2014 Toyoa Rav4 install - anyone done it?

DesertBike

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Has anyone installed an A129 in a 2014 or similar Toyota Rav4? I'm wondering whether there are any special considerations for install - longer camera-to-camera cable needed, for instance.

I had tons of extra camera cable left over in my sedan, but I wasn't covering nearly as much ground as I would in an SUV.

Also would like to know if you had any particular difficulty putting the cable behind trim panels.
 
I just installed A129 on my friend's 2017 Rav4. The cables are long enough, it's actually too long if you ask me. The only minor problem I encountered was that there is no way you can perfectly hide the cable at the rear door joint. Some car has bigger rubber tube allowing cables running through, but in my case, its too small, I had to just leave the cable hanging. Other than that, it's easy.
 
Then you can imagine I had WAYYYYY too much cable inside my sedan, lol.

Yeah I was wondering about the hatch actually. I'll have a good close look at the target 2014 Rav4. Maybe the conduit to the hatch has more room. Hiding the cable isn't so much a concern, but I don't want it to get snagged/pinched or anything like that.
 
I ordered an A129 kit for my girlfriend's 2014 Rav4. Should be here this weekend. Don't tell her, though, it's a surprise :)

I was looking at her hatch when unloading some stuff. There seem to be 2 rubber wire pipes (conduits?) going from the frame to the hatch innards. One is a little larger than the other. I'm hoping one has room to enclose the camera wire. I'm not sure how else I'm going to make it possible to repeatedly open & close the hatch without pinching the camera wire. Or if there is room, how exactly I'm going to get at the free end of the cable, once it's run...some stuff to figure out.

Maybe I could bring the cable in from the side and use cable clamps/wire guides? I do plan to reverse the camera cable direction compared to default labeling - that is, right-angle plug goes in back, straight plug to front camera. I did not know this was possible when installing my own A129 system in my own car, but apparently the camera cable is completely reversible.
 
It was actually a 2015 Rav 4. We did the install last weekend.

Executive summary: Finding and connecting power for the hardwire kit was the hardest part. If you want to fully hide the cables, you'll run into a problem at the rear hatch.

More detailed notes, for anyone who needs to do this & is using the 3-wire hardwire kit:

-the best ground point I could find was a nut holding some part of the dashboard's inner metal structure to the left wall (inboard of driver's door). You have to pull off the plastic cover on the lower left dash (left of knee airbag) to get to this. I also unplugged the buttons and unclipped the wiring harness on this panel, so that I could fully remove it. That got the panel out of the way while doing the install.

-your other choices for ground points are: the bolts holding the gas and brake pedal mounts to the firewall. I didn't want to mess with those.

-Good news: there is a TON of room under and inside the dash, including immediately around the fuse panel. You won't be able to get the cover back on the fuse panel, but it is no problem to plug in the piggyback fuse taps & run the wires, with room to spare.

-Bad news: The fuse panel must be accessed from directly under and is horizontal. Unless you are really tiny, you're not going to have a lot of room to get a good look at the panel. Using a mirror might help, although that introduces its own problems as all the fuse locations and text will be reversed. Also the fuses are really small. Needle nose pliers were needed to pull them.

-I used the "STOP" fuse (#19) and "Rear Wiper" fuse (I forget the number) to tap for permanent power (Red wire) and accessory power (Yellow wire), respectively. STOP always has power because, I guess, the brake lights need to work even if the car is off.

-It was pretty easy to tuck the power wires and camera cables behind trim up front, and down the sides of the cabin. We put the Camera cable just under the rubber trim around the door openings and tucked under the top edge of the B-pillar trim.

-For the hatch, we left some slack in the camera cable and used the cable clips included in the kit as supports. It doens't get pinched in the door or flop around too much.

-I looked at running the camera cable through one of the rubber boots that carries factory wiring into the interior of the hatch. The problem wasn't there, it was where the cable would come out after re-entering the cabin. The cable would have been pinched between a trim panel and the edge of the headliner panel (cabin ceiling), no matter how I ran it. Not good. That's why we opted for exposed cable, held by the self-adhesive cable clips on available plastic surfaces.

-I am so so glad I invested in a Molex hand crimp tool a few years ago. It makes BEAUTIFUL hand crimps. Some crimper is needed to crimp the bullet connectors on to the wire ends, with the 3-wire kit.

Overall: more physically painful than, but other than that no worse than, the A129 install in my 1990's sedan.
 
It was actually a 2015 Rav 4. We did the install last weekend.

Executive summary: Finding and connecting power for the hardwire kit was the hardest part. If you want to fully hide the cables, you'll run into a problem at the rear hatch.

More detailed notes, for anyone who needs to do this & is using the 3-wire hardwire kit:

-the best ground point I could find was a nut holding some part of the dashboard's inner metal structure to the left wall (inboard of driver's door). You have to pull off the plastic cover on the lower left dash (left of knee airbag) to get to this. I also unplugged the buttons and unclipped the wiring harness on this panel, so that I could fully remove it. That got the panel out of the way while doing the install.

-your other choices for ground points are: the bolts holding the gas and brake pedal mounts to the firewall. I didn't want to mess with those.

-Good news: there is a TON of room under and inside the dash, including immediately around the fuse panel. You won't be able to get the cover back on the fuse panel, but it is no problem to plug in the piggyback fuse taps & run the wires, with room to spare.

-Bad news: The fuse panel must be accessed from directly under and is horizontal. Unless you are really tiny, you're not going to have a lot of room to get a good look at the panel. Using a mirror might help, although that introduces its own problems as all the fuse locations and text will be reversed. Also the fuses are really small. Needle nose pliers were needed to pull them.

-I used the "STOP" fuse (#19) and "Rear Wiper" fuse (I forget the number) to tap for permanent power (Red wire) and accessory power (Yellow wire), respectively. STOP always has power because, I guess, the brake lights need to work even if the car is off.

-It was pretty easy to tuck the power wires and camera cables behind trim up front, and down the sides of the cabin. We put the Camera cable just under the rubber trim around the door openings and tucked under the top edge of the B-pillar trim.

-For the hatch, we left some slack in the camera cable and used the cable clips included in the kit as supports. It doens't get pinched in the door or flop around too much.

-I looked at running the camera cable through one of the rubber boots that carries factory wiring into the interior of the hatch. The problem wasn't there, it was where the cable would come out after re-entering the cabin. The cable would have been pinched between a trim panel and the edge of the headliner panel (cabin ceiling), no matter how I ran it. Not good. That's why we opted for exposed cable, held by the self-adhesive cable clips on available plastic surfaces.

-I am so so glad I invested in a Molex hand crimp tool a few years ago. It makes BEAUTIFUL hand crimps. Some crimper is needed to crimp the bullet connectors on to the wire ends, with the 3-wire kit.

Overall: more physically painful than, but other than that no worse than, the A129 install in my 1990's sedan.
Can you take some pictures of cable running on the floor and around the hatch please?
I want to duplicate it for my RAV4 too.
Thanks!
 
We didn't run cables on the floor. They're all tucked behind trim near the roof, except rear of the second row of seating.
 
We didn't run cables on the floor. They're all tucked behind trim near the roof, except rear of the second row of seating.
I see. Thanks for your quick reply.
 
I went back and re-did the rearmost bit of the cable run. Excess camera cable is now tucked behind the large trim panel, rear of the 2nd row of seating, left side of vehicle.

The only exposed camera cable that's left is a bit of slack to allow the hatch to open.

I looked at the video, and there seems to be some banding on the rear camera video. Did you have that issue?

It doesn't make the rear video totally unusable, but it doesn't look good either.
 
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