back-up camera suddenly not working

[PocoBird1]

Our E-Golf is brand new & this is our 2nd difficulty with the camera. First it worked, then it didn't . . . eventually we were told (by salesman) that you need to make sure the hatchback is REALLY shut -- listen for two thunks close together, keep closing it until you hear the double-thunk. We did that, camera started to work, and has now been working fine for a week. Today, it suddenly stopped working & we get screen message saying "Park Pilot is not available" with only option to press OK - then message disappears. Possible causes (???): it's a rainy day, first in the life of this car; also I noticed earlier that rear wiper was automatically activated when I was in reverse AND it was raining AND front wipers were on . . . so I tried playing with reverse a bit, going into reverse when it was raining, then when it wasn't, with front wipers on, then off . . . to figure out what was cueing the rear wiper. I never did figure that out because in the midst of this the camera stopped operating. (Of course I got out and opened and closed the trunk a few times - no help from that.) Any ideas? We love the camera & want it back! BTW, we have the SE (less expensive) model, without the other fancy driving stuff, just the camera. Thanks for any help.

 

[JoulesThief]

Read your owners manual. Several times, before operating the vehicle, but while sitting in the vehicle.

 

[shawner123]

Read your owners manual. Several times, before operating the vehicle, but while sitting in the vehicle.

Another absolutely useless reply from JoulesThief, in my opinion it is best to ignore anything that person says, "read the manual" is the only response they have since in my opinion they do not have any actual working knowledge of Volkswagens (or anything mechanical or electric for that matter) in any way, or what seems to me, a complete lack of conversation or human interaction skills. They do however sure love the Volkswagen corporation and consider them as infallible as the pope.

Here some information that is actually helpful, a friend of mine's wife just purchased a 2016 e-golf and is having the same problem, apparently it is a known problem and is affecting many people, here is some more information that you may find help, instead of just an insulting response like dippy do sent to you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Volkswagen/comments/42o8ck/the_parkpilot_is_not_available_reverse_camera/

Have a great day!

 

[JoulesThief]

Helpless people need to learn how to help themselves, not at other peoples expense or time. Google and search get paid for what they provide for you. Not my job or obligation to spoon feed people. Either find it on your own, or take it back to VW under warranty and let them deal with it. I don't seem to have these problems with my VW's. I function just fine without backup camera's when I need to back up. Just turn your head and look behind you, don't be so lazy. Generally speaking, I always approach my car from the rear anyways, before having to back up, so I can assess any obstacles before getting in to back up and drive off. Simple, never fails.

 

[johnnylingo]

Very useful reply here:

http://www.myvwegolf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=895&p=8453&hilit=J794#p8453

 

[f1geek]

I agree that looking back works, but I have been in situations where the wide angle of view afforded by the camera enhanced the safety of backing up, such as when I was pulling out of an angled parking spot with two huge SUVs or pickup trucks on both sides that blocked my view.

My neck isn't as flexible as JT's neck (JT is really Plastic Man but since he's so humble, he doesn't want people to know his true identity), so I do find the backup camera to be very useful and to enhance driving safety under certain conditions.

JT is also lucky to live in a neighborhood where he only has stationary obstacles behind his car. He doesn't need to worry about small kids or dogs or even pedestrians who may happen to be in the path of his car when he begins to back up. I happen to live close to town where there are lots of other people with children, so I like to be extra careful and my use the backup camera to ensure I don't injure anyone. I guess I'm just being lazy.

It sounds like you are going to have to wait for VW to fix their software (sounds familiar, no?). I have a 2015 SEL and have not experienced the issue.

 

[johnnylingo]

Grrr...speak of the devil. I just encountered this on my 2016 SE. It was actually the second time; first was at end of the test drive, to which the salesperson claimed the backup camera needed to be "activated" by the techs. My BS detector went up slightly, but backup camera wasn't a deal breaker so I let it slide.

