Front Camera Fault & Pre-Collision Assist Not Available Errors

[TheSteelRider]

Before everyone requests their dealer to tear apart the car looking for a wiring issue, it is important to note that there are a few different issues at play here causing this same set of faults. There are software issues and hardware issues and some of you are just lucky enough to have all the issues.

Hopefully more can be shared soon

Any and all information from anyone relatively close to the horse's mouth would leave many, many folks so much happier than they are right now. We're using our Mach E so much right now and would REALLY like to not have it back in the shop a third time for a couple weeks. It'd be cool if someone could accidentally hint at some window of a.timeline. at this point, screw blue cruise but we can't even use regular cruise control with these faults

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[MissBossJenay]

If this is "it" this observation may also support the observations made by several of us here in Arizona that this fault frequency seemed related to ambient temperature, with hotter making it more frequent (connector thermal expansion?) Sounds like a recall to me.

I also believe it is heat related here in Cali. It would come on throughout the day when its hot, but never at night. now it comes on as soon as i start the car, no matter the weather, and remains on down in the left hand corner the entire trip.

 

[RedStormREHS]

Just lightly tap on the front of the headliner with the car on and ready and see if the fault occurs. The arrow is about where mine had a problem. The cable is wrapped in harness with other wires and then glued to the headliner.

@Tugboat2060 I'm going to complain to your tech for leaving black grease smudges on your headliner around the overhead console, ha! What nerve of them. How did you not damage the headliner by pulling apart a glued FC harness? Did you test the 'faulty' circuit harness with a multimeter for shorts/electrical leakage or open wire runs? Were the harness connectors snapped firmly in place on both sides prior to disconnection? Were there any signs of corrosion or even slight water evidence (maybe dried condensation drops)? Did any of the wires show visible mechanical damage (kinked/twisted)?

 

[Tugboat2060]

Everything was fine with the connections, I just flexed on the harness and the lights would come on on the dash. I didn’t remove the cable from the harness, just laid the new one beside it and removed the old cable from the connector in the apillar and inserted the new one. I was going to have the car detailed but they were backed up and I wanted to go home. I’ll get it cleaned up tomorrow.

 

[rhougey]

@Tugboat2060 I'm going to complain to your tech for leaving black grease smudges on your headliner around the overhead console, ha! What nerve of them. How did you not damage the headliner by pulling apart a glued FC harness? Did you test the 'faulty' circuit harness with a multimeter for shorts/electrical leakage or open wire runs? Were the harness connectors snapped firmly in place on both sides prior to disconnection? Were there any signs of corrosion or even slight water evidence (maybe dried condensation drops)? Did any of the wires show visible mechanical damage (kinked/twisted)?

All good questions as we all hope for answers.

 

[RedStormREHS]

Everything was fine with the connections, I just flexed on the harness and the lights would come on on the dash. I didn’t remove the cable from the harness, just laid the new one beside it and removed the old cable from the connector in the apillar and inserted the new one. I was going to have the car detailed but they were backed up and I wanted to go home. I’ll get it cleaned up tomorrow.

Interesting. There may be some torsional/flex stress in the coaxial bundle of wires that may cause internal breaks of tiny strands of copper signal cables carrying data. I believe that area sees the highest temperature swings -- cool overnight then direct sun heating idle or driving. Allow normal expansion & contraction of the insulation material and tiny strands can stretch and break interfering with the signal intermittently. If average wire gauge (awg) is too small in this harsh environment, you're going to see problems -- especially at flexor points. This harness should be thoroughly examined and tested.

The wire harness clips at both ends of the FC bundle could be weak or have improperly set contact points. Also, condensation could form and enter the harness clips near/adjacent to the windshield causing electrical shorts. Lots of troubleshooting for the Ford engineering team hard at work trying to solve our problem!

 

[Tugboat2060]

The coaxial cable for the camera isn’t a bundle of strands, it’s a single copper wire, that is very thin. It could be damaged very easily and that could be why so many people are having problems. Ford doesn’t have a way to test the cable ends to see if their is a problem, since it coaxial cable if you put a regular probe in the end you could damage it also. The best method I found is to wiggle and jar the cable and see what happens.

