Toyota C-HR Reverse Camera Problem

[shirand]

I’m using a Toyota C-HR 2017 car with mileage just above 23,000 km. This car I bought from a local car sale as a reconditioned car from a Japan auction around 1 year ago.

I got an issue - suddenly reverse camera stopped working. When I put it to the reverse gear, reverse lights are getting on, but the reverse cam video is not coming on the display. Not even the blank screen. There is no any change in the display. (Update: this is the original factory fitted setup).

After taking it to a near by car setup shop, all wiring and connections were checked but no issues were there with wiring or connections. 

The shop technician said it may due to some settings changes. But I did not touch any settings. 

BTW, he also said he needs the SD Card came with the car. Otherwise he cannot navigate to settings. But I did not get the SD card and extra key when I purchase the car from the car sale as the car sale mudalali told me that they didn’t receive an extra key or SD card for this car and those might have misplaced.  

The car audio guy said that car sale owners are not giving those to the customers but extra keys and SD cards are selling to these shops. 

Please provide your advice with below 3 questions. 

(1) How/ why this reverse cam settings can suddenly be changed even without touching by me?

(2) Isn’t there any way to change the settings without a SD card?

(3) If above no 2 question is not possible, please let me know a good place to visit nearby Colombo/ Nugegoda area. 

Thank you in advance for your time and advice...

Edited February 7, 2021 by shirand

[sathyajithj99]

57 minutes ago, shirand said:

I’m using a Toyota C-HR 2017 car with mileage just above 23,000 km. This car I bought from a local car sale as a reconditioned car from a Japan auction around 1 year ago.

I got an issue - suddenly reverse camera stopped working. When I put it to the reverse gear, reverse lights are getting on, but the reverse cam video is not coming on the display. Not even the blank screen. There is no any change in the display. 

After taking it to a near by car setup shop, all wiring and connections were checked but no issues were there with wiring or connections. 

The shop technician said it may due to some settings changes. But I did not touch any settings. 

BTW, he also said he needs the SD Card came with the car. Otherwise he cannot navigate to settings. But I did not get the SD card and spare key when I purchase the car from the car sale as the car sale mudalali told me that they didn’t receive an extra key or SD card for this car and those might have misplaced.  

The car audio guy said that car sale owners are not giving those to the customers but extra keys and SD cards are selling to these shops. 

Please provide your advice with below 3 questions. 

(1) How/ why this cam settings can suddenly be changed even without touching by me?

(2) Isn’t there any way to change the settings without a SD card?

(3) If above no 2 question is not possible, please let me know a good place to visit nearby Colombo/ Nugegoda area. 

Thank you in advance for your time and advice...

Do you have the original factory fitted display or aftermarket one?

 

It's your duty to ask for the extra key when you purchase the vehicle . If they don't provide it, you shouldn't buy the vehicle .

[shirand]

@sathyajithj99 - It’s the original factory fitted setup. 

[iRage]

Did this CHR come from Japan ? If so doesn't this have Toyota DisplayAudio system ? 

Toyota cars, including the C-HR now comes with Toyota DIsplayAudio. DisplayAudio is Toyota's integrated AV-Navigation-Toyota Connect base system. The screen that gets installed at the factory. However, all the other features are activated at the Toyota dealership when you buy the car in Japan. This includes activating audio, TV, Navigation, etc..The reverse camera is a maker installed option so the camera can still be installed later.

So...although your DisplayAudio was installed at the factory, it does not mean the reverse camera was actually installed and activated by Toyota or any of its dealers.

1. No idea....if the connections are okay...there is no way to know it until you can get in to the DisplayAudio system setup and see if anythign is wrong there.

2. To be fair, Toyota Japan does not give the "SD" card to the buyers anymore with the DisplayAudio system. I did not get a SD card from my Toyota dealer (some cars, including mine, do not even have a SD card slot).  For system configuration settings you need the SD card in most systems, but with the new Toyota DisplayAudio some configuration options are remote accessible through the Toyota Conenct network or accessible via a USB connection. However for that to happen you need the software from Toyota and the keycodes (which some seem to have hacked). 

But you should have gotten an extra key....every car gets two keys. No 

 

Edited February 8, 2021 by iRage

[shirand]

On 2/8/2021 at 5:44 AM, iRage said:

Did this CHR come from Japan ? If so doesn't this have Toyota DisplayAudio system ? 

Toyota cars, including the C-HR now comes with Toyota DIsplayAudio. DisplayAudio is Toyota's integrated AV-Navigation-Toyota Connect base system. The screen that gets installed at the factory. However, all the other features are activated at the Toyota dealership when you buy the car in Japan. This includes activating audio, TV, Navigation, etc..The reverse camera is a maker installed option so the camera can still be installed later.

So...although your DisplayAudio was installed at the factory, it does not mean the reverse camera was actually installed and activated by Toyota or any of its dealers.

1. No idea....if the connections are okay...there is no way to know it until you can get in to the DisplayAudio system setup and see if anythign is wrong there.

2. To be fair, Toyota Japan does not give the "SD" card to the buyers anymore with the DisplayAudio system. I did not get a SD card from my Toyota dealer (some cars, including mine, do not even have a SD card slot).  For system configuration settings you need the SD card in most systems, but with the new Toyota DisplayAudio some configuration options are remote accessible through the Toyota Conenct network or accessible via a USB connection. However for that to happen you need the software from Toyota and the keycodes (which some seem to have hacked). 

