front camera fog frustration

[ceejay44]

Finally getting to posting my routine front camera fogging issues. Don't recall having this problem the first winter of ownership (2019/20), but it's been a common, and frustrating, part of winter #2 with this car. It's just one of many issues I've had with this car, though thankfully most of the others have been fixed on warranty.

This is what happens: when temperature near 0C, the front camera will fog after the car has gone through a warm up cycle. Typically on cold days, I'll pre-warm the car, drive 15-25 mins, potentially supercharge for a bit (or not), drop my kid off at daycare or do an errand (so getting out of car for a little bit and thus car cooling off for a brief period), then drive back home (~15 mins drive) and on the return drive (or second leg of a drive), the camera will fog up and prevent me from using cruise control and/or autosteer.

Here is what it looks like:

The mobile service tech has chatted with me a bunch about the issue and can't find anything wrong but acknowledges that I keep having this issue, and the engineers have apparently viewed car data remotely and determined nothing wrong, but there is something wrong given the numerous times this has occurred (see below). Mobile service tech encouraged me to bring to local service centre (1 hour drive away), but I haven't as I would expect this would be a waste of time given that the conditions need to be right to get this to occur (i.e., if I reserve a time to bring in, will the weather be cold enough, and will the camera be fogged by the time I get there and a technician looks at it?).

The issue began in (I believe) October of 2020, but I didn't start regularly tracking until near Christmas; I have photos of the issue from:

• Dec 23 2020
• Dec 28 2020
• Jan 10 2021
• Jan 17 2021
• Jan 25 2021
• Jan 27 2021
• Jan 29 2021
• Feb 3 2021
• Feb 5 2021
• Feb 9 2021
• Feb 17 2021
• Feb 19 2021
• Feb 22 2021
• Feb 25 2021
• Feb 26 2021
• Feb 27 2021
• Mar 12 2021
• Mar 15 2021
• Mar 21 2021
• Apr 9 2021

I'm told that activating the rear defrost is supposed to activate the heating wires in front of the front camera, but it doesn't seem to help at all for me... and besides, shouldn't the heating wires for the camera activate itself or keep itself clear??

Anyone else having similar issues? Any advice?

Much appreciated, Chris

 

[shingles]

Just spitballing/wondering: Your climate control settings, is it on Auto? Or is A/C turned off? If the A/C is off, ie compressor isn't running, it won't dehumidify, which can fog up the inside.

One thing you might could do is ask the mobile tech to remove the cover and apply products like rain-x antifog on the windshield. It might help.

 

[tstolze]

Just spitballing/wondering: Your climate control settings, is it on Auto? Or is A/C turned off? If the A/C is off, ie compressor isn't running, it won't dehumidify, which can fog up the inside.

One thing you might could do is ask the mobile tech to remove the cover and apply products like rain-x antifog on the windshield. It might help.

Make sure recirculate is off also.

I wonder if the heater for the front camera has an issue, or possibly a leak somewhere in your car causing higher than normal moisture levels inside the car.

 

[Neo101]

I had the exact same issue in my 2nd winter. The same experience as OP described. Nothing on start off but after a while, fog and no cruise control. Didn’t really figure out a solution. Thankfully, it would go away after a while. It happend towards the end of the winter season. If it happens again next season, will reach out to Tesla.

 

[lolder]

It sounds like a defective heater in the windshield in front of the cameras.

 

[MrTuna]

It sounds like a defective heater in the windshield in front of the cameras.

You see lines though. It’s doing something.

wonder if this was a mistake in software from last winter to this...

 

[ceejay44]

Just spitballing/wondering: Your climate control settings, is it on Auto? Or is A/C turned off? If the A/C is off, ie compressor isn't running, it won't dehumidify, which can fog up the inside.

One thing you might could do is ask the mobile tech to remove the cover and apply products like rain-x antifog on the windshield. It might help.

thanks, yes climate on Auto and A/C on

 

[ceejay44]

Make sure recirculate is off also.

I wonder if the heater for the front camera has an issue, or possibly a leak somewhere in your car causing higher than normal moisture levels inside the car.

hi, thanks. Recirculate is off.

The car has had all four lights replaced because of excessive moisture inside... so yes possible that moisture a problem, though this has been going on for months (just had it do it again this past weekend) and weather around here probably 50% dry days, so doesn't really make sense to me

 

[ceejay44]

I had the exact same issue in my 2nd winter. The same experience as OP described. Nothing on start off but after a while, fog and no cruise control. Didn’t really figure out a solution. Thankfully, it would go away after a while. It happend towards the end of the winter season. If it happens again next season, will reach out to Tesla.

good to know (sorry you've also had this problem)

 

[Timbo2]

I’m spitballing here, but it’s almost like the trapped moisture can’t get out.

Can you try something counterintuitive like wedging (temporarily) a business card or something at the bottom of the camera and seeing if it allows airflow from the defroster to reach?

It‘s possible it’s glued down so this won’t work.

 

[Phlier]

I’m spitballing here, but it’s almost like the trapped moisture can’t get out.

Can you try something counterintuitive like wedging (temporarily) a business card or something at the bottom of the camera and seeing if it allows airflow from the defroster to reach?

It‘s possible it’s glued down so this won’t work.

I think you're on to something here...

There's got to be some sort of air vent in that assembly to allow some air to circulate. Might try to find it and see if it's got some obstruction of some sort?

 

[Brock-WI]

We have had the same issues. The simple things are make sure the foot wells aren't damp/wet, that gets warmed up with air blowing across them and makes the windows fog. Since we ruled that out on ours we leave it set for windshield defrost with a manual fan speed at least 5, that seems to moved enough dry air up and across the camera to defog it as well as leaving the rear windows defog on at the same time. I don't like running the heat with the AC on for power reasons but if we don't then we have no cruise control, which is a real bummer. One of the reasons I wish we had a "dumb" or standard cruise control.

