The reversing camera in the 124 plugs directly into the car's CMU (media centre display). In the Abarth 124, the wiring loom between CMU and boot doesn't exist, so additional cables need to be run to make this connection. No software changes are necessary within the CMU to enable the reversing camera functionality, it is automatically enabled when the CMU detects the camera's presence.

Average time to install: 1 - 2 hours


Items supplied in this kit are:

Reversing camera attached to mounting plate Foam washer
"Boot-to-body" loom "Extension" loom
"Piggy-back" loom *OPTIONAL* "Supplemental Boot" loom

If your kit contains the optional Supplemental Boot loom please ensure you install it as described in part (3-i) below.
If this part is not included in your kit, you can safely ignore this step!

There are 4 main parts to the reversing camera installation. These can be broken down into:

1. Work in the passenger compartment
2. Work in the boot
3. Running the cabling from the CMU to the boot
4. Connecting, testing and putting everything back together


1.
Work in the passenger compartment

The camera's wiring loom needs to plug in to the back of the CMU. To access the CMU, it is necessary to remove some parts of the interior trim and dashboard. The trim is mostly held in place with clips and plastic rivets, with one 10mm bolt needing to be removed.

a. Remove the plastic sill cover by pulling it up - it is only held in by plastic clips. Not much force is required and the clips will not break as long as pulled directly upwards.

b. Pull the bottom of the lower door seal rubber off the sill up to the level of the A-pillar trim. This will get removed later but can be left to dangle out the way for now.

c. Having done this, remove the plastic rivet from the side (near the front) of the fusebox cover trim piece in the passenger footwell. Use finger nails or similar to pull the centre of the rivet a few mm out, then wiggle the entire rivet out.

d. Pull the fusebox cover trim out by pulling it straight back towards the passenger seat/ There is a hidden, captive, plastic rivet which needs to be pulled in the correct direction to avoid damaging it.

e. With the fuse cover removed, undo the 10mm bolt holding in the lower dashboard trim.

f. Pull the A-pillar trim away from the A-pillar near the top of the windscreen (a hidden plastic clip); then pull the trim upwards and backwards from the rest of the dashboard trim. There is a short speaker cable connected to the A-pillar trim, so be careful here. The A-pillar trim will not immediately come loose as it is held in by a "key piece" of trim, located between the A-pillar, upper & lower dash trims. Gently pull the A-pillar trim rearwards and towards the centre of the car until it releases from the key piece.

g. Pull the lower dashboard trim upwards and outwards towards the rear of the car. Use the base of the lower trim panel initially and then pull the horizontal section where it stretches across the dash.

Once removed, you can pry the "key piece" to loose, but it may help to use a small flat-head screwdriver to push the plastic clips of this free from the surrounding trim. Be careful not to damage these clips as thy hold everything else solid on re-assembly.

h. The "piano black" (on Abarth) trim piece which sits between the upper and lower dash panels now needs to be removed. This is held in place by some very strong plastic clips so a fair amount of force is required to remove it, but care should be taken to not twist or damage this panel. Start at the thin (door) end of the panel and use fingers or a small flat-head screwdriver to pull the top and bottom edges out, towards the rear of the car. Work along the panel, trying to keep top and bottom from twisting and pull straight back. Disconnect the white electrical connector and place out of the way when removed.

i. The top of the heater control panel needs to be pulled slightly free; this is to give a little more wiggle room for other components. Pull towards the rear of the car until the top clips come loose. You do not need to remove them fully. Likewise pull the trim around the Start/Stop button forwards in line with the heater surround.

j. Pull the top of the instrument cluster surround forward. Concentrate on the passenger side of the cluster surround (i.e. the centre of the car). Again, this only needs to be loosened, not removed completely.

k. Undo the 10mm bolt holding the CMU into the rear of the dash assembly.

Having done so, pull the CMU and the associated trim piece forward to release the CMU. A fair bit of force may be needed here, but be careful not to damage the cluster trim whilst pulling the CMU forward. (this is why we loosened the cluster trim earlier)

l. There is a rubber spacer which may well fall off the back of the CMU when it is removed - make sure you retrieve this and push it back onto it's support underneath the CMU.

m. Unplug the four connectors from the back of the CMU and place it to one side.

