What's behind here?

[siobhanemerald]

Hello, sorry if this has been asked before, mind you I dunno why anyone else would ask this! But I'm wondering what's behind this plastic panel below the centre brake light in the hatch? Also, would it be safe to drill a 1cm hole here?

 

 

Any info would be much appreciated 

[MarkyG82]

Is that not just the brake light? Maybe some electro gismagic to make it all work. Does it have a rear screen squirt?

[siobhanemerald]

8 minutes ago, MarkyG82 said:

Is that not just the brake light? Maybe some electro gismagic to make it all work. Does it have a rear screen squirt?

Yeah the brake light is there and it does have a rear squirt and all the wires to go with everything, just concerned there might be something else there that I wouldn't want to come into contact with when drilling 

 

I'm sure it will be okay to just drill it as long as I'm careful but was just in case anyone had some horror stories for me 

Edited 5 April, 2018 by siobhanemerald

[ahenners]

That trim should come off, perhaps try removing it and drilling with it removed. Would be safer

[siobhanemerald]

2 minutes ago, ahenners said:

That trim should come off, perhaps try removing it and drilling with it removed. Would be safer

Will have a look at perhaps doing that then! When I had a look last night it looked more or less connected the whole way round the hatch but will do another inspection 

 

How bad can it be getting electrocuted anyway? 

[SWBoy]

40 minutes ago, siobhanemerald said:

How bad can it be getting electrocuted anyway? 

If the ignition is off then there *shouldn't* be any live wires in there

[CWARD]

You may find you have a seal around the surround to prevent the brake light fogging up. If you drill the surround then you would compromise the seal. 

 

What at is the purpose of the 1cm hole?

[siobhanemerald]

1 minute ago, CWARD said:

You may find you have a seal around the surround to prevent the brake light fogging up. If you drill the surround then you would compromise the seal. 

 

What at is the purpose of the 1cm hole?

Interesting - will need to investigate this.

 

Installing my dash cams over the weekend and don't want any 10cm of cable hanging around at the hatch. Had an auto electrican (family friend) fit them to my last car (Fiesta) and he drilled a hole in the hatch and sealed it with a small circular rubber seal enough for the wire to pop through so I'm planning on doing the same. Was a lot easier on the Fiesta though as it was metal and there was no seal or wires in the area being drilled.

 

Now wondering how much of a task it would be to indeed just remove this trim to suss out what's behind there as I certainly don't want to damage anything 

[CWARD]

If you do drill the surround then do it in a dry day and will around the hole with silicon to restore the seal. If you don't want to drill you can secure the cable around the surround using small dabs of silicone or better still Sugru mouldable glue . When you come to sell the car you won't have any holes in the interior and the silcone or Sugru can be easily removed without leaving any marks.

[silver1011]

I drilled a hole through that panel to fit a bracket to secure a rear window blind.

 

You'll be fine as long as when your through you stop immediately.

 

Removing the trim might be a better option though as it'll allow you to better route the cable without it snagging.

[YMe]

I've got my rear view cam in the top passenger side corner of the rear screen with the wire tucked into the hatch seal round to the 12 volt socket. Trouble with the hatch is the length of the rear window. You loose the reg plate of a car following because the camera is mounted not far behind the mid line of the car.

 

Piggy backed off the rear wiper feed for the front cam to a 12 volt socket cabled tied to the place where you go to release the glove box. Piggy backed a fused feed threaded through door lower seals and under rear seat from that 12 volt supply to a Tupperware box in the hatch side storage containing another 12 volt socket. Earth for this is the bag hook securing screw. Found it easier to conceal one wire in the long run rather than two.

[Mike97]

I took the boot seal off near the top and fed my wire into the hatch via the rubber cable duct. Then up into the drivers side of the hatch and out of the hole for the heated screen wire then back down to the top of the high level brake light. The only trims i removed were the hatch carpet trim and the black plastic trim that also covers high level brake light, i dont think you need to remove the carpet part though

[siobhanemerald]

@Mike97 did you have to drill a hole??

 

What you have done is exactly what I've had in mind! Through the rubber cable duct and through the black plastic but did you just jam the cable under the plastic instead of drilling a hole then and then run the cable over the top of the plastic?

 

How easy to remove was that long black piece of trim that goes all the way round the hatch at the top?

[Mike97]

The black trim is a tight fit on the clips but pulls off I used the plastic trim tool that came with the dash cam to start it off then got fingers behind it. I tucked the wire along the inside of the rooflining with the boot seal pulled off at top then pulled the rubber duct off. Used a bit of stiff wire taped to dash cam wire to first feed it through duct then up the drivers side of the boot with the heated screen wire. The reason I used drivers side is the wire hole was not as far up the boot as the passenger side there was no holes I could use in the top of the boot so wire fed back round to brake light. For the trim I just used a round file to notch it out so the cable fits into the notch as the panel is clipped back on. And dab reception has been fine no problems.

Edited 6 April, 2018 by Mike97

[siobhanemerald]

Thanks everyone for your advice!

 

Went ahead and fitted my blackvue cameras today (2 channel) - managed to get the power magic pro hooked up quite easily using a couple of piggy back fuses. Was surprised how easy it was to get everything set up and running through the car to the rear camera as well! Only problems were that bloody glovebox going back in (surprisingly fiddly for me haha) and there was originally no power getting to the rear camera but reset the system and now everything is running perfectly!

 

Did as you suggested @Mike97 and pulled that black trim off and etched a notch in the plastic (much better than drilling a hole larger than needed!) - was tough to get it off as mentioned but got there in the end 

 

Thanks again!

[silverden]

3 hours ago, siobhanemerald said:

 

Did as you suggested @Mike97 and pulled that black trim off and etched a notch in the plastic (much better than drilling a hole larger than needed!) - was tough to get it off as mentioned but got there in the end

 

I'm impressed that you managed to get the surround trim off ok without damage.  I also have a rear view camera from my previous car that I want to fit to my Octavia.  I was intending doing the same as you but but the trim was so tight and I was worried that it might break, in the end I just gave up.  With the car also still under warranty I didn't want to cause any damage.  I might have another try later when I pluck up some courage 

[brettikivi]

wait for warmer weather, the plastics will be more pliable at +20 than at +2C.

 

 - Bret

[siobhanemerald]

On 07/04/2018 at 19:20, silverden said:

 

I'm impressed that you managed to get the surround trim off ok without damage.  I also have a rear view camera from my previous car that I want to fit to my Octavia.  I was intending doing the same as you but but the trim was so tight and I was worried that it might break, in the end I just gave up.  With the car also still under warranty I didn't want to cause any damage.  I might have another try later when I pluck up some courage 

They are a really tight fit, but I used a tool on my swiss army knife and tape the end with electrical tape so that it didn't leave any marks and managed to prise it off! It still took a bit of time and it did sound like it made a cracking noise when the clips popped out but it was absolutely fine, and went back on a treat as well!

[silverden]

siobhan.........thanks for the reply.  As already suggested I might wait until the weather has warmed up and hopefully the plastic might be a bit more giving.  It just bugs me that I have a camera sitting here and can't fit it.  One day