Hi all - hoping you could help me out with a query I have regarding the query on the front bumper of the Mk3 Fabia.

I understand it is a proximity sensor that sets off an alarm if I am approaching something a little bit quickly - but I have never 'let it' set on auto brakes.  

I guess my question is - does it even engage auto brakes to prevent you rear-ending someone (for example)?  I guess I am looking for piece of mind here

 

My 'front assist' has worked a number of times for me.

 

One where a van suddenly braked to turn left comes to mind and another where someone jammed on at a roundabout.

 

A Mercedes shot out of a junction at a side angle in front of me the other day and nothing kicked in ( maybe my reaction was very quick).

 

It's there to 'assist' but not to be relied upon I've found.

It does work it kicked in when car in front stopped quickly for a flooded road but I also hit the breaks as well.

The handbook says its there to lessen damage in a crash situation.

I have and some other members have had false breaking warnings its happened to me twice in 3 years on that basis I personally would not turn it off. Joe

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to turn it off.  It hasn't caused me any issues.  It has beeped once or twice but nothing has kicked in as I usually am on the brakes when it beeps anyway.

Believe me it's quite frightening when it does fully kick in. Brakes juddering,alarm sound,grinding noises. 

Yeah I've had it kick in once where the car in front stopped for no reason before driving off. I've also had it beep to warn me when it either wasn't necessary such as a car that made a last minute turn and I'd already steered around it or it thinks that my closing speed is too fast to the car in front. Either way it seems to work pretty well, I'd rather have it too sensitive than not sensitive enough.

8 minutes ago, RickW said:

Believe me it's quite frightening when it does fully kick in. Brakes juddering,alarm sound,grinding noises. 

Very true. I had a false alarm waiting at a roundabout i started to pull away as a car on the roundabout had just about finished crossing in front of me the sensor must have seen it and it slammed the breaks on fortuneately the waggon behind slammed his breaks on. Took a few seconds for the breaks whent back to normal bit of a grinding noise as i tried to pull away the  second time as i got to the bottom of a steep dip it must have got a reflection from the road surface the warning alarm sounded and the picture came up on the maxidot but the breaks did not jam on fortuneately Joe

As per the other posters there ... had an incident about three weeks ago , where a car in front, rear-ended the car in front of it - my Front Assist fired straight away- it was a very impressive demo ! They were about 20-30 yards ahead - the radar just picked up that a moving object had suddenly stopped. 

As Rick and JoeP say - it’s an Assist. And quite an impressive one so far.

It's braked for me twice IIRC. Beeps relatively often (people in Manchester like to cut you up and then stop) but the times it's actually braked for me have been when people have pulled out without enough space for a proper reaction, when I would likely have come very close to hitting them. The Front Assist in those cases gave me more space and an extra margin of safety over a car without it.