View / Navion Backup Camera replacement

[Ontario Don]

Hello - Thanks in advance for the help.


I have to replace the backup camera in our '21 View, due to some self - inflicted pain associated with trying to clean the inside of the camera lens. The backup camera came out of the factory with a huge internal smudge on the lens which rendered the picture borderline unusable. I wrecked the camera trying to get the lens off. I know. I know.


So, I've got the replacement Mercedes camera, but the swap out is advertised to be anything but straightforward. Winnebago tell me that I have to remove the top rear roof cap, in order to expose the connector I need to get at. The wire bundle attached to the camera is about 9" long, and there is about 6" of lead inside the back wall of the motorhome attached to the connector.



1 - Has anyone done a part for part swap-out of the backup camera on a View / Navion?


2 - Do I really have to remove the top rear roof cap to get at the connector?


3 - Does anyone know if there is some slack on the Winnebago wiring I can use to get the connector out of the back wall? The wiring disappears into the wall insulation, but the connector is not in sight.



I appreciate the help.


Cheers,

[RV-Travelers]

Post a few pictures so folks can get an idea what you're dealing with.

I replaced the backup camera on our 2016 Era which is on the Sprinter 3500 platform. I'm guessing your View / Navion is a completely different beast and my experience likely won't be of any help.

[HarveyRV]

Did you ever find out how to get at the camera cable connection? I have the same issue with my 2017 View.

[Ontario Don]

No, I have not yet. I just posted the questions a couple of days ago.


Winnebago has told me how to do it, but it involves removing the top rear cap. I'm trying to see if someone has been able to dig the connector out of the back wall without going to that trouble.


I was originally told that the connector was right up at the camera - while trying to disconnect what I thought was the plug, I broke some wires. When I went back to the factory they advised me the earlier info was in error, and the connector is laying in the wall accessible by removing the roof cap.


I think I'd be Ok at removing the cap, but getting it sealed up again is something I'm a bit nervous about...


Cheers,

[Lmonger]

I have a 2018 View 24J and I replaced the backup camera and Infotainment system with an Alpine ILX f-259 Halo w/CarPlay and compatible camera. Ran New cabling along trim and then underneath.

[Ontario Don]

Ok, thanks. Yes, alternate concepts to get the capability back are on the table.

Cheers,

[Ontario Don]

Well, I`ve got some answers to my questions now. I recently spent a couple of days working through the replacement of the production Mercedes camera, and am happy to report that we are back in the backing up business.


Do you have to remove the top rear roof cap in order to replace the Mercedes camera? Yes, you most certainly have to. But, contrary to what I was told by the factory, the connections are not in the wall – instead the camera lead follows a routered slot up the wall and pops back out of the wall under the protection of the back of the top roof cap. The Mercedes camera comes with a wire bundle that has a coaxial connector, and a four wire power and control connector. Winnebago cut off the four wire connector, and used butt splices in its place.


Is there enough slack to be able to pull the connections and cable out of the back wall to simplify the camera replacement? Well, there is a ton of slack... maybe a bit more than four feet of slack, but Winnebago have caulked the hole to protect against water ingress and in the process rendered the cable and connections immovable. It does not budge, for good reason. Thinking ahead to the next time you wanted to replace the camera - even if the top hole was left unprotected, it is unlikely that you would be able to get the cable slack, connections, and camera lead back up the wall and successfully out the hole and back into the roof cap cavity. The bottom flange of the back wall of the roof cap actually covers up part of the hole, as well.


There is no way around not having to remove the roof cap, but there is a better way to re-install the new camera in case there is ever a “next time”. Unfortunately, I didn’t think of this better idea until I had closed things up by reproducing what the factory had done. As a result, there won’t be a next time for me, but if you are considering replacing the Mercedes camera, I would recommend that you locate a larger camera fairing that has enough volume to be able to accommodate extra cable, the wiring connections, and the camera lead so you can store it all external to the wall. After you have got the roof cap off, and the slot in the back wall all cleaned out, pull the Winnebago wires down through the slot, out the bottom fairing hole, hook up the camera, and store all the wiring slack in this larger camera fairing. Backup cameras have not always been this small; earlier cameras required larger fairings, so there must be some out there.


A few photos might help with the above information:


Picture 1 is what you find when you get the roof cap off
Picture 2 shows that little bit of slack that Winnebago has left you...
Picture 3 shows the entry and exit points for the camera lead cable
And Picture 4 is my recommendation for closing things up – pull the Winnebago connection wires out the bottom fairing hole and plan on storing everything external to the wall in a larger fairing that you picked up somewhere. This photo was taken when I had plans to store the slack in the existing View fairing, but there is not enough room in there to be able to do that.

