Intermittent Rear Bed Camera

[FlatcoatFarm]

About 25% of the time when I select the rear bed camera icon, I get one of the following:

- a blue screen;
- a gray screen; or
- a psychedelic splotchy/wavy screen of colors

All other camera angles work fine.

Has anyone else had this occur? It seems to me as if a connector is loose somewhere in the system.

I had my truck at the dealership (which is generally excellent) for its 30k service, and, of course, they could not repeat the issue. They said that there were no recorded faults in the system, and nothing that they could do at this time.

Was hoping someone else might have had this failure before, and had it diagnosed and fixed. And then I could pass the info on to my dealership.

Thanks for any insights.

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[USA EV]

I'd take a video when it happens. They should at least check the connectors before dismissing you.

 

[Grease Lightening]

My rear camera was working fine and then It went to the dealer for a repair and updates and recalls. They replaced the rear lightbar (recall) and that same behavior started happening. The day I was taking it in for a replacement it was working fine so I knew it wouldn’t be worth it as they will say it’s working. Later the same behavior occurred again and this time I recorded it. Have not had a chance to get back to the dealer to try and replace it.
Seems it’s related to the recall replacement. Fixed one issue and created another.

 

[Heliian]

related to the recall replacement. Fixed one issue and created another.

The op is discussing the rear bed camera and not the backup camera.

There have been some heat related failures and some bad camera units. Wiring and connectors is also a possibility.

To the op, was it hot hot out?

 

[Grease Lightening]

I was talking about the rear bed camera too

 

[DoyouLightning]

My rear bed camera does the exact same thing. It happen again today and the weather here was mild at best upper 70s no reason for it not to work.

 

[ryun]

Yup. Occasionally happens to me too (had my passenger take this photo). You're welcome to "borrow" this photo if you have a Pro/XLT to show the dealer. Been meaning to go myself but haven't had the time.

 

[FlatcoatFarm]

Sounds like we're all having a similar problem. To an earlier question, no, it is/was not hot out when this happens. It seems to be truly intermittent. Wondering if it might be vibration related -- a connector gets slightly jostled.

On other good news, I got the Blue Cruise 1.4 update this week. Can't believe it. Love the lane change feature, but finding only modest improvements in general performance (side-to-side ping ponging, etc.) But in general, I love BC.

 

[DCAZEV]

About 25% of the time when I select the rear bed camera icon, I get one of the following:

- a blue screen;
- a gray screen; or
- a psychedelic splotchy/wavy screen of colors

All other camera angles work fine.

Has anyone else had this occur? It seems to me as if a connector is loose somewhere in the system.

I had my truck at the dealership (which is generally excellent) for its 30k service, and, of course, they could not repeat the issue. They said that there were no recorded faults in the system, and nothing that they could do at this time.

Was hoping someone else might have had this failure before, and had it diagnosed and fixed. And then I could pass the info on to my dealership.

Thanks for any insights.

My 2023 Lariat ER has the same problem. I live in AZ, and I've heard on the forum and Facebook Page, that the heat is an issue with some of these cameras.

 

[FlatcoatFarm]

The good (and bad) news is that the rear bed camera now fails 100% of the time -- shows a gray screen. When I had it in for service last time, it was intermittent and the dealer was unable to repeat the problem. Will be good to finally get it fixed, as I'm hauling stuff quite regularly, and I miss not being able to see if everything is staying in place.

 

[DCAZEV]

Yes, I took mine to the dealer yesterday afternoon. The dealer diagnosed the issue and told me that the camera was bad. They ordered another one (under warranty). This morning, I left for work and the camera was working. I decided to leave it on as I was driving to work. It was about 0545 (Arizona time) and the temperature was approaching 85 degrees (the sun was not up yet). When the outside temperature hit 85 degrees, the camera stopped working. (Again, the sun wasn't up yet, so no direct sunlight on the camera).

Over this past weekend, I took the third brake light assembly out of the truck (it was about 105 degrees outside and the camera wasn't working). I brought the third brake light assembly inside my house and placed it in the freezer for about five minutes. I reinstalled the third brake light assembly in my garage (no direct sunlight & shaded). The camera worked for about five minutes and then it failed again due to the heat.

These two experiments confirmed for me that the issue is the heat (ambient) rather than the direct sunlight.

 

[FlatcoatFarm]

Nice controlled experiment! I think my camera might be failing for a different reason. I'm in coastal California, and don't get high temps. And it was failing on and off at seemingly random times for about a year -- not correlated with ambient temps. My hunch has been that it was a failing connector, that was impacted by road vibrations, etc.

 

[DCAZEV]

Coastal CA definitely won't have the high temps that we see in AZ. You're right, it probably a bad connection and or just a defective camera in general. The dealership told me that I had to get the truck in before I hit the 36k mark (I'm at 35,205 as of this morning). The new camera should be here tomorrow for install.

 

[FlatcoatFarm]

Dang, I'm at 41,000 miles! I hope that doesn't impact warranty replacement. At least it's in the record at the dealership that I was having problems about 15,000 miles ago.

 

[DCAZEV]

Hopefully not. I have found that these Ford Dealerships vary from dealer to dealer on what they will warranty (or go the extra mile) for their customers. If it's documented before the 36k mark, I would think that they would just take care of it. From what I have found, the bed camera itself is only about $350 dollars or so. That wouldn't be a huge hit to Ford.

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