Warranty ? Hardwired or use OBD adopter for dash cam

[KW Lexus]

Dear members,

Apply hardwired or OBD adapter for dash cam charge, will it break the Lexus warranty terms? Thank you.

[ColinBarber]

Simplistically no, but it depends how you ‘hardwire’ it. If you are just using a piggyback fuse then no issue, if you are splicing into existing wiring then any fault associated with that modification wouldn’t be covered - but it would need to be directly related. I.e. just because you alter wiring, they cannot claim a wheel bearing is no longer covered. 

[KW Lexus]

1 hour ago, ColinBarber said:

Simplistically no, but it depends how you ‘hardwire’ it. If you are just using a piggyback fuse then no issue, if you are splicing into existing wiring then any fault associated with that modification wouldn’t be covered - but it would need to be directly related. I.e. just because you alter wiring, they cannot claim a wheel bearing is no longer covered. 

Thanks for advice, I will go for an OBD II adapter to avoid the risk of hardwiring. There are several OBD II adopters with USB plug available, wish it won’t break my Lexus warranty terms when found in annual service.  I need this to be able to use the parking mode of the dash cam.

[rayaans]

16 hours ago, KW Lexus said:

Thanks for advice, I will go for an ODB II adapter to avoid the risk of hardwiring. There are several OBD II adopters with USB plug available, wish it won’t break my Lexus warranty terms when found in annual service.  I need this to be able to use the parking mode of the dash cam.

TBH id rather hardwire it by piggy backing a fuse

Everytime the car gets serviced they'll remove the OBD adapter to carry out diagnostics and you wont have any footage at that point. If its hardwired in itll be running constantly unless the car is turned off (or all the time if on a constant supply fuse)

[KW Lexus]

Thanks suggestion.  I understand your point but I am not good at soldering.  Unplug the OBD adapter when services is fine. 

[ColinBarber]

1 hour ago, KW Lexus said:

Thanks suggestion.  I understand your point but I am not good at soldering.  Unplug the OBD adapter when services is fine. 

You don't need to solder. The hardwire kits normally come with a piggyback fuse adapter where you remove a suitable fuse, install the adapter and then insert you original fuse into it to provide protection for the dash cam and the original circuit. All nice and straightforward without altering any wiring.

e.g.

[rayaans]

On 8/1/2023 at 4:53 PM, KW Lexus said:

Thanks suggestion.  I understand your point but I am not good at soldering.  Unplug the OBD adapter when services is fine. 

No soldering involved. 

Plenty of YouTube videos on it. 

[KW Lexus]

Thank you☺️

[Linas.P]

On 8/1/2023 at 4:53 PM, KW Lexus said:

Thanks suggestion.  I understand your point but I am not good at soldering.  Unplug the OBD adapter when services is fine. 

OBD adapter will kill your Battery, whereas "hardwire" kit usually has Battery protector. On top of that OBD fuse is generally not mean to be used for continuous power and could blow... if you just using basic front facing camera, then unlikely, but if it is "high resolution", "night vision" or multi camera set-up then it would definitely blow the fuse eventually. 

If you still don't want to hardwire, then consider the plug into accessory socket (aka cigarette socket), at least that had ~120W available without risk of blowing the fuse.

[KW Lexus]

Not sure about the OBD port fuse but about the OBD port adapter/ charger, moat now also have a power protector which stop the charger when lower than 11.6v

[LenT]

On 7/31/2023 at 10:27 PM, KW Lexus said:

Dear members,

Apply hardwired or OBD adapter for dash cam charge, will it break the Lexus warranty terms? Thank you.

I have a BlackVue dashcam that gets a live feed to the camera via what BlackVue calls a Power Magic Pro.  It controls the current draw to the camera so that the Battery never falls below a pre-set voltage level.

When switched on it powers the camera in ‘Parking Mode’.  As it’s purely a power supply I see no reason why it can’t power any dashcam.  But of course it’s possible that your own make may have something similar.

https://blackvue.co.uk/products/power-magic-pro/