QX70S AVM camera unit problem

[Robotfrank]

Good evening, let me introduce myself. My name is Francesco and I live in Italy, in the province of Venice. I recently bought an Infiniti QX70S and I signed up to your forum because I think it is one of the best. I am very happy to be part of the forum and to have purchased this car. My car works well but has a problem with the around view camera. I actually don't know if my car has this equipment or if it is an optional. It has cameras in front, on the sides on the mirrors, behind and in front on the windshield. It also has the "camera" button but it doesn't work. Let me explain better. I saw that by entering the secret menu my car has only one page, now I attach the image. But I know that cars with the camera should have the camera module (view camera) but my car does not have this second page and does not have the next button. Have you ever seen a similar problem? If I set the rear camera or 360 camera in the menu and put it in reverse, I see that the display becomes blue with lines (green, yellow and green) but no camera works. What could it depend on?
This is my car and I love it ! Thank you , your help would be greatly appreciated. Francesco

 

[Robotfrank]

Good morning it is normal that a question is asked and not answered.. can you indicate any URLs where this topic has been discussed ? I searched everywhere but without finding exhaustive answers.. I am an Infiniti fan like you and I love this car like you, thanks for your understanding , Francesco

 

[SCY7H3]

Hi Francesco! Nice to meet you! If you have all four cameras as you have stated then you definitely have the functionality to use around-view. The problem is that someone went into the secret menu and did something to erase the function. This menu is a bit dangerous because the terminology they use is a bit misleading. It doesn't take much to disable features from the car and adding them back in would require someone to have a Consult III computer to program it back in which usually the dealerships have or some shop that has purchased it to work on Nissan/Infiniti vehicles. Most posts and videos that I've looked at all end up having the dealership involved because there's no other way. Wish it was much easier!

 

[Robotfrank]

Ciao SCY7H3,
you are right! Unfortunately I also suspected this secret menu thing, surely someone removed this function and it had to be reprogrammed. The problem is that since I don't have this tool I had to go to the Infiniti repair center that ordered the control unit. I wanted to bring a used control unit and have it reprogrammed but the Infiniti center told me they weren't sure they could do it. Only by ordering the control unit, 1600 euros, could I fix the car. In the end I gave in and so I did, now I find myself with two spare control units, mine that maybe isn't broken and another that I'm sure works but that should be reprogrammed. I found an interesting article where it explains exactly what the various electronic components of the control unit do, maybe it could be useful:
Ремонт AVM (Around View Monitor) CU 284A1-3EV3A Infinity S51 — были разные, c ошибкой U1302 (Camera power supply voltage abnormality), c U1303 (LED POWER SUPPLY VOLT) и без ошибок и синим экраном. . Anyway in the end with about 1700 euros I have the new control unit and the car has been reprogrammed, what else could I do?

 

[SCY7H3]

Hi Francesco, something doesn't seem right, I feel like there's more to it. I will try to help as much as I can.

I just accessed the secret menu myself, but I did not start the car, I pressed the ignition button until it was in the "ON" position. Factory manual says to start the car but not sure this is necessary for this step. I believe it has to do with other reasons. Did you access this menu with the ignition in the "ON" position?

For comparison, when I enter the secret menu and go to "Self Diagnosis", it brought up a screen similar to the one you attached in your post. Mine shows "CONTROL UNIT" in the center with "FRONT DISPLAY", "SWITCHES", "GPS ANTENNA" and "XM Antenna". Each of these blue boxes has a green line going from "CONTROL UNIT" to each of the other blue boxes (units). Each blue box will have a green square inside. That green square means the unit is operational. The lines are also green meaning it has communication with other units.

I know you don't have the "Next" button to show the next screen which tells me it doesn't know about them or is not configured to see them because if it was, then you would see the next screen with the "Sonar" and "Around View" boxes in red with red lines. Which is not the case here.

On this next screen you would see "CONTROL UNIT" with "SONAR" and "AROUND VIEW" with green lines and green squares in each blue box. Meaning they are operating normally. The green squares inside each blue box means normal operation.

There's also gray "Connection malfunction" and red "Unit malfunction". As for the lines, there's green "Normal", yellow "Connection malfunction", and red "Unit malfunction".

When I look at your vehicle, I see you have the parking sensors (sonar) and you definitely have the four cameras (around view). So these units definitely do exist in your vehicle but are not registered with the car so the car does not even try to use them.

Have you checked the fuses? I would check them and maybe replace them to be sure. From what I can see, it says fuse 34 "Battery" and 19 "Ignition switch ACC or ON". I'd still check all of them anyways.

You mentioned Infiniti programmed it...I believe they may need to do another step for the configuration to work. In the factory manual it states that if the initial programming does not work, there's an extra step they have to do.