2. Work in the Boot

To access the wiring loom locations within the boot, we need to remove most of the interior trim from the boot, and then remove, modify & replace the boot (body) to boot lid (boot) wiring loom. Finally, we will fit the camera in the boot lid. All boot trim is held in with plastic rivets which are easy to remove using fingernails (and which, apart from two, are identical to the one used to hold the fusebox trim in place).

a. Remove the ELEVEN rivets holding the trim to the boot lid and then place the trim aside

b. Remove the FOUR rivets holding the hard plastic boot lock cover (runs across the entire back of the boot) in place; unplug the plug for the boot light, and then pull it forward to remove the cover and set aside. It may be easier to remove if you pull the boot weather seal off the back of the boot aperture

c. Remove the SIX rivets holding the boot floor trim in place and set the trim aside.

d. Remove the SIX rivets holding the front boot trim in place and set aside.

e. Remove the THREE rivets holding the passenger side trim to the boot. Do not forget the rivet behind the previously removed lock cover. Place the trim aside.

f. Remove the FIVE M10 bolts holding the metal fuel line protection plate in place. This makes access to the wiring behind much easier.

g. Unplug the white 8-way connector below the boot to lid loom connection and gently release the base of the boot to lid loom connector by pushing in each side of the plastic plug holding the rubber protector to the boot. Be careful pushing in the sides of this connector as the plastic may be brittle and breaking a clip will prevent the rubber from keeping the boot waterproof.

With the connector removed from the top of the boot feed the lower portion of this loom out through the hole to release it from the car.

h. Unplug the white 4-way connector from the boot lid and gently pry the plastic cable stay rivet out from the lid (use a small flathead screwdriver to help - this cable stay rivet is tight). Then reach inside the boot lid skin to gently push out the clips on the top part of the rubber protector and remove it from the car.

You should now be able to remove this portion of loom from the car completely.

i. Reach inside the lid skin and push out the clips holding the camera blanking plate in place next to the boot release button. This blanking plate is a good fit and a fair amount of force may be needed to remove it. Avoid damaging the boot structure, but it doesn't matter if the blanking plate or foam washer underneath get damaged on removal. This should then leave you with a hole in the boot skin into which the camera can be inserted.

j. Feed the supplied replacement foam washer onto the camera body via the cables and ensure it sits flat against the camera body mounting surface. It may be necessary to slightly stretch the washer to make it fit, but do not tear it. (this washer is slightly thicker than the one which was removed from the camera blank and should be used instead of the original). Then feed the camera's wires through from the outside to the inside of the boot,

and push the camera into position on the boot lid. Allow the cables to dangle within the boot lid at this stage.

k. Feed the 4-pin plug end of the supplied boot-to-body loom through the previously removed boot to lid loom from the lid end of the rubber protector (marked "boot") towards the boot end (marked "body"). Be aware that at the body end of this loom there is a long plastic guide within the rubber protector - the rubber needs to be slid clear of this plastic guide to aid pushing the boot-to-body loom through the rubber protector.

l. At the far body end of the bot to lid loom, there is a tight turn within the plastic guide to which the car's existing loom is taped. Undo the insulation tape to help pushing the 4-pin plug through this plastic guide bend, taking care not to damage it or the plastic guide. When the two looms have been successfully combined, use cable ties or insulating tape to secure the two looms together.

m. Return the altered boot to lid loom to the car - firstly thread the body end connectors and loom through from the outside of the boot to the inside, before gently pushing the body end of the rubber protector back in place.

