GLA 200 Reverse Camera calibration every time you start

[fourwheels]

Has anyone Else lost the plot as to what this Thread is all About?

Nope, you get a reminder every time you drive the car. Courtesy of Mercedes, free issue with the car.

 

[DonaldS]

This software update does not sound like a solution to me. At the moment my A class will have the camera open and close four times before it completes the calibration and it does this every time the car is started. I can force the calibration to complete quicker than this by driving in a straight line below 15 mph for about 100m. This is a known method for forcing a camera calibration as advised by MB for any camera that is having a calibration issue. If I do this the camera will close and not open again. This is not a practical fix or workaround as it is generally not possible in traffic to drive this slowly for this distance. This software ‘fix’ just sounds like the workaround I set out above and I don’t think it is a practical solution - in fact it sounds like there is no software update and that MB have simply provided the advice that already exists. By my calculation, 1 minute at 15mph is around 400m so you need to drive at 15mph for 400m to get the camera to calibrate. I can already get the camera to calibrate in about 100m and this is still not generally possible or convenient. It’s all bollocks!!

 

[JCW36]

Just to let you all know that the Financial Services Ombudsman rejected my case literally the week before my right to reject within a year was due to expire. My car went for it's first service and while away I was given a new A Class AMG Premium Plus to drive for the day. Very sadly it too had the problem and was actually more noisy than my own car. I have looked at how much I would lose if I simply got rid of the car and in a year it has depreciated nearly £10k. Will be stuck with the car for a bit longer now and will then get rid of. The customer service has been truly appalling and I think that my claim was rejected as had it been accepted then many others would have been able to reject their cars too.

 

[DonaldS]

Just to let you all know that the Financial Services Ombudsman rejected my case literally the week before my right to reject within a year was due to expire. My car went for it's first service and while away I was given a new A Class AMG Premium Plus to drive for the day. Very sadly it too had the problem and was actually more noisy than my own car. I have looked at how much I would lose if I simply got rid of the car and in a year it has depreciated nearly £10k. Will be stuck with the car for a bit longer now and will then get rid of. The customer service has been truly appalling and I think that my claim was rejected as had it been accepted then many others would have been able to reject their cars too.

Many thanks for the update - not great but, unfortunately, not unexpected. I wonder if, when I eventually trade it in somewhere, I will be told that the car seems to have a faulty rear camera and the price offered will need to reflect that.

 

[Pontoneer]

Just to let you all know that the Financial Services Ombudsman rejected my case literally the week before my right to reject within a year was due to expire. My car went for it's first service and while away I was given a new A Class AMG Premium Plus to drive for the day. Very sadly it too had the problem and was actually more noisy than my own car. I have looked at how much I would lose if I simply got rid of the car and in a year it has depreciated nearly £10k. Will be stuck with the car for a bit longer now and will then get rid of. The customer service has been truly appalling and I think that my claim was rejected as had it been accepted then many others would have been able to reject their cars too.

I'd be inclined to just either pull a fuse , or snip a wire , to stop it being a nuisance . Can be reinstated easily enough when getting rid .

 

[DonaldS]

I'd be inclined to just either pull a fuse , or snip a wire , to stop it being a nuisance . Can be reinstated easily enough when getting rid .

I also thought of that and actually asked the service staff at MB if it was possible to simply disconnect the camera but was advised that this would just flag up a fault in the system with a permanent warning light being ahown in the dashboard which didn’t sound like a good idea.

 

[fourwheels]

Many thanks for the update - not great but, unfortunately, not unexpected. I wonder if, when I eventually trade it in somewhere, I will be told that the car seems to have a faulty rear camera and the price offered will need to reflect that.

You may have missed some of the thread updates as there have been two camera threads running - the other one relates to the A-Class camera.
The OP who started the software update story eventually came back and said he had been mislead, so a software update is a red herring.
My 2024 GLA suffers from this although I generally push it to the back of my mind.
Like @JCW36 I too tried to return mine a couple of weeks after purchase but both Dealer and MB Customer Services delayed, delayed, delayed and after 7 months or so, like others, I gave up.
Meanwhile I had scoured the worlds media and established that in 2022 MB were fined $15 million (I think they settled for $1.5m) in the USA because of widespread complaints by van drivers that the reversing camera occasionally didn’t work or froze. A child protection agency (can’t remember name) took it up and considered it a threat to children who might pass behind a vehicle. Litigation was in their name.
Mercedes Sales & Rentals were frozen until resolved.
Mercedes solution seems to have been to introduce the camera calibration that we are familiar with.
So it’s clearly NOT a fault.
Problem is I can’t see MB changing the procedure (unless they decide it doesn’t require such frequent calibration) unless they submit completely new software to whoever approves these things and are able to prove 100% reliability.
Seems to affect all models and classes with 360 deg camera and/or reversing camera so calibration on each startup has been the most cost effective solution for MB.
That knowledge doesn’t make me any happier but there you go!

 

[DonaldS]

You may have missed some of the thread updates as there have been two camera threads running - the other one relates to the A-Class camera.
The OP who started the software update story eventually came back and said he had been mislead, so a software update is a red herring.
My 2024 GLA suffers from this although I generally push it to the back of my mind.
Like @JCW36 I too tried to return mine a couple of weeks after purchase but both Dealer and MB Customer Services delayed, delayed, delayed and after 7 months or so, like others, I gave up.
Meanwhile I had scoured the worlds media and established that in 2022 MB were fined $15 million (I think they settled for $1.5m) in the USA because of widespread complaints by van drivers that the reversing camera occasionally didn’t work or froze. A child protection agency (can’t remember name) took it up and considered it a threat to children who might pass behind a vehicle. Litigation was in their name.
Mercedes Sales & Rentals were frozen until resolved.
Mercedes solution seems to have been to introduce the camera calibration that we are familiar with.
So it’s clearly NOT a fault.
Problem is I can’t see MB changing the procedure (unless they decide it doesn’t require such frequent calibration) unless they submit completely new software to whoever approves these things and are able to prove 100% reliability.
Seems to affect all models and classes with 360 deg camera and/or reversing camera so calibration on each startup has been the most cost effective solution for MB.
That knowledge doesn’t make me any happier but there you go!

I (Donald S) was the OP who started the A class camera thread. On this thread mykaitch advised on 26 November that he has had a software update on his GLA which he says is partially successful to which I replied that I doubted that there is really a software update as the procedure he was advised to use of driving slowly for a minute in order to force the camera to calibrate I can l ready do on my car so no change and this is not a practical solution.

 

[Pontoneer]

I also thought of that and actually asked the service staff at MB if it was possible to simply disconnect the camera but was advised that this would just flag up a fault in the system with a permanent warning light being ahown in the dashboard which didn’t sound like a good idea.

Yep , I knew it would create a wagging finger , but fault codes can be cleared , and it would probably be less annoying in the long run .