Is it possible to retrofit the 5 cameras into an RRE with one camera?

Hey guys. I am having my RRE serviced today. For a loaner they let me have a 2015 RRE in black, and I like the 5 camera feature it has.

So the big question is will I be able to upgrade my single camera setup to 5 cameras or there's a lot of changes to be made? Is it just a matter of hooking up 5 additional cameras to the head unit? Does the existing head unit support it?

Mine's a 2014 RRE Pure Plus

I don't know about the head unit, but it would require a software change and enabling the system, which might not be possible in a Pure. Apart from that I would imagine that the limiting factor would be cost and being prepared to drill some very small holes in things like the wing mirror casings and front bumper.

I have a pure premium loaded, and have this option. The cameras are all the same all around. Its just soo expensive, I would imagine you would also need new side mirrors?
To be honest i probably used them the first time i got the car and then the novelty just faded! Its nice to have in tight spots and odd parallel parking.
I just noted that my front passenger camera is missing ( don't know what happened to it) and its going to cost CAD580 plus labour and tax to replace!! That is insane money for a vga camera

(17-04-2015 10:01pm)AAA86 Wrote:  I have a pure premium loaded, and have this option. The cameras are all the same all around. Its just soo expensive, I would imagine you would also need new side mirrors?
To be honest i probably used them the first time i got the car and then the novelty just faded! Its nice to have in tight spots and odd parallel parking.
I just noted that my front passenger camera is missing ( don't know what happened to it) and its going to cost CAD580 plus labour and tax to replace!! That is insane money for a vga camera

wow that is expensive....

aren't there mounting points already where they should be placed? i would think they are already predrilled or something with covers if no cameras.

i am keeping the loaner car for an extra day lol.... i'm enjoying the perks of owning a RRE -- getting another RRE as a loaner + VIP treatment at the dealer.

I can say with certainty that retro-fitting the camera system is next to impossible at reasonable cost. First, you are buying the parts as spares which always costs more than the equivalent cost at manufacture. Second the option cost is the difference between a car with and without and not all the parts needed for the camera system are additional, some are replacements so you will end up with a pile of used parts which you have paid for and which are no longer used.

Take the door mirrors. The catalogue shows 24 variations and by the time you separate LHD/RHD and LH/RH, that's still 6 variants per mirror depending on options such as camera, power fold, blind spot, approach lighting. So, you will certainly need 2 mirrors, 4 cameras (and I haven't looked into what's involved fitting them into the front) and a camera controller which sits under the left front seat. Ball-park for those parts alone, $3000 - $4000.

The real killer is the wiring loom. Those cameras on the doors have to be cabled back to the camera controller and the standard wiring loom does not include the wiring for the cameras. That means the wiring loom in each door has to be replaced and there's a main wiring loom inside the car which also has to be replaced. Leaving aside the cost of the parts, the real show-stopper is the labour required to replace them.

They are always the first components to go into a painted body shell and replacing a failed wiring loom is one of the biggest and most expensive maintenance jobs because of the amount of the car which has to come apart to get them out. Seats, carpets, dash, trim, a total nightmare. There will be several hours work just to install the mirror and replace the door wiring loom in one door and then you find when it's all back together that things don't work and there are rattles and buzzes.

The message is clear - always assume options cannot be retrofitted, especially electrical ones.

Edit: the cost of the main wiring loom which comes in variant for cars with and without the camera system is £1500, more than $2000.

[quote='mark_n' pid='105727' dateline='1429339002']

a camera controller which sits under the left front seat.

Mark you got me curious about - the camera controller?
What is the and where you find it?

(18-04-2015 03:05pm)AAA86 Wrote:  [quote='mark_n' pid='105727' dateline='1429339002']

a camera controller which sits under the left front seat.

Mark you got me curious about - the camera controller?
What is the and where you find it?

I expect it's responsible for merging the images from the different cameras into a single image, the zooming and select functions and so on. As I say, I think it's underneath the lefthand front seat.

(17-04-2015 10:01pm)AAA86 Wrote:  I have a pure premium loaded, and have this option. The cameras are all the same all around. Its just soo expensive, I would imagine you would also need new side mirrors?
To be honest i probably used them the first time i got the car and then the novelty just faded! Its nice to have in tight spots and odd parallel parking.
I just noted that my front passenger camera is missing ( don't know what happened to it) and its going to cost CAD580 plus labour and tax to replace!! That is insane money for a vga camera

+1 on the cameras. They came with the Pure Premium I bought, but not something I was looking for (I wanted the blind spot monitor feature). For myself, they are nothing but a party trick to show friends. I can see how they would be useful when off roading, but for everyday real world use....why?

(25-04-2015 04:31am)markdartj Wrote:  +1 on the cameras. They came with the Pure Premium I bought, but not something I was looking for (I wanted the blind spot monitor feature). For myself, they are nothing but a party trick to show friends. I can see how they would be useful when off roading, but for everyday real world use....why?

Well, the reversing camera is useful because the high rear window makes it tough to judge where the back of the car is, especially if you are backing up to attach a trailer.

Not by U.S. Standards but by European standards, the Evoque is a wide car and you quite often come across situations where it's good to be confident guiding the car through a narrow gap - garage doorways, multi-storey car parks, parking spaces. In some cases, we even have enforced width restrictions imposed by over-zealous local authorities which the cameras help when threading the car through the gap.

The front cameras are useful when pulling out of a junction with restricted visibility.

As I say, less obviously useful in the U.S. but a must-have option for me in the Old World.

Mark, no doubt you need it in the "Old World". Here in the "New World" (I wonder which is actually older) we have wide streets in even the smallest towns (save maybe Boston or NYC, considering they originated under "Old World" standards.