Hello all - I've been following this forum for a while but just joined and I'm hoping someone might have some ideas/suggestions for a frustrating issue I have with my Model 3:
2018 Model 3 AWD Performance Stealth, about 57,000 miles
In November 2021, at about 48,000 miles, while driving at night, I suddenly began receiving frequent error messages about the left front fender camera being blocked or blinded. The error would come and go intermittently, every few minutes. At first, this was somewhat intermittent, not all the time, and not every night, but never during the day. Of note, even when the error message showed a blocked front left fender camera, I could pull up the backup camera and view the image from the front left fender camera, and it looked fine.
I made a service visit and a mobile service tech came to my house (in rural Colorado, about 5 hours from closest service center), and replaced the left front fender camera under warranty. However - this did not change the issue.
Since then - the issue is now constant. Every night, once it gets completely dark (usually about 30 minutes after sunset time) the display will start sending error messages about "Full Self Driving may be degraded - one or more side cameras occluded", or "left front fender camera blocked or blinded". The display will flip back and forth from the FSD visualization to the standard autopilot visualization. It may go away for 30 seconds, then come back. This occurs constantly, every night, every road I drive on. FSD is now useless for me at night, and even when autopilot is not engaged, the error will come up every minute or so.
After several months of scheduling issues, I was able to get the vehicle into the service center in Colorado Springs last week. For me, this is a 5 hour drive each way, and required a 2 night hotel stay as they had the car overnight waiting on a part. The tech identified "damage" on the camera (the one the mobile service tech just installed a few months ago) and replaced the camera (again, same repair as last time). I advocated this wouldn't fix the problem - they disagreed and said it was fixed.
Stupidly I drove back home and sure enough - the next night, the exact same issue, nothing is fixed. I made another service center visit (5 hour drive back, another hotel stay) for next week - and now the service reps are messaging me and indicating that there are no hardware issues, that the logs show a blocked camera which is a common issue that they attribute to dirt, poor lane markings or a wall next to a lane. They are essentially saying that if their scans in the SC show no hardware issues, then nothing more can be done. They can't test drive it during the night since it's not fully dark until about 9pm when the SC is closed and is light out again before they open.
I'm not sure what to do at this point - there surely is something wrong, as it can't be normal for the car to indicate the camera is blocked 100% of the time during the night and never during the day, but the SC can't replicate the issue since it doesn't occur during the day.
Has anyone else had this issue and if so, any suggestions? Or any thoughts as to what it could be? The mobile tech suggested perhaps the coaxial cable to the camera was bad, but the SC declined to replace it as it passed all of their tests while the vehicle was there.
I would be grateful for any suggestions, I'm continuing to discuss with the SC on the app but I'm afraid I'll drive down there, stay in a hotel again, they will check the car out and say they can't find anything wrong and this issue continues. It's also now out of warranty - although I believe this issue should still be covered as it was reported and addressed before the warranty expired.
Thanks!
2018 Model 3 AWD Performance Stealth, about 57,000 miles
In November 2021, at about 48,000 miles, while driving at night, I suddenly began receiving frequent error messages about the left front fender camera being blocked or blinded. The error would come and go intermittently, every few minutes. At first, this was somewhat intermittent, not all the time, and not every night, but never during the day. Of note, even when the error message showed a blocked front left fender camera, I could pull up the backup camera and view the image from the front left fender camera, and it looked fine.
I made a service visit and a mobile service tech came to my house (in rural Colorado, about 5 hours from closest service center), and replaced the left front fender camera under warranty. However - this did not change the issue.
Since then - the issue is now constant. Every night, once it gets completely dark (usually about 30 minutes after sunset time) the display will start sending error messages about "Full Self Driving may be degraded - one or more side cameras occluded", or "left front fender camera blocked or blinded". The display will flip back and forth from the FSD visualization to the standard autopilot visualization. It may go away for 30 seconds, then come back. This occurs constantly, every night, every road I drive on. FSD is now useless for me at night, and even when autopilot is not engaged, the error will come up every minute or so.
After several months of scheduling issues, I was able to get the vehicle into the service center in Colorado Springs last week. For me, this is a 5 hour drive each way, and required a 2 night hotel stay as they had the car overnight waiting on a part. The tech identified "damage" on the camera (the one the mobile service tech just installed a few months ago) and replaced the camera (again, same repair as last time). I advocated this wouldn't fix the problem - they disagreed and said it was fixed.
Stupidly I drove back home and sure enough - the next night, the exact same issue, nothing is fixed. I made another service center visit (5 hour drive back, another hotel stay) for next week - and now the service reps are messaging me and indicating that there are no hardware issues, that the logs show a blocked camera which is a common issue that they attribute to dirt, poor lane markings or a wall next to a lane. They are essentially saying that if their scans in the SC show no hardware issues, then nothing more can be done. They can't test drive it during the night since it's not fully dark until about 9pm when the SC is closed and is light out again before they open.
I'm not sure what to do at this point - there surely is something wrong, as it can't be normal for the car to indicate the camera is blocked 100% of the time during the night and never during the day, but the SC can't replicate the issue since it doesn't occur during the day.
Has anyone else had this issue and if so, any suggestions? Or any thoughts as to what it could be? The mobile tech suggested perhaps the coaxial cable to the camera was bad, but the SC declined to replace it as it passed all of their tests while the vehicle was there.
I would be grateful for any suggestions, I'm continuing to discuss with the SC on the app but I'm afraid I'll drive down there, stay in a hotel again, they will check the car out and say they can't find anything wrong and this issue continues. It's also now out of warranty - although I believe this issue should still be covered as it was reported and addressed before the warranty expired.
Thanks!