Goes to show you can't trust VW, which I already knew :lol:

 

[Rcam3609]

Hello Guys, had the same issue with my SE. I acquired the car in June 2016 .It spent about 8 days at McKenna VW in Cerritos being diagnosed with multiple updates. Finally they decided to replace a unit (part # J794). It finally worked. No issues at all after that (knock on wood).
Ask them to replace it with the J794 (I looked at no charge warranty invoice - the unit costs $1030.00). You car should be under warranty. No amount of technical update will fix it.

 

[s0cks23]

I have had my e-golf for 3 weeks now and I have gotten that same notice as well. What I started to notice is that I would get the message every time I was in a hurry. So I started slowing down when I got in the car. Started it, waited for the radio screen to move from the e-golf start up screen to a normal display (radio, nav, car info, ect...) and then put in into reverse. After just waiting a few more seconds to move the car, I haven't had that message since.

My assumption for my situation is that the processor is still going through its start up initialization, and hasn't yet initialized the park pilot system (rear view camera) at the time I put it into reverse. So if I stop it from initializing it won't work for the entire trip since it wasn't initialized properly.

Hope that might be helpful for some others as well!

 

[JoulesThief]

My procedure is to step on the foot brake, hold it down, press the "start" button, and then put on and latch my seat belt while the whole system boots up and initializes, before taking off the parking brake and then engaging the shifting lever, and then releasing the foot brake to go. Has never failed me yet.

 

[f1geek]

Ignore JoulesThief's comment.

He can't honestly say this series of actions never failed him because he doesn't look at the backup camera display.

He claimed in a previous post in this thread that he doesn't use the backup camera because that is something only lazy people do and he is most certainly NOT lazy.

Again, ignore his comment.

 

[JoulesThief]

Ignore JoulesThief's comment.

He can't honestly say this series of actions never failed him because he doesn't look at the backup camera display.

He claimed in a previous post in this thread that he doesn't use the backup camera because that is something only lazy people do and he is most certainly NOT lazy.

Again, ignore his comment.

Just because I don't use it doesn't mean I can't see that it is functioning and working. :twisted: i don't use the onboard gps unit either, yet I know it's working, too. Kind of like you not using the speedo, but you know you are speeding.

 

[miimura]

You can also ignore JT's post because he has a 2015 and this is a problem with the 2016 cars only.

 

[forbin404]

Is this only with Cars with Park Pilot?

It hasn't happened to my SE...yet

 

[JoulesThief]

You can also ignore JT's post because he has a 2015 and this is a problem with the 2016 cars only.

Anyone else here have a 2015? Ignore them too.

 

[JoulesThief]

Is this only with Cars with Park Pilot?

It hasn't happened to my SE...yet

It is possible that you got an earlier build 2016 model which either has different software, or firmware for the back up camera that does work, or the actual J module on later models from March, April and especially the last huge batch of US bound 2016 SE's, that seem to have the defective version of either the module or the software or firmware that is incompatible. No one has checked yet to see if the part number has been changed for that J module, to a newer version. It just seems improbable that so many would fail, so to speak, on burn in, with use and have infant mortality failure so frequently.

Of course, you can ignore my comments, I have a 2015, and I don't know shit about VW's or how they perform changes in parts, software and firmware in mid year production.

 

[miimura]

Jeez, I guess I forgot my smiley in my previous comment....

 

[JoulesThief]

Jeez, I guess I forgot my smiley in my previous comment....

me too, I guess. Of course, the 2015 SEL I have has parking assist with the tone beepers and sensors built into the bumper, so the camera is kind of unnecessary.

 

[Dokterrock]

Happened to me today, as well, two days after I drove it off the lot. Not sure if I'm going to get it checked out just yet or not, we'll see how often it keeps happening or if it really bothers me.

 

[JoulesThief]

Happened to me today, as well, two days after I drove it off the lot. Not sure if I'm going to get it checked out just yet or not, we'll see how often it keeps happening or if it really bothers me.

Just tell the service writer it's probably the J794 module that is bad inside the glove box, and that many new VW e-Golf customers are having failures of them shortly after purchase on e-Golf inventory with a build date from January through May, 2016.