Rear Dashcam Mount - Bracket for Old 4Runner

[FirstFourRunner6]

Hi, has anyone tried installing the older-gen rear dashcam mount on the new-gen and confirmed that it fits?

I'm looking at these 2:

• Etsy
• Amazon

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[Maximus4R]

Following along since I need to figure this out too in short order. I don’t love the idea of drilling a permanent mount into the headliner but that may be the way to go. Stickerfab has an install video showing a bracket approach. There’s also some info online that makes it look like running it outside should work - but I think the wiper assembly would require it to be off center and that would drive me crazy. I wonder where the factory digital rearview mirror camera is mounted

 

[Hacksaw]

If you open the liftgate and look at where the weather stripping meets the headliner in the middle, a couple inches inward on the headliner there is a round plastic plug (hard to see unless you're looking for it). There are actually 3 of these plastic plugs at the rear, top of the headliner.

What I'm hoping is, using the right tool for removing headliner plug clips, the plastic clip goes into some metal clip that you could also screw the right size sheet metal screw into. If that works out, the bracket holding the rear camera would be solidly mounted, but only with one screw. The 5th gen bracket I saw also had a bend in the bracket that hooks over the edge of the headliner, which would make it more stable.

Anyway, I'm not sure how or if any of this will work, but that's the direction I'm currently looking. I'm just hoping someone will be the guinea pig and buy that 5th gen bracket and report back. (this bracket from the OP's Etsy link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1769081486/5th-gen-toyota-4runner-rear-dash-camera )

 

[Maximus4R]

If you open the liftgate and look at where the weather stripping meets the headliner in the middle, a couple inches inward on the headliner there is a round plastic plug (hard to see unless you're looking for it). There are actually 3 of these plastic plugs at the rear, top of the headliner.

What I'm hoping is, using the right tool for removing headliner plug clips, the plastic clip goes into some metal clip that you could also screw the right size sheet metal screw into. If that works out, the bracket holding the rear camera would be solidly mounted, but only with one screw. The 5th gen bracket I saw also had a bend in the bracket that hooks over the edge of the headliner, which would make it more stable.

Anyway, I'm not sure how or if any of this will work, but that's the direction I'm currently looking. I'm just hoping someone will be the guinea pig and buy that 5th gen bracket and report back. (this bracket from the OP's Etsy link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1769081486/5th-gen-toyota-4runner-rear-dash-camera )

Oooooh that’s brilliant!

 

[Hacksaw]

One other point to add, from the center of that middle headliner plug to the edge of the weatherstripping (which would roughly be the surface of the rear glass) is about 4-1/4 inches. I'm really not sure how sensitive the image quality of the camera is to how far it is off the glass. But I'd imagine it's good to get the front of the lens of your rear camera within about a half inch of the rear glass, since that's roughly how far the lens is away from the inner glass surface if I could mount it to the glass itself. I previously had this same rear camera mounted to the tinted rear window (I believe the tint was about 20-25% VLT) of a pickup and the image quality was pretty decent (1080p, 30fps rear camera) with the lens about a half inch off the glass.

edit: I'm guessing the headliner clip/plugs look like this:
Toyota headliner plug

and this is, I think, what the removal tool looks like:
Headliner plug tool

and here is a headliner plug that uses a screw instead of plastic compression fit (haha buy a 60 pack just to get one!): Screw-based headliner plug

 

[Svyatzhu]

This does work from the 5th gen. I tried it out and it worked.

You could probably get a nut under the metal bracket that that clip goes into. I have some short m4 bolts ordered to try it out.

Note, those clips basically are impossible to pull out without breaking some of the tabs off. I’d make sure to have some on hand for a better fit.

 

[Hacksaw]

This does work from the 5th gen. I tried it out and it worked.

You could probably get a nut under the metal bracket that that clip goes into. I have some short m4 bolts ordered to try it out.

Note, those clips basically are impossible to pull out without breaking some of the tabs off. I’d make sure to have some on hand for a better fit.

Thanks for the info! A couple questions:

Which bracket did you get? Was it this one?

On breaking the clips, could you have a look at this short segment from this video about dismantling a Toyota interior ( at 5m24s-5m45 ) :



Is that the tool you used for those flat, round headed headliner clips and you still had issues?

 

[Hacksaw]

Using a tool like the headliner plug tool I posted earlier, I was able to get the headliner plug out. Once that plug is out, you can pull the headliner down a bit, and I see the bracket svyatzhu is referring to. It's a u-bracket probably spot welded to the roof structure (very different from the 5th gen, which had stamped bumps for the plugs to go into).

The hole drilled in this bracket is a bit bigger than a #10 screw diameter so I'm thinking a #10 U-nut (aka clip nut, speed nut) slipped over this bracket is the way to get a firm fastening of the rear camera bracket. The trouble is, U-nuts have a lot of parameters (related to the thickness of the bracket they are slipping over and the location/size of the hole within the U-nut) so just getting a U-nut that takes a #10 screw isn't enough, unless you just get lucky. The local Homedepot has a #10-24 u-nut that I'm going to try first, and hope it fits snugly.

 

[Hacksaw]

I have an update for this, with a number of intermediate pics, but just haven't gotten around to putting everything together and posting it (I'll start a new thread).

The short answer is, the T-shaped Etsy bracket (the link I posted earlier) didn't work (or not to my satisfaction) since the shape of the rounded corner and edge of the headliner must be a little different for the 6th gen compared to the 5th. It pulled down too much on the headliner edge and I thought it looked crappy.

So I used a U-nut onto the factory bracket that the headliner plug goes into, and a #10-24 3/4" screw from the headliner side (no new or reamed-out holes were needed) and a custom bracket I made out of a piece of 1/8" thick x 1.5 wide x 4.9" long aluminum bar stock (I just bent it; anybody could do it).

With the custom bracket, I was able to drop the camera down about 3/4" below the top of the headliner so the lens wouldn't have to point too far downward to avoid blockage from the wiper, and I extended the bracket more toward the window a little more (about 2" closer) so that the front of the camera lens ends up about 1.75" away from the surface of the back window (compared to 3+ inches without the extension). I don't know for sure that getting it closer to the window helps reduce the chances of glare in certain lighting conditions but it seemed like it should. And, rear cameras tend to have a wide FOV (mine is 165 degrees) so the closer the lens is to the window, the more you can see to the sides without it being cropped by the D-pillar.

(I guess the short answer wasn't that short)

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