My Octavia L&K has ACC and it is very good and generally reliable. It is particularly useful and a safe way of ensuring that you keep to the rules during those interminable road works on the M1 north of Northampton (J16 northwards to infinity and beyond). You keep below the speed limit, keep a good distance from the vehicle in front and can relax and focus on the real safety issues like wandering lorries and coaches, traffic joining at junctions etc.. (Is there not a case now for allowing as opposed to ignoring undertaking in such stretches?).

 

However the ACC sensor regularly fails once during this section and for no apparent reason. I can reset it after 30 seconds but this is distracting. It usually happens only once a journey but has never occurred elsewhere on motorways or A roads. Traffic in such instances of failure is relatively light and well behaved and the only common denominator is that I am in the nearside lane driving alongside the solid metal or concrete barriers close to the nearside of the car. Are these unusual pieces of motorway hardware placed there because of the road works and to protect the workforce likely to be responsible? On Saturday evening the sensor did not fail but I deliberately stayed in the centre lane to test my theory....

 

If these close proximity barriers are causing the sensor to fail, are the permanent central reservation barriers now going up likely to cause problems?

 

What are other people's experience? Is this a design flaw or weakness or is it something I should check out with the dealer and get the sensor checked? (Which I will do in any case 'cos they are good and this could most likely be the reason)

 

Sam

By "it fails"do you mean you get an error or warning message?

 

Mine has worked flawlessly in any situation since I've had the car (15 months now). 

 

Definitely go and get it checked by the dealer - if there is a fault with the system it will be stored, and may need re-calibrating. 

Had ACC on 2 x cars now over 3 years.

I often travel on the A1 near Leaming Bar where there is a large section of roadworks with concrete and metal side barriers like you describe. Never had an issue with it.

Sounds like a problem with yours, possibly calibration required.

Edited 12 October, 20169 yr by 999pooch

I use both the M6 and M1 sections where there are roadworks containing concrete and metal barriers, and didn't have an issue.

Brown error symbol comes up and of course system fails. I am going to take it to the dealer if only to eliminate the system and sensor. Works very well elsewhere on other major roads with no problems like this one.

Thanks for responses.

What is the message in the maxi-dot display when it occurs? (ACC unavailable, ACC Sensor View Blocked??)

When you say the "system fails" I guess you mean that ACC is not available & is turned-off by the ECU?

 

I would agree with the others though that it perhaps needs a software update or recalibration.

I drive through a pretty narrow single lane roadwork section with metal barriers on one side & a concrete wall on the other without any problems.

 

Unless the barriers contain lots of reflective material which can be confusing for the radar, it should ignore stationary objects like barriers & walls.

ACC unavailable. Speaking to the dealer, this is not unusual.... their cars often have a similar problem and in truth they cannot put a finger on the problem. Many of their demonstrators exhibit similar issues close to barriers, high sided vehicles etc. Based on the dealer's wider experience, it is as if the system is not foolproof yet looking at the replies here - and I am grateful - there does not appear to be a broader problem

 

Incidentally, the owners manual does suggest car parks could be a problem caused by high sided objects and walls.

My Golf also shows errors, one in the M1 road works as yours and every night coming home from work, the ACC is off but heading out of Leeds at a specific set of traffic lights the bleep goes off and ACC sensor inactive displays.

 

 Not sure if it gets confused with street furniture or it just needs fixing.

Funnily enough mine just came up with the ACC Sensor Blocked message today, one day after the three year warranty expired! Not that bothered any more to be honest, just signed up for a PCH deal on a Yeti L & K, after deposit I'll be paying about half what the Octavia is currently costing me. On the whole the Octavia has been pretty good but the deal on the Yeti plus spec was so good, getting another Octavia didn't make much sense at this time.

Not sure if it gets confused with street furniture or it just needs fixing.

Or other radars on the same frequency interfere with it.

These systems are pretty new and are highly complex. Possibly the extended period of driving past the concrete side-barrier is making the system think it has a fault, so it's declaring itself unavailable?.

 

Talk to the dealer - even if they can't do anything for you, the report will enter the database, so if this happens to others Skoda/VAG may take notice, and a fix may eventually become available.