[HadiNZ]

Very strange behavior for this new X7. I fuse tapped the F59 which is for USB ports in the car according to the fuse diagrams.

Everything went well except for next day a message popped up on the dash saying Replace battery and engine light went on. Took the car to BMW where I bought and they said the battery Unregistered so they had to register it or program it again. They said it's very strange as the car is brand new and only traveled 90km.

Then I told them that I removed the fused and put it back after hardwiring and straight away they told me this car is so new and I should never remove any fuse as it cuts power to different equipment of the car and may cause issues.

Is this true? I have been hard wiring every single car I bought and never had any issue and now I started feeling a bit nervous for my next project which is installing my Radar Detector.

What is the safest way to hardwire apart from wire tapping to rear view mirror? Reason I don't want to wire tap the mirror is because I'm going to hardwire BlackVue battery for my dashcam and it requires a 15A fuse.

Has anyone encountered similar difficulty on new LCI after removing a fuse? Is it really safe to do so? And which fuse I better be using to hardwire? (I thought the usb ports ones were safe enough)

Thanks.

[ren]

This is scary. Thanks for sharing because I have plans to install a radar detector and camera after I take delivery of my X7 in a month or so.

I’m not an expert, but it doesn’t make any sense that removing an accessory fuse would cause such a thing. This would mean replacing a blown fuse could do the same thing. I wonder if there was an unintended short-circuit during the installation.

I haven’t done any research on the fuse box, but I wonder if there is an active, unused fuse that you could tap into without removing an existing fuse.

Hopefully someone with technical knowledge can chime in.

[X5M50D]

I have the 2021 X7 and when I first bought her, I had a front and rear dashcam fitted professionally and hardwired to the fuse box. This is because I wanted the parking mode activation feature working when the car is parked up.
However 6 months from brand new a Battery Management message came up on the screen warning of low battery. Subsequently learnt that due to the sensitivity of the parking mode, the camera was on constantly whilst parked resulting in draining the battery.
I now have the camera disconnected whilst parked defeating the object of having it. It does not take much to drain the battery flat!!!!!!!!!!

[Mail4loys]

I have a small battery pack in the spare tire area and connected to dashcam (front and back). battery is charged when car run. when I was doing long trips, dashcam was on all time for 2 weeks.

made these changes because it was messing up with car battery if its hardwired

[Dlowm3]

I had a professional install mine and he set up front and rear camera powered up by the accessory outlet in the rear and installed a battery to power unit while in parking mode. No issues as yet. He has had BMW try and get out of warranty issues when third-party installations are undertaken and believes that tapping into accessory outlet is the best thing he could do.

[TAG Prez]

I got this message on my 2023 when I had my XB7 detailed they had doors open for awhile and since everything turns on I think it ran the battery down to the point of sending a low voltage warning to the ECU. Long story short I got the check engine light, took it to dealer they said it was a low voltage issue, they did replace the battery and all has been good since. Not sure if this helps, just saying it may not be related to what you tapped in to at all

[jaydot144]

I’m having all kinds of electrical issues with my mirror tap. Made a separate post as my issue is slightly different. Beware.

[HadiNZ]

I actually bought a battery pack to run my BlackVue cameras. But I still insisted and fuse tapped USB in fuse box for my Radar. At the end of the day they had to clear the error code as they said the car is brand new and battery does not need to be replaced.

Should blame BMW for not implanting their cameras to be used as dashcams (continuse recording) as you can not trust anyone's driving now days.

[rjabend]

I am not sure I understand all the variations of the battery problems posted but if you connect a current drain to a voltage that is available when the car is shut down and not being used, there is a continuous battery drain that will eventually run down the battery. Of course, the time to run down the vehicle battery is dependent on the magnitude of the current drain. I always connect my cameras, radar detectors, etc. to a point in the vehicle where the voltage shuts off when the vehicle shuts down, and have never had problems. There are also connection points in the vehicle where there is a delay from vehicle shut down to when the voltage turns off and those would likely be OK. As an aside, running down a lead acid battery to zero may make it unrecoverable. I also think I have seen cameras that you can program to turn off after a period of time when the vehicle is off, which should be fine as well.

