Dash cam installation in Riverwood

A dash cam is only as useful as its installation. Run it off the cigarette lighter and you get a cable dangling from the mirror, a socket you cannot use for anything else, and a camera that switches off the moment you turn the key.

Hardwiring takes power from the fuse box instead. We use the correct fuse tap and an inline fuse, run the cable up the A-pillar and behind the headlining, and tuck it out of sight. Done properly, the only visible part is the camera itself.

It is the same careful trim removal we do for detailing work, which matters more than it sounds. Pillar trim on a modern car sits over curtain airbags, and clips break if they are levered rather than released.

And parking mode, the feature most people buy the camera for, only exists with a hardwire. The camera has to see a permanent live circuit to watch the car with the ignition off.

This is the single most common failure we see. Cheaper dash cams use a lithium battery to keep the clock and shut down cleanly. A car parked in a Sydney summer reaches temperatures that degrade those batteries quickly, and a swollen battery is both a dead camera and a genuine hazard.

A capacitor-based camera handles heat far better and is the sensible choice in this climate, particularly for a car that lives outdoors or does parking mode.

It is worth knowing before you buy, because it is not something an installation can fix afterwards.

The camera, if you have already bought one, or a conversation about what suits if you have not. The make, model and year of the car, because that determines fuse box access and trim.

Tell us whether you want parking mode. It changes the wiring, and it is far easier to do at installation than to retrofit.

If the car is a lease or a company vehicle, check whether hardwiring needs approval before we start.

Most dash cam installations we do happen alongside other work, and that is the efficient way to book it. The car is already with us, the trim work overlaps, and it saves a second visit.

It pairs particularly well with window tinting, because both involve working around the top of the windscreen and the A-pillars, and with a new car preparation where everything gets done before the car goes into service.

Most cameras now download to your phone over their own Wi-Fi, which works but is slow for a long clip. For anything you need for a claim, take the card out and copy it to a computer, then put it back and format it.

GPS records where the car was and how fast it was going, stamped on the footage. That is useful for proving you were where you said, and worth remembering that it also records how fast you were going.

Some cameras store an event clip separately when they detect an impact, which stops it being overwritten. Find out where yours puts them before you need to.