Having done this, feed the lid end of the loom through from outside to inside of the boot lid (you may need two hands to try feeding and retrieving this part of the loom from within the boot lid skins, then gently push the clips in placer to secure the boot end of the rubber protector. Finally, push the cable clip rivet back into the hole it came from.

n. Re-connect both white (original car 8-way & 4-way) loom plugs back in to the body and boot lid looms.

o. Finally connect the camera loom to the boot-to-body loom (red to red connectors and yellow to yellow connectors) and secure this loom where appropriate within the boot lid, following the existing wiring. Use small cable ties for this. (for now, do not replace any boot lid trim)

3. Running the cabling from the CMU to the boot

The next step is to install the wiring looms required to enable the car to recognise the camera. This work mostly takes place within the car's cabin, with some later in the boot.

a. Plug the piggy-back loom into the corresponding cable unplugged from the CMU in step (1-m) above. It is the smaller of the multi-pin cables and the one which was plugged into the left of the CMU when viewing it as installed in the car.
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b. Plug in the 4-pin plug of the extension loom to the 4-pin socket on the piggy-back loom and then route the free end of the extension loom through the holes next to the CMU slot towards the passenger side of the dash. Pull the extension loom through and then route it down the side of the passenger door opening to follow the existing route to the fusebox and lower down to the cable path on the passenger sill.

c. Push the extension loom through the protective cover along the passenger sill until the slack is all near the rear of the passenger seat. (at this point do not fasten any of the extension loom to the dash.

d. Pull out the plastic rivet holding the side trim to the top of the B-post - this rivet is quite stiff so may require some force, but be careful not to loose the small central pin, which on this rivet will come completely out of the rest of the rivet. Push the top side trim upwards gently so that the lower side trim can be removed. Remove the two plastic rivets in the rear of this panel and then simply pull the panel forwards and remove.

e. With the lower side trim removed, it should be possible to trace the route cables take from the cabin to the boot - selotape the end of the extension loom to a flexible but fairly rigid piece of wire (such as a straightened metal coat hanger), ensure the end of the 4-pin plug is protected by the selotape, and then gently push the end through to the boot by sliding the wire just above the existing loom. Take GREAT CARE to avoid damaging the existing loom - do NOT push too hard. You will need to push about 60cm of wire through to the boot before you will be able to easily see it.

f. Moving round to the boot, check you can see the end of the wire, with extension loom attached, and pull through enough to allow you to remove the selotape and extract the wire, leaving the extension loom loose in the boot.

g. The extension loom needs to be routed along the side of, or preferably inside, the white cable channel that's located under the fuel tank pipes.

Getting the cover off this channel can be tricky, so try pushing the extension loom through the channel. If you can't do this, you can simply cable tie the extension loom to the cable channel.

h. The built-in body loom running to the boot (which we disconnected earlier in step (2-g) and reconnected in step (2-n) runs from the back of the cable channel up towards the plug fixing - route the extension loom the same way and secure with cable ties so that the 4-pin socket on the extension loom can easily connect to the 4-pin plug from the boot-to-body loom.

i. If your kit contains the optional Supplemental Body loom, plug it in between the Boot to Body loom and the Extension loom. The 4-pin plugs mean it can only connect one way. 

j. If your kit does not contain the optional loom, ignore the line above; instead simply connect the Body to Boot loom to the Extension loom. Again, the 4-pin plugs mean it is obvious how this connects.

4. Connecting, testing and putting everything back together

Finally, we need to connect all remaining plugs, re-attach the CMU, test functionality and refit the all the interior trims.


From the previous steps, you should have the reversing camera loom installed throughout the car and have from front to back:

1. Piggy-back loom plugged in to one of the car's CMU plugs via a white multi-pin socket

2. Extension loom plugged in to the piggy-back loom via a 4-pin plug / socket

3. Boot-to-body loom plugged in to the extension loom via a 4-pin plug / socket

4. Camera plugged in to boot-to-body loom via red and yellow plugs / sockets

a. First, plug the piggy-back loom in to the CMU, followed by plugging in all remaining car plugs to the CMU (they all only fit in one socket). Do not replace the CMU in the car but balance it so you can test the functionality of the CMU

b. Turn the car's ignition on to position 2 (lights etc. On, but DO NOT start the car) and wait for the CMU to fully boot up. Put the gear lever into reverse and the CMU should swap to the camera view. This should also be accompanied by the normal warning beep.

c. If the CMU does NOT swap to the camera view:

1. Turn the ignition OFF

2. Disconnect the middle multi-plug cable (not the piggy back cable) from the back of the CMU

3. Double check ALL connectors are fully connected. Unplug and re-plug if necessary

4. Wait 5 minutes to ensure the CMU is fully powered down

5. Plug the multi-plug cable back in to the CMU

6. If these steps do not work, contact your retailer for more help

d. Presuming the CMU correctly swapped to show the camera in step (4-b), turn the ignition OFF and continue to rebuild the car's interior.

