2017 Buick Enclave; How to wire? (all fuses have power w/ no key) (2024)

So every single fuse retains some amount of power with no key -- heated seats, wipers, amps, radio, etc. Every fuse retains at least 1.x amps, which is more than enough to power the cam. Another commenter indicated that some GM vehicles rely on a computer-initiated ground.

Anyway, if you have any specific advice for hardwiring in a 2017 Enclave, please LMK.

Thanks!

-L

dfgd said:

So every single fuse retains some amount of power with no key -- heated seats, wipers, amps, radio, etc. Every fuse retains at least 1.x amps, which is more than enough to power the cam. Another commenter indicated that some GM vehicles rely on a computer-initiated ground.

Anyway, if you have any specific advice for hardwiring in a 2017 Enclave, please LMK.

Thanks!

-L

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Hardwiring depends upon camera and kit. Viofo uses a 3 wire kit where Yellow is Accessory (Only comes on with Ignition), Red (Battery) is always on when vehicle is powered off. And black is grounded to a metal body screw.

Other manufacturers use Red as Accessory, Yellow as Battery, and Black as ground.

So you'll have to be a bit more specific. None the less here's your owner manual - Go to page 262 Instrument Panel Fuse Block: https://my.buick.com/content/dam/gm...ls/2017/Buick/Enclave/2k17enclave1stPrint.pdf

1. You will need either a voltage meter or LED Light tester.
2. Do not have the car started or turned on

Test these fuses to see if the LED Light illuminates:

A. I would say fuses like the right power (RT/Pwr) seat relay, left power seat (LT/Pwr) relay, would be a good fuse to test while vehicle is off. These should always be hot. Due to Canbus systems, fuses can be tied into other systems. But I think power seats should be a safe for Battery.

With Car turned off - test these fuses with LED Light. If they don't illuminate GREAT!. Start car, test again. If illumination occurs Great!

B. Give Heated / Cooled Seats Relay a shot for Accessory. Another potential fuse is Power Mirrows (Pwr Mir).

C. Ground is a body metal screw.

dfgd said:

...a 2017 Enclave...

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Most (if not all) recent GM products have a feature called RAP (Retained Accessory Power) where most accessory circuits remain live for about 10 minutes after the ignition is turned off. Is it possible that's what you're seeing?

HonestReview said:

So you'll have to be a bit more specific. None the less here's your owner manual - Go to page 262 Instrument Panel Fuse Block: https://my.buick.com/content/dam/gm...ls/2017/Buick/Enclave/2k17enclave1stPrint.pdf

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Thanks, They all stay on when there is no key in the ignition. Or, they all retain enough power to start and run the Nextbase 422GW when there is no key in the ignition. And here's a photo of the hw add-a-fuse kit (no yellow wire):

dfgd said:

Thanks, They all stay on when there is no key in the ignition. Or, they all retain enough power to start and run the Nextbase 422GW when there is no key in the ignition. And here's a photo of the hw add-a-fuse kit (no yellow wire):View attachment 52838

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You dont have a hardwire kit suited for "proper" parking mode. That's a 2 wire hardwire kit that will be triggered by the GPS after the car has sat idle for X amount of time. With a 3 wire hardwire kit, the accessory wire triggers the camera to run off the car when the ignition is started. And then when the car is shut off, the accessory wire triggers and the battery wire knows it's time to kick in and begin recording. A 2 wire hardwire kit doesn't work in the same manner.

I don't know enough about nextbase to say whether a 3 wire hardwire kit would work with this camera or if nextbase makes a 3 wire hardwire kit. However, I see this is as the reason why you're probably having issues.

