Front Camera Fault Errors - Issue fixed! DIY How-to

[GT-Papa]

@Mach-Lee
Camera cable has as gentle a curve as the cable length will allow. That was my first move when I started trying to fix this and it wasn't routed too well the first time I looked at it. So you might be right about the glass changes and cable damage. The glass has been changed twice since I've owned it and it may have had the recall by the previous owner.

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[greenaero]

@GT-Papa
Tim, You are the man ! This exactly what I needed to move forward. I will get to work and see if I can duplicate the recovery of signal. If not ,cable replacement.
many Thx

 

[GT-Papa]

@greenaero
Hopefully this will work for you. If you do decide to replace the cable, be sure to document and post the process here. I, for one, will be interested.
Has your windshield ever been replaced?

 

[AllenXS]

I've been battling an increasing level of Front Camera Fault errors on my 21 GTPE. I tried moving the coax cable to different positions with little-to-no success.

While playing around with the camera and cables, I noticed that the left side of the camera was loose. I could push on the left side of the camera body and it would freely move up and down about .050". The mounting method for the left side of the camera is a tab into a slot: where the camera body casting is a metal tab and it fits into a plastic slot on the plastic "dish" that's glued to the windshield. The right side of the camera is a metal post that slides into a spring-loaded clip.

I decided to unclip the camera and remove it just to have a look. Eureka! In the top of the slot, above where the camera tab slides in, there is a spring meant to push the camera tab down against the bottom of the slot holding it firmly in position. I my case, the spring was completely collapsed and not supplying any tension on the camera tab, allowing it to vibrate. With a small screwdriver, I bent the spring downward so that the tab is now held very tightly in the slot. Doing this completely eliminated my front camera faults. For me anyway, it turns out that the coax cable is not the problem, but camera vibration is.

For the mechanical engineers among us, this makes perfect sense. I used to be a quality engineer and worked with mechanical engineers to do vibration testing on mechanical structures to the point of failure. My theory with this small/lightweight camera and a sloppy tab-in-slot arrangement is that high frequency road noise (think: crossing 5 sets of train tracks at a crossing at speed) caused the camera to vibrate wildly and screw up the video signal. I have just such a RR crossing near my home and this used to cause a camera fault 2 out of 3 times that I crossed it. Now... nothing. Simply by nailing down the left side of the camera, the problem has completely gone away.

For those of you who have not pulled the trim piece off of the camera mount, I've attached a few pictures. First picture - on the right side of the picture is the left side of camera (tab), and then the plastic slot that it slides into, and the spring above that is supposed to provide spring-loaded tension to the camera tab.

You have a spring. Checked mine due to similar faults coming up.
No spring!

Onto my fifth windscreen so I guess they’ve given up putting it all back together fully. Now to go find a spring!

thanks for this,

 

[GT-Papa]

@AllenXS
Allen, The spring should be electronically welded or riveted into the plastic "dish" that is attached to any new windshield. If there is no spring at all, that's a defect regardless of who the glass supplier is. Do you have a FORD-branded windshield or something else? I predict you will have no luck finding a standalone spring to insert into the space above the camera tab. But all is not lost!

The goal here is to remove any slop on the left side of the camera due to a loose fit. Before I discovered the spring, I used a lowly toothpick. Simply shove/jam as much of the tip of a wooden toothpick as you can between the camera body and the slot in the plastic, then cut off the excess toothpick. This will have the same effect as the spring at removing camera movement.

 

[AllenXS]

@AllenXS
Allen, The spring should be electronically welded or riveted into the plastic "dish" that is attached to any new windshield. If there is no spring at all, that's a defect regardless of who the glass supplier is. Do you have a FORD-branded windshield or something else? I predict you will have no luck finding a standalone spring to insert into the space above the camera tab. But all is not lost!

The goal here is to remove any slop on the left side of the camera due to a loose fit. Before I discovered the spring, I used a lowly toothpick. Simply shove/jam as much of the tip of a wooden toothpick as you can between the camera body and the slot in the plastic, then cut off the excess toothpick. This will have the same effect as the spring at removing camera movement.

Thanks for this, glad I checked in. Knowing I have a genuine fomoco screen and bits went in with my torch and read your detailed posts again. Found the spring and is not too bad but gave it a tweak.

thanks again

 

[GT-Papa]

I'm not going to call this fixed until I can get past 1 or 2 or 6 months without a camera fault. If this doesn't do it, next step is cable replacement. Will advise again in 1 week.

Cheers, Tim

I didn't have to wait a week #@%$&. After 4 days with no front camera faults, yesterday I had 4 in quick succession while out shopping.
After a lengthy process of elimination, I will now go down the cable replacement route from camera to A-pillar.
To reiterate, these are the things I have done to no avail:
- Smooth the bend radius of the camera coax
- Remove the slop from the camera body by engaging the tension spring above the camera tab, left side
- Detach the coax cable from the camera and tighten the connection by slightly deflecting inward the ground springs on the shield
- Surround the cable(s) in the area between the camera and the headliner in a foam sandwich to prevent them from vibrating independent of the car body

I will now go spend my FordPass points on a new cable and report back on the process of replacing it. Might be a couple weeks.