 

[RedStormREHS]

The coaxial cable for the camera isn’t a bundle of strands, it’s a single copper wire, that is very thin. It could be damaged very easily and that could be why so many people are having problems. Ford doesn’t have a way to test the cable ends to see if their is a problem, since it coaxial cable if you put a regular probe in the end you could damage it also. The best method I found is to wiggle and jar the cable and see what happens.

Interesting. How are the coaxial cable ends connected? Are the harness clips robust/weak? Any photos? Maybe parts degraded over time (only 9 mo for me), became brittle and cracked from environmental exposure. Also, don't forget that coaxial data cable is shielded from extraneous electrical interference. The shielding could also be insufficient/defective. And, we have the possibility of software issues as significant updates were pushed OTA in June/July. However, some folks had this problem earlier in the year, I believe.

This is all the work for an experienced Ford electrical engineering team to do today, ha. They can reach out to me for additional support!

 

[Tugboat2060]

If you remove the black cover above the rear view mirror you will see the cable attached to the camera.

 

[TheSteelRider]

Interesting. How are the coaxial cable ends connected? Are the harness clips robust/weak? Any photos? Maybe parts degraded over time (only 9 mo for me), became brittle and cracked from environmental exposure. Also, don't forget that coaxial data cable is shielded from extraneous electrical interference. The shielding could also be insufficient/defective. And, we have the possibility of software issues as significant updates were pushed OTA in June/July. However, some folks had this problem earlier in the year, I believe.

This is all the work for an experienced Ford electrical engineering team to do today, ha. They can reach out to me for additional support!

Just don't forget this post, which I accept as true because the symptoms I encountered changed after I had two different pieces of hardware replaced. (i.e., my personal saga on this issue confirms there are multiple issues at play). I think we are dealing with at least two different issues (e.g., hardware vs. software), and under the category of hardware we are likely seeing different pieces of hardware being an issue.

Before everyone requests their dealer to tear apart the car looking for a wiring issue, it is important to note that there are a few different issues at play here causing this same set of faults. There are software issues and hardware issues and some of you are just lucky enough to have all the issues.

Hopefully more can be shared soon

I just struggle to believe / understand that the cable could be the source of _all_ the issues. I'm happy to be wrong though.

 

[SnBGC]

The coaxial cable for the camera isn’t a bundle of strands, it’s a single copper wire, that is very thin. It could be damaged very easily and that could be why so many people are having problems. Ford doesn’t have a way to test the cable ends to see if their is a problem, since it coaxial cable if you put a regular probe in the end you could damage it also. The best method I found is to wiggle and jar the cable and see what happens.

Curious question.
Those of us who are experiencing this issue........have we all had the pano roof recall performed?

 

[TheSteelRider]

Curious question.
Those of us who are experiencing this issue........have we all had the pano roof recall performed?

There is a poll (https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/front-camera-fault-poll.22519/), but I don't think that's on there. It's a great question, though. The repair might have fatigued the cable

 

[rhougey]

Curious question.
Those of us who are experiencing this issue........have we all had the pano roof recall performed?

I have had my windshield replaced, which involved removing the camera from the original windshield and re-installing it onto the replacement windshield. It then went to the Ford dealer to be recalibrated. But I have NOT had the Pano roof recall performed. Obviously, there would have been some manipulation of the camera connector and it’s cable while replacing the windshield. I could see potentially the windshield technician bending the cable out of the way while working, without worry that it would be fatally damaged.

 

[ProfZ]

Mine still in the shop. They think they've fixed it but are test driving it over the next couple of days to see if it Pre-Collision-Front Camera fault will stop and the car will function. Stay tuned. I have no idea at this time what they did/tried but will give a report tomorrow.

It does seem like following this thread that there might be both hardware (cable-camera) and software issues at play or either/or.

I can also tell you that one dealer service supervisor told me that with my car (I'm the second owner) began originally when the BlueCruise "recall"-repair happened many month earlier. Does anybody else have any info-expeirence about such a correlation

 

[Jasmine]

Curious question.
Those of us who are experiencing this issue........have we all had the pano roof recall performed?

Curious? Where you work? Do you work for Ford?

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