The Mazda3 and CX-3 have just been hit with a recall in Canada and the United States due to a fault with the rearview camera. While the problem isn’t a serious safety concern, it could be quite an inconvenience for owners.
The Japanese car manufacturer has revealed that a poorly designed wiring harness fastener for the rearview camera could wear out and get damaged by the vibrations caused by driving and/or while closing the liftgate. If the connector pins wear out, it will trigger high electrical resistance that could result in image distortion or flickering.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) notes that this fault could increase the risk of a crash by impeding the driver’s view.
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A total of 227,335 vehicles across the United States and Canada are embroiled in the recall. These include 141,491 examples of the 2014-2018 Mazda3 and 85,844 units of the 2016-2021 Mazda CX-3. Impacted Mazda3 models were produced between December 28, 2013 and December 20, 2018 while CX-3 models involved were built from June 1, 2015 to October 15, 2020. Importantly, not all examples built between these dates are affected as not all of them were fitted with rearview cameras from the factory.
Mazda first received a field report about a rearview camera fault way back in May 2015 and over the following two years, received similar reports from other markets. By May 2020, it had identified the root cause of the problem but said there was no safety risk. Later that year it issued a technical service bulletin to provide dealers with instructions on how to diagnose and repair the issue. However, Transport Canada wasn’t satisfied with this and requested that Mazda issue a voluntary safety recall.
Owners of impacted models will be notified around September 12, 2023 and told to bring their vehicle to an authorized Mazda dealer where a wiring harness fastening seal will be added to prevent harness movement on vehicles without image distortion. For those where there already is image distortion or flickering, the rearview camera will be replaced and the same wiring harness fastening seal will be installed.
