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Rear camera/MCU1 issue since V11

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Ludris

Member
Jan 27, 2023
7
0
Belgium
#1
Greetings everyone,

Been shadow reading this forum quite a bit and as sadly as I find it my first post happens due too a car issue :)

I own a 2017 model S75D. AP2.0 - MCU1 - 8GB (+/- 252.000 km/155500 miles)

Which a few months ago had the V11 update, shortly after the update I started getting weird refreshes of the center console. Together with the "airbag on" message on the drivers dash. Music and climate continue but screen goes black and returns. (further referenced as "refresh")

Fast forward a month with quite a few soft reboots the camera starts glitching out sometimes grey, sometimes black, sometimes the camera gets stuck a tiny bit before the center console "refreshes", sometimes the camera works flawless but screen "refreshes". Still was quite okay with this even though it's annoying to have "refreshes" every 30 seconds-9 minutes.

Now since last week. The camera is permanently either completely black or a message "camera is unavailable". none of the resets longer work. The car requires a minute or two to be driveable and the center console response is a bit slower than what I'm used too, LTE is not starting up nicely (tune in/spotify not loading but after a minute or 5 and a pause -> play push it works). However the "refreshes" seem to have dissapeared for now.

I set some money aside to do a MCU2 upgrade as I enjoy my car alot, but a quick search has me replacing the rear camera at about a 600 -1000 cost depending if I can score a part or not from a good source/do the work myself. Which in worst case scenario is half the price of a MCU2 upgrade.

I generously searched all kinds of topics/video's on MCU failures, but they all seem to be alot more drastic failures than what I'm experiencing. The closest I found in terms of similar issue were a few people with an older model X that replaced the camera, but they didn't have the "refresh" happening.

I have no other shown errors , so this has me a bit puzzled and leaves me questioning

- Is this a pattern of the fated failing MCU1 as I do have fairly high mileage?
- Would just upgrading the MCU1 to MCU2 solve the camera issue? my reasoning it's the MCU no longer being able to process the video data due to some reason since it switches from entirely black and camera unavailable.
- Can a faulty camera cause the weird behaviour of the center console/issues since the "refreshes" (for the moment) dissapeared?

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to share their expertise

Ludris
 
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#2
Yes, it seems that your MCU is having that dreaded memory failure. And it just might be it. I would not think that changing the camera would make any difference. Have you had the eMMC recall done, it will keep your MCU1 but will clear this accumulated memory issue? I have only done this as I’m not willing to loose the function that MCU1 still have. My car did not suffered that kind of issues but did showed weakness at few occasions. I believe that recall is also applicable to your car as well. That camera acting might be result of this changed SW as the regulator insisted rearview camera needs to be functioning at all times.
p.s. I’m not on the v.11 yet
 
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#3
KalJoMoS said:
Yes, it seems that your MCU is having that dreaded memory failure. And it just might be it. I would not think that changing the camera would make any difference. Have you had the eMMC recall done, it will keep your MCU1 but will clear this accumulated memory issue? I have only done this as I’m not willing to loose the function that MCU1 still have. My car did not suffered that kind of issues but did showed weakness at few occasions. I believe that recall is also applicable to your car as well. That camera acting might be result of this changed SW as the regulator insisted rearview camera needs to be functioning at all times.
p.s. I’m not on the v.11 yet
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advice

I checked my VIN for any recalls but it doesn't have any at the moment, From alot of posts I see that this was mainly for vehicles sub 100k km.
would be a good test to see if they would do this recall and check if the camera works after, but that's double labor for the service center.
+ Would find it annoying as a technician to do all the work replace the memory just to end up with "hey thanks can you now place a MCU2 in it" not in my nature to force double work on someone.
 
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#4
The eMMC repair is not a recall, but more of a service bulletin with a warranty extension (8 years/100K miles). Here are the details: Warranty Adjustment Program | Tesla Support

Since you are out of warranty, I'd strongly consider buying the MCU2 retrofit. Sooner or later (and likely sooner) the eMMC is going to fail. With the retrofit, you get an entirely new MCU2, a new display, and a new instrument cluster. The price is also a bargain when compared to competitors replacing a much smaller and limited MCU. On the downside, you will lose AM/FM/XM radio, as MCU2 requires a digital radio, and MCU1 has an analog radio. There is an option to get a digital FM/XM radio, but you can skip it for now, and upgrade that later if you really want them. I skipped the radio upgrade as TuneIn and Slacker/Streaming cover almost everything that FM/XM offers (at least that I use).
 
