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Right front AP camera fails in heavy rain while on freeways

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Padelford

Member
Supporting Member
Jul 1, 2017
668
632
Seattle
My right front fender camera has developed a new quirk in January 2020, in that I get a dashboard message that the camera has become obscured or stopped working while I'm driving in moderate to heavy rain on freeways. The problem seems to take a half-hour to an hour to appear. When I stop and look at the camera, it appears to be perfectly fine. I see nothing on the lens and no evidence of moisture inside the lens. The failure seems to go away on its own after the rain stops or after I've stopped somewhere for a while.

I've had the vehicle now for about 2.5 years, and this has never happened before.

Tesla service keeps telling me that having the forward fender cameras fail while driving in rain on a freeway is "normal" because stuff flies up and covers the cameras. I've never observed this happen with the left front fender camera, only the right and only starting recently. I strongly suspect either that water is getting into the camera connector or into the camera body and causing the temporary failure, and I want the camera replaced.

Have others had similar problems?
 
Hi Padelford,

I have had this problem too...
After having the left repeater camera replaced, I saw the error message
during heavy rain on the interstate highway.
I thought the camera was failing again.
It was not failing - I used the TeslaCam video from the offending camera
to see what the car saw...
Due to aerodynamic effects the water was pooling and held over the lens
of the left repeater camera. - I could not see a clear picture of the road
or anything else.
Think of your eyes full of tears - This was the picture that I saw...

As for why one side and not the other - Crowning of the road, ruts,
pools of water, it's a long list...

If your car has the TeslaCam capability watch a film from the "failing"
camera and you will see that it might have "tears" in its eyes...

Good luck,

Shawn
 
Hi Padelford,

I have had this problem too...
After having the left repeater camera replaced, I saw the error message
during heavy rain on the interstate highway.
I thought the camera was failing again.
It was not failing - I used the TeslaCam video from the offending camera
to see what the car saw...
Due to aerodynamic effects the water was pooling and held over the lens
of the left repeater camera. - I could not see a clear picture of the road
or anything else.
Think of your eyes full of tears - This was the picture that I saw...

As for why one side and not the other - Crowning of the road, ruts,
pools of water, it's a long list...

If your car has the TeslaCam capability watch a film from the "failing"
camera and you will see that it might have "tears" in its eyes...

Good luck,

Shawn

Thanks for this. I have an AP 2 car, so I don’t think I have TeslaCam capability but I’ll investigate. I’m troubled that this behavior only started very recently - if this is a weird, aerodynamics-based problem, it should have begun appearing at least a year ago (after Tesla began using all the external cameras in software).
 
I had this happen on my S right front sensors, and the issue ended up being the fender/air dam itself having been pulled out of alignment. The sensor then sat back about 1/8" and it thought there was a nearby obstruction. We live about a mile up a gravel road, so I think over the years it just hit one too many potholes. Got that fixed and the problem went away.
 
I had a mobile tech check my right front camera today & found nothing wrong (which wasn't surprising). I let him go without replacing the camera, but if this happens again I will insist it get replaced.

Based on ShawnA's comments, I've applied some RainX to both front cameras to help them shed water. Time will tell if this makes the problem go away.
 
We had some heavy rain in SE Virginia the last several days. It was not monsoon level, but pretty heavy. Driving on the freeway after nightfall, my 2020 Model X did not show the lines on the dashboard display. I could see the lines but the cameras could not. I received no audible or visible warnings and I was not in AP. I am wondering how full self driving mode would handle that much rain with the prospect of even more rain to come?

Also, the first week that I had the car, I got alerts that one of my pillar cameras was obscured. I looked and could see that the clear plastic cover had moisture on the inside, blocking the view. A few days later, I had the same warning from the other pillar cam. Since then I have had no further warnings or visible moisture in front of the cameras.
 
I drove in heavy rain/snow showers today, and I observed both right and left forward camera faults and center camera faults during the worst of the storm. I also saw a few periods when both the auto steer and adaptive cruise control icons were missing on the dash display. At the same time, the lane marks were nearly invisible.
 
