Glove Box Removal

[stephenleak]

OK. Next job. Hardwire the dash cam. The kit comes with both mini & midi/standard piggy-back fuse adaptors, so the obvious place to do this is the front passenger footwell fuse box.

Accessing the fuse box looks similar to my previous W246. Fuse 140 is for the "overhead control panel", which ought to include the interior lights. I need a permanent power supply for the camera's "parking mode". (The wiring kit has a voltage sensor, which should switch everything off if the battery voltage gets low.)

The problem could be getting the wire & connector from under the dashboard to the bottom of the nearside A pillar trim panel.

I'm hoping that removing the glove box gives access to this and that it involves the usual removal of X+1 screws (where X is the number of obvious screws you've found & removed) then squeezing in the stops on the side and pulling it out.

Unless anyone has done this and knows different ...

 

[stephenleak]

Update on dashcam hard wiring. The wire is now routed across the front of the nearside headlining, across the top of the A pillar trim, down behind the nearside passenger door seal and finally across the top of the front of the passenger door sill trim panel to the front passenger footwell fusebox. This was a doddle with the plastic tool provided by Nextbase. Removing the glovebox wasn't necessary - so far.

There is a bolt on the left-hand side of the fusebox, but this doesn't seem to be a earthing point. My test light doesn't work when clipped onto it. I suspect that it may be power into the fusebox.

Using an earth point on the door hinge, I tested the fuses. For the uninitiated, those little shiny bits on the top of the fuses are test points. If I had £1 for everyone who didn't know this ...

A surprise: all of the fuses are live with the car switched off. I presume that the power is allocated to ignition off and ignition on circuits further down the line. But as I need permanent power for the dashcam's parking mode, this gives me all the fuses to use.

That bolt is by a plastic flap, which seems to be the route into and out from the fusebox. So, I've used the closest suitable fuse to this. This is No. 165, which is for the CBC (Cornering Brake Control) and SAM (Signal Aquisition Module) and is 30 Amps, so the extra 2 Amps for the dashcam is only going to add a theoretical maximum of 6.67% to the theoretical maximum load on that circuit. 30 Amps is the biggest suitable fuse in the box, so there isn't a better option.

So far, so good.

But .... I still need to find an earthing point, and everything in the vicinity is plastic or sound deadening material.

I may yet need to remove the glovebox.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[stephenleak]

A couple of corrections ...

Firstly, the engine bay fuse box screws are T20, but the front passenger footwell fuse box screws are T25. I assumed that they would also be T20. This works, but it’s a loose fit, which might cause damage if you needed to use force.

Secondly, I moved the fuse tap over to the next fuse to the right. The fuse I originally used, No. 165, is for the “CBC/SAM” Evidently, these stand for Cornering Braking Control and Signal Acquisition Module. The former is part of the Electronic Stability Program anti-skid system. The latter is a microprocessor that functions much as a network router does on a computer or communications network, and monitors input from various switches, controls, monitoring devices, and warning systems. The conventional wisdom with fuse taps is that you don’t tap into the power for critical and/or safety systems. The next one over, No.163, is for “Door Functions”, which sounds much less important. It's still 30 Amps. It also gives a much gentler bend on the fuse tap wire.

As I expected, I had to remove some of the "ribs" from the inside of the fuse box lid to make room for the fuse tap. I used a pair of small electrical side cutters to snip them away from each intersection. You can then bend and snap them off. Then you snip off the intersections. Hopefully, that’ll make more sense if and when you have to do it yourself.