Rear view camera

Lake · 03-07-2007, 02:25 PM

My rear view color camera on my 04 Journey abruptly quit working today. I am miles from any repair shop. This is probably a silly question but does anybody out there have any suggestions as to what went wrong. All I have is a white screen on the dash. I will certainly miss the camera until I can get it fixed. I can't seem to find a tripped circuit breaker but due to my mechanical incompetence I really don't know where to look.
HELP please!!!!!

Lake · 03-07-2007, 02:25 PM

My rear view color camera on my 04 Journey abruptly quit working today. I am miles from any repair shop. This is probably a silly question but does anybody out there have any suggestions as to what went wrong. All I have is a white screen on the dash. I will certainly miss the camera until I can get it fixed. I can't seem to find a tripped circuit breaker but due to my mechanical incompetence I really don't know where to look.
HELP please!!!!!

Dmadzia · 03-07-2007, 02:33 PM

Check the cable that plugs into the monitor as the camera gets it's power from the monitor. I would unplug the camera, then plug it back in. On my Adventurer, you just lift up the dash and there are all the connections. Perhaps yours came loose. Sorry, I have no idea now to get to the back of the monitor in a Journey. Good luck!

smlranger · 03-07-2007, 02:43 PM

Lake:

Did you inadvertently hit the button that selects camera 1, 2, or 3? If it is a Sony and you have only one camera (rear) and you change that selector to one of the other settings, you will get a white screen (ask me how I know).

To get to the back of the monitor (if you need to check the connections on the rear), you will have to remove some screws that hold the back of the dash on. There are two small screws on the side nearest the entry door and several along the back edge. Once you remove those, the plastic back lifts up and you can get to all the 'guts' behind the dash.

Ron-in-Tn · 03-07-2007, 04:37 PM

Lake,

See my post on the same subject. If you have a Sony camera...good chance it just went belly up as mine did. This is actually a very common issue with the Sony cameras. My recommendation if you rule out all other possibilities....buy one off of www.rvupgrades.com and replace it yourself. My dealer in Nashville charged me almost $800 to replace mine.

ep35rja · 03-08-2007, 06:05 AM

My rear camera recently went out and it was the cable. Both of my side cameras were still working. I brought it in to the dealer and they had to replace the cable. Fortunately my coach was still under the 12 month 12,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty when this happened. I own an Itasca Meridian 39K

Lake · 03-09-2007, 04:17 AM

Thanks for the replies. So far I have been unable to find the problem but I do suspect it is the Sony camera itself. In reading other posts on this subject I can see that many of the Sony rear view cameras have failed. They only seem to work during the in-warranty period.

tomsm · 03-09-2007, 01:12 PM

Lake - Your observations are right on about the Sonys. Seems most common in the '04 units. The thing about yours that makes me think it might not be the camera (yet!) is the way it failed. When mine failed and I have heard this from others, it didn't just go to a white screen. Mine went in and out for weeks. When it worked, it was a perfect color picture and when it didn't, it was a grey ghosty, swirly looking image. Mine never did go to white. It just finally went to the ghost image and stayed that way.

Since you're going to have to take down the camera to replace it anyway, go ahead and take it down and plug it directly into the back of the monitor. That will eliminate any cabling problems. You're probably right and it is a bad camera, but it's a failure mode that I haven't heard before.