Reverse Camera Install Toyota Corrolla

Yesterday I installed a reverse camera in Sharls' Toyota Corrolla. She purchased a 7" GPS/Bluetooth/Media "Tablet" style portable GPS from eBay. It came with a wireless reverse camera and a suction-cap windscreen mount.


The reverse camera part was quite straight-forward. I screwed the small camera to the trim running along the boot lid between the number-plate lights. I ran the power lead in to the back of the boot lid then followed the other looms down the left hinge to the reverse lights. I then tapped into the left-hand reverse light power and earth. The lead had an in-line transmitter that powers up when reverse is engaged. This transmits the video signal to the receiver. 


We mounted the 7" tablet to the upper right-hand corner of the front windscreen. The receiver plugs into the tablet, but must also be plugged into 5volt USB power to work properly. This meant I had to run a micro-USB cable down the a-pillar to an ignition/accessories power source. 

Mini-USB running down the A-pillar.

Hid it well!

The device came with a cigarette lighter to mini-usb car charger, so i decided to hard-wire it in. I cut the bulky charger end off and ran the wire down the a-pillar, under the dash and across to the center console.

Cigarette lighter, center console.

After realising that the cigarette lighter obviously supplied 12 volts and the mini-usb was only 5volts, I decided to pull the bulky part of the car charger apart. I got rid of the contacts and bits I didnt need, basically ending up with a step-down transformer in a shell. I then lengthened the wires of both input and output, then spliced it in-line of my run to the cigarette lighter power, under the dash.

Step-down transformer in-line, instead of using lighter socket in center console.

I gave it a quick test before I hid this transformer up under the dash.

Yay! Green light!

Now when the tablet is mounted up on the windscreen, all you do is grab the mini-usb lead and plug it in and away you go!


This is when I showed sharls after I was done.