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How I completely hid my Dashcam wires on my MK7

Fraysa

Go Kart Champion
Location
Israel
Car(s)
2016 MK7 1.4TSI
Hey everyone!

I'm a long time retrofitter coming from Audi, and this is one of the cool projects I've done on my Audi.
I always disliked how the wires for the dashcams were just hanging there next to the interior rearview mirrors, so I had to come up with a neater solution.

On my A3, I didn't have the dimming interior rearview mirror, however, I did have the light sensor on the mirror, so Audi/VW makes a plastic tunnel for those wires to come straight from the headliner. I thought to myself - why not use those plastic tunnels to hide the dashcam wires?!

So today I present to you how I did it on my MK7, which has a similar setup to the A3.

1. First of all, I took out the interior rearview mirror. There are many posts online (and probably even YouTube videos) on how to do this - but it's as simple as twisting it counter clockwise from it's base. If you never removed one, don't be afraid - this can feel like you're gonna break it. But don't worry - it's just how it works. After you remove it, you'll understand how it's mounted.

Before removing the mirror, you have to remove the top plastic wire channel (the thin one that's coming from the headliner plastic). Simply use a small trim removal tool to push it back and it'll pop out and slide up. In addition, you'll also have the remove the plastic headliner part on top so you can tuck your wires. Afterwards, you can remove the mirror along with the circular cover.

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2. Now we'll need to do some modding to make this beautiful thing work. Take out the circular cover from the mirror and inspect it. Think where you want your wires to come out from. I made a small mistake and chose the bottom part, however, it's better to use the top part, where there are small "vents". I used a step drill bit to do this, but any drill bit will work. Feel free to come up with your own ideas on how to achieve this, I'm sure there are "cleaner" ways, but this is what I do!

Note that because it's not only the wire width that has to fit, but also the actual micro USB head, which is a tad larger. I had to make a small holes and then slowly work my way up, checking if the head fits every time I drilled a bit, so I can make as much as less damage as possible. The end result was this:

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Note that in my case, since I'm using a dual-channel dashcam, I had to fit two wires so I had to make a bigger hole because the second USB head would barely fit when the first wire went through.

3. After you're satisficed with the result and you made sure all your needed cables fit inside the hole, you can mount it back on the mirror. This process can be quite tricky, but if you use a flashlight, you'll see the circular part has 2 channels, one of each side, and the mirror base will just slide into it. You'll hear a click when that happens, so you know you're good.

4.This part is the trickiest part. You'll need to adjust the wires to make sure you have just enough length to reach your dashcam, so there are no extra wires. I did this by putting the circular cover over where my mirror would go, then I pulled back the two wires slowly until I felt the length was enough. At this point, I popped the circular cap over the mirror, which held the wires in places so my length marking wasn't screwed.

5. This is an extra optional step. Since I live in a very hot country (Israel), the fabric tape that held the light sensor & dimming wires was starting to fall off. I took the extra mile and used a new fabric tape over the wires, but this time I also included the dashcam wires, so it's all neat and tidy! I love how fabric tapes make everything feel OEM.

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5. Now that you're happy with the wires length, and the circular cover is back on the mirror, simply install back the mirror, put back the top headliner plastic and then put back the plastic wire channel and you're good to go!

The final result -- 0 wires seen from the driver's side.

I still have to tidy up the wires that lead to the dashcam, but that's for another day!

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Thank you for reading :),
Fraysa.
 

imthanick_a

Autocross Champion
Location
Ohio
I just pushed the wires in underneath the cowl from the side. its tight enough that it holds them there but not tight enough to put the cowl in tension, no cutting needed. The wrapped them up under the headliner. Then after I got my windshield replaced the glass guys kindly mounted my wires under the headliner and fixed the wiring down the A-Pillar neatly for me
 
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