Cheers, Tim

 

[greenaero]

I didn't have to wait a week #@%$&. After 4 days with no front camera faults, yesterday I had 4 in quick succession while out shopping.
After a lengthy process of elimination, I will now go down the cable replacement route from camera to A-pillar.
To reiterate, these are the things I have done to no avail:
- Smooth the bend radius of the camera coax
- Remove the slop from the camera body by engaging the tension spring above the camera tab, left side
- Detach the coax cable from the camera and tighten the connection by slightly deflecting inward the ground springs on the shield
- Surround the cable(s) in the area between the camera and the headliner in a foam sandwich to prevent them from vibrating independent of the car body

I will now go spend my FordPass points on a new cable and report back on the process of replacing it. Might be a couple weeks.

Cheers, Tim

Sorry to hear this but not unexpected.
I have my new coax cables and will be proceeding with the front camera to A pillar replacement. Getting the A pillar cover off was easy, just pull outward from the top using the inner edge of the cover then pulling upward to get the bottom tabs out from the windshield. I have it loose now but need to make more space to access the coax cable and disconnect it. more to follow as I progress.

 

[GT-Papa]

@greenaero
Double checking the PN for the camera-to-A piller coax cable. The # I have is LJ8Z-14D202-U.
Is that right or did you have to buy the whole cable set back to the IPMA?

 

[greenaero]

@GT-Papa , I got the LJ8Z-14D202W which includes all the camera cables to the IPMA. The front camera cable is very long and doesn't have the 90* angle connector at the camera end. I have everything taken apart and ready to replace the cable except for disconnecting the old cable from the C900 fitting at the A pillar. Once I get that info or figure it out myself I'll get it re-assembled. Thanks again for all your great help!

 

[GT-Papa]

Okay, I installed a new coax cable today from camera to A-pillar. This turned out to be less of a job than I had imagined. I was surprised. The only tricky part was getting the coax cable out of the white connector in the A-pillar. I've attached a few snaps of the process.

First I removed the cover from the A-pillar and the cover under the camera (rear-view mirror). Also removed the driver's side visor to make it a bit easier to deflect the headliner down.
There is already a gap in between the front edge of the headliner and the windshield. The new cable can lay right beside the old cable (which is wrapped in a harness). I just pushed the new cable up into this gap and the free ends came out of the headliner by the camera and down into the A-pillar. Having the visor off helps as the gap there is tighter.
Once the cable is routed, you need to extract the old coax cable from the white C900 connector in the A-pillar. Not so easy. It's a custom FoMoCo connector and it's a puzzle. Separating the two halves of the connector is straightforward. Press a tab and pull. To get the coax cable to back-out of the connector, you have to remove a white plastic block from inside the connector to access 2 little spring clips that retain the coax. Unnecessarily complex and not for everyone. After getting the coax out, reverse the process and snap everything back together: coax, white connector block, 2 connector halves. Then reattach the connector body to its A-pillar mounting point. Be careful to run the new cable behind and out of the way of the airbag and up into the headliner.
Disconnect the other end of the old cable from the camera and connect the end of the new cable to the camera. Before putting the covers back on, cut the connectors off of the old coax, both ends.
No need to remove the old coax from the car. Just leave it there. It's wrapped in a harness anyway and hard to remove. Keep all cable bends as smooth as possible.

This project took about 2 hours. Fully a third of that time was spent figuring out how to separate the coax from C900 and not break anything. If doing it again, I think I could do it in under an hour.

I took the car out for a couple of errands and a total of 28 miles and so far, no camera faults.
As before, I will not call it "fixed" until a week or 2 or a month goes by with no faults. Fingers crossed. I'll update in a week. Questions, Let me know.
Cheers, Tim

 

[GT-Papa]

I hesitate to report (because the front camera fault gods are watching. They're always watching) that I've driven 250 miles in the week since replacing the camera to A-pillar coax and have had no faults. It's been great not having that stupid fault message every time I drive the car! I've even gone out of my way a couple of times to get on some rough roads. Encouraging.
If anyone else wants to try this, attached is a snap of the Ford part.
I'll report back in another week.

 

[bergmi]

I may have missed it in this thread, but does this part seem improved in any way vs. the original? I know you didn't remove the original but was wondering if you noticed any difference. I too am having front camera fault issues and have tried to get it fixed under warranty, which did work for a time. Now the car is off initial factory so I'll probably be doing the same. Thanks!

 

[GT-Papa]

@bergmi
Just in looking at the part, it did not appear any different except that the original is enclosed in a cloth wrap at the camera. Under the cloth wrap, the cable looked the same, and the connectors on either end were exactly the same.
When you had your 'fixed' at the dealership, did they replace cables?

 

[Mach-Lee]

I may have missed it in this thread, but does this part seem improved in any way vs. the original? I know you didn't remove the original but was wondering if you noticed any difference. I too am having front camera fault issues and have tried to get it fixed under warranty, which did work for a time. Now the car is off initial factory so I'll probably be doing the same. Thanks!

Not an improved part, but rather you are replacing the damaged cable on your vehicle, which fixes the problem.

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