Rear-view Camera Crapped Out

Went to back out of my driveway this morning and instead of the feed from the rear-view camera showing up on the screen, it flickered for a second and went blank. After about 10 seconds, a message came up that said "Camera unavailable. Please talk to your dealer"

Looks like I'll be calling them, thankfully I'm still under warranty.

Has anyone had this issue? What should I expect?

Check the wiring harness in the trunk. Mine crapped out on occasion, it turns out I probably put something too high in the trunk (5 gallon wash bucket) and compromised the wire to the camera.

It's the wire harness in the trunk as noted above; located on right (passenger) side of the vehicle, visible when trunk lid is open.

It's a known issue on the internal Ford network - apparently the harness is too short and constant use of the trunk lid causes the wires inside the loom to break. The TSB/SSM fix is the Service Tech has to fix any breakage by splicing and lengthening the wires and re-doing the wire loom.

Do yourself a favor for when your trunk won't open...fob doesn't trip the latch, and the interior and ext buttons don't work, all contained in that same wiring bundle, take a string or even a dog leash to the emergency release inside and fish it thru the back seats. I've been stuck unable to open the trunk so plan for this possibilty.

The harness is short or too tight when it's tied to the body and it just flexes repeatedly on opening and breaks the wires. I opened up the harness and found 6 of 9 wires in there frayed and/or broken. I tried to fix it as Fords solution isn't the best. I'm hoping for a better fix with a TSB in the future.

Is there a wiring diagram for this wire bundle? Mine was repaired under the TSB but they anchored the bundle to the car so now it acts like a hinge and broke at least the camera wire already. The repair looks like a 5 year old did it.

SterlingStangMan said:

Is there a wiring diagram for this wire bundle? Mine was repaired under the TSB but they anchored the bundle to the car so now it acts like a hinge and broke at least the camera wire already. The repair looks like a 5 year old did it.

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That's why I'm not taking mine in and living with it. :frusty:

If there was a plug and play connector in there to this back half of the harness I'd probably just buy it oop and replace it myself. But all they do is tie it back to the same anchor point at the top of the trunk and of course its going to break the wires. again.

I noticed you also live in Florida.This actually happens to mine often when I leave work (car is parked in the sun all day). I've taken pictures every time the message pops up, just in case. It appears to be the heat causing it for me... It's yet to happen when I leave in the morning, or when it's not 5 trillion degrees solar flare Florida weather.

But thats just me... You were backing out in the morning, so heat obviously wouldn't be a issue.

Cobra Jet said:

It's a known issue on the internal Ford network - apparently the harness is too short and constant use of the trunk lid causes the wires inside the loom to break. The TSB/SSM fix is the Service Tech has to fix any breakage by splicing and lengthening the wires and re-doing the wire loom.

Click to expand...

And here I figured the whole time it was my fault the wires broke...maybe it wasn't lol.

RevvdMedia said:

Check the wiring harness in the trunk. Mine crapped out on occasion, it turns out I probably put something too high in the trunk (5 gallon wash bucket) and compromised the wire to the camera.

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Read your reply and went to go look at my trunk real quick, turns out I still have a bunch of random things left in there from when I moved a month ago that I forgot about. Some of the items are large and hopefully that's what caused the issue.

It did start working again this morning on its own, but I'm gonna take all that junk out when I get home (which needs to be done regardless) and check the wiring.

Fausted said:

I noticed you also live in Florida.This actually happens to mine often when I leave work (car is parked in the sun all day). I've taken pictures every time the message pops up, just in case. It appears to be the heat causing it for me... It's yet to happen when I leave in the morning, or when it's not 5 trillion degrees solar flare Florida weather.

But thats just me... You were backing out in the morning, so heat obviously wouldn't be a issue.

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Right, and it was at around 4:30 am (I go to the gym at an ungodly hour) which tends to be the coolest time of any 24hr period.

Thing is is that it's all intermittent, some times it works and next time it's dead. I first noticed it with the trunk light being out, soon after trunk wouldn't open and I had to reach thru the seats and get the emergency release. Then it was the camera flaking out. Now I have the "trunk open" light constantly on the dash.

Point being the camera is just the beginning. I did verify that rear lighting like brakes and turn signals don't appear to be affected.

I am sure that is not a issue with reverse, brake, or tail lights as they run the wires else where. The cables in question run to the camera in the rear decklid panel, satellite antenna, and trunk release wires. Possible the brake light on a convertible may be affected, I have to look at that myself. If this impacted the other lights, this would be a major safety issue and a recall would be in order.

QRK said:

Went to back out of my driveway this morning and instead of the feed from the rear-view camera showing up on the screen, it flickered for a second and went blank. After about 10 seconds, a message came up that said "Camera unavailable. Please talk to your dealer"

Looks like I'll be calling them, thankfully I'm still under warranty.

Has anyone had this issue? What should I expect?

Click to expand...

Yep had mine replaced last month

Mine was fixed under warranty and now has crapped out again. The "fix" actually promoted reoccurance but since it is after warranty, they don't care which is crap since the repair work is CRAP!

SterlingStangMan said:

Mine was fixed under warranty and now has crapped out again. The "fix" actually promoted reoccurance but since it is after warranty, they don't care which is crap since the repair work is CRAP!

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Thats pretty shitty! They ended up replacing the camera in mine... haven't had an issue in the past month *knock on wood* :headbonk: