2011 SL Backup camera replacement

Went to back out of my garage this morning and the backup camera view was flickering and looking "negativey" if that makes any sense. Since the dash display works fine for everything else I'm assuming it's the camera itself that's the problem, or possibly the wiring. And since my Leaf is a 2011 I'm assuming any warranty on this is long since expired.

I searched Nissan's parts website and found a replacement camera to cost a ridiculous $600-700! I've dug around a bit on ebay and craiglist looking for a used one or somebody parting out a totaled Leaf with no luck so far, and I've also noticed some $20 chinese cameras on ebay that claim they could be made to work.

Has anybody else had to replace the backup camera out of warranty? What was your experience?

Check your local junkyards. In CA, there are bound to be several totaled 2011 Leafs laying around.

But first, I'd probably do the following test:

• Buy a cheap chinese camera.
• Disconnect the car's camera temporarily, and connect the chinese camera temporarily.
• See if the flickering still occurs.

If it does, plan on replacing the wiring. If not, go ahead and look for a replacement camera.

I've hooked up a cheap chinese camera to my car (it's an SV, so didn't come with a camera), and the quality is pretty bad.

I recently installed a camera into a 2013. Using factory parts. The camera was about $120. The quality looks like the factory camera, since it is the factory one. I think the 11 has the same camera. I'll look up the part number when I get a chance. It's pretty easy to install. Look at the thread for adding a camera. Your doing the same thing except your not removing the handle without the camera. You will still remove the handle, and replace the camera with your new one. Should take about 1 hour.

From my initial googling it looked to me like the 2011-2012 have a different camera from the 2013+ models. And while the 2013+ cameras seemed to be in the $100-200 range, the 2011-2012 ones (28442-3NA0A) were $600+. Who knows, maybe the newer ones (28442-3NH0A) would work anyway, but it's a different part number.

Maybe there's a difference in the mounting bracket, but I'm pretty sure it's the same. You can check out this thread. I think it originally started as adding a camera to a 2012 SV, and then some people added cameras to the 2013 S. The SV and SL had some different wiring from the kick panel to the back of the car, so the wires were missing. If you want to be sure, take your camera out and check the wiring. With the car in reverse you will get 6 volts if you check the positive and negative wire. the other 2 wires are for the video signal. You should be able to save $450 if you verify if you can use the 13+ camera. There are 2 rear cameras though, one for the all around view has a more wide viewing angle. It will work but look a little different. You can not simply use any replacement camera from other manufactures though because many of them are 12V vs 6V which is what the Leaf supplies.

http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=10107

fooljoe said:

From my initial googling it looked to me like the 2011-2012 have a different camera from the 2013+ models. And while the 2013+ cameras seemed to be in the $100-200 range, the 2011-2012 ones (28442-3NA0A) were $600+. Who knows, maybe the newer ones (28442-3NH0A) would work anyway, but it's a different part number.

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