Is there a DIY fix for water in the B Pillar Cameras

[malou]

There’s a well-known service bulletin for this, Tesla remedied this via mobile tech in 10 minutes on both of my B pillars under warranty; it involves removing a foamy gasket in that camera housing to allow better air circulation thus minimizing potential for condensation.
Tesla will take care of it.

Not sure if it was here or somewhere else, but unless I'm mistaken or we're not talking about the same gasket, most cars already don't have this gasket (after march 2019 from memory).

 

[M3phan]

@malou, that may be, mine is a mid 2018, and the SB was for these earlier vins. Didn’t realize they perm removed the gasket.

 

[Darscot]

There’s a well-known service bulletin for this, Tesla remedied this via mobile tech in 10 minutes on both of my B pillars under warranty; it involves removing a foamy gasket in that camera housing to allow better air circulation thus minimizing potential for condensation.
Tesla will take care of it.

I spend countless hours of hassle trying to get Tesla to deal with this and mobile refused I had several in person service appointments created and cancelled. I eventually got a human being on the phone from the local Tesla service center and they just didn't know the bulletin existed till I showed it to them. At that point they said they would do it if I brought the car in. I just gave up and did it myself took me five minutes.

 

[Durzel]

Just digging this up, as it seems to be a perennial problem. I'm anticipating it happening soon on my car as it did last year over the winter months...

I wonder if anyone has thought about trying to splice something like this..

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...into the camera wiring? Assuming you could find out that fits around the camera (or get a bespoke one made?) then it seems like it would cure the problem, assuming of course there is enough spare powet for it.

The advantage of it being spliced into the camera wiring is that it would be on when the camera is, and not when the car is asleep, etc. The disadvantage is that it would be on in the summer too, but I guess that's not the end of the world.

 

[ecarfan]

Does this mean that Autopilot and other driver assists features are basically designed to only be functional when it's warm and sunny outside? How is FSD supposed to ever work when the side cameras get cataracts every time it rains?

I agree this is a significant issue and Tesla needs to fix it. I sometimes have this issue on both my Teslas. It needs to be solved for FSD to be broadly usable.

Although I think that Tesla will ultimately be able to make a vision-only FSD system work well, it seems like it will always be limited by bad weather; hard rain, dense snow and sleet, even without condensation on the surface of the camera lenses.

Of course humans are also impaired by those conditions. It is possible that eventually FSD will be better than humans in those conditions, but that does not mean that FSD should then be used in those conditions.

 

[Rippin1Gear]

Again… it won’t ever get “fixed” or corrected if people don’t report the issue.

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[obliojim]

I experience this frequently during “winter” months on Vancouver island. I reported it once to Tesla and got a similar, unsatisfactory response along the lines of, “Oh, that’s just the way it is.”

I paid for FSD capability. I don’t know how Tesla will be able to deliver reliable FSD if the cameras repeatedly stop functioning for several moths of each year.

My experience in Toronto is that one of the door pillar cameras is often blocked by blinding sunlight at low altitudes as we approach winter, making "FSD" (which it is not) unusable. This and camera humidity and other things make the idea of vision-based FSD a pipe dream. I paid my money; essentially not worth it. My attitude is I paid to be part of a beta test. Would I pay it again if I had the chance? Probably not.