But you should have gotten an extra key....every car gets two keys. No 

 

Yes, the car is from Japan and it has the original factory fitted system NSZT-Y66T. 

It has a slot for the micro SD card, which has the navigation system and the software. I got to know normally car sale mudalalis are selling this to car stereo shops. 

Without the SD card, reverse cam and radio is working. But you cannot go to settings or use other functions.

A shop guy said once the 12V main car battery is changed, the reverse cam and other basic functionalities will again stop working. So either you need to buy a SD card or pay some cash around 3,000 bucks to restore the settings with them using (borrowing) their SD card. 

[iRage]

Okay...so I checked the catalog the CHR started getting DisplayAudio system only after the 2018 update (you can still get it without it and get a 58,000yen discount on the base price ) 

Before that it came audio less from the factory and the audio system had to be selected at the dealership.

Now...what a lot of people in Sri Lanka do not get is...Audio systems are DEALER options. That means...it is not something that is fitted at the Toyota factory (it has been like that for decades for 99% of the cars). The few times that is different is when there is some sort of fancy audio system what is also integrated to some other functions of the car. In fact if you look at the catalog for the CHR you will see that the car by default comes AUDIOLESS. Back camera on the other hand is a maker option (because of the cabling) but then that too can be a dealer installed option.

The stereo you refer is just another stereo that you can have the Toyota dealer install before you take delivery of the car. This also means, anyone can purchase the same unit and have it installed y who ever they want. When it comes to cars being shipped to Sri Lanka..most of the time the car gets bought and shipped to SL audioless and these audios are fitted locally (sometimes new, sometimes used, most of the time clones). In fact I know that a large Sri Lankan owned car exporter over here (whose name starts with a R) does that (they used to buy some of the standard stereos in bulk and send it over to SL). There is nothing wrong with it as long as the work is done properly. But then there are some cheap exporters who don't do it. So yes..mudallals in Sri Lanka can buy these units seperately and sell them. Again..nothing wrong with it..if the work is done properly (issue is 99% of the time it is not..and then the customers are lied to about it being factory fitted...some say it is original audio setup..which can be true, just that the original audio system was not fitted by Toyota or its dealer)

As for your problem....yes...when the battery is disconnected the stereo will need ot be reset. So it is up to you to decide if you want to pay 3000LKR and get it done everytime you remove your battery...or pay the price of a SD card and get one for yourself. How often do you think you will remove your battery ?

If you do have to remove your battery to swap it...then you can always do it in a manner without totally powering down the car.

[HaeylM]

Just my humble input, 

I had a reverse camera issue on the sedan once and at the end of the day it was an issue of improper grounding. The infotainment system gets the reverse camera signal from your reverse light bulb, and due to unearthy wiring from when the camera was installed, it sometimes took a while to display the back camera and just stayed on radio. the fix was to tighten the ground wire for me. If you have a weekend to experiment with, try running the reverse camera signal wire and complete the circuit without having the car on reverse and check if its the rev camera being faulty or the head unit. you can test it better if you have a front camera input, you can connect the video cable from the camera and check if the video input still works. This way you can eliminate having to replace a headunit for a 2500 LKR camera. 

As @iRage mentioned, most of the cars imported to SL don't come with audio setups installed unless they are personally imported cars with the factory head unit that controls stuff like the A/C (in nissan Teana etc..) and in some cases like the Nissan X trails and leafs that came with the integrated infotainment system. 

The rest of the cars come with no stereo and there are places in Dutugemunu St. that most of these car sales people take the cleared cars to install japanese domestic audio systems. The eclipse, Carrozzeria, Gathers audio systems mostly found in these reconditioned cars are stuff that were installed later on. The best way you can identify is if you take your dash apart, the wiring for the audio will be messy and connected with crimps to a harness rather than a direct fully shielded harness that directly plugs into the system (seen in Xtrails with the factory system).  Its a gamble when it comes to these systems since you never know if the system is a 100% reliable as a brand new system that came with the car from factory. 

Secondly, there is a well known heist that happens at customs where they steal SD cards of cars that get cleared with japanese systems so chances are if your car did come with an installed system from japan then it probably got its SD stolen at the docks. 

I personally think you are better off upgrading your infotainment system to a locally distributed system like a Kenwood, Pioneer or JVC that you have better control over and have more features such as bluetooth,RCA for a subwoofer etc compared to the Japanese unit because the SD cards in the black market go upwards of 8500 LKR. This of course is a personal choice. 

But I still think you should have refused to buy the car when the dealer couldn't give you the spare key and handbook. 

[shirand]

Thanks a lot @iRage and @HaeylM... Those information are valuable. Now I can see the big picture here. 

Let’s see. Will update here once get this done. 

[shirand]

UPDATE:

Got it checked from P*tco Lanka,Narahenpita. This has happened due to a rat attack! 

A rat has damaged a wire from the reverse cam to the set up. Had to rewire it and then it starts working fine. The cost was only Rs. 2,500/-. 

They said the SD card is not needed here, only it will need if the main 12V battery is changed and the setup is reset.