GR86 Reversing Camera Behaviour Check

[Conscript]

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had a couple of times where the reverse camera has not showed up when going into reverse. No big deal, I figured it might be just a gremlin in the head unit software or something, or maybe a battery issue. Reverse lights are still fine, and so is the "R" gear indicator on the dash, so don't think it's anything wrong with the sensor switch on the transmission itself. But it happened again yesterday - when I reversed out of my parking space at work, camera was fine. When I got home and reverse into position, it didn't show. Hmm.

I did fit one of those Ancel battery meters a few weeks back, as I was curious about my battery health. It's unlikely that it's causing any issues, but just to be sure, I've decided to remove it to see if the behaviour persists....perhaps it's causing some weird voltage drop/spike that's enough to power down the camera. Anyway, I've just removed it and taken the car for a short drive with some random manoeuvring thrown in to test the camera, and now I'm noticing some behaviour I have never spotted before, but I am not sure it's incorrect - it just could be it's always worked like this and I've never scrutinised it enough to notice.

- In my test drive, the camera never failed to switch itself on when engaging reverse gear - fine.
- However, in every case, the camera stayed switched on even after switching out of reverse gear, and even when I was back in first and moving forwards.

This has worried me because it feels like it could be an electrical gremlin...but I did some more testing and realised that the camera would stay visible after switching out of reverse until:
- About 10 seconds had passed.
- The forward vehicle speed reaches about 5mph
- The handbrake is engaged.

Any of these triggers and the camera view reliably shuts off until I next select reverse. And to be honest, it's fairly sensible that the camera view stays on for a short while, I guess, so it's not flicking on and off during manoeuvres. But I am almost certain that the camera used to switch off as soon as you came out of reverse gear.

Would anyone mind paying attention next time they are in their car to check the behaviour? I want to know if I'm going mad or not.

 

[Cubone]

From the manual. Specifically the points at the top right. There is a setting in the infotainment to change the behaviour, so it may be that this has been reset.

 

[Conscript]

Awesome. As ever, let this be another good reason to RTFM.

This tracks - I did a bit of Googling the other day and found that you can get into the factory diagnostics mode on the head unit (Hold both skip track forward/back buttons, double press the tuning knob), and looked at the camera settings. Couldn't find much of interest, but there was a "Reset to default" option which I used. So either it's always been the way it is now and I haven't noticed, or I've just changed it with my button mashing. I'll pay closer attention next time.

 

[Cubone]

That's useful to know. At least it's not acting up, anyway.
It's always good to avoid another dice with a dealer service deparment.

 

[Conscript]

That's useful to know. At least it's not acting up, anyway.
It's always good to avoid another dice with a dealer service deparment.

Well, fingers crossed. I know it's working as intended, but I'm still not sure if this intermittent issue where it doesn't initiate sometimes, is fixed. Will have to drive it a bit more. Besides, I'm technically out of warranty now.

 

[Horror]

If you go into TechStream or one of the other readers that operate at that level the option exists for:
1 - the camera to go out once reverse is disengaged, or
2 - the camera to still stay engaged for a brief period when you’re moving away.