Good day. I wanted to make a separate thread regarding the back up camera kit for 14' Altitudes. This has been one of my most wanted mods and following many threads about wonky camera kits, customized wiring, and installation blunders, I wanted to share my experience as a MY14 Altitude owner. I have received the 2014-2015 WK2 Back Up Camera Kit Mopar Item #82213884AB. This is the updated kit which is defined by the ending "AB". It can now be found for purchase at:
JustforJeeps
Tascaparts
AllMoparParts (If you have it in stock)
Or by ordering through your local Jeep parts department
Upon receiving the kit I removed the rear brow cover and replaced it with the one off my Altitude. MOFSTEEL did this and info can be found AT THIS POSTING. The reason is because the brow cover that comes with the kit is unpainted and there is a separate chrome JEEP logo that would install into it. Of course I didn't want to paint the part and I also wanted to keep my blacked out JEEP logo. I removed the rear brow from my Altitude and snapped it onto the camera kit applique. I noticed there was some shots of glue/tape on the new camera kit brow applique so I scraped some of the excess off and put new 3M double sided tape down. Installed my rear brow cover to finish it off. To do this I removed my entire rear applique from the Jeep so that I had a good working surface. This required a simple removal of the tailgate interior panel (used some trim tools bought from Harbor Freight), 2 plastic push pins near the side of the rear brow, 16 10mm nuts (8 holding the rear applique and 4 for each of the taillights). Removed the lights and applique without any issue. After doing my brow panel swap I re-installed everything but the interior tailgate panel and the next morning had an appointment with my dealership to wire it all in.
After 4 hours at the dealership I found that the steering wheel control for Cluster menu, volume up/down, and channel surf were no longer available. This brings me to the question of "What the hell changed for the harness?". From what I gather this was the flaw in the previous harness, but it seems like it is not a flaw but rather an oversight from the installer. The dealership was closing so I decided to take my Jeep home. I scheduled another visit but decided to first try on my own to resolute the issue. That is when I found the YouTube user "Dustin Koenning" who posted a camera install video 3of3 which corrects this issue starting at the 3:20 mark in the video 2014 Grand Cherokee backup camera install 3/3
The area of interest is located behind the passenger kick panel which was very easy to access. I popped a couple interior trim pieces out and had all the wiring and connectors visible. Just like in the video, the instruction manual step #46 indicates to insert the blue (bl) wire from the camera kit into pin #45. The confusion is that some people fully remove the blue/orange wire which currently resides at that pin location and taps it off. If you do so the controls will be lost. I found that was exactly what happened, that my installer removed the wire which resides and replaced it with the blue wire from the camera kit. I opened the panel and spliced the wires back together. I didn't solder them but used a wire crimp and connected the stock blue/orange with the camera kit blue wire. Everything works after doing so. :arms:
The rear camera is exactly what I was hoping for. It also has the guidelines and dynamic movement of the lines when the steering wheel is turned. I have the options in my settings menu to turn the camera on delay, turn on/off the guidelines, or activate/deactivate the rear camera use.
Here are a couple images of the finished product on my 2014 Altitude JGC:
JustforJeeps
Tascaparts
AllMoparParts (If you have it in stock)
Or by ordering through your local Jeep parts department
Upon receiving the kit I removed the rear brow cover and replaced it with the one off my Altitude. MOFSTEEL did this and info can be found AT THIS POSTING. The reason is because the brow cover that comes with the kit is unpainted and there is a separate chrome JEEP logo that would install into it. Of course I didn't want to paint the part and I also wanted to keep my blacked out JEEP logo. I removed the rear brow from my Altitude and snapped it onto the camera kit applique. I noticed there was some shots of glue/tape on the new camera kit brow applique so I scraped some of the excess off and put new 3M double sided tape down. Installed my rear brow cover to finish it off. To do this I removed my entire rear applique from the Jeep so that I had a good working surface. This required a simple removal of the tailgate interior panel (used some trim tools bought from Harbor Freight), 2 plastic push pins near the side of the rear brow, 16 10mm nuts (8 holding the rear applique and 4 for each of the taillights). Removed the lights and applique without any issue. After doing my brow panel swap I re-installed everything but the interior tailgate panel and the next morning had an appointment with my dealership to wire it all in.
After 4 hours at the dealership I found that the steering wheel control for Cluster menu, volume up/down, and channel surf were no longer available. This brings me to the question of "What the hell changed for the harness?". From what I gather this was the flaw in the previous harness, but it seems like it is not a flaw but rather an oversight from the installer. The dealership was closing so I decided to take my Jeep home. I scheduled another visit but decided to first try on my own to resolute the issue. That is when I found the YouTube user "Dustin Koenning" who posted a camera install video 3of3 which corrects this issue starting at the 3:20 mark in the video 2014 Grand Cherokee backup camera install 3/3
The area of interest is located behind the passenger kick panel which was very easy to access. I popped a couple interior trim pieces out and had all the wiring and connectors visible. Just like in the video, the instruction manual step #46 indicates to insert the blue (bl) wire from the camera kit into pin #45. The confusion is that some people fully remove the blue/orange wire which currently resides at that pin location and taps it off. If you do so the controls will be lost. I found that was exactly what happened, that my installer removed the wire which resides and replaced it with the blue wire from the camera kit. I opened the panel and spliced the wires back together. I didn't solder them but used a wire crimp and connected the stock blue/orange with the camera kit blue wire. Everything works after doing so. :arms:
The rear camera is exactly what I was hoping for. It also has the guidelines and dynamic movement of the lines when the steering wheel is turned. I have the options in my settings menu to turn the camera on delay, turn on/off the guidelines, or activate/deactivate the rear camera use.
Here are a couple images of the finished product on my 2014 Altitude JGC: