Maybe do it once a year? My left turn signal camera has a pinkish tint
Um. Until late last year, I had a 2018 M3. As software updates cameth down from on high, at one point, they added the feature that, when one hit the left or right turn signal the left or right fender camera view would appear on the screen. Not to mention that if one put the car into reverse, one could get both fender views to appear.
When that first went in, in the dark only, when the turn signal was on, there'd be these Big Blinking Orangish Glows all over the camera view, in sync with the turn signals blinking. It wouldn't be seen in the daytime.
Turns out that there was a defect in the camera circuit board. On one side of said board was a camera pointed towards the rear. On the other side of the board were the LEDs and a light pipe that took the turn signal light and made it come out of the casing. So far, so good.
Circuit boards have copper traces in them, usually on both sides or, on a multilayer board, on the (sometimes many) interior layers. To connect a trace on one side or layer to another side or layer, the board manufacturer drills a hole clear through the board (automated drilling machine, usually), hitting both or several (depending upon layers and all) of the traces that need to be connected. A typical board might have hundreds of these holes.
But that doesn't actually make contact between traces. At this point, photoresist is dumped across both sides of the board, a mask is applied to both sides and light applied, then the resist that hasn't been exposed is washed off. If one looks at the board, the little holes are exposed, but everything else is covered.
One then dunks the board in a special tank which plates conductive metal everywhere where the circuit board is bare. All those holes get plated right on through, makes contact to the copper traces on whatever layer they might be on. One then puts the board in some other solution and gets rid of the photoresist. When one is done, one has a bunch of plated though holes; some testing is done, and the board is sent off to the people with the pick-and-place machines that populate components on the boards and everything gets soldered down.
Now, the tricky bit: One can ask the manufacturer to
fill in the plated through holes (not common) or to let there be holes in there (very common). Tesla, or whoever was making those fender camera assemblies, went for the default.
So, when it's dark out and the side marker lights were blinking, light from the LEDs on one side of the board
shone right through the via holes to the other side. And you'd get light pollution around the camera.
Nobody noticed this back when the 2018/2019 cars were built; the ability to see out the fender cameras came, I think, in 2020 or so. At which point people complained. Some hero in the UK actually took apart one of these sealed turn signal/running light/camera assemblies (I think he had access to a junkyard and time on his hands), and gave very explicit directions on where to drill a couple of holes on the back of the assembly, and a grade of black paint . One would take a small paintbrush, reach into the hole one drilled, and paint all over, then seal off the hole with some good quality sealing junk.
Some people were being charged $134 (that number sticks, for some reason) for
each of the cameras on the earlier models of cars, not including labor, to replace those fender cameras with later versions where the problem was fixed. (The latest and greatest has filled via holes; the intermediate ones had paint over the holes.) When the guy got to my place (I decided to let Tesla Do It), they waived the cost.
New cars shouldn't have this issue. And, as I mentioned, a service techie came by to replace a water-damaged fender camera on the SO's MY. While he was working and we were chatting, I mentioned watching that guy from years back do the job, and the mobile tech stated, "Oh, yeah! There's a service bulletin on those old fender cameras. We now replace them for free."
Finally, I've heard reports that with some snazzy software, Tesla managed to kill the orange bleed-through light. I'm impressed if that's the case.
. Never once did I receive any safety warnings while driving my 2022 MSLR with the free FSDS.
off
May all 24.3.25 users be on 24.15.x before July 4 
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