Well heck; Tundra front camera/sensor fail.

I got off work tonight, went to the parking lot and started up my pickup. It was 25 degrees, and I had a heavily frosted windshield.

I let it idle for a few minutes while the windshield cleared and I fooled around on my phone. No warning lights on, and everything seemed normal.

I pulled out of the parking lot, drove a half-mile through town, then hit the rural highway. A message then appeared in the message center and said that my front camera was no longer available. At the same time, the lane departure light turned from yellow to dark orange.

Then, I tried to turn on cruise control and another message said that the radar CC was not available, so CC didn't work.

Then another light came on for the collision warning system and stayed on.

I figured maybe there was frost on the sensor or whatever. I drove the 14 miles home and parked and inspected the front end. No frost, no obstruction, no damage, nothing.

So it seems that the sensor failed. Or something. To have this happen with only 46k miles on the vehicle does not boost my confidence in long-term reliability.

Looks like I'll be taking time off work next week to take it to the dealer 50 miles away.

 

What sensor is behind the windshield, because that was still mostly frosted when everything went bad.

 

There is a camera built into the mirror base that looks out the top of the windshield. That'd be the LDA mostly. If the radar sensor in the grille/emblem is frosted/dirty/covered in water droplets it will disable the radar cruise and collision avoidance.

 

Drove it today at 38 degrees and all is well. Will have to make sure the windshield is clear in the future. Thanks for the information!!