Check to see if there's any errors recorded. If you exit the "Self Diagnosis" menu and enter the "Confirmation/Adjustment" menu, have you checked the "Error History" and does it show any errors?

You mentioned setting rear or 360 camera in menu...and then putting vehicle in reverse...are you performing this in the secret menu or through the CAMERA button? Just confirming.

Looking at the factory service manual, I see there's a few options on how to configure the new AV module. One is to save the existing configuration before replacing the AV module. Then writing the saved configuration to the car. The next option is to configure it manually which I believe that needs to be done here.

The options are as follows:
Steering -> LHD or RHD
CAMERA SYSTEM -> NONE/AVM or REAR CAMERA or REAR+SIDE
SOUND SYSTEM -> BASE or BOSE

Yours would be RHD, NONE/AVM and BOSE if I'm not mistaken.

If the write configuration is not successful the first time, the manual says to perform "Accessory Number Initialization" in the secret menu which will reboot the AV control unit. Then it says to perform the programming again.

While I was searching google, I came across this official document. Could be useful. See if the Infiniti dealer knows about this. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2015/MC-10192613-9999.pdf

 

[Robotfrank]

Ciao SCY7H3 and thank you for your reply. Thank you very much for what you wrote and these are things I knew because I did some research before writing in this excellent forum. The problem is that since I don't have the Infiniti workshop PC software I couldn't do anything. The workshop ended up selling me the control unit and then programmed it for me because it had arrived virgin from the parent company. So in the end I spent about 1600 euros for an intervention that perhaps wasn't necessary. The reason is that in my menu there wasn't the second page with AVM but now that they replaced the control unit everything works and I also see the second page of the menu with all the connection lines in green. So I solved my problem but what bothered me is that the assistance center doesn't give you support if you bring a used control unit but wants to sell their new control unit, so they wanted to make me spend a lot of money. I think that in the end all I have to do is reprogram my control unit. I think so because these service centers do not want to waste time and want to earn, so they forced me to buy the new control unit and then between labor and programming they asked me for another 200 euros. Unfortunately if you want things that work you are forced to do what they say. I wanted to ask you another thing, since you were very kind: does anyone have this software to program the control units? I mean the software that I see in the pages of the pdf document. Thank you very much for answering me, I like these discussions but sometimes I realize that we clash with things that are bigger than us, do you agree?

 

[Robotfrank]

Anyway I'm really happy, now I have the car fully functional, last Sunday I went to the mountains ( Cortina d'Ampezzo ) and tried it on the hairpin bends, splendid car, really, I'm happy!

 

[SCY7H3]

awesome! Glad you got it fixed. It's definitely a feature worth having. I use it often. Wow, what a view! I just googled Cortina d'Ampezzo and that's a place I'd definitely visit! I've been 4000 meters above sea level on a mountain in Ecuador and I was an experience.

Each Infiniti center is a little different but it depends on the situation. If it is the original unit that just needs programming, they should do it without having to sell you a new one. That's just a normal thing to do. However, if they run into an issue where the original unit is having problems being programmed or there's some electronic issue with it, then there is not much they can do. Sounds like yours just needs programming. But sometimes it's known that they will push a new unit to make some money. Now for programming, outside of Infiniti if you can find a mechanic shop that has the Consult III computer to program then they should be able to do it but it would mean the old unit would have to be installed back into the car then programmed. There's a bit of work to it. These mechanic shops are usually ones that specialize in Nissan/Infiniti (same software). From what I recall, the software is only obtainable by mechanic shops, it's expensive, requires a special laptop, requires access by login and password and a special cable that's also quite expensive. Most likely if you find a mechanic shop that does performance upgrades to Nissan/Infiniti, they will definitely have it.

 

[Robotfrank]

yes I know, I saw the cost of this tool and it exceeds the cost I spent to replace the control unit. Since I only had one working key I had to have it programmed, the key was new, let me explain better. The previous owner had two Infinitis, an FX and a QX like mine, when he sold the car he exchanged the keys so he gave me a new key but it was from the FX. So I ordered the hardware key and had it reprogrammed, then they replaced the control unit and reprogrammed it. In short the total cost was 1980 euros, which is equivalent to 2157 dollars, including labor. Now I have two control units, my old one and another that I bought for 150 euros and that had been removed from a car that had a blown engine. Thank you again for replying and I am sending two last photo of the mountain that I think I took very well. Thanks for sharing this information with me and the others on the forum, forums are for sharing information and helping those who need it. And why not, above all to share our passion for Infiniti !

 

[95maxrider]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you got the issue fixed, but sorry about the cost and experience.

Unfortunately, car forums aren't what they were 10-15 years ago, so you just aren't going to get the replies and answers you used to get. Many people left the forums and just use social media. You may want to join some FX/QX groups on Facebook, they're pretty active.