Reversing camera - how easy to swap?

[RicksAlfas]

My wife's Suzuki has a Clarion reversing camera fitted as standard. It's just a fixed camera and I think it's got water in it or the lens has clouded as the picture has deteriorated. It looks like this:





A new one from Suzuki is £200 which isn't worth it to us. Is there a cheaper aftermarket alternative out there? Do they use a standard wiring configuration?

TIA.

[gmaz]

Have you tried repairing it? It looks like the lens has two tiny holes allowing it to unscrew so you could dismantle, clean and warm it to get any moisture out, and then reseal with a little silicone grease?

[fredd1e]

AFAIK there is a +VE and GND for power and two wires for the video feed to the head unit. You'll need to work out which is which and the only other sticky might be if the factory power feed has been stepped down from 12volts to something less at the camera end as I understand most aftermarket reversing cameras expect 12Volts. A multimeter on the car side of the camera plug should give you a clue as to which wire is the +ve and what voltage it is fed at and what might be GND (wire colour may also give clues).
HTH
.
PS any after market camera would have to be tweaked to fit the factory loom/plug, though they tend to be a lot less than the price you've been quoted.

Edited by fredd1e on Monday 21st January 13:53

[RicksAlfas]

gmaz said:

Have you tried repairing it? It looks like the lens has two tiny holes allowing it to unscrew so you could dismantle, clean and warm it to get any moisture out, and then reseal with a little silicone grease?

Good thinking. I haven't taken it out yet but that will be my first port of call.
(The pics above are not of my camera).

[RicksAlfas]

Thanks fredd1e. I missed your reply and annoyingly I’ve just put everything back together! The camera did come apart but the lens is within a moulded plastic frame and I couldn’t get in to clean it so I will try and find a new camera.

The camera screws into its mount and I think it will be relatively easy to use the mount with a new camera. The mount comes off the car easily so I can sort it out off the car rather than sat in the boot! As long as I get a camera with four wires I can cut the connector off this one and use it on the new one. Will check that 12 volt issue though. Some cameras have six wires. What do the extra two do?