Rear camera washer
 

Ever go to back out of a parking space after driving on a wet salted road or through a mud puddle, only to find that you can't see anything in the rear view camera?

Problem solved! (This mod/hack may not be for the faint of heart.)


(Sorry for the shaky handheld video.)

OH NO YOU DON"T! Do not show me this without complete instructions and videos of how you did it. I will need five of these. One for each camera and one for the night vision sensor. Oh, while you're at it, two more for the front sensors that do the lane assist. So that's 7 all together. Expecting instruction videos ASAP!

Okay. I was waiting to see if there was any interest before I post detailed pics and instructions. Warning: it involves drilling through a part (but not metal). There may be better ways, but what I did works. My next one to tackle is the ACC radar domes. The night vision sensor already has it's own washer that comes on when the headlight washers activate. I don't really care about the front camera and it looks like it would be hard to get to and do without looking horrible. The side cameras (under the side mirrors) don't really get dirty and there's no water source nearby. I think the lane assist runs off the camera in the windshield, so nothing to do there. Side assist is radar inside the fenders, so again, nothing to do there.

I have photos. I will get together instructions complete with photos and parts list/sources over the next few days. Be patient, real busy now, it will take me a while to get it all together.

Yes yes yes! thanks. And I love drilling holes so no problem there.

I didn't know the night vision has a washer. Mine does not. In Chicago with snow and then the tons of road salt, all of my sensors shut off while driving. Lane keeping and ACC will not work. Night vision just becomes a blur. Lane keeping goes off after warning. Then I drive with three yellow triangle warnings until I clean the sensors. Do you have a video of the night vision being washed? I can't seem to find it on mine.

Wow! That is beyond cool. I love the way the cleaning spray looks on the 360 deg top-view as well! :) I'd be interested in seeing the instructions as well, and hearing updates on the ACC domes too!

So Paul, do you have headlight washers? If so, you should be able to notice them going off about every fifth time you spray the windshield (only if the headlights are on). It is my understanding that the US models only got headlight washers if they have night vision and the washers for both are on the same cycle.

The night vision camera is inside the rightmost (facing the front of the Q7) ring of the Audi rings emblem. Here's a photo:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...f0e0ac2acd.jpg

The sensors for the ACC are the two black domes at the very bottom of the grill (could be mistaken for fog lights if they weren't black). When those get slush on them, your ACC will not work. I think then it takes lane keeping with it, perhaps.

I eventually want to see if I can tie in new nozzles for those domes into the headlight/night vision spray. Each headlight washer is pretty close to a dome, so hose routing shouldn't be good hard. And the domes are surrounded by plastic housings, so no need to drill into metal (I won't do that for the sake of rust). So it may be feasible. There will be a bunch of hard to access panels to remove to get into that area requiring jacking up the car etc. So I'm saving that for a spring/summer project. Of course, won't get to reap the benefit until the following winter.

Now that I went and looked at the night vision nozzle, I'm thinking: why didn't I try to get that part for the rear camera nozzle instead of what I rigged up. Hmmm, might still have to do that. I'll have to dig into the parts breakdown and see what the part looks like and if it can be purchased. Definitely will plan to use that part for the dome washers if I make that project work.

My 2018 SQ5 washes the rear camera with the rear washer (pretty cool!). Nothing for the front camera though (even with headlight washers).

IF my Q has night vision washers? I'll look tomorrow. Never noticed them but never looked either.

OK, had to go look now. Yes, it's there! Now if the other ones were covered that would be nice. I'll admit, I never used to wash my cars to often. Now I find myself going to the car wash at least once a week just to get the sensors working. But here's the sad part and why I hope you can come up with a work around that I am willing to try: I washed my car today. Went to work. On the way home, nothing. All I get is the warning in my gauge cluster telling me that ADC with Traffic Assist not working, sensor blocked. Followed by Lane keeping not available, sensor blocked. It's really sad too. I washed the car today! It's actually still relatively clean considering Chicago just got 10 inches of snow. On a side note, road salt here is horrific. Even with the sensors clean, lane keeping will not find the lanes when the entire road is coated white with salt. I expect that but the sensor thing is infuriating. Either make them see through the crud like the other warning sensors or put washers on them Audi!

Looks like I'm with you on this one. When the weather warms up, I'll get under there and figure something out.

Hallelujah! You just solved a major issue for the dirty rear camera! Looking forward to more details once you have patented the design :)

Wires, could post a photo of the spray nozzle for the rear camera on your SQ5?