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#6
I own a late year 2016 Tesla Model S. I just got camera unavailable for my rear camera. I opted in for the beta FSD as my car has FSD purchased by the previous owner (I've owned this car for over a year). I got notified of the camera retrofit needed with the new version cameras, I brought in my car to the service center 3 days ago. However, they didn't touch the rear camera, only side and front. My rear view camera worked when I picked up the car, but after a 20 minute drive home in the rain the camera presented "camera unavailable". Brought it back to the service center and they said it was a problem with the camera itself. Googling I see some people had some water in their camera which lead to corrosion and an >$800 CAD rear camera replacement. I'm not disagreeing with the tech, he did say he plugged in another camera (i assume from the connector in the hatch) and it worked which is how he knew it was the camera.

I just find it baffling that this all happened at the same time as the camera upgrade. Moreover, the recent pop up of this thread seems to strike me as odd, coincidence? I'm becoming doubtful.

Today, Feb 11, 2023, after the tech tested the camera, my "camera" screen which shows the rear camera only is just black. The camera unavailable text is no longer there.
 
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#7
waiting on my MCU2 appointment to see if it fixes.

In the meantime, I managed to sporadically get the camera back (without any visual remarks). But it usually ends up lagging after 2 seconds now and afterwards turning black or sporadically working.

Did an extra factory reset and updated to the 2022.8.10.11 now.

Will post an update once it's done but might take a while..
 
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#9
Ludris said:
shortly after the update I started getting weird refreshes of the center console. Together with the "airbag on" message on the drivers dash. Music and climate continue but screen goes black and returns
Click to expand...
I've started having exactly this issue today after having a wheel alignment carried out at a third party specialist. Frequency is of the order of 12-15 instances over the course of a 45 minute drive.

However, I've not noticed anything relating to the rear camera.

Have tried system resets (two and four finger death grip) as well as changing the wheel size to 21" and back to 19" (with associated reboots) and TPMS resets.

Software is on 2022.8.10.100, MCU 1 with eMMC recall applied, late 2016 Tesla Model S, V1.0 Autopilot.

Did you get this issue resolved (whether by MCU 2 upgrade, or otherwise)?

Also curious to hear if anyone else is experiencing same since latest software update.
 
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#12
Thank you both for responding.

Ludris: If you could post in here after the MCU upgrade and let me know if it resolved the issue, I'd appreciate it. If I have to go to MCU2 to resolve this, I will.

scsikid: That's interesting. Can't help but wonder if they did something else at the same time (wiped a cache, cleared out old logs). It 'feels' to me like a process crashing due to lack of disk space, or inability to grab a locked file.
 
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#13
hoffman said:
scsikid: That's interesting. Can't help but wonder if they did something else at the same time (wiped a cache, cleared out old logs). It 'feels' to me like a process crashing due to lack of disk space, or inability to grab a locked file.
Click to expand...
Yea I mean I wouldn't be surprised if it was something like that. I'm not entirely sure how they handle the rear camera function. I know on my model s it only records front and side cameras, not rear. So I would assume for the rear, it's just accessing the device directly and not having write out anything to disk. Though not having access to the computer (mcu) I can't tell. I'm sure dmesg probably reports all kinds.
 
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#16
Just wanted to add my experience as I had a very similar issue as OP

I have a Dec. 2016 build S90D, AP2.0, MCU1 with 180,000 km.

I also had my rear camera flicker and display "camera is unavailable". Eventually, camera went out completely. I did not have the MCU1 recall completed and asked if the camera issue was related to that. Service said to bring the car in and they will check.

While waiting for my appointment date I did wheel button resets, 12V resets, HV battery disconnect, tire change resets and did a factory reset. All didn't solve the issue. Service said that I needed my camera replaced. I mentioned going to MCU2 and service said that it wouldn't fix the issue. I got the rear camera replaced and got my MCU1 memory upgrade completed at the same appointment.

No issues with the rear camera since. From my experience the MCU may not be the culprit.

On another note, the factory reset on my MCU1 did wonders to its response time and functionality.
 
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#18
As an update - Tesla mobile service came out a few days ago and replaced the rear camera.

I have not experienced the issue since, all seems stable.

Also, it looks like the new camera is possibly higher resolution than the old one. I will say that perhaps the parking lines that appear when in reverse are either not as accurate (or are just differently calibrated) to previously. It may be I just need to get used to a slightly different placement.

At any rate, apparently not eMMC or MCU in my case, rear camera was the culprit.
 
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#19
Hi @hoffman, @Andy Højer and @Ludris

I'm experiencing the same problem with a 2017 Tesla after the software update (V11, I think), in which I receive an airbag warning on the dashboard and the central screen flickers on and off. (black screen). The reverse camera occasionally turns on, freezes, and then goes black again.

Does anyone know what is the solution for this, is it the MCU that needs to be upgraded or something else? If so, does the tesla warranty cover it?

I do find it odd, that this began to happen after the SW update. I have tried to do a soft restart, and it seems like the airbag notification, which used to happen sometimes, now happens every 5-6 minutes.

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you.

​

 
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