Dash cam without wires

[Wildcat45]

Hi, I’m looking for advice about wireless dash cams.

I want to fit one to one of my cars but don’t want wires dangling down or wires jammed in the head lining and door seals.

JLR offer an OEM installation, but it’s not cheap and having seen an installation video on line, I really don’t want my new car being pulled to bits, even if it’s by a Land Rover dealer. It’s already been back to have rattles and squeaks sorted.

I’d be grateful for thoughts and recommendations about battery operated dash cams. I appreciate they’ll have downsides, like battery life, but I’d prefer that to the alternatives.

Thanks.

[untakenname]

I don't think there's any dashcams that have large enough capacity built in batteries to record for a reasonable amount of time, best bet would be a Gopro or similar type action cam.

[vikingaero]

There are some (mainly American) companies that make power take off adaptors that use the power from the auto dimming electric mirror or central interior light. The last time I looked they were around £40-50 each with shipping.

I'm not sure why running a wire down along the headliner, down the A pillar and popping into the dash (using a £10 hardwire kit) is a bad idea? It's the easiest and simplest solution.

[Evercross]

Wireless dashcams are few and far between because they are a poor and inconvenient compromise compared to the alternatives. If you don't want wires showing then the best way to go is the integrated route.

Dashcams are available that are integrated into a replacement shroud for the windscreen rear-view mirror and take their power from either the interior lighting panel in the headlining or the mirror auto-dimming. Jaguar and Land/Range Rover vehicles are well served in this respect.

OE Witness

Edited by Evercross on Friday 11th November 10:04

[MikeGTi]

Are those OE Witness ones any good?

[Wildcat45]

Thanks guys

[joropug]

Buy a £10 trim removal kit and you can hide wires so easily.

I haven’t hard wired mine in an S5 Sportback, instead I’ve plugged it into the 12v in the boot. The only place the wire is visible at all is in the boot as it enters the socket. You don’t need to remove anything most trims are easy to pry slightly and then the wire can be fed in nicely.

[RockDriver]

I'm most likely gonna go with USB dash cam - that way I just need to get the USB cable to my Android head unit which has two USB slots and 128 GB of internal memory. Fire up a dash cam app and that's it.

[mmm-five]

RockDriver said:

I'm most likely gonna go with USB dash cam - that way I just need to get the USB cable to my Android head unit which has two USB slots and 128 GB of internal memory. Fire up a dash cam app and that's it.

Does the head unit provide enough power to the USB ports to fire up the USB dash-cam?

[RockDriver]

mmm-five said:

Does the head unit provide enough power to the USB ports to fire up the USB dash-cam?

Not 100% sure, but I've ordered it from the same brand (XTRONS) and it says it's meant to be used with android head units.

Don't know if it counts for anything, but recently I've connected my Logitech Brio webcam to my Pixel 6 Pro Android phone (to look under the car actually) and it worked.

[Decky_Q]

When I was fitting one I took power from the rearview mirror, opened a lighter socket usb adapter discarded the casing and wired it in, fitted the holder into the plastic behind the mirror so it was as unobtrusive as possible. It turned out nice and tidy with no wires needing tucked away.