I didn’t have any prior experience with removing and replacing roof sealant, so I found that to be my biggest workload. I was happy to see that the roof and back wall joint is sealed up very well with an eternabond tape type of product, so the roof cap sealing is a bit of belt and braces.


One last thing - the camera has a 5 amp fuse. If you have an inoperative camera, it might be worthwhile to check out the fuse box under the driver's seat before launching into plans to replace it. Our View's camera fuse is #4 in that rack.


If anyone is considering this job and wants more details and photos, drop me a line; I have more information I can share.


Cheers,

[ChrisB]

Hi Ontario Don. We also had a smudge on the inside of our camera lens in our new 2021 Winnebago View. Must be a common fault for that year. All other camera functions worked fine.

The seller replaced the camera unit, but now we have 3 problems that weren’t there before, and even the seller is baffled.

1) The image on the screen is no longer a mirror image.
2) There are no reverse guide lines.
3) The image is standard no matter which mode we select: Standard, narrow, wide-angle.

Was there anything in your installation instructions that mentioned those features?

Did you need to do anything special when you replaced your camera, as far as wiring or software install? Or was it just “plug it in and it works”?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

—ChrisB

[Ontario Don]

Hi Chris - Welcome to the Forum, thanks for the info. I had wondered about that smudge...


I broke our camera pretty early on in our View ownership, so did not have a lot of experience with how it worked previously. However, I can answer your questions:



1) "The image on the screen is no longer a mirror image" - our image is not mirror either. The image shown is as it would appear if you were physically on the roof looking to the rear. It took me a while to wrap my brain around that, but until you mentioned it as being different from previously, I had attributed it to being a Sprinter thing...


2) "There are no reverse guide lines" - we do not have reverse guide lines either. I don't remember any reverse lines during the short time ours was working, but likely due to the smudge and my memory, they could have been there.


3) "The image is standard no matter which mode we select: Standard, narrow, wide-angle" - Yes, ours is full time standard as well. The on-screen selections have no effect. I do recall that they used to work, as that was a novelty that I experimented with.


I purchased the replacement camera from an eBay vendor, and the factory Mercedes packaging included only the camera and short cable leads. There were no instructions.


The goal for my install was to just unplug the damaged camera and plug in the replacement camera. That all worked out well, and once power was applied to the system the camera functionality returned... but with the issues you have now pointed out.


I have not done the MBUX rear-view camera software factory recall yet, but you have got me wondering if that would inadvertently correct what looks like to be a software snag associated with removing and replacing the camera. Have you done your rear-view camera recall yet?


Thanks in advance for sharing any new info you get on this one.



Cheers,

[ChrisB]

Hi Ontario Don. Thanks for the quick response!

We did the Mercedes camera recall software upgrade after our camera was replaced, and sadly it did not fix the problem. The Mercedes service technician was concerned that the software upgrade had caused the problem, but I had noticed the non-mirror problem before the s/w upgrade.

I played with the 3 image modes when the camera was smudged, so I know those worked at that time. I didn’t test them after the camera replacement, but did test them after the s/w upgrade and they aren’t working. Comparing your notes with mine, sounds like the camera replacement is the cause for the 3 modes no longer working.

Other rear-view cameras on the market have 2 wires you either cut or don’t connect in order to get a mirror image and reversing guide lines.

Did you free-connect/crimp any wires together when you installed? Do you have photos of your wiring before you disconnected the old camera? I’m wondering if two sets of controller wires may be cross-connected, or should not be connected at all, for the mirror image and other functions to work.

We’re taking our View in for a regular Mercedes service this week, so if we find out more we’ll let you know.

[Ontario Don]

Hi Chris - I understand you have already done the software recall, disappointing news.



"Did you free-connect/crimp any wires together when you installed? Do you have photos of your wiring before you disconnected the old camera? I’m wondering if two sets of controller wires may be cross-connected, or should not be connected at all, for the mirror image and other functions to work."



