I was able to complete this modification to my truck. It is amazing especially for trailering! Thank you Jarett and WAMS! Here are a couple of my lessons learned. This may be common knowledge to some, so be patient if I ramble or this seems too 101 level. I may also be restating some of what Jarett already mentioned. This is all Jaretts work that he was kind enough to share. I am just documenting.
1. Here is the part list I bought from segemart:
Fakra Z Water Blue Female Fakra Z Water Blue Female Cable Assemblies
- Cable Type: RG316D
- Length: 15
- Unit of Length: foot
FKR-FAKRA/Z-F/S-FAKRA/Z-F/S
1
$26.63
$26.63
Fakra Z Water Blue Female Fakra Z Water Blue Female Cable Assemblies
- Cable Type: RG316
- Length: 12
- Unit of Length: foot
FKR-FAKRA/Z-F/S-FAKRA/Z-F/S
1
$17.17
$17.17
Fakra Z Water Blue Female Fakra Z Water Blue Female Cable Assemblies
- Cable Type: RG316
- Length: 17
- Unit of Length: foot
FKR-FAKRA/Z-F/S-FAKRA/Z-F/S
1
$21.68
$21.68
I would add a foot to each of these cables. It wasn't absolutely needed, but it would have been nice to have. I had to go back an optimize my cable routing to make things work. Also the D cable wasn't required. I ordered it, but on the wrong cable so didn't end up using it for its intended purpose (front camera) anyway. I used the 17 foot cable for the front grill camera, the 15 for the drivers side mirror and 12 for the passenger side mirror.
Plastic conduit and cloth tape to route the cables with.
Upgraded mirrors - I went with the towing mirrors from an AT4.
I ordered my 2 port fakraz connectors from rfconnectivity on Ebay and had to drill them out to make them work. Jarett ordered from the same place and his worked. Your mileage may vary.
I ordered the front camera 84400532 used on ebay. It worked great. I already owned the towing camera. It was included with my truck purchase.
I purchased my upgraded VPM module from a chevy equinox. So, it seems to be a universal part. WAMS did an amazing job of programming the module. Make sure to mention which type of mirrors you have. I had towing mirrors which changes the camera position vs the smaller mirrors.
I went a little crazy cutting my front grill(Dremel) when installing the camera. Make sure you look an an existing grill / truck first(I didn't). You will see the top of the camera body is somewhat nested in the bumper(you dont need to cut much). The spot where the camera is mounted s clearly marked on our grill, even though we re not equipped with the option. Also the angle of the camera is important. I tacked my camera in place with 3m plastic emblem epoxy, adjusted the angle, secured it with tape, then finalized the glueing. In the end, the vertical edge on the back of the camera seemed to be close to straight up and down.
I did a ton of research in how to route the wires through the firewall. There is a rubber grommet in the firewall behind the battery on the passenger side with a wire chase if your inclined. But, Jarett came up with a better way. If you follow the engine bay along the top passenger side you will see there is a cloth material that separates the engine bay from the crook of the door. I routed the cable there in plastic conduit and cloth tape for the visible parts. You can bring it down the body and in a grommet below the door harness. There was a small 1/4 inch hole I was able to route the wires inside the car through, under the floor trim to the VPM module behind the seat.
Once you install the new mirrors, you have to remove the existing coax from the existing door harness where and insert the new cable end where the harness connects to the mirrors. On the front of the harness(where it plugs into the mirror)a white tabs needs to be pulled down at the bottom and there are two black tabs that have to be moved away from each other at the same time you pull the cable out the back of the harness. I did this with two small flathead eyeglass screwdrivers. Once its out. Run the new cable through the rubber boot and up into the door and plug it into the harness. Then out the door jam boot into the same grommet and route the previous cable took. I think Jarett showed pictures of this. I ran mine at the same time. So I only did this once.
You have to remove the trim piece along the seat and the top trim piece by the door first(the pull straight up), then you can remove the footwell trim piece by pulling from front to back horizontally(2 clips). This is how I accessed the wire routing locations.
I found videos on youtube for how to remove the back rest of the back seat and the door panels. It was easy.
Jarett was kind enough to give me the new cabling diagram. It basically goes like this on the new module:
Wire 1 Red Radio
Wire 1 Beige Backup Cam
Wire 1 Green Sideview Left
Wire 2 Green Cargo / Bed Cam
Wire 1 Brown Sideview Right
Wire 2 Brown Inside Trailer
Wire 1 Curry(Dark Red) Grille Cam
Wire 2 Curry Outside / Invis Trailer Cam
The previous modules cables:
Wire 1 Red Radio
Wire 2 Red Backup Cam
Wire 1 Beige Inside Trailer
Wire 2 Beige Cargo
Wire Green Outside Trailer Cam
The cables will plug into the module without the connectors in place, so check connectivity / functionality first before installing. The side cameras do not work unless the door is closed. The trailer cameras dont work unless the trailer is plugged in and recognized.
The new VPM module is bigger than the old one. I used the bolt close to the passenger wall for mounting. It was secured with that bolt, but I used double sided tape to hold it in place on the other side I didn't remove any bolts, just in case I ever wanted to put it back.