agreed, my first dash cam was in 2014, when very few people had them. back then you had to jerry rig, customized ones meant for sports/action/biking. I did this whole hack/setup. worked great for years, but was maintenance heavy (a bit) because you need to replace the capacitor.

Now today, I have 11 cameras on the car and i will be going for 12, possibly 13. any time i drive a car without them, i feel so weird and vulnerable. even one camera feels weird now LOL.

a general tip when installing camera wires... try not to stuff them in the a/b/c pillars due to obviously, the airbags. instead, remove the panels and professionally run the wires through existing OE wire runs behind or out of the way of an airbag. last thing you need is a 50 cent wire causing you injury or worse.

 

that's very true, run the wires BEHIND the air bags.. not in front.

 

I was able to get it entirely behind the panel. I do not recall totally but I believe it was because after you remove the quarter panel cover (adjacent to the car seat) you can get your hand into the quarter panel cavity and maneuver the cable so that it is behind the C-pillar cover. The small bit of cable visible in your blue oval is not visible in my install.

You can run the cable around the C panel cover in two ways. Starting from where the headliner meets the door and the C-panel cover, you can run between the headliner and the C-panel cover out to the rear windshield. Then you can come down along to the rear windshield to the bottom of the rear windshield, then under the fuzzy rear dashboard, back to the quarter panel area. Most of that zone is empty, except for the airbag which is at the front of the C-panel. In that path you will not even be near the airbag, as long as you stay at the top of the C-panel cover.

You can also run the cable under the weatherstripping (NOT under the C-panel cover, because there is no space). It's a much shorter run. I believe that is what you did in your picture. I believe it is what I did also but I don't recall anymore. This also does not need to have anything to do with the airbag.

The fuzzy rear dashboard is basically not attached to the C-panel cover. They are far apart enough in my car that you can put a finger between them. You can easily run the cable between the rear dashboard and the C-panel cover, and just as easily run the cable between the rear dashboard and the rear windshield. There is a huge amount of gap space there. Let the excess cable sit in the quarter panel cavity, since it will be easily accessible there, and since there is lots and lots of space. You could also let it sit in the cavity on top of the trunk and under the fuzzy rear dashboard, but I feel like it would slide around and make sounds. Especially if you play a lot of untz untz club music.

Not really. The airbag must open in a very specific way. It's going to open from the rear and cover the window in a side curtain. Therefore you should be concerned mostly about it's expansion in that direction. It doesn't expand very much in the upwards or rearwards directions. So if your cable is back there and not close to it, it will not be affected. Its sort of like running the cable between the airbag and the metal frame of the car - if it was there, we wouldnt be worried either.

 

Google for the Dongar adaptor. It splits the power into the rear view mirror. Basically it's a plug on one end, and it splits into two plugs on the other end. The old power cable goes into one side, the old rear view mirror gets the other side, and the last is a power adaptor for your camera. You need to tie it up a bit so that it fits behind the auto-dimming camera plate, but that's basically it. No soldering, wirestripping, or wire twisting. All plugs. So:

Step 1) remove auto dimming plate.
Step 2) unclip old power adaptor.
Step 3) clip in dongar adaptor.
Step 4) clip dongar adaptor into old plug for auto dimming rear view mirror.
Step 5) clip in power cable for dashcam.
Step 6) replace auto dimming cover plate

This install works perfectly, but it is **ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL** to make sure you have a high spec usb-C cable for the power. The newer dashcams, especially those with two channels or more, draw a lot of power. Any ****ty old usb-C cable won't do it. Worse, they will power it on for a few drives, then it will randomly lose power. That is completely not tolerable.

I tried 5-6 cables until this one did the trick:

This works because it uses a high gauge cable that brings in more power than most USB-C cables do. Use the shortest cable you can use (I use 1 foot) to further reduce resistance on the cable. You just need to go out from the rear view mirror box, into the headliner, and then back into the camera. So not that far all told.