 

[Andy718]

On my M3LR, the front windscreen cameras were remaining fogged even when the car had been pre-conditioned. According to Tesla, this is a known bug. It was on the list of jobs last month when the car was booked in at the service centre. The comments from the SC were as follows:

Concern: When we had icy weather, when pre- conditioning the car, the area at the top of the windscreen where the
camera are located did not defrost
Unable to replicate customer concern due to weather.
Carried out windshield camera heater function test, test passed with no issues.
Manually tested heater grid with multimeter, values as expected indicating no issues.
Checked operation of interior and exterior temperature sensors as these are used to determine heater function. Both
reading correct values, no issues found.
Searched known issue database and found a entry for this specific issue. This issue is due to a firmware bug affecting
model 3's and is currently under investigation by engineering. A fix for this will be implemented in a future firmware
release.

 

[ceejay44]

I’m spitballing here, but it’s almost like the trapped moisture can’t get out.

Can you try something counterintuitive like wedging (temporarily) a business card or something at the bottom of the camera and seeing if it allows airflow from the defroster to reach?

It‘s possible it’s glued down so this won’t work.

thanks, I'll look into that

 

[ceejay44]

On my M3LR, the front windscreen cameras were remaining fogged even when the car had been pre-conditioned. According to Tesla, this is a known bug. It was on the list of jobs last month when the car was booked in at the service centre. The comments from the SC were as follows:

Concern: When we had icy weather, when pre- conditioning the car, the area at the top of the windscreen where the
camera are located did not defrost
Unable to replicate customer concern due to weather.
Carried out windshield camera heater function test, test passed with no issues.
Manually tested heater grid with multimeter, values as expected indicating no issues.
Checked operation of interior and exterior temperature sensors as these are used to determine heater function. Both
reading correct values, no issues found.
Searched known issue database and found a entry for this specific issue. This issue is due to a firmware bug affecting
model 3's and is currently under investigation by engineering. A fix for this will be implemented in a future firmware
release.

thanks very much for that information. Good to know

 

[Gasaraki]

Yeah I don't have that issue and I live in a colder area also.

 

[stevedavies76]

Yeah I don't have that issue and I live in a colder area also.

Finally getting to posting my routine front camera fogging issues. Don't recall having this problem the first winter of ownership (2019/20), but it's been a common, and frustrating, part of winter #2 with this car. It's just one of many issues I've had with this car, though thankfully most of the others have been fixed on warranty.

This is what happens: when temperature near 0C, the front camera will fog after the car has gone through a warm up cycle. Typically on cold days, I'll pre-warm the car, drive 15-25 mins, potentially supercharge for a bit (or not), drop my kid off at daycare or do an errand (so getting out of car for a little bit and thus car cooling off for a brief period), then drive back home (~15 mins drive) and on the return drive (or second leg of a drive), the camera will fog up and prevent me from using cruise control and/or autosteer.

Here is what it looks like:
View attachment 652508
View attachment 652512

The mobile service tech has chatted with me a bunch about the issue and can't find anything wrong but acknowledges that I keep having this issue, and the engineers have apparently viewed car data remotely and determined nothing wrong, but there is something wrong given the numerous times this has occurred (see below). Mobile service tech encouraged me to bring to local service centre (1 hour drive away), but I haven't as I would expect this would be a waste of time given that the conditions need to be right to get this to occur (i.e., if I reserve a time to bring in, will the weather be cold enough, and will the camera be fogged by the time I get there and a technician looks at it?).

The issue began in (I believe) October of 2020, but I didn't start regularly tracking until near Christmas; I have photos of the issue from:

• Dec 23 2020
• Dec 28 2020
• Jan 10 2021
• Jan 17 2021
• Jan 25 2021
• Jan 27 2021
• Jan 29 2021
• Feb 3 2021
• Feb 5 2021
• Feb 9 2021
• Feb 17 2021
• Feb 19 2021
• Feb 22 2021
• Feb 25 2021
• Feb 26 2021
• Feb 27 2021
• Mar 12 2021
• Mar 15 2021
• Mar 21 2021
• Apr 9 2021

I'm told that activating the rear defrost is supposed to activate the heating wires in front of the front camera, but it doesn't seem to help at all for me... and besides, shouldn't the heating wires for the camera activate itself or keep itself clear??

Anyone else having similar issues? Any advice?

Much appreciated, Chris

I have had this issue since our first winter (2018/19) and still dealing with it today. Did you happen to find a solution? Debating drilling small holes through the cover...

 

[Timbo2]

I have had this issue since our first winter (2018/19) and still dealing with it today. Did you happen to find a solution? Debating drilling small holes through the cover...

My current thinking is that is the film on your windshield attracting moisture. I’ve had this in winter on cars with dirty interior glass. In this case you can’t clean the film inside the camera portion of the windshield.

It is painful to do, but I’d probably pull the camera and clean the glass. Took me about an hour going slowly. Removing the mirror was not fun…

Cleaning Inside Windshield or Front Camera Lenses

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...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[ceejay44]

i just had the car in for service, and they did some sort of water test and found a leak by the A pillar and so water was apparently constantly leaking into the interior of the vehicle, leading to high humidity, and I guess condensation in front of the front cameras. Car worked well on the drive home from the SC, so we'll see!

 

[stopcrazypp]

i just had the car in for service, and they did some sort of water test and found a leak by the A pillar and so water was apparently constantly leaking into the interior of the vehicle, leading to high humidity, and I guess condensation in front of the front cameras. Car worked well on the drive home from the SC, so we'll see!

That makes sense as a cause. If the inside is full of water, then even the heating elements for the camera. may have a hard time removing the condensation.