e. Firstly, ensure the extension loom is secured by cable tie etc. across the lower part of the dash and down past the fusebox.

f. Trim re-assembly is essentially the opposite procedure to dismantling. The first and hardest part is getting the CMU to push back into it's mounting hole correctly. Ensure the cables at the back (especially the piggy-back loom) are not blocking it sliding back, and then push the CMU in horizontally (the angle is quite critical), whilst also making sure it clears the instrument cluster surround, which you may need to lift slightly to help the CMU slide backwards.

g. Once the CMU is firmly back in place (it should click into place) re-insert the M10 bolt which secures it, ensuring the metal bracket is fully home.

h. Push the instrument cluster trim back into position - it pushes down and forwards (towards the windscreen) and will click when each clip re-engages. Run your hands right round the cluster surround to ensure all clips are fully home.

i. Push the clips of the top of the heater controls back home - these may have dropped slightly so may need persuading into their sockets, depending on how far you pulled them out.

j. Re-attach the electrical connector for the hazard light on the piano black trim strip and then start pushing this back in to place. Again, ensure this goes in completely horizontally and push fairly firmly to make sure all the clips fully re-engage.

k. Re-attach the suede lower dash panel - support the larger part above the passenger footwell whilst initially clipping in the end nearest the dashboard. Avoid twisting the panel as you push the clips in; and work along from the middle of the car to the passenger edge. When all clips are secure, push up slightly on the bottom of the lower dash panel whilst re-inserting the M10 bolt above the fusebox.

l. Refit the lower door seal rubber and push it up as high as it seems to want to go. The bend in the rubber and a slight cut out in the door pillar trim will help you locate it. Do not bother pushing the lower part in completely as we'll need to pull this off again in a minute.

m. Re-connect the speaker to it's housing in the A-pillar trim and then retrofit the trim. It slides forward and down at the base of the trim and should re-fit fairly easily. Look at the profile of the clips to help you align this correctly.

n. Push the lower door seal rubber up as high as it now wants to go and ensure the bottom part is NOT attached the door aperture.

o. Re-fit the fusebox cover - this pushes forward into place past the door seal rubber and secures with a plastic rivet and two small built-in clips which sit over and flush to the lower door aperture seam. Re-fit the plastic rivet in the side of the fusebox trim and push the inner part fully home. Finally re-fit the rest of the lower door rubber seal.

p. Re-fit the "key-piece" removed in step (1-f) into the gap between the A-pillar trim and lower dash panel. This piece should clip in fairly easily, but has to be aligned carefully. This piece should lock all the front dashboard trim pieces together.

q. Push the lower side trim (behind the seat) back into position against the back of the door opening, then pop the side trim back over the top of this and re-fit the smaller side trim plastic rivet. Push the centre piece fully home to secure these trim pieces.

r. Refit the sill plastic cover by pushing it down against it's clips. You should now be finished re-fitting trim inside the car, so move to the boot.

s. Replace the metal fuel line protector and re-fit the FIVE M10 bolts securing this to the car.

t. Place the passenger side trim in the boot. ONLY replace the plastic rivet at the very back of the boot (nearest bumper) which will be hidden by the hard plastic boot lock cover when we re-install that.

u. Place the front boot trim in the boot. DO NOT put any plastic rivets back in yet.

v. Place the boot floor trim in the boot. Again, DO NOT put any plastic rivets back in yet.

w. Reconnect the boot light electrical plug, and place the hard plastic boot lock cover back in the car. Re-insert the FOUR plastic rivets securing this piece.

x. Replace all other plastic rivets in all boot trim panels, remembering the TWO plain rivets which sit at the front of the boot floor trim.

y. Hold up the boot lid trim and replace the ELEVEN plastic rivets holding this in place. You should now have replaced all trim in the boot.

All trim pieces should now be back in the car; with all cables connected, secured and tested.
Finally, go and MAKE A CUP OF TEA to celebrate your now-working reversing camera :)