2017 LS460 SWB, RWD with Mark Levinson and 38K miles on it. Something weird happened on my way home. Backup camera just came on while driving straight ahead. It came on for a few seconds and went away, then came back on and went away after few seconds. It did it when stopped at the traffic light as well. I tried to shift to "S" mode and back, while stopped at the traffic light shifted in park and back. When shifted in reverse everything works as advertised. Power shade comes down, mirrors deep down, backup lights illuminate and backup camera activates. When go back in drive everything returns to normal, only backup camera comes back on and off at random. Checked multimedia system diagnostics, no faults whatsoever. Checked all available sensors (speed, gear shifter reverse state, brakes and such), everything is correct with no faults. No crazy weather either. Had some snow before, now light drizzle. Temperature all night 33-35. I wander if anybody experienced this kind of glitch before.

 

This could be turned on temporarily in the older models, I wouldnt mess around in that menu just for something to do though.

 

If this happened suddenly without any recent ventures into the screen menu beforehand, it stands to reason that something is wrong. I would think there is some sort of switch that's part of either the shifter (manual switch) or an electronic trigger that's part of trans. My next move would be to have a code scan of OBD2 done with a Lexus appropriate scan tool. A basic home unit won't do, it would need to be Techstream or a Japanese friendly shop with high end scanner. Of course Lexus or Toyota dealer can do this too. Let us know what you find.

 

My bet is on wiring. Rear cam display is triggered by one wire, not a data signal. I've seen weird diy setups where a guy mounted an external pushbutton to 'check his tail'... Will look at the diagram later.

 

Good info to have. Let us know what the diagram indicates when you have time.

 

Quick update here. This evening I decided to dig little bit deeper in this issue and noted some change. Camera is no longer activates on its own at random as it was doing last night. Now it only comes on with the brake lights. Camera pops right on as soon as I touch my brake pedal regardless of the gear shifter position. Some times it would stay on as long as I hold the brakes, sometimes just flickers and goes away. Plugged my laptop in and ran complete health check with the Techstream. Not a single fault across all 50-something ECUs, every single thing I checked is good. I wander how nav screen switching logic works. If this screen switches to the rear camera view automatically as soon as camera powers up I might have some "power bleed" happening from the tail lights. If this screen needs some external command to switch it might be something else. Weird stuff

 

I'd lean towards Boykie comment on one wire trigger and not a data signal.

 

Any Grom or Beatsonic in the car?

 

It is all stock Mark Levinson. No aftermarket mods of any kind in the multimedia system.

 

Both stp light and backing up signals are wires sharing one connector to the display unit. Pinched wire? Or something corroded in the trunk?
Diagram pending.
Any aftermarket aux/dvd unblocker was a great guess though. Usually those interfere with those signals precisely (and prkn brake wire). The usual way aftermarket aux work is they intercept parking cam signaling to splice in their own video feed. At least on 06-12.

 

This happened to me on my 2013. I posted about it in this forum a while back. It happened to be raining a lot at the time. I never had a repair performed as it never reoccurred.

 

Rain might have something to do with it in my case as well. It wasn't poring that much but we got some snow, rain and drizzle just before it happened to my car. I did checked everywhere in the trunk though, didn't found any evidence of any water leaks.

 

This happens on my 2013, No worries

 

Did you remove the covers that the storage net brackets hold down on each side ? on the right hand side under the amp there are a few harnesses that are laying as low as they will go. This brake power supply is on the left side but it gives you an idea how water in that are can be a problem.

 

Or, worst case ontario, driver's feet area due to clogged roof drain?