Replacing Rear Camera on 2016 Model X

[EVDoc]

First post here, forgive me and shoot me feedback if it can be improved.

I just got a 2016 P90DL Model X (AP1) and I'm loving it! Only issue with it was the backup camera is out of focus. Still usable but sort of like having a mild/moderate need for glasses. It's just out of warranty, and the TSC wanted ~$780 to fix it. They said the camera itself was $400 and the rest labor/diagnostics. I'll post photos later of the old rear resolution.

They told me the part number and it turns out a new OEM camera was only $37 online, so I decided to give it a go at replacing it myself. I've not been able to find any videos or significant online discussion of anyone replacing this on an X, but there is a youtube video of someone replacing the S rear camera, and apparently they are pretty similar. It seems that the hardest parts will be removing that posterior external trim/applique which is held on with adhesive (3M tape), and removing all the interior trim and speaker trim. Other than that the camera seems to just have 1 plug and comes out, new one goes in and it should be plug n play.

I was just reaching out to see if anyone had any experience here and had any advice. I just bought a trim kit, and came across the factory service manual which has step-by-step instructions on replacing it with photos, so that's nice. I'm anticipating it being 1-3 hours of skilled labor (so for me like 18-36 hours . I'll try to make a video of it (and edit/timelapse for brevity) and let you guys know what happens. Any advice is welcome (especially with respect to removing trim and avoiding breaking all these trim clips...although it sounds inevitable).

Fingers crossed...

TL;DR: replacing 2016 Model X AP1 rear camera, any advice or experience is appreciated.

 

[EVDoc]

Oh yeah, fwiw I did try doing a full factory reset of the car to see if that would help, as well as cleaning the lens with a lens cloth. Neither helped unfortunately. Tesla remotely accessed the car's logs and didn't seem to come up with anything and was planning to replace the camera as part of their mobile service.
Part #: 1006773-00-F

 

[forkee]

there is double sided tape on the sides (where it covers a small part of the light) as well as the middle. plus theres a bunch of clips. it almost feels like your breaking it off with the clips.

watch youtube videos of people vinyl wrapping it and you will see how they remove that piece.

 

[SilverUnicorn]

Oh yeah, fwiw I did try doing a full factory reset of the car to see if that would help, as well as cleaning the lens with a lens cloth. Neither helped unfortunately. Tesla remotely accessed the car's logs and didn't seem to come up with anything and was planning to replace the camera as part of their mobile service.
Part #: 1006773-00-F

What happened? I have a similar age X. I was in a loaner with an upgraded camera and was seriously jealous. Would love to know if the upgrade worked? Thanks!

 

[EVDoc]

What happened? I have a similar age X. I was in a loaner with an upgraded camera and was seriously jealous. Would love to know if the upgrade worked? Thanks!

Super sorry for slow reply. Got caught up with other stuff and forgot I wrote to this forum.

Long story short, I got everything ready to replace the camera; bought new OEM camera off ebay for the $37, bought a trim tools kit off Amazon, got the Model X factory service manual offline, which has the needed steps/trim removal etc. Aaand, just before I went to replace it, my guy doing a PPF (paint protection film) install at a high end shop in Houston (Gulf Coast Auto Shield) said he had a guy who could probably do it easy peasy.

I converted the relevant parts of the service manual to PDF and put them on a thumbdrive to give to the shop's guy. He was able to take off the needed trim and replace the camera, and it works! Way more clear now and i'm 10x happier. Only issue is that the backup lines are not 100% lined up, and I think I need to angle the camera slightly, which appears it may not be the easiest thing to do. Anyways, just happy to not have a blurry backup cam.

TL;DR: paint-shop guy ended up throwing on the new backup cam I got off Ebay (after getting the part number from Tesla Service folks). Works now but backup guide-lines are a little off.

 

[forkee]

does the replacement camera have the same specs as your old one, or is it the upgraded resolution of the newer ones?

and do you need to do any wirecutting, splicing or tapping? or is there a connection that you just unplug and plug in the new one?

 

[EVDoc]

does the replacement camera have the same specs as your old one, or is it the upgraded resolution of the newer ones?

It was the same camera / camera model # (Part#: 1006773-00-F), but my original one was out of focus/defective. The resolution appears about, i dunno, 1080? Not quite as good as the 3's, but def a huge step up from an out-of-focus 1080, and better than pretty much all other non-Tesla cameras.

[QUOTE="and do you need to do any wirecutting, splicing or tapping? or is there a connection that you just unplug and plug in the new one?[/QUOTE]

No wire cutting; just a plug, but the hard part is all of the trim you have to take off, including this "applique" Tesla thing on the outside of the hatch, held on by 2-sided tape. Check out the youtube video online of a guy replacing the camera on a Model S and I think it's pretty much the same process. Again, no promises here because I didn't actually end up doing the install job, but rather the paint-shop guy who specialized in doing interior trim stuff did it (and made use of the Factory Service Manual PDFs I prepared, apparently).

 

[mjptech]

It was the same camera / camera model # (Part#: 1006773-00-F), but my original one was out of focus/defective. The resolution appears about, i dunno, 1080? ...

The rear cameras are 720p