Dash cam

[gusTaco]

Hello all.

Has anyone fitted a dash cam on their Z4? Hardwired?

Can anyone recommend a fitter and the dash cam model? Not sure if Halfords / RAC would do a good job.

I had one fitted to my E89 but I believe I did a sub-par job

[Ian J]

Can anyone recommend a fitter and the dash cam model? Not sure if Halfords / RAC would do a good job.

My previous car was a BMW 635d and I had a mid range Nextbase fitted by Halfords who did a good job

[q96169we]

I fitted all of mine by myself. It's a quite well known brand and model sourced from China (much much cheaper than here with more features and I've been using it for about 6 years with different cars). When I bought it, I specified the OBD to micro usb voltage drop cable so all I need to do is plug micro usb side to the cam and the other side of the cable to the obd connector below the dash, then hide the cable. I think you can find these kind of cable from amazon as well.

[ronk]

I went for the BMW Advanced Eye 2 option on both cars.
The dealer fitted them. A good tidy install and no worries about invalidating any warranty.

[gusTaco]

I went for the BMW Advanced Eye 2 option on both cars.
The dealer fitted them. A good tidy install and no worries about invalidating any warranty.

So I could invalidate my warranty for using Halfords / RAC to install the dash cam?? !!

[ronk]

If gives them a reason to twist - so I didn’t want to give them a chance to twist if something did go wonky!

[q96169we]

I went for the BMW Advanced Eye 2 option on both cars.
The dealer fitted them. A good tidy install and no worries about invalidating any warranty.

So I could invalidate my warranty for using Halfords / RAC to install the dash cam?? !!

Well, BMW and it’s dealers are like those insurance companies who basically want to find whatever valid grounds to decline the bills. Once my local dealer refused to further investigate a vehicle speed related noise (sounds like bad bearings) under original 3years manufacture warranty due to my car didn’t have four bmw star marked tyres when visiting the workshop. Their arguments were that they’ve checked all four wheel bearings and they were all fine. Further investigation would incur some labour costs which needs to be covered by either BMW warranty or myself. Since I was obviously not willing to pay for any repair bills as the car was still under warranty, BMW would request evidence to show the car was working under manufacturer’s specifications. As the manufacturer specified very tight tolerance for the tyres and hence the star marked tyre in the first place which meets all manufacturer’s specifications. Therefore, unless I put four star marked tyres on the car and the issue still exists, the dealer would not be able to look into this issue further.

I know all of these were rubbish but sometime you are just having to take it. The issue ends up to be the bearing inside the differential is bad and a new differential is needed. I also have to acknowledge that to show that this was the cause to the issue, a lot of disassembling was needed, which indeed leads to a big labour bill. But, still, the reason to reject warranty work is rubbish but I have to take it.

However, a good news about the dash cam is that as long as the installation only uses existing available connector or interfaces (e.g no cut or modification to cable looms), the worst case if you fit the dash cam to have constant power supply is that it can trigger some battery discharge error messages on the idrive screen due to the battery monitoring system does not know the existance of the power consuming dash cam. Again, the rubbish reason is that the manufacturer specified a very tight tolerence for everything in the car.

[ronk]

At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!

[gusTaco]

I went for the BMW Advanced Eye 2 option on both cars.
The dealer fitted them. A good tidy install and no worries about invalidating any warranty.

So I could invalidate my warranty for using Halfords / RAC to install the dash cam?? !!

Well, BMW and it’s dealers are like those insurance companies who basically want to find whatever valid grounds to decline the bills. Once my local dealer refused to further investigate a vehicle speed related noise (sounds like bad bearings) under original 3years manufacture warranty due to my car didn’t have four bmw star marked tyres when visiting the workshop. Their arguments were that they’ve checked all four wheel bearings and they were all fine. Further investigation would incur some labour costs which needs to be covered by either BMW warranty or myself. Since I was obviously not willing to pay for any repair bills as the car was still under warranty, BMW would request evidence to show the car was working under manufacturer’s specifications. As the manufacturer specified very tight tolerance for the tyres and hence the star marked tyre in the first place which meets all manufacturer’s specifications. Therefore, unless I put four star marked tyres on the car and the issue still exists, the dealer would not be able to look into this issue further.

I know all of these were rubbish but sometime you are just having to take it. The issue ends up to be the bearing inside the differential is bad and a new differential is needed. I also have to acknowledge that to show that this was the cause to the issue, a lot of disassembling was needed, which indeed leads to a big labour bill. But, still, the reason to reject warranty work is rubbish but I have to take it.

However, a good news about the dash cam is that as long as the installation only uses existing available connector or interfaces (e.g no cut or modification to cable looms), the worst case if you fit the dash cam to have constant power supply is that it can trigger some battery discharge error messages on the idrive screen due to the battery monitoring system does not know the existance of the power consuming dash cam. Again, the rubbish reason is that the manufacturer specified a very tight tolerence for everything in the car.

Thanks for the input.

I’ve collected the car from Sytner last Friday.

I enquired about the dash cam - I was told I could book it in to have it installed at Sytner or have it installed by a third party. She said it wouldn’t invalidate the warranty but now I’m wondering whether I should get that in writing !

[q96169we]

So I could invalidate my warranty for using Halfords / RAC to install the dash cam?? !!

Well, BMW and it’s dealers are like those insurance companies who basically want to find whatever valid grounds to decline the bills. Once my local dealer refused to further investigate a vehicle speed related noise (sounds like bad bearings) under original 3years manufacture warranty due to my car didn’t have four bmw star marked tyres when visiting the workshop. Their arguments were that they’ve checked all four wheel bearings and they were all fine. Further investigation would incur some labour costs which needs to be covered by either BMW warranty or myself. Since I was obviously not willing to pay for any repair bills as the car was still under warranty, BMW would request evidence to show the car was working under manufacturer’s specifications. As the manufacturer specified very tight tolerance for the tyres and hence the star marked tyre in the first place which meets all manufacturer’s specifications. Therefore, unless I put four star marked tyres on the car and the issue still exists, the dealer would not be able to look into this issue further.

I know all of these were rubbish but sometime you are just having to take it. The issue ends up to be the bearing inside the differential is bad and a new differential is needed. I also have to acknowledge that to show that this was the cause to the issue, a lot of disassembling was needed, which indeed leads to a big labour bill. But, still, the reason to reject warranty work is rubbish but I have to take it.

However, a good news about the dash cam is that as long as the installation only uses existing available connector or interfaces (e.g no cut or modification to cable looms), the worst case if you fit the dash cam to have constant power supply is that it can trigger some battery discharge error messages on the idrive screen due to the battery monitoring system does not know the existance of the power consuming dash cam. Again, the rubbish reason is that the manufacturer specified a very tight tolerence for everything in the car.

Thanks for the input.

I’ve collected the car from Sytner last Friday.

I enquired about the dash cam - I was told I could book it in to have it installed at Sytner or have it installed by a third party. She said it wouldn’t invalidate the warranty but now I’m wondering whether I should get that in writing !

Just to say the dealer who decline my warranty due to non star marked tyres were fitted on the car is Sytner.

IMHO and only my opinion, fitting dash cam is generally safe in terms of warranty claim as long as the voltage drop cable is good quality, no modification (e.g cut) to existing cable looms, and the person who fits it knows what he/she is doing. I always fit dash cam myself and no issue at all except the battery discharge message as mentioned in my previous reply. Also, such message only happeded in my F10. It never happens in my current G31 and G29 despit the way of fitting is the same.