather soft, so I had to use a wrench to get them off as a screwdriver got me nowhere. Next, attach the brackets on the new unit as shown on the picture.

This is one of the adapters that came with the head unit. The RCA cable (from camera) is hooked up to a Y-split cable I had lying around and the two splits are connected to the adapters "CCD AV IN" and "AUX AV IN". I dont remember which one is for reverse camera and which is for manual viewing, but that's easy to test when hooking up the new head unit.

The small red wire (from reverse light) is connected to the head unit's small brown wire marked "REAR PWR".

One plug from car only fits in one of the plugs on the adapter with one exception. There is one plug from the adapter that didn't fit any of the ones from my car. I suspect this is for steering wheel controls, which I dont have. There were also two other plugs from the car that dont go anywhere on the adapter (one of them will fit though). To understand which wires to not use, look at the colors of the wires on the image. I'm not sure which function these wires and plugs had in the old head unit, but I believe they are for outside temperature, trip computer etc. which are not present on the new head unit.

When hooking up the cables to the adapter the pink wire "BRAKE" is supposed to be connected to the hand brake to prevent you from watching DVDs while driving. Hooking it up to ground (black wire from adapter plug) will always allow you(r passengers) to watch DVDs.

I first tried out the GPS with the antenna just hanging behind the head unit and it worked well. To avoid any rattle and achieve optimal reception I fiddled around in here and decied to glue the antenna to the underside of the dash above the sound insulation material, and as far forward as possible. My glue of choice for just about anything is Loctite super attak, and that's what I used. It's very strong and dries within a few seconds. I applied plenty of glue and held the antenna in place for about a minute. I also ran the wire to the side of the air duct and glued the antenna cable in one place to keep it in place.

While I was at it I also ran the cable for iPod (even though I dont have one) and a 3,5mm AUX cable behind the glove compartment and into it via a hole I drilled. (See picture posted earlier) The 3,5mm AUX cable is connected to the head unit via RCA cables marked "AUX RIN" and "AUX LIN" (Right and left).

Next step would pretty much be to wrap things up by organizing all the wires with tape, zip ties or similar, and trying to make it all fit in the space behind/below the head unit. Of course it is a good idea to perform a functionality test before you reassemble all panels etc.

Back door panel is back on the door with all the clips in place and the added reverse camera. The camera model I got protrudes a bit from the panel, and I think it was intended for mounting on license plate or similar. It had a mounting bracket with two screw holes in the center of the camera house. By unscrewing the front part I removed it and could mount it the same way you do with a flush-style camera. There was a rubber-ish seal that kinda crumbled when I opened it so I added lots of silicone paste when mounting it. Be sure to test the orientation of the camera before it's permanently fastened.

Here are some pictures of the unit in action. Some of the pictures really doesn't do it justice!

Main menu. Radio, Navi (GPS), CD/DVD and bluetooth (cellphone) are the default big icons/buttons on the top. The bar at the bottom has about twice as many icons as shown on this "part" of the menu bar.

The radio interface

Default GPS 2D mode

Default GPS 3D mode

bluetooth (cellphone interface)

iPod interface

Reverse camera image

Very happy with the result and functionality!

Here are som other resources I found useful:

Discussion about the TP09X1 head unit: http://www.pradopoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=6223

Installing reverse camera on a Land Cruiser: http://www.lcool.org/technical/120_series/Camera/camera.html

[Hoovie]

.......

Here are some other resources I found useful:

Discussion about the TP09X1 head unit: http://www.pradopoin...php?f=28&t=6223

Installing reverse camera on a Land Cruiser: http://www.lcool.org...era/camera.html

Nice Work.

Here is another resource that you may have found useful - Maintenance/improvements - 4.2 Flush Mount Rear Camera Install    ;)

[Thunder-Bolt]

Hi Sensei

This post is very helpful to me when I have to run the wires from back end of my 2001 RAV4 to the front to head unit due to the pics .

I have the head unit running and the radio and nav works great.

I just need to get the camera up and running but I'm wiring mine different as per crutchfield.Actually it's a little easier than your set up but I don't know the location of the 6 and 28 pin connector.

Anyway I need to connect my purple/white wire (reverse) to the 6 pin connector slot #4 which is a red/black wire.

I also need to connect my light green (Park SW) wire to the 28 pin connector slot #4 which is also red/black in order to watch DVD's that my head unit is capable of doing. Is there a way around this being it will only let passengers watch movies while the car is in park only.

