Unnecessary Front Assist Activation

[EmmaPearse]

Hiya folks!  After your knowledge and advice please re what I think happened to me yesterday morning in my Skoda Fabia 1.4 Tdi.

 

I was driving along Birmingham Ring Road approx. 40 - 45mph, quite happily when there was a ping on the dashboard and the car stopped like it had hit a brick wall.  I pulled my car over to the side of the road expecting to find a vehicle had hit the car or that I had had a blow out of a tyre, to discover that in fact my car was absolutely flawless.  The car restarted and I made the remainder of my journey uneventfully.  Having contacted the car manufacturer and spoken to breakdown services they believe that it is the cars inbuilt “front assist” that applied the brakes so harshly without my consent or doing, leaving me with whiplash type injury and symptoms.

 

Is anyone aware of a fault?  Had something like this happen? 

 

Can you imagine this at 80mph on the motorway with a lorry up yer chuff? Frightening.  A bit crash for cash like!  Thank fully nobody hit me, but it was rush hour and close I don't doubt the person behind was cursing the skoda driver in front!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

[Kobayashi]

earlier posts about this, never happened our MK3

 

 

[RickW]

23 hours ago, EmmaPearse said:

Hiya folks!  After your knowledge and advice please re what I think happened to me yesterday morning in my Skoda Fabia 1.4 Tdi.

 

I was driving along Birmingham Ring Road approx. 40 - 45mph, quite happily when there was a ping on the dashboard and the car stopped like it had hit a brick wall.  I pulled my car over to the side of the road expecting to find a vehicle had hit the car or that I had had a blow out of a tyre, to discover that in fact my car was absolutely flawless.  The car restarted and I made the remainder of my journey uneventfully.  Having contacted the car manufacturer and spoken to breakdown services they believe that it is the cars inbuilt “front assist” that applied the brakes so harshly without my consent or doing, leaving me with whiplash type injury and symptoms.

 

Is anyone aware of a fault?  Had something like this happen? 

 

Can you imagine this at 80mph on the motorway with a lorry up yer chuff? Frightening.  A bit crash for cash like!  Thank fully nobody hit me, but it was rush hour and close I don't doubt the person behind was cursing the skoda driver in front!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Playing devil's advocate,not wishing to offend,but in one sense you give consent by ticking the box and activating the front assist,allowing it to operate as it sees fit.

If the system is faulty then it needs checking out.

Also something may have activated it that you didn't have time to see,like a cat beginning to run out or a packet of some kind blowing about.

If you're not happy or confident that it's doing its job properly then switch it off as it's not compulsory. 

I wish you well in recovering from your fright and injuries.

[wiganken1]

I thought that switching Front Assist (FA) off only stayed off for that driving session? After switching the engine off then on again causes the FA to be reactivated again. Also if it is switched off then car insurers can use this to avoid paying out in the event of a claim. I could be wrong but worth checking it out.

[JXS]

In my owners manual it says if you turn it off using the steering wheel controls and Maxidot then it is reactivated when the car is next started.

However, if you turn it off using the infotainment screen options, while the ignition is on then it won't be reactivated.

I've not tried it on mine. Mine brings up the warning sometimes, seemingly at random, but I have never had it brake on me yet.

[wiganken1]

"Deactivated" is not the same as "Disabled". "Disabled" means that the FA is permanently OFF while "Deactivated" means temporarily OFF.  Where the manual states FA can be "deactivated" then this is a temporary setting. Where the manual states that the "distance-warning" function remains deactivated after switching on the ignition I believe that this is only one component of the FA system. The rest of the FA system is reactivated at every switch-on. Read the last sentence of the following newspaper article: - https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/local-news/volkswagen-car-keeps-thinking-its-689355

[rum4mo]

There is quite a bit of this happening with similar Polo and maybe even Ibiza, does not sound like it is a properly sorted out system.

 

The parking sensors on my wife's August 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI do maybe once a day or every other day, give out single warnings when there is nothing near the car, it happens so quickly and for such a short time that I have not been quick enough to see which sensor(s) were detecting.

 

Someone on the Polo forum has said that certain other vehicles sensors can trigger your ones and one car mentioned was the Ford Kuga.

Edited 21 December, 2018 by rum4mo

[RickW]

I'll avoid Ford Kugas from now on then (got road raged by someone driving one recently so all the more reason).

[rum4mo]

An Audi S8 in front of me today was annoying the front parking sensors on my wife's 2015 Polo 1.2TSI while I was stopped well enough away from it, so maybe there is something in this in as much as other car's active parking sensors are "feeding" another car's parking sensors - there was a white van behind eventually annoying the rear parking sensors, but that one would be only inches from the rear bumper so not a system problem, just a real obstacle!

[RickW]

Might be wrong but I thought rear sensors only worked when in reverse gear?

[rum4mo]

No, not in what might be "gen 2" parking systems, under a certain road speed, maybe 10MPH  they are ready for action.

 

My problem is, we have what is probably a VW Group car with the earlier type parking controller and a VW Group with the later type of parking controller - if I drive into a car parking slot that has a wall at its end, the 2015 Polo will always switch on its front sensors and keep me "safe" - my 2011 Audi S4, if I try that trick, ie park by "sound", the only sound I'd get would be a crunching noise as I contacted the wall, so, I must remember to switch on the parking system as I drive into a space with the S4, now if I jump into that parked S4 and start it up, it will switch on its front parking sensors automatically, or switch them on when reverse is selected.

[thamestrader]

What was the weather like, rain and spray have been known to cause false positives with the front assist. Also if water gets into the parking sensors they tend to malfunction until they dry out, as I discovered they don't like being power-washed!