Has anyone thought about tapping the vanity light power for these type of cams? That would help keep wires from dangling and help keep it inconspicous in case thieves are around.

I did but the problem is you're running directly to the battery and not ignition so there's no (easy) way to prevent depleting your battery.

Dkr.

The cig lighter is on switched power and is easy to open up and splice into the wires.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Yes, but as mentioned, this is constant 12v so the camera would be on all the time. Might not be an issue if you have a healthy battery and drive daily.

If you have a newer car with a sunroof switch in the headliner this is a convenient spot to tap power. Or a car with an auto dimming or compass mirror.

Otherwise you will need to run the wire down behind the A-pillar and under the dash where you then have a wide variety of choices for power.

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1979 300D 040 Black on Black - 1985 300D Maaco job (sadly sprayed over 199 Black Pearl Metallic) on Palamino

http://i.imgur.com/LslW733.jpg

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Visit the W123 page on iFixit for over 70 helpful DIY guides!

The android app auto guard will record for you. It will also use the accelerometer to try to detect crashes and optionally call someone for you (911). It also has GPS for speed and records that as well.

I had a copy try to tell me I rolled through a stop sign at 2am. Then we had a conversation about dash cams.....

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http://superturbodiesel.com/images/sig.04.10.jpg
1995 E420 Schwarz
1995 E300 Weiss
#1987 300D Sturmmachine
#1991 300D Nearly Perfect
#1994 E320 Cabriolet
#1995 E320 Touring
#1985 300D Sedan
OBK #42

I picked up a G1W dash cam (same one andrewjtx has) for $61 with 16gb SD card and prime shipping from Amazon. There are cheaper sellers but most ship from China and take a few weeks. I want to be able to return it easily if I have to.
I put a small hole in the headliner for the power chord to go into and the its connected to the sunroof switch circuit so it switches ON/OFF with the ignition. Its small enough to fit in the space between the windshield and rear view mirror. I used some black paint to black out the chrome trim and a few other things that made the camera more visible. So far, so good.

Dirty windshield.


Theres enough room to adjust the mirror.




At 1080p, 30fps it can capture 2.5hrs of video before it loops over. This is a paused screen shot from a file I downloaded on my laptop. I was passing the stopped car on the right at 40mph and the license plate is easily readable despite the glare coming off my dashboard. I should probably do something about that.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Is camera easily removed when parked? It could get pretty hot up there at the rear view mirror, my guess 150 F. I wonder how well it will hold up over time.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

So once the memory is full it just starts over? That's convenient. Image looks good, BTW. What did you attach the camera to?

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Nice installation!

It looks like a suction cup mount was used up top

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Yes, it comes with a simple suction cup mount. It seems to be holding up OK.

The camera records a continuous stream of 5 minute clips with 1 second overlap in between. When the memory is full it records over the oldest clip saved. If you want to "protect" any clip from being deleted, you hit the save button on top of the camera. It also has a G sensor which will automatically protect the current clip if you're involved in an accident. Theres also an internal battery so it can keep recordibg for several minutes agter ignition is cut off. It time stamps the video at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately the font is yellow right where my hood appears in the pic so its mostly washed out.

This accident was recorded with the same type of camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ7C0mPuwmE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

The suction cup has a switch on it so you can remove it quickly. I don't plan remove it but I can see why u would want to in some situations. My windshield is tinted directly above the camera and I usually park with sunroof tilted open and I use a sunshade in the windshield. If it dies in first few days I'm sending it back to amazon.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

The only modification I can think of is to use a headrest mount so the camera has a view of the speedometer as well as through the windshield. That also keeps the camera out of the sun. The wide-angle view would suffer, though, and I suppose there might be times when you would NOT want your speed recorded!

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

There are other cameras in a similar price range that have built in GPS which will record both the speed and location. This guy's reviews seem to be the definitive source of dash cam info.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5I2hjZYiW9gZPVkvzM8_Cw
The Mini 0803 and Mobius are the main competitors to the camera I got. I don't think you can go wrong with any of these. I like the one I got because it has 2.7" display on the back to for play back.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

I have used dash cams whenever I drive in foreign countries. The Russians use them to protect again crooked police, but also gangs who cause minor accidents to hold you up. Also, insurance scamming in Russia is a big sport.

When I drove in India, I used one, and Egypt, Turkey, Thailand. I've driven a lot in Europe and not had one, but I might start, and yes here I think I'll start just because of all the drifty text messengers on the road.

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1983 W123 300TD US spec Turbo engine, with Euro bumpers and manual climate control, and manual transmission.

Thanks for all the great replies - liked the DW1 installation especially. I'm going to try something I saw on the TDI forum - use an old iPhone with a cheap windshield mount. The benefit of this is it should last a little while on battery only, and I can take it out of the car when not in use. I really don't like having anything remotely valuable in sight when the car is parked in certain places in town.

There are several apps for iPhones that turn it into a dash cam, I'm trying one that a TDI member liked called Witness Driving, cost $0.99. I may end up getting what I pay for, but at least I'm out only a buck.

I'll report back on the usefulness of this setup once I get a holder for the phone and start using it.

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Charlie

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'66 VW 1300 96K miles
'97 E300D 239K miles
'85 300D 203K miles (sold Sep 2012)