 

Which Dongar adapter did you get?

 

This one: Dongar Dashcam Power Adapter (10-pin Type B).

I am aware that Amazon says that it's not compatible with a 7th gen lexus ES. But that is what I got and it works fine. You're welcome.

 

Great post! I might have missed it but what year is your ES350? Dongar's website shows this model is only compatible with model year 2019-2023 (perhaps updated since you posted)?

 

I have a 2023. At the time I bought this stuff, it was still 2023, and understandable if it had not been updated to anticipate another model year. I cannot confirm if 2024 and 2025 models have been updated, but my guess is that it would be a fuckton of trouble and expense to change such a small thing so late in the model lifecycle. I'd chance it.

The dashcam forums (dashcamtalk.com) have excellent discussion of year-specific adapters and things. It's probably worth looking there to see if someone else has installed the dongar on a later model ES. It's also worth asking around on reddit dashcam forums and lexus forums to see if anyone there has your answer also. Of course you can email the seller on amazon too.

 

Their tech support people confirmed that the regular 10-pin type B will work in 2024 and 2025 models so long as they have the auto dimming mirror so I prefer that more simple connector. Thanks!

Do you have any installation tips or gotchas you'd share? I found the following videos but like you, I don't want to break anything if I can help it.
This one shows the process albeit installing the Linux official one: I ordered the same pry tool from amazon the guy in the video is using.

 

You mean like other than what I wrote in the original post? No.

 

Turned out to be even easier than what is shown in the video I linked. I did not have to remove the dome light assemble. Just removing the inner/outer plastic shroud was enough. Waiting on a 90-degree USB-A to USB-C cable to finalize cable routing, will then post a pic or two. Thank for the replies.

 

Can you post a picture of your installation location?

 

What would you have done differently if you didn't have the rear sunshade option? Originally, I was thinking the rear-facing camera should go at the top of the rear window, but not sure if it would make a huge difference in the angle of coverage.

Did you consider the 3-camera set-up, with a third camera (built into the head unit) that faces the passenger compartment? I'm not sure how necessary it is, but would be an added layer of security.

 

At the time, if I didnt have the rear sunshade, I'd have put it at the top, not knowing any better and just following everyone else. Now that I've installed it at the bottom, and now that I've experienced driving with it for long periods at the bottom, if I had to do it again, I probably would put it at the bottom. You just get used to it and it's presence isn't a big deal, and you can see plenty. The rear camera is a pretty small device. Also, the install on the bottom is better: running cabling around the fuzzy rear dashboard is ******* trivial, whereas putting it above the rear headliner is less so. People say that the angle from the top of the rear windshield is better, and obviously it has to be somewhat true. However, I do not find there to be any serious compromise with it. I have a very high resolution dashcam and it works fine. I think the space of collisions where the top-mount is actually qualitatively better than the bottom mount is basically zero. Also, there is no real visibility limitation from the presence of the trunk.

I did consider a three camera setup, but that is basically for uber drivers worried about getting stabbed or having evidence for post-club pukers. Not really my issue. I would be more likely to consider a side window setup, but then you'd need four. Overall, I think a two camera setup (4k in front, 2k in back) is excellent for documenting the causes of collisions. The most important thing is to show that your car is stopped when the other car hits you in a parking lot. 80% of accidents happen in parking lots at low speeds; even if the other car is not on the camera you can prove that you were stopped when they hit you, so it is 100% their fault. I had some jackass back up into me in a parking lot, and my insurer subrogated them without too much of a fuss (Except for stupid website problems).

At some point the tech will be such that we can have four cameras that cover the car in a more 360 way. I wish it was built in like in a tesla. But for the time being 2 cameras are good enough for this long distance commuter.

 

Thanks, I'll be running a wire for the rear camera in my new (to me) 2021 RC350, I have done this type of thing on other cars but not a Lexus, hopefully I will be able to keep all the clips in tact.