Sorry but many of you are on a wild goose chase and apparently so are some Tesla Techs. There is nothing wrong with your front fender cameras. The problem is rain/snow being thrown upwards onto the fender-lenses. It happens on the 3, the S and the X as well.

What we all need are mud-flaps for the front tires. That's all. Read this thread: DIY Tesla Model X Mud Flaps

Snippet from that thread:
Before (mounting my mud-flaps), while driving in the pouring rain, it consistently took less than 10 minutes for both front fender cameras to become unusable due to crap being thrown up against the lenses. I'd clean them (while parked, doh) and within 10 minutes, too dirty again "error messages popping up saying "Left/right/multiple front fender camera(s) blocked or blinded".

(mounted the flaps 2 days ago)
Yesterday and today, raining cats and dogs here in central Europe, drove close to 400km in total and not a single message about fender camera's being unusable. I'm very pleased with the result. Both the optics (looks OEM) as well as not being nagged by "blocked camera error-messages" anymore. And the camera lenses really did not have grime on them when I checked them after arriving at my home.

Tesla should have shipped the X with mudflaps on the front. Not all of their customers live in SoCal...
 
But why just one side suffers from water-based lens distortion? Both sides should show this.

I generally get it on that camera too, usually after passing a truck in heavy rain conditions.

Why that camera? Because it get more crap dumped on it than the other cameras.

Supposedly a hydrophobic covering on the cameras would help, but I haven't tried that yet. Has anyone?
 
Supposedly a hydrophobic covering on the cameras would help, but I haven't tried that yet. Has anyone?

You mean something like Rain-X ? That might help but only briefly as that stuff get's washed off within days or weeks (depending on the amount of rain).

The real solution is to NOT get rain and grime on the lens in the first place. A.k.a. mud-flaps. It takes 10 minutes per side to installs (with the screws, forget about using the metal clips.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: M3BlueGeorgia
You mean something like Rain-X ? That might help but only briefly as that stuff get's washed off within days or weeks (depending on the amount of rain).

The real solution is to NOT get rain and grime on the lens in the first place. A.k.a. mud-flaps. It takes 10 minutes per side to installs (with the screws, forget about using the metal clips.

Sorry, but mudflaps aren't going to help this problem as its not your spray that causes the problem, its that damn truck you are passing which causes the problem. I experienced this problem last week when driving in heavy rain on a freeway here in GA, and its definitely related to all the crap being kicked by other vehicles.

However, something like rainx might help, even if you have to re-treat every few weeks. I might try that. Just wonder if anyone else has tried to solve the problem.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: ElectricSteve
its that damn truck you are passing which causes the problem. I experienced this problem last week when driving in heavy rain on a freeway here in GA, and its definitely related to all the crap being kicked by other vehicles.

Well, the roads here in Europe are narrower that across the pond. Them Trucks are really close when we pass them (1 meter or less) as they are essentially as wide as one lane is (and the X is wide too). As I said i've driven roughly 400km's with them flaps on in really bad rain and wet snow/snow and no problemas por aqui Signor.
We always pass trucks on the left lane (trucks must stay right, we don't have the "keep your lane" system here) so my right fender camera should have been glogged up according to your theorie. Reality is "it isn't".

What I noticed sind using the flaps is that the thingy the camera is mounted on, is dry on the last 2 cm of where the camera is kinda of embedded. The lens is dry too, despite the rain.
My theory is that the wind blows moisture backwards with such force, keeping the trailing edge of the housing clear. Without flaps, if i look at the paintwork around and below the fender camera's, I clearly see water being sent upwards, hugging along the body and creeping up into where the camera lens is, thus not being blown dry.

Sorry I don't have a better way of explaining it. All I can say is that my fender camera's have been dry since using the flaps, despite heavy rain, spray, puddles, trucks, airplanes and aircraft carriers passing by ;)