Hi all,

I’m a rookie with wiring and I’ve hit a problem installing a reversing camera on my 2007 Focus. 

I’ve bought some t taps to connect the red and black camera power wires with the reverse light. But I’ve just realised the red and black wires are stuck together, which means they won’t fit in the t tap hole. Does anyone have any suggestions? Do I need to split the wires with a scalpel or something? 
I’ve attached pics of the red and black wire and then t tap. 
Thanks in advance 

 

edit: this is the video I’ve been using to understand the wiring 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rHORKUqlEM4&list=PLoky_tZo0_fhv3NlQt3n32vpny_RFB6Ua&index=8&t=306s

 

They pull apart, they just split down the middle. Take hold of the red in one pinched finger and the black in another and pull apart. 

That's not a t tap in the picture, it's a spade connector.

1 hour ago, Jonro2009 said:

They pull apart, they just split down the middle. Take hold of the red in one pinched finger and the black in another and pull apart. 

Thanks Jonro. I’ve got it all attached now but can’t seem to find the vid in behind the stereo… any idea which it might be ? It would be odd if a camera cannot be fitted as the stereo came boxed with the camera

Have you got a picture of the back of the stereo and all the wires? Also, a link to what you bought

1 hour ago, Jonro2009 said:

Have you got a picture of the back of the stereo and all the wires? Also, a link to what you bought

I can get a picture for you tomorrow. It’s just a bunch of different coloured wired with labels on them like Aux_In.

I don’t have a link as I bought it on Facebook Marketplace and he originally bought it off eBay. I sent him a message just now and he said I need to plug it into AV_IN to get the camera working. 

I tried all of the wires so I’m not sure why it didn’t work, it makes me think it might be because I did the t taps wrong?
 

I’ve attached a pic of what the inside of the spade connector (thanks for letting me know this is what it’s called) looks like now I’ve crimped it. The wire doesn’t seem to be touching anything…

The light on the camera doesn’t turn on when I put it in reverse so I think something could be wrong with the connections at the back. 

It looks like you’ve not stripped the insulation back before crimping the wires to the connectors?

Check on YouTube for videos that’ll show what you need to do - really simply and can be done with pair of wire strippers or even side cutters. 
 

Then looks like you’re connection to the socket at back of head unit with pin 5 Av in and pin 14 for AV in ground

Have a look for a cheap multi-meter online or from somewhere local, then you can measure voltage at your wires when you put car in reverse to confirm you’ve got the wiring ok to go to the head unit

You're definitely a wiring noob,  but we all started somewhere. You need to strip the wires and then crimp them. The wires need to look like the pic below. 

Is there a yellow RCA plug with the wires? I can see a white one. A camera should plug into that. And the wires you have there look to be the power lines. On the other wire with the RCA plug there may be a red wire at either end? Does that sound familiar?

Your camera input is on the A socket on your stereo, It looks very similar to my stereo. You should have got a load of connectors with your stereo and on of those will fit into the A socket. On my stereo the connectors are all keyed so you can only plug them in the correct place, I suspect yours will be the same.

Like others have said you have not stripped the wire first before crimping the connectors on.

Which camera do you have?

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies to this. Yes, I'm an absolute wiring noob ha... in fact I had to return to some BBC bitesize science to learn about circuits while doing this... 

I stripped the wires after your comment Troy but it still wasn't working. It was only after messing around with it for a while that I realised the metal plug (?) inside the spade connector was not slotting directly into the t tap slit (?), instead it was going either above or below. I don't know the proper terms but hopefully you get what I mean.

I bent the metal plug into the middle so it slotted into the t tap and hey presto the camera worked. Now I've just got to tuck the wires away and it's all sorted. I'm a bit concerned about the wires hanging down by the exhaust but I've wrapped the connectors in electrical tape, hopefully it will protect them from the elements.

Thanks again for the help everyone. 

Best to make sure the wires are wrapped in electrical tape and tied up out of the way from the exhaust, just get some cable ties and see where’s suitable to secure them to. 

On 1/30/2022 at 1:59 PM, DiogenesSinope said:

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies to this. Yes, I'm an absolute wiring noob ha... in fact I had to return to some BBC bitesize science to learn about circuits while doing this... 

I stripped the wires after your comment Troy but it still wasn't working. It was only after messing around with it for a while that I realised the metal plug (?) inside the spade connector was not slotting directly into the t tap slit (?), instead it was going either above or below. I don't know the proper terms but hopefully you get what I mean.

I bent the metal plug into the middle so it slotted into the t tap and hey presto the camera worked. Now I've just got to tuck the wires away and it's all sorted. I'm a bit concerned about the wires hanging down by the exhaust but I've wrapped the connectors in electrical tape, hopefully it will protect them from the elements.

Thanks again for the help everyone. 

Where is your camera mounted on the bottom of the bumper? I bought one off amazon as I didn't want the one I got for free to be put on the bottom of the bumper. Mine fits in place of one of the number plate lights and no one can see it.

7 hours ago, stevejwalford said:

Where is your camera mounted on the bottom of the bumper? I bought one off amazon as I didn't want the one I got for free to be put on the bottom of the bumper. Mine fits in place of one of the number plate lights and no one can see it.

Yep, it's on the bottom of the bumper. It's not the best angle but it does the job. Tbh I'm not sure how I'd feed the wires up to the licence plate.

13 minutes ago, DiogenesSinope said:

Yep, it's on the bottom of the bumper. It's not the best angle but it does the job. Tbh I'm not sure how I'd feed the wires up to the licence plate.

It's really simple. you just take the bootlid trim off, I put all the wiring through the original holes that run the wires to the licence plate lights.