Fogged side camera service, found old parts

[israndy]

This happened to me and a friend of mine over Xmas:

I got an appt to have it looked at, sadly they didn't swap my FSD computer while I was there.

I know I keep a messy car, but it surprised me that the Tesla Tech lost track of the old parts in my car after the swap:

Anyone know what that circuit board is at the bottom, or how I can hook the camera up to my computer to check out the video? I thought the circuit board might be the keycard reader until I realized this was the right side unit, there isn't a card reader on this side.

 

[SMAlset]

How long was the camera area staying fogged like that? Were you preheating car on HI? I’ve had the pillar and front camera alerts recently with our freezing/near freezing temps and moist early mornings but once the cars been heated they go away and cameras are fine. Just more time to preheat in the a.m.

Interesting view of the part. So much tech goes onto our cars. Would guess they are looking for that part to test.

 

[Glamisduner]

I get this warning often I will have to check the camera next time.

 

[SMAlset]

My car Friday morning. After lots of rain Thursday and into Friday morning then temp drop. Frozen droplets on trim and everywhere on the car. Haven’t seen water drops freezing like that in a while. If you zoom in you can see I swiped my finger over the pillar camera area and it was temporarily fogged on the underside. Car’s interior, pillars and all glass was warming and ice melting. But as I mentioned sufficiently running on HI (only works thru App not car manual controls per manual) warmed it up and camera glass area cleared up. Front camera area was same way.

loved the frozen water on the roof that morning.

Not sure if what you saw was abnormal behavior or not on your car.

 

[israndy]

This was INSIDE the camera, if you look at the photo of the back you will see that the seal around the outside looks like it was damaged next to the camera so moisture got inside, where there is no way to defrost or wipe the glass clean. I got this on the first sunny day after the first few rains of the season. Its when the car is warming up that the moisture fogs the glass. If you have moisture inside the equipment, Tesla will need to fix it.

Although oddly they refused to fix my friend's camera and told him there was a software update coming to fix the issue. That's when I made my appt and the tech told me she had NO IDEA why they canceled my friend's appointment. Perhaps his car logged it differently than my car did. Other than the color our cars keep being twinsies, reserved the same day, ordered the same day, arrived the same day, get updates w/i hours of each other. Service seems to be the biggest differentiator.

 

[MobileClimate]

I just had my camera on the right side replaced for a scratch in the glass one week ago ..and it still has problems with moisture on the inside ..so getting a new one will not fix this issue

 

[ilyak]

Nice, any evidence of a fabric patch covering the vent as discussed in this thread? B-pillar cameras fogging up?

Also, the board in the lower part should be the NFC reader for the key card.

 

[israndy]

the board in the lower part should be the NFC reader for the key card.

Except this is from the RIGHT side of a NA vehicle

 

[SMAlset]

In people’s photos, and yours, and on my car, it doesn’t look like condensation occurs on the actual camera lens but on the glass in the extended view area of the camera that you can see. Also looks like in the pillars and front camera, the area is lined with some sort of fabric that likely cuts down glare. I actually wonder if these areas aren’t designed to breathe and not be hermetically sealed so that any moisture from weather conditions can evaporate. Just my thoughts.

As I said my fogged camera areas always clear up when the cabin is sufficiently warm. I have grabbed snap shots of my car in my app in the morning and on the morning of my photos above the interior temp was 34F. I don’t keep my car on recirc so believe the car will periodically bring in outside air which has been moist these last few days. So not at all surprised the cold areas of glass would fog when the car is awoken and these areas heat up. The glass is cold on the outside and those areas inside are warming up. Giving an alert is what should happen and drivers should make sure the car is ready to drive before heading out or certainly be aware there is reduced visibility to those camera areas.

I annotated your photo to show what I think goes on:

 

[israndy]

Nice, any evidence of a fabric patch covering the vent as discussed in this thread? B-pillar cameras fogging up?

I don't see anything related to that. In fact, the part that they left covers the side of the car between the doors, likely there is a vent to the inside of the car in the actual B-Pillar. Thanks for the pointer to the other thread, I totally missed it when searching for this issue. Could have posted there.

 

[miimura]

View attachment 502148

Anyone know what that circuit board is at the bottom, or how I can hook the camera up to my computer to check out the video? I thought the circuit board might be the keycard reader until I realized this was the right side unit, there isn't a card reader on this side.

I believe the circuit board is a Bluetooth transceiver used to triangulate your (phone's) position around the car. I believe there is one in each B-pillar, one at the front and one at the rear. Probably one inside too. These are needed for the phone-as-a-key system.

 

[MrBadger]

B post cameras fogging here in UK is a regular occurrence with our moist cold weather. Basically its been a persistent issue for me since November and even pre conditioning the cabin (as with shots taken below after approx 15 minutes) or driving for hour plus has little effect. They do seem to clear over the day, but you can be pretty sure that first drive of the day is going to show misting - not always enough to trigger an alert though and not all alerts are caused by condensation, sun, dark etc. You should also see our rear lights - mine have never been dry inside since we collected car end of September.

On a couple of occasions, I have run a thermal imaging camera over various areas of the car. These latest ones of B pillar cameras show no evidence of any worthwhile warming of the camera area over and above what the door panel themselves are experiencing.

Seeing the B pillar assembly above (great info thankyou) confirmed my thoughts that the slight warming at base of B pillar was down to some internal electronics. That warming is only showing on our UK RHS (drivers side) but its not conclusive that there isn't one on the other side.

 

[rtanov]

I had this happen to me just once, same side. It was quite foggy as you can see in the picture. I noticed that the rear door window was left slightly rolled down, so I thought these might be related. This was a month ago in cold winter weather. I rolled the window up and let it sit for a while - it cleared up and hasn't happened since.

