Reverse cam interimittently not working
 

This car is on its way out in a month, so not that i care about THIS car, but curious if anyone had this issue:

About 1 in 5 times when hitting reverse in the morning, cold start, the reverse came does not engage unless I put the car in park or neutral and then go into reverse again. Every other start of the day and then reverse the cam and the surround view is fine. On the comand, I see the screen flicker once (on this first start of the day) and it goes back to the radio screen, reverse cam doesn't come on.

anyone with this issue in the past?

thanks in advance

in the past 8 months, i had this happen maybe 3-4 times, ive had it happen at nighttime too, so i dont think it has anything to do with the first start of the day. my screen just goes black when this happens.

The same thing happened to me about 3 months ago...couldn't get the screen to show until I drove around for a few minutes. Anybody know what causes this? This seems to be a common problem on our cars (not that it's a big deal).

Rear Camera Problem
 

I too had an issue with the rear camera. Did a forum search, and found that someone had used their hand and knocked on the outside case where the actual camera lenses is mounted.

I did the same and camera has worked every time since.:)

Another forum member stated he used same technique, camera function returned. Dealer still replaced under warranty, when he brought the issue to their attention.

Will tell the MB service rep when I take it in for my next service. If not replaced, at least it will be noted.

Hope this helps. :y

I think there may be a software update for this available. Check with your dealer when you can get it there

I've had the camera flicker a number of times - it would quickly flash from one view to another until I turned it off. I believe it was when a switched from rear view to 360° view. It didn't happen every time, but only rarely. Most of the time it works fine.

Oddly, it hasn't happened for some time.

My C went in 3 times for this.

The first time, they found a bad connector between the trunk wiring harness and the trunklid wiring harness (pin was not seated properly) - and mine seemed to be temperature related. It fixed the issue for 4 or 5 months.

The second time, they said it needed a software update. I argued that it was a hardware issue (hello, my degrees are in computer science engineering and electrical engineering - kinda qualified to make that call), but I went along with it since it is what they needed to go up the warranty ladder. It acted up again 2 days later.

The third time, I was done, dropped it off and told them I didn't want it back until parts had been replaced. After they went over it - they ended up replacing 2 harnesses in the trunk, along with the camera. It's been fine ever since.

I took video of it every time it acted up. They couldn't reproduce the issue at the dealer - but the videos (of which are still on youtube) were enough to get them to work on it.

MDMercedesGuy --

I've already had the car in for bad wiring harnesses (corrosion) for the parktronic and lane assist sensors.. so I would not at all be shocked if the wiring to the camera is equally corroded

thanks for the input

what's the youtube link to your videos?

There are 4 or 5 throughout the whole ordeal on here, capturing the various failure modes (black screen, flash then nothing, flickering and dying).

https://www.youtube.com/user/DCMacGuy/videos

I'm having the exact same issue with my 2012 E550. I've told my dealer about it every time I've had it in for service but they never can find anything. They did a software update once but that didn't make any difference. I'm also convinced that its a connection issue but have found that it happens more frequently on the first start of the day, don't know why? I'm going to have to take mine in again to get it replaced its bugging me too much...

I had a rear view camera issue with my Palladium Silver 2014 E350, the guidelines would not work and then the screen froze. Took it to the dealer and got it fixed within 24 hrs. My diamond white seems to be perfectly fine though. Guess it wasn't just me with rear cam issues.

I was told it was a connection/camera issue as well. They ordered a new camera and installed it, outside of my factory 50K warranty. They wanted to charge me $1,100.00 for the new camera. (this included installation time, which I could do in a half hour). i told them I did not authorize this and had it removed. No issues since.

WHAT???? 1100 for that???? That's one of the worse and biggest ripoffs I've heard yet. :smash:

It is expensive. I was surprised so I looked it up on parts.com. MSRP $970.00. Parts.com $727.00.

http://www.parts.com/parts/2010/Merc...mponent=CAMERA

Mine seemed to be the first start in the morning frequently. If it sat a few hours it might act up as well, but most frequently in the morning.

Happened to me one time on initial start up backing out of the garage. walked around to the back... knocked on the cam with my hand and it came right on. hasnt happened since...

This fix worked for me
 

So if whacking the camera seems to "fix" the problem, it sure sounds like these are prone to connection problems. My e63s has the same problem - intermittently the reverse camera will not work. Seems to always happen when I need it most lol....

Fix is easy enough. Pull down the trim and covering inside the trunk to access the connector from the camera to the harness. You can cycle it a few times (open and close it) and that should wipe the corrosion off the connectors enough that it works again. I initially had the problem maybe 2-3 years ago and did this and it lasted for a while. Recently in the last several months it started happening again so I repeated the process. Working fine again. My guess it will probably happen again so if and when it does, I'll fix it again. Since its a digital connection, it is sensitive to anything that could cause a voltage drop. You could probably spray a contact cleaner in it as well, that may help it. If the dealer replaces the camera then you are most likely replacing one side of the connector along with a new camera which is also fine.