PSA: Clean your front camera
tldr: In my gen 1 Volt, the Lane Keep Assist and Forward Collision Alert almost never seemed to work ever since I got the car. I thought I was going crazy after cleaning the glass and other stuff. Turns out the camera module itself was caked in 12 years of dirt and grime and just needed a clean.
I bought by 2014 Volt in July of 2024. Ever since I bought it, I noticed that the LKA and FCA systems basically just never worked. They would activate for a few seconds very occasionally and then would immediately turn off. At first I thought maybe it was just a really early system like that and just didn't work very well. After a year or so I started to think that it just didn't make sense for them to include a system that just never worked. I consulted Google and found nothing about it. I asked AI and it had some ideas that mostly centered around cleaning the glass and checking the fuse. I did both of those and everything looked good but it still didn't work. Eventually I took a very close look at the very small camera behind the glass (behind the review mirror) and it looked fogged up like it had this white film over it.
Solution:
I used my keys to pop off the plastic shroud that sits behind the rearview mirror and camera, then tilted the mirror down to allow it to come down but not off. I then unplugged the camera module. Then I pulled on this retainer clip which allowed the camera module to be released from its position and removed. This was all done from the passenger seat.
I brought it inside and tried cleaning it with a microfiber cloth but it was too stuck on. I ended up using a wet Q-tip to clean the camera lens and the area around it. I wiped with a microfiber afterwards making sure to not leave any fibers from the Q-tip behind. I then reinstalled and BOOM! fixed it instantly. The green lights for the LKA and FCA on the dash come on as soon as I hit 35mph on a road with lane markings.
I can't believe I waited so long to do this and it seemed so mysterious. I also can't believe I didn't think to do this before. So if you also have a gen 1 (or maybe gen 2) Volt and your Lane Keep Assist and Forward Collision Alert using the front camera never really seemed to work quite right: try cleaning the camera lens.
I am also aware that there exists a calibration for the camera but I didn't have any tools for that and it seemed to work fine without calibration.
I'm just hoping this helps someone else out in the future since when I had this issue, I basically found nothing about it online.