I already know how to wire the camera itself (not wiring to back rear end reverse light) but I need to find the pin connectors for Reverse and park which should be somewhere in the front dash.

Thanks

[voyager t180]

It's only my opinion,but fitting a reversing camera seems a lot of work for what is IMO a very small gain.

It came as standard on both my Ravs and tbh I've always found it tricky to gauge distances,and your looking at the screen instead of the road. I don't even look at it now.

However reversing sensors are very good indeed and I wouldn't be without them.

The wife could do with them on the front bumper as well,her Rav is only 9 months old and looks like its spent that time in Syria.- ;)

[Thunder-Bolt]

Hi

I'm in NYC and parking is very hard to come by and when you do find a spot it's a tight fit. Plus I'm a visual person and need to see what's going on as oppose to hearing.

The rav is now our main car so it will be getting tons of use ..it only has a little over 10,000 miles on it and

looks brand new.

We semi installed the Kenwood DNX890HD so we might as well use all the features it has being it cost a pretty penny.

So does anyone know if these 6 and 28 pin connectors are behind the fuse box or glove compartment. If yes any instructions on how to open /take apart area where fuse box is to get behind it ?

Thanks

[Hoovie]

It's only my opinion,but fitting a reversing camera seems a lot of work for what is IMO a very small gain.It came as standard on both my Ravs and tbh I've always found it tricky to gauge distances,and your looking at the screen instead of the road. I don't even look at it now.However reversing sensors are very good indeed and I wouldn't be without them.The wife could do with them on the front bumper as well,her Rav is only 9 months old and looks like its spent that time in Syria.- ;)

I am without a reversing camera for the first time in about 6 years and just have reversing sensors. Whilst these sensors are good and there is a nice RAG display, I really miss the camera setup and I always found I could reverse within a couple of inches of an obstacle using the display screen.

[voyager t180]

It's only my opinion,but fitting a reversing camera seems a lot of work for what is IMO a very small gain.It came as standard on both my Ravs and tbh I've always found it tricky to gauge distances,and your looking at the screen instead of the road. I don't even look at it now.However reversing sensors are very good indeed and I wouldn't be without them.The wife could do with them on the front bumper as well,her Rav is only 9 months old and looks like its spent that time in Syria.- ;)

I am without a reversing camera for the first time in about 6 years and just have reversing sensors. Whilst these sensors are good and there is a nice RAG display, I really miss the camera setup and I always found I could reverse within a couple of inches of an obstacle using the display screen.

Maybe it's just me then,

Or the camera lens isn't set

up correctly.

I still think staring at the screen whilst manouvering isn't good.

[Thunder-Bolt]

Well I found the wires I was looking for..under the dash behind the fuse box.

What a freaking pain to get to it even with removing the lower dash and metal kick panel.

Only 2 inches of wire exposed so no room to work on my back slide under the dash and behind fuse box. I'm a girl and

can't see how a average size guy can get down and underneath there as it was a very very tight fit for me with little room to move.

Camera working and just have to run wire down under panels to back of car and drill some holes fro camera attachement.

PS: Why are there lines going thru everything I post ?

[anchorman]

What lines ;-)

I suspect you caught the strikethrough (S with a line through) button or a control short cut.

[firemac]

It's only my opinion,but fitting a reversing camera seems a lot of work for what is IMO a very small gain.It came as standard on both my Ravs and tbh I've always found it tricky to gauge distances,and your looking at the screen instead of the road. I don't even look at it now.However reversing sensors are very good indeed and I wouldn't be without them.The wife could do with them on the front bumper as well,her Rav is only 9 months old and looks like its spent that time in Syria.- ;)

I am without a reversing camera for the first time in about 6 years and just have reversing sensors. Whilst these sensors are good and there is a nice RAG display, I really miss the camera setup and I always found I could reverse within a couple of inches of an obstacle using the display screen.

Maybe it's just me then,

Or the camera lens isn't set

up correctly.

I still think staring at the screen whilst manouvering isn't good.

It's not just you, Paul. We have the camera on ours now for the first time & I agree that it is nowhere near as useful as sensors. The image is just, well, useless really - IMHO.

[anchorman]

Well I quite like to look down my drive and all the way into the garage where there is usually a stool near the bench (no not that kind of stool) so it allows me with mirrors and bleep bleeps to watch all bases by simply turning my head. You never know if you are backing up to a blade of grass or a short post and that little error has cost folk dear in the past.