Hello everyone,

 

I've just bought a new, secondhand Octavia III RS from 2014.   It has ACC and Front Assist.   I know the Front Assist works because the bloke selling it demonstrated it to me.   However, when I picked the car up, whenever I try to turn Front Assist on (using the button on the end of the left-hand stalk, not the ACC one, the one for indicators), it says on the dash-screen: "Front Assist Unavailable".   Any ideas what could be the cause?

 

It's slightly different to what I've seen other people reporting as it's not a warning message and it only appears when I try to turn it on.   I've read the manual and everything seems to be ok, including traction control being on.   The only thing I can think of is that it had a service in between it being demonstrated to me and me actually picking the car up.

 

I'm going to take it back to the garage tomorrow, but I just wanted to ask in case I'm doing something stupid?

 

Many thanks!

3 hours ago, SlappyTheFish said:

Hello everyone,

 

I've just bought a new, secondhand Octavia III RS from 2014.   It has ACC and Front Assist.   I know the Front Assist works because the bloke selling it demonstrated it to me.   However, when I picked the car up, whenever I try to turn Front Assist on (using the button on the end of the left-hand stalk, not the ACC one, the one for indicators), it says on the dash-screen: "Front Assist Unavailable".   Any ideas what could be the cause?

Have you set the traction control to anything other than "On/Normal"?

 

When I set it to "Sport" or "Off" I get this message...

If you view the Vehicle Status by pressing the  'CAR' button it will display any faults. As PetrolDave says, if you turn off Traction Control it will disable the Front Assist with the Unavailable message. If your Traction Control is switched on and Front Assist is still not available then you will need to see if it has been moved. I had this problem after hitting a large bird at speed. I solved it by pushing the radar back into position, which took 5-6 attempts. I hope it is just the Traction Control switched off. 

 

Thanks for the replies chaps.   I checked traction control - it is on and the vRS mode is set to "normal".   I checked for errors too, and it says no error reported.   So I had a look at the actual sensor itself, to see if it is positioned correctly.   It looks fine, firmly in place (no wobble) and runs in line with the front of the car.   However, it looks like the very last few milimetres of the top of the sensor is obscured by the top of the hole in the front grill - as if the sensor had been moved upwards a little bit.

 

So I googled a bit to see how it should look and found this:

 

Here you can see there is a clear gap around all edges of the sensor, but on mine, there isn't.   I didn't have time to look any further, and also I don't want to break anything, but I was wondering if this is something that can happen and just needs to be popped (somehow) back down into place?

Might have had a meeting with a low towbar or stone, just have a closer look look and see if you can prise it down a bit, it may just be a couple of screws or bolts that need to be adjusted. 

That is a message I sometime get when the front sensor gets confusing signals because of the surrounding environment. Driving northbound in the Blackwall tunnel can do it. It come back when I leave the tunnel.

So it does sound like the sensor thinks it is blocked somehow,

This is a photo of how the sensor looks on the pre-fl and the fl models. Your grill should be different than this, but the sensor is the same.

The others are right about the ASR, but also you can get this message if the sensor is iced. However i don't think that this is the case in Prague now

Thanks for the replies!   No ice in Prague (although plenty of rain!)  What's interesting is that ACC seems to work - at least it beeps when I get too close to the car in front.   So the radar seems to work - but whenever I try to turn on Front Assist without ACC, it says it's not available.   I took it to the garage and they looked puzzled and said they'd get back to me.   So it's a bit of a conundrum.

35 minutes ago, SlappyTheFish said:

What's interesting is that ACC seems to work - at least it beeps when I get too close to the car in front.

ACC should never get too close to the car in front when it's turned on - it slows the car (and brakes if necessary) to maintain the set distance.

 

Beeping when you get too close (with ACC not in use) is Front Assist.

Hmmm... it's not super close, but it definitely beeps, and ACC has to be on.   Without ACC on then Front Assist does nothing.   Am I being dumb and that's the way it's supposed to be - i.e. ACC has to be on for Front Assist to work?

I can assure you that it does work without ACC working, as I found out the other day when some dopey