- Well, once I got access to Winnebago's connectors under the rear roof trim piece, I was surprised to see that they did not use the four wire power / control connector that was on one of the Mercedes cable leads. Instead, they cut off the connector and crimped the four Mercedes wires to their cable bundle going to the coach. (I looked for a Mercedes connector locally, but found out that you cannot buy the downstream connector without purchasing a long cable to go with it. This is likely why Winnebago cut off the Mercedes camera connector and spliced the wires.) The picture below shows what the Winnebago wiring looked like prior to removal of the faulty camera - after begrudgingly cutting off the connector on my new Mercedes camera, it was a simple process of crimping the wires as Winnebago had done out of the factory. Well, not quite simple, I had to find some step-down butt connectors as some of the wires between Mercedes / Winnebago were of different gauge. But, they were all crimped as per the factory configuration, identical to what I found when I lifted the rear roof trim piece off. I'd say the answer has something to do with software.



Strange stuff. Good luck at the dealer!


Cheers,

[ChrisB]

Thanks! We’ll let you know what Mercedes says.

[ChrisB]

Hi Ontario Don. Good news! Mercedes fixed the rear camera by a software config. Since the rig is under warranty and the diagnostic showed a camera error code, there was no charge for the fix.

The fix provides a mirror image view, and two modes — Wide and Standard. (No guide lines, but I don’t really need those anyway.)

I’ll attach the details here. I hope you can get the same fix!

—Chris

[Ontario Don]

Chris - That is great news, thanks for the info and paperwork.

I’ll book in for those software recalls, and have them look at this at the same time.

Happy travels, Cheers,

Don

[srunyon1]

Thank you for the pictures I'm struggling with replacing my stereo infotainment system and probably will have to replace the camera as well.

[srunyon1]

So I'm thinking to replace mine with a different camera that works with a different stereo. I got an adapter for the cable on the radio end. The fakra to a composite video but it still doesn't see the factory camera. Do you have the part number for the factory camera, maybe I can find more info on it. Also any tricks to opening up that back cap? Not even sure where to start. It looks like you just opened it up just enough to get at the camera cables. Any help would be greatly appreciated..

[Ontario Don]

The Mercedes part number for the camera on our '21 View is:


A 213 900 40 25


The link I sent you will walk you through what I did to get the end cap off. You have to remove the whole thing to get at the wiring ... but unless you remove the connectors to all the running lights and remove the ladder, you'll have to secure it to the roof somehow to do your work. Once I got all of the fasteners off, I taped one end to the skylight and the other end to the ladder and left it dangling on the back end. There is some weight to it, so an extra set of hands is useful until you get it secured.


Cheers,

[danarnold]

Originally Posted by Ontario Don

Hi Chris - I understand you have already done the software recall, disappointing news.



"Did you free-connect/crimp any wires together when you installed? Do you have photos of your wiring before you disconnected the old camera? I’m wondering if two sets of controller wires may be cross-connected, or should not be connected at all, for the mirror image and other functions to work."



- Well, once I got access to Winnebago's connectors under the rear roof trim piece, I was surprised to see that they did not use the four wire power / control connector that was on one of the Mercedes cable leads. Instead, they cut off the connector and crimped the four Mercedes wires to their cable bundle going to the coach. (I looked for a Mercedes connector locally, but found out that you cannot buy the downstream connector without purchasing a long cable to go with it. This is likely why Winnebago cut off the Mercedes camera connector and spliced the wires.) The picture below shows what the Winnebago wiring looked like prior to removal of the faulty camera - after begrudgingly cutting off the connector on my new Mercedes camera, it was a simple process of crimping the wires as Winnebago had done out of the factory. Well, not quite simple, I had to find some step-down butt connectors as some of the wires between Mercedes / Winnebago were of different gauge. But, they were all crimped as per the factory configuration, identical to what I found when I lifted the rear roof trim piece off. I'd say the answer has something to do with software.



Strange stuff. Good luck at the dealer!


Cheers,

camera inop pushed me to replace our radio, went with big jvc w/carplay, now need to tackle camera, were you able to pull existing cable through one way or the other? 2016 24g thanks

[Ontario Don]

Hi - Unless you remove the rear top cap, and remove the caulking sealing the wiring bundle under the cap, there is no way to pull the wiring through. In addition, the wiring bundle connectors are large enough that even if there was no caulking, it would not be practical to get them through the wall and then back into the cap when you are done.


I'll send you some notes I took of the job, with some pictures.


Cheers,

[danarnold]

Originally Posted by Ontario Don

Hi - Unless you remove the rear top cap, and remove the caulking sealing the wiring bundle under the cap, there is no way to pull the wiring through. In addition, the wiring bundle connectors are large enough that even if there was no caulking, it would not be practical to get them through the wall and then back into the cap when you are done.


I'll send you some notes I took of the job, with some pictures.


Cheers,

appreciate it, I plan on removing the cap this am and assess the job of fishing the cables. thanks