HonestReview said:

You dont have a hardwire kit suited for "proper" parking mode. That's a 2 wire hardwire kit

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that's what they use, they don't have a proper parking mode, it's a software solution

jokiin said:

that's what they use, they don't have a proper parking mode, it's a software solution

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Will a 3rd party hardwire kit work with nextbase or no? Far better and more practical option than 2 wire hardwire kit. If what DT MI says is true about the fuses remaining live for 10 minutes, then OP is going to have to wait to test the fuses until the car property shuts down. In order to identify a battery fuse that remains always active. Power seats are usually a great choice if not tied into other systems through Canbus.

HonestReview said:

Will a 3rd party hardwire kit work with nextbase or no?

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no

You may have to find something at your under-hood fuse panel and run a wire from there back the the cabin If you do that, be sure to fuse your tap-in as close to the that panel as is possible, for those are all important circuits you don't want to risk failure with. AFAIK GM hasn't yet gone as far as some car-makers have with voltage-monitoring while parked so it should work without setting an error code on the computer, but it might.

It's a lot tougher doing things with newer cars, and with some there's just no way to hardwire without having issues elsewhere In those cases your best bet is to put the cam(s) on a manual switch which you'll have to remember to operate yourself. It's an easy habit to acquire- my secondary cams are wired like this.

Phil

SawMaster said:

You may have to find something at your under-hood fuse panel and run a wire from there back the the cabin If you do that, be sure to fuse your tap-in as close to the that panel as is possible, for those are all important circuits you don't want to risk failure with. AFAIK GM hasn't yet gone as far as some car-makers have with voltage-monitoring while parked so it should work without setting an error code on the computer, but it might.

It's a lot tougher doing things with newer cars, and with some there's just no way to hardwire without having issues elsewhere In those cases your best bet is to put the cam(s) on a manual switch which you'll have to remember to operate yourself. It's an easy habit to acquire- my secondary cams are wired like this.

Phil

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Or get a battery pack like a cellink neo and just avoid tapping into the car all together sans an accessory wire.

DT MI said:

Most (if not all) recent GM products have a feature called RAP (Retained Accessory Power) where most accessory circuits remain live for about 10 minutes after the ignition is turned off. Is it possible that's what you're seeing?

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The key has not been in the ignition and all fuses are powered. Weird!

SawMaster said:

your best bet is to put the cam(s) on a manual switch which you'll have to remember to operate yourself. It's an easy habit to acquire- my secondary cams are wired like this.

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Ugh. This will be in my wife's car.

dfgd said:

The key has not been in the ignition and all fuses are powered. Weird!

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My brother ran into a similar situation with his BMW. Apparently the car has a proximity sensor and when the key fob is within a certain distance it will turn on some of the accessory circuits. We found this out when he spent a weekend at his camper in the mountains of NC and was recording a lot when parked. Both he and his wife would keep the fobs in their pockets and just by walking around they would periodically turn on the circuit their dash cam was wired into. Left the fobs in the camper unless they were actually going somewhere and problem resolved. Same thing would happen when at home except not as often because of distances involved but he did have a lot of footage of the inside of his garage and we couldn't figure it out until the weekend at his camper.

I mention this on the off chance your Buick might have the same type of feature. Just a thought.

DT MI said:

I mention this on the off chance your Buick might have the same type of feature. Just a thought.

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Thanks. Yeah, the cam remains powered even when the fob is not around. Maybe I'll just plug it into the lighter, as inelegant as that is.

dfgd said:

Do you folks know about which rear-view mirror wires might work for a tap?
View attachment 52842

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What are you trying to do? Splice the Rear View Mirror and piggy back off that? That at best would be an accessory wire, if it even works.

Wire the dash cam using something like this:

There's usually 5VDC+ on one of those wires, and black is usually ground. It's generally safe to test for voltages with a DMM, as there is almost no current flowing through them in use which might affect something else. It would be best to consult either a Factory service manual or a Haynes manual on your specific car just to be safe.

Phil

dfgd said:

Does this look correct?
View attachment 52860

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This is out of my league, but one suggestion may be to call up dealer to get a specific answer. Or if you have an established relationship, pop in to dealer and see if they'll give you 30 secs of guidance.