Cleaning Inside Windshield or Front Camera Lenses

[MediumFidelity]

I was looking through some TeslaCam footage from the front camera, and found video recorded at night shows a lot of "flare" from other lights. I've attached a couple of examples.

This image was taken while stopped at a red light. The flare is most visible in the brake lights of the vehicle in front.


This image was taken on the expressway, here the streetlights and headlights show the flare (well above the Chotchkie's 15 piece minimum)


I'm hopeful that the inside of the windshield in front of the camera needs to be clean, or perhaps the lenses themselves. I haven't found a good tutorial for removing the cover and cleaning. I did see some people with "foggy" front camera views, and the response was "contact service".

Any tips or advice?

Edit:
Not sure why the attachments aren't showing up, so here is a link to an album:
Model 3 Front Camera TeslaCam "Flare"

Thanks,
MF

 

[VT_EE]

I would also like to now how to remove the camera cover on the windshield so I can clean. There is a noticeable film on the glass.

 

[MediumFidelity]

Snagged an image from greentheonly's AP augmented reality view video. Looks like it's worse on that Model 3.


Still, I think it'll be beneficial to clean the glass under the cover. Really hard to search for that, since most posts/videos are about covering the selfie cam so Elon doesn't watch you.

 

[MediumFidelity]

Looking at the Tesla parts catalog to get a preview of the disassembly, it looks more involved than I thought.

Not sure what they mean by "SINGLE SHOT" in the part description. It can only be used once?

M3, RVM, GLARE SHIELD, SINGLE SHOT      Part Number:     1530259-00-B

Thanks,
MF

 

[MediumFidelity]

Found this video that looks like it covers the, well... covers:

 

[MediumFidelity]

Based on the parts catalog, and this still image from the video, it looks like there are two Torx T10 screws to remove... and maybe 1-2 more on the tabs on the glare shield, hard to tell from the video (circled one in yellow).

 

[fuddy]

Just did this on my 3. Remove all the plastic as shown in the video, then there are two torx bolts that hold the camera cover in place.The plastic cover will drop and you will have access to the glass and cameras. No need to remove the center weight or drop the cameras down. (pic is from a model S)

 

[Timbo2]

I noticed the same flare issue on nighttime footage and decided to give this a shot today. You could definitely see the haze on my windshield in the camera section. That said at least as far as concerns daytime video quality I notice zero difference pre and post cleaning. I'll know better tonight after I try it out. It's not many pieces to remove, but it took me an hour to do. I'm not sure I'd do it again unless it makes a huge difference tonight.

The piece around the stem of the mirror was a real pain to get out. The seam is far too thin for a standard automotive trim removal tool. I used a thin flexible sheet of plastic I had. If you try to hurry this and use a metal tool you've got a good chance of scratching up the plastic or worse slipping and hitting the windshield.

The second issue was the metal trim clips remained in the cover piece instead of on the male pieces attached to the camera and mirror assembly. Since I didn't want to disconnect the Cabin Camera I had to fiddle around with pulling the clips out of the cover while it was hanging from the camera wire.

Between these two issues I burned a good 30 minutes.

The last issue is the rearview mirror. As I expected it's firmly attached. You have to twist it counterclockwise with considerable force. It's hard to get a good grip to do it and you definitely feel like something is going to break in the process.

On the plus side it definitely looks much better. I had no idea that the glare shield was "flocked". Now you can see the flocking through the windshield.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

I've been wondering if I should put in a service request for this - curious to see if anyone is able to improve it.
My 2021 has been like this since day 1.

 

[Ecoli]

I noticed the same flare issue on nighttime footage and decided to give this a shot today. You could definitely see the haze on my windshield in the camera section. That said at least as far as concerns daytime video quality I notice zero difference pre and post cleaning. I'll know better tonight after I try it out. It's not many pieces to remove, but it took me an hour to do. I'm not sure I'd do it again unless it makes a huge difference tonight.

The piece around the stem of the mirror was a real pain to get out. The seam is far too thin for a standard automotive trim removal tool. I used a thin flexible sheet of plastic I had. If you try to hurry this and use a metal tool you've got a good chance of scratching up the plastic or worse slipping and hitting the windshield.

The second issue was the metal trim clips remained in the cover piece instead of on the male pieces attached to the camera and mirror assembly. Since I didn't want to disconnect the Cabin Camera I had to fiddle around with pulling the clips out of the cover while it was hanging from the camera wire.

Between these two issues I burned a good 30 minutes.

The last issue is the rearview mirror. As I expected it's firmly attached. You have to twist it counterclockwise with considerable force. It's hard to get a good grip to do it and you definitely feel like something is going to break in the process.

On the plus side it definitely looks much better. I had no idea that the glare shield was "flocked". Now you can see the flocking through the windshield.

Got any before and after pics?

 

[Timbo2]

Got any before and after pics?

No. Unfortunately, I wasn't that organized!

 

[Timbo2]

Was finally able to drive it tonight.

The flares remain roughly the same. However the clarity of the picture at night is definitely better. On the margin I now feel like my hour’s worth of time was worth it. However that is just about offset, by the risk of damage to plastic and fasteners taking it apart.

Unless you have a need for the cleanest dashcam footage I wouldn’t bother.

 

[Ecoli]

Thanks for the update
Pity it wasn't a huge success, after all that effort
It sounded quite promising

 

[J4RBOT]

I've been wondering if I should put in a service request for this - curious to see if anyone is able to improve it.
My 2021 has been like this since day 1.

View attachment 717186

Did you ever get this cleaned up?
Mine is very similar too.

 

[TomT]

I've been wondering if I should put in a service request for this - curious to see if anyone is able to improve it.
My 2021 has been like this since day 1.

View attachment 717186

Mine has been identical as was my 2019.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

No @J4RBOT, I even had my windshield replaced due to an unrelated crack and there's no difference in the image quality.

 

[Wennfred]

No @J4RBOT, I even had my windshield replaced due to an unrelated crack and there's no difference in the image quality.

Good to know, I was about to take the whole assembly down to clean the windshield inside, the night video is very bad.

 

[J4RBOT]

No @J4RBOT, I even had my windshield replaced due to an unrelated crack and there's no difference in the image quality.

That's funny because I got my windshield replaced because of a rock crack and that's when I really started to notice it at night when driving / dash cam and just didn't know if I didn't notice it before or now paying extra attention. When it's parked it looks fine but when driving is when the light flares etc go crazy.