sooo I was installing my backup camera on my 2008 g35 sedan, thought it would be a simple task.

tapped into these orange and black wires in the reverse harness, dunno what they are for but it worked for others (pic courtesy of remmy)


https://g35driver.com/forums/v36-aud...-vci-nis2.html

the camera had two wires to power it, a black and red pre stripped wire.
(I just stripped the wires on the harness and attached the stripped camera wire to one then soldered it back to the original wire of same color going into the harness, then repeated for the camera's second wire, is this how you tap into a wire?!)

(also didnt know the polarity of the wire, the camera just had a red and black wire so I connected the black to black an red to orange...?)

then took the yellow video RCA into the armrest RCA inputs, powered on the car, put it in reverse and hit the aux to see if the image was being displayed... nothing so I pulled out the yellow rca and was going to put it in but it touched the adjacent (red or white) RCA plug and I heard a popping sound from my speakers. I then plugged it back into the yellow RCA socket and still no picture on the LCD of my reverse cam. I noticed the whole instrument cluster was off and all the needles were down.

the main LCD was still powered on and displaying everything. I turned it on and off a couple times and everything was working. I drove down the street and back up and the car lost power on the way up and slowed down as I pulled it to the side of the curb. The car rpms were dropping sporadically and i had to keep revving the engine to keep it from stalling. I turned it off and tried to turn it on but it wouldnt start. You could hear it trying to start with clicking noises but nothing else. Makes no sense... dont think its the battery? how would this even be affected? Wouldnt the alternator supply power while it was running??

Did a fuse blow for the instrument cluster? How would this have been affected by the reverse light wiring harness.. I am so confused.

I am planning on towing it this friday to an infiniti dealership but if you guys can tell me of a certain fuse to check or some type of fix I would greatly appreciate it because I know they are going to charge me (certified preowned but not bumper to bumper)

Maybe the wiring harness shorted it? I wish I researched this more before I went cutting wires, sigh..

 

uhh sounds like the battery/alternator died...my car makes clicking noises when the battery is dead when you are trying to start.

You may need to just bring it to a dealer or mechanic to have a look at it...

Electrical issues are very hard to diagnose...You need to have to tap every where with a voltmeter...

I would suggest next time, try to bring it to a professional installer of the backup cameras...

 

i thought it was a simple job but i guess coming from a 2001 accord, these cars are significantly more sensitive to amateur installs and general electronic ignorance haha just scared at the price im going to have to pay for this avoidable mistake

 

Gotta be a blown fuse. Did you check the fuel pump fuse? Just go thru the entire fuse block.

 

PMed you back. definitely check the block and cut the camera wires off for now. we can wire it back up later. its hard to believe you could have shorted something important but just start from scratch, thats the easiest thing to do. its possible it was an alternator but it just seems fishy....

and DONT FEEL BAD!! when i installed my PAC ipod adapter i shorted out half the fuses in my car!! had to take a half day from work to figure it out lol.!!!

 

awesome the man himself who inspired me to take on the job

In my OP, was the method I used to 'tap' into the wires correct? If not can you tell me a better way:

also regarding the polarity of the two wires on the camera, the black and the red wire. Does it matter which color wire I connected them with on the reverse harness? ie. black to black, red to orange or is there a different polarity scheme for this? I forgot to ask and might have the wrong current signals going in

thanks everyone. This is my first time dealing with the sheer sophistication of modern cars and I really hope it's something as simple as a blown fuse i'll go through each one meticulously and pray one is just blown. Be back with updates later this week when I can access it again.

thanks for looking, what would I do without you guys

 

ok so first things first. from the camera there's no way you blew anything by touching the video RCA cable to the sound port, its a low voltage signal port. secondly, you wouldn't have seen an image because unless you bypassed the interlock on the video screen (which we can't discuss here) then you won't see a backup image unless the e-brake is on.

thirdly...on the premium package the backup lamp wiring is no different and even if you reversed polarity the camera just wouldn't come on and maybe you blew the camera (worst case) but thats just how DC low voltage works.

it sounds like there was something else at play. you definitely blew a fuse if your instrument cluster went out. why the car died...i dunno...unless you lifted another wire while you were doing this install there is no reason that they would be tied together. replace the fuses and definitely go from there.

make sure that the power wires for the camera are taped up and not touching the car body or each other too!

 

will do, thanks again. Definitely feeling better and more optimistic! i'll report back later this week. take care everyone.

 

i don't know who else is reading this thread but the more i think about it the more i don't believe that anything he did could have caused this because he did not remove the radio or disassemble the dash to do this mod.

sam - as i said in the PM i think you need to check your power steering belt. i wonder if it snapped and thats why the car died. why the cluster was out to begin with...i dunno...could be coincidence, maybe something else.

 

yeah i dont see how those two wires correlate with the engine but it would be a very unusual coincidence that something as major as an engine problem would arise just as I botched the install haha who knows life works in mysterious ways

i hope its an engine problem because that is covered with the CPO warranty rather than an electrical problem. I'll give it a good look and even record a video of how it sounds starting if I cant pinpoint the problem.

thanks again for the help remmy! i'll update this when i'm home friday

 

**update***

it was just a measly 10a fuse that caused this whole headache

thanks everyone!

 

I know this a bit old
... butttt i just pretty much did the same thing to my car

Cluster is lit up but nothing works, Which fuse was it ? and where is it ?

 

i forget the fuse number but go to the left fuse panel by the dead pedal on the driver's side floor, once you pull the cover off there should be a diagram on the inside for which fuse is which, it should clearly say "instrument cluster" or "cluster".

 

yea i found it, was named "Meter"
fixed it, yay ... but now my A/C and radio still dont work =[

 

those are separate fuses, don't despair. you'll need a multimeter to test them because they may look good but still be blown. i bet if you mosey on over to autozone and pick up some replacements and pop them in you'll be fine.

in an electronics system like the ones in our cars it's tough (not impossible) to damage the circuits because the fuses are rated to blow before you can actually overload anything. i wouldn't worry.