Anyone fitted non-OE replacement parking/360 camera?

[Robertb]

Had the misfortune of a stone smashing the front 360 camera lens on my CLS. A new factory one is £540. There are loads online with the same part number direct from Chinese manufacturers for a fraction of that, but I am concerned they might not work! Equally, I'm sure the original rip-off Merc one is made in China.

Anyone tried one?

[Decky_Q]

I've replaced a jaguar camera with a chinese one. It fitted the screw holes and plugs fine and wasnt any worse than the original.

[Krikkit]

Not tried one, but if it's very cheap then surely worth a go!

You could help avoid future issues by giving it a good seal up with some decent silicone sealant (e.g. Loctite 5922) before fitting, most likely failure is water ingress due to poor weather sealing.

[bloomen]

Got one in my banger.

It's hooked up to the wrong power supply so wobbles in the dark and the coloured lines on the display aren't aligned to the actual car, but it works fine.

[Robertb]

Krikkit said:

Not tried one, but if it's very cheap then surely worth a go!

You could help avoid future issues by giving it a good seal up with some decent silicone sealant (e.g. Loctite 5922) before fitting, most likely failure is water ingress due to poor weather sealing.

Annoyingly it was an unlucky stone impact that broke the fisheye lens on the camera... its still working fine but the view is obscured by what looks like a spider sitting on it!

Shame I can't find someone who can just fix the lens.

However, you remind me I need to seal the rear blindspot radar things.

[Robertb]

Well, just to close this off, I bought one of these off eBay from the seller Autoparts-HD and it was fitted and calibrated by a specialist. £120 plus fitting.

Seemed good quality in the box, and to my surprise it works, and works well! Indistinguishable in use from OE.

Time will tell how long it lasts.