A class rear view camera constantly opening at slow speed

[Vespasian14]

Just joined this group and have a question for A class owners. Bought a new 2023 A class 180 in April and I have an issue with the rear view camera. When I first set off the rear view camera opens then closes once you get to about 20mph. Thats no problem so far. What happens next is a problem though. Every time I slow down to 16mph the camera opens then closes again once I get back up to 20mph. It can do this for up to 10 times or even more before it stops doing it. It does this every time I start the car after it has been sitting for a while. The camera opening and closing is very noisy and extremely irritating. I took it into the dealer and after doing some tests and attempted software updates I was advised that this is normal operation on the new A class as it carries out a recalibration every time the car is started up. I was taken out for a test drive in another A class and it did indeed do the same thing. Anyone else on here experienced this issue?

I bought my A Class in October last year and i have had this problem from day one. first of all they seemed interested and went through the motions of taking it back to their service centre and not doing anything. After a lot of hassle I escalated from the dealer to Mercedes-Benz HO. they confirmed my complaint and then proceeded to leave me hanging for several months before coming back to with 'its a characteristic of the car'. The dealer said it was a 'feature'. I say it is a fault that they are deliberately ignoring and brushing people off with this hogwash. the real reason is they have a huge stock of A class which they need to get rid of. I am now awaiting a response from the Motoring Ombudsman to see what they have to say, but i am not holding my breath as they are funded by the motoring industry. What i am waiting is for the car to generate a bit of equity and i will sell it on to someone who is hard of hearing.
It is a fault without question. I have been asking Mercedes to fix it. quite simple request you would think. think again.

 

[sautah]

Interesting read and although I don’t drive an AClass I can say that I’ve successfully tamed similar noises on other vehicles with replacement rubber washers and dynamat applied over certain assemblies.

Might be worth one of you removing the interior trim on the boot lid to investigate a similar fix as Mercedes will not be coming to your aid on this at all.

 

[JCW36]

Just to update you all I escalated to the Financial Service Ombudsman way back in January and I am still no further forward. They kept asking me for more and more details. They wanted to close my case at the preliminary stage as they couldn't see any evidence that there was a fault and if there was that it was in my specific car. Having spent many hours of my time already and lots of effort already I am not exactly sure what would lead them to believe that my complaint was fictitious as I have nothing to gain from all of this apart from hopefully being able to buy a car which is not noisy. I have asked that it is formally reviewed by an Ombudsman rather than an Investigator but I am not holding out much hope. I thought that my consumer rights in relation to faulty goods were there to protect me but it does not seem that this is the case.

 

[OctavianBucur]

Just to update you all I escalated to the Financial Service Ombudsman way back in January and I am still no further forward. They kept asking me for more and more details. They wanted to close my case at the preliminary stage as they couldn't see any evidence that there was a fault and if there was that it was in my specific car. Having spent many hours of my time already and lots of effort already I am not exactly sure what would lead them to believe that my complaint was fictitious as I have nothing to gain from all of this apart from hopefully being able to buy a car which is not noisy. I have asked that it is formally reviewed by an Ombudsman rather than an Investigator but I am not holding out much hope. I thought that my consumer rights in relation to faulty goods were there to protect me but it does not seem that this is the case.

Last time I’ve checked with my dealership, they’ve told me its a safety measure by Mercedes. In case you need to back up quick, camera will pop out and being already calibrated will produce a crisp image. I really don't care about it that much tbh.I am more annoyed now about the plastic sounds from the inside of the car. I understand physics, and that the plastics suffers a bit during hot/cold temp, but why did they put plastic rings around air con vents? That's very poor design from MB Engineering. And door plastic covers produce a sound now when I close them. For a brand new car that have done 5k miles to have all this plastic sounds in the interior, that's dissapointing.

 

[PinkMink]

I've resigned myself to the fact that I have car with a fault. Four visits to the service team (at one point they had my car for a month) and it still does it. It's not going to be resolved and Mercedes won't take it back, so that's that.

I'm one year into a four year PCP deal, probably going to be well into year two or three before I could be in a position to swap it for another car.