I know that it is nice to have a camera on when the vehicle is parked and as long as those periods are short, there should not be a problem.

[Chi6488]

That is so weird. I just installed my radar detector and used f59 media fuse so it shuts off when vehicles is turned off. There is a delay though.

I need to do my dash cam after my vehicle is tinted. Plan on tapping an always on and also a switched activated. My dash cam records g shock at parking. I am sure bmw has it also but I can do both

[srbabu790]

Originally Posted by HadiNZ

Very strange behavior for this new X7. I fuse tapped the F59 which is for USB ports in the car according to the fuse diagrams.

Everything went well except for next day a message popped up on the dash saying Replace battery and engine light went on. Took the car to BMW where I bought and they said the battery Unregistered so they had to register it or program it again. They said it's very strange as the car is brand new and only traveled 90km.

Then I told them that I removed the fused and put it back after hardwiring and straight away they told me this car is so new and I should never remove any fuse as it cuts power to different equipment of the car and may cause issues.

Is this true? I have been hard wiring every single car I bought and never had any issue and now I started feeling a bit nervous for my next project which is installing my Radar Detector.

What is the safest way to hardwire apart from wire tapping to rear view mirror? Reason I don't want to wire tap the mirror is because I'm going to hardwire BlackVue battery for my dashcam and it requires a 15A fuse.

Has anyone encountered similar difficulty on new LCI after removing a fuse? Is it really safe to do so? And which fuse I better be using to hardwire? (I thought the usb ports ones were safe enough)

Thanks.

Is this an X7 ? The screen positioning looks different.

My observation is overall, latest car tech systems are getting so intricated with every latest revisions, and they are adding more and more self diagnostics capabilities. It seems like when you do additions/alterations you might end up altering power/voltage (or some other reason I may NOT know) across the system, which flags other failsafe's which you may not anticipate.

When you added this new item and playing around with that fuse tapping, will it void the warranty ?
Since these cars are now riddled with lots of tech issues (as I have been reading in this forum especially with the LCI), you might need good support from BMW. They always be looking for reasons to deny your claims.

Like to hear from other experts here as well about my point.

Thanks

[HadiNZ]

Originally Posted by sbabu79

Is this an X7 ? The screen positioning looks different.

My observation is overall, latest car tech systems are getting so intricated with every latest revisions, and they are adding more and more self diagnostics capabilities. It seems like when you do additions/alterations you might end up altering power/voltage (or some other reason I may NOT know) across the system, which flags other failsafe's which you may not anticipate.

When you added this new item and playing around with that fuse tapping, will it void the warranty ?
Since these cars are now riddled with lots of tech issues (as I have been reading in this forum especially with the LCI), you might need good support from BMW. They always be looking for reasons to deny your claims.

Like to hear from other experts here as well about my point.

Thanks

Yes it is an X7 M60i LCI but right hand drive. According to my local BMW after they saw my dashcam and radar's wiring first thing they said it would void the warranty.

But I argued that they need to give me a fact and reason to how taping the fuse can cause this issue first and yet they couldn't not confirm.

Like I mentioned I did not hook up the camera to car's battery. I'm using BlackVue battery pack which last parking recording up to 20hrs. It's only the radar that I tapped from fuse F59 which is for USBs in the car.

After they reset the battery warning I've had no issues so far. But it's very frustrating dealing with BMW these days.

[srbabu790]

Originally Posted by HadiNZ

Yes it is an X7 M60i LCI but right hand drive. According to my local BMW after they saw my dashcam and radar's wiring first thing they said it would void the warranty.

But I argued that they need to give me a fact and reason to how taping the fuse can cause this issue first and yet they couldn't not confirm.

Like I mentioned I did not hook up the camera to car's battery. I'm using BlackVue battery pack which last parking recording up to 20hrs. It's only the radar that I tapped from fuse F59 which is for USBs in the car.

After they reset the battery warning I've had no issues so far. But it's very frustrating dealing with BMW these days.