 

[Garlan Garner]

This happened to me and a friend of mine over Xmas:

View attachment 502150
View attachment 502157

I got an appt to have it looked at, sadly they didn't swap my FSD computer while I was there.

I know I keep a messy car, but it surprised me that the Tesla Tech lost track of the old parts in my car after the swap:

View attachment 502148

Anyone know what that circuit board is at the bottom, or how I can hook the camera up to my computer to check out the video? I thought the circuit board might be the keycard reader until I realized this was the right side unit, there isn't a card reader on this side.

Hey....your reflection looks just like your picture. Cool.

 

[strykeroz]

Anyone know what that circuit board is at the bottom, or how I can hook the camera up to my computer to check out the video?

It's hard to tell without getting a closer look why they've wired down to that point, but it could be just to reach a physical hole in the pillar for the cabling. Does that 2nd board have any circuitry, or is it just a jack? The 4-wire interface is consistent with it being CAN bus which is entirely expected, however it's possible that 2nd module houses a microcontroller which does the CAN bus interface work, and the other visible 4-wire connection uses another short range interface standard back to the sensor. That being the case, you might be able to utilise it from its native interface. Some fun reverse engineering lays ahead

As a CAN bus camera, you could sniff the traffic on the bus to see how the cameras are addressed but I'm not sure if the effort will be worth the reward.

(BTW none of these are standards that easy plug into a PC to use the camera)

 

[SMAlset]

Thought this member’s post and photo of his pillar service call might help — Removal of some tape to the camera unit area so the warm cabin air can evaporate cold air causing fogging.

Door Pillar Camera Blocked

Possible the manufactured hole was taped over prior to install in the car so that nothing got in there before it got mounted and the tape was suppose to be removed for airflow to that area. There does appear to be some fabric there in that camera cavity that I’m guessing reduces glare to the lens but would also act as a filter to anything passing through that hole.

@Randy Spencer looking at your photo of the pillar part it looks like the hole was still taped up.

 

[SMAlset]

BTW pre-conditioning the car in very cold or moist weather needs to be done on HI on the app only — otherwise the car will turn off the really hot forced air if you open the car doors and not do its job as intended. It cannot be set using the car’s screen controls. This is mentioned in the Manual about using the app only.

bears repeating as it’s kind of hard to find in the manual:

“It is possible that your charge port latch may freeze in place in extremely cold weather or icy conditions. In cases where you cannot remove or insert the charge cable, or the car is not Supercharging due to the latch being frozen in place, use your Tesla mobile app to precondition your vehicle on HI for approximately 30-45 minutes (you must use your mobile app to precondition the vehicle; setting your climate to HI using the touchscreen will not be effective). This helps thaw ice on the charge port latch so the charge cable can be removed or inserted.”

 

[SMAlset]

B post cameras fogging here in UK is a regular occurrence with our moist cold weather. Basically its been a persistent issue for me since November and even pre conditioning the cabin (as with shots taken below after approx 15 minutes) or driving for hour plus has little effect. They do seem to clear over the day, but you can be pretty sure that first drive of the day is going to show misting - not always enough to trigger an alert though and not all alerts are caused by condensation, sun, dark etc. You should also see our rear lights - mine have never been dry inside since we collected car end of September.

On a couple of occasions, I have run a thermal imaging camera over various areas of the car. These latest ones of B pillar cameras show no evidence of any worthwhile warming of the camera area over and above what the door panel themselves are experiencing.

Seeing the B pillar assembly above (great info thankyou) confirmed my thoughts that the slight warming at base of B pillar was down to some internal electronics. That warming is only showing on our UK RHS (drivers side) but its not conclusive that there isn't one on the other side.

When you precondition the car are you setting to HI on the App and giving it time? HI really gets hot air in my car and really pushes it on a very high fan speed because it is super toasty when I get in after preconditioning it this way.

 

[Dave EV]

Thought this member’s post and photo of his pillar service call might help — Removal of some tape to the camera unit area so the warm cabin air can evaporate cold air causing fogging.

Door Pillar Camera Blocked

Possible the manufactured hole was taped over prior to install in the car so that nothing got in there before it got mounted and the tape was suppose to be removed for airflow to that area. There does appear to be some fabric there in that camera cavity that I’m guessing reduces glare to the lens but would also act as a filter to anything passing through that hole.

@Randy Spencer looking at your photo of the pillar part it looks like the hole was still taped up.

View attachment 503604

That little patch over the hole looks like a Gore Vent. The vent is designed to seal dust, debris and liquids out of the cavity, but allow for air pressure to equalize.

It also lets water vapor through the vent. This minimizes condensation buildup over time, but doesn't eliminate it.

Venting | Automotive, Packaging, Protective & Portable Electronics Vents | Gore

 

[SMAlset]

Don't gore vents have little breather slots or holes on the side of a plug? The 2 photos shown in the linked thread post above (#16) has a closeup of his pillar panel and it looks like there was a receptor piece for a plug opening but no plug was used but instead a sticky type of material laid over it from how it's pulled back. There is another textured circular patch above the red circled piece that could be a breathable fabric vent.

OP if you still have the piece in your possession maybe you can add a closeup photo of that area for us and tell us what you think and any difference to what got reinstalled in your car. The push type Gore vents I've seen online have slots/holes of some kind that would allow more air flow. I still wonder if the bottom section of a 2-part vent hole/plug was installed and taped over just for the install of that particular piece but maybe it's some type of breathable fabric used instead and will always take time to have moisture evaporate.

I was thinking maybe something like this piece would have been added to #16's pillar area where the hole is: