NHTSA Complaint #11625446 — 2016 FORD ESCAPE

Backup camera fails intermittently and unpredictability. Often just a blank blue screen appears, sometimes an error message over a video image appears, and other times the camera works at first but fails after a few seconds. It can work one minute, and the next time the car is shifted into reverse (such as when parallel parking) it may not work (or vice-versa). OBDII fault codes indicate a possible communications/electrical issue. Online reports reveal that there are scores of other owners of model year 2014-2019 Ford Escapes with the same or similar issues with their back-up cameras (one mentioned having theirs replaced at least _4 times_ while the car was still in its warranty period). No other warning lamps are available. The alert text that (only sometimes) appears on the display screen when the camera fails is non-specific (e.g. “Camera not available.”). This has been occurring for at least the last 3 or 4 years. For all intents and purposes, since this fault is so unpredictable, I can no longer consider this car to possess a back-up camera. Safety: while I have never had a serious, another driver could easily fail to see and possibly collide with property or individuals while reversing (especially when the camera image disappears in the middle of an in-progress reversing operation). I am more than happy to make my vehicle available for inspection upon request. Ford has issued a recall for the seemingly identical issue for 2020 model year vehicles, but not for my 2016 Ford Escape (nor, to my knowledge, many other model years using an identical camera and display design).