I understand your frustration about re-engineering our cars. It was pretty easy for my retrofitting's to work seamlessly until on my 2009 Honda Accord a while back, these were not the issues I had to deal with. Since there was not much intelligence embedded within that car.
But these new ones are way too smart, with sensors all over the places, with questionable quality especially after the Covid era and all, I guess.

[Orient330iNYC]

i'm fairly sure i tapped that fuse for my internal electronics, no issue when i pulled the fuse. i have a dash cam, radar detector, and back seat cam to keep an eye on my kid all running off of the same fuse.

is your car garaged at home and do you lock the car in the garage? the day you installed the dashcam did you keep the doors open for an extended period?



the usb ports as well as the lighter outlet are switched power, but if the car doesnt go into deep sleep or is woken often, the battery can discharge.

adding insult to injury, the charging system will only charge the battery when the engine isnt under load for economy.

i personally would not tap the rearview mirror for anything as none of the wires at that harness are carrying more than low amp power. much safer to run a tap down to the fuse box

[freshxdough]

The car is too smart and can see the very small draw of the dashcam. And you will get a “replace battery” message if the battery voltage drops below a certain threshold within the first 200 miles or so. You will HAVE to replace the battery and register as the message will NOT go away. Generally this message is for cars in transport or in dealer inventory before delivery. Battery needs to be managed accordingly or else a dealer can get this message have to replace 12v out of pocket for customer.

You need to run an external battery to operate the dashcam or only have the dashcam operate on KL15 ignition ON. Same thing happened on my 2020 X3. Battery management warnings after sitting overnight. Got an external battery to prevent car from getting upset.

[4gv70x7]

Hi, I just purchased a Viofo A139Pro 2 channel dashcam with a Blackboxmycar Powercell external battery pack after reading about the issues with hardwiring the dashcam directly to the fuse panel/car battery. For those who have it installed with a battery pack, can you please let me know if your battery pack is connected to the 12V lighter adapter or hardwired to the car battery? I called a reputed installer nearby looking for a quote, and they said that they only hardwire battery packs to the fuse panel and not to the 12 V adapter due to potential battery drain issues. I thought the 12V adapter turned off when the engine is off so didn't quite understand their concern, so wanted to check if there could potentially be any issues with connecting it to the 12V. Also considering a DIY but not sure how invasive hiding the wires is and worried if I could possibly mess up something! Thank you so much!

[LeKayz]

I hard wired my Escort Redline 360 radar to the fuse panel and connected a multimeter to it using fuse #60 lights i believe. What I notice is the car wont turn off all accessories including 12V lighter adapter for a 1minute or so. When you walk by with the key it will wake it all up as well.

[argyleCali]

Based on the fusecard, it appears that there are some unused locations as well. I’m curious if anyone here tried using one of those? In my previous cars that’s where I generally put my taps.

[streborx]

Originally Posted by argyleCali

Based on the fusecard, it appears that there are some unused locations as well. I’m curious if anyone here tried using one of those? In my previous cars that’s where I generally put my taps.

Whether you use an empty fuse slot, or piggy-back onto one already in use, a fuse tap such as this one is the easiest way to do it.

https://www.autozone.com/electrical-...-tap/32416_0_0

[Chi6488]

If I remember correctly our vehicle has different type fuses. I might be wrong also remembering my wife’s MB fuses installing dash cam.

Might want to check before ordering. I ordered a multi kit with I think 3 types of fuses

[streborx]

Originally Posted by Chi6488

If I remember correctly our vehicle has different type fuses. I might be wrong also remembered my wife’s MB fuses installing dash cam.

Might want to check before ordering. I ordered a multi kit with I think 3 types of fuses

There are 3 sizes (physical) of blade type fuses commonly found in the fuse blocks. Always a good idea to have a box of assorted spares, especially when installing an accessory!

[argyleCali]

Oh yeah! This will be my 8th or 9th hardwire install. I just generally go for the unused fuses to tap. Do any of you folks know how long does it take to completely power down the fuses? I'm trying to find an unused ACC fuse but either all of them are BAT or it takes more than 30+min to fully power down. My multi-meter still reads voltage on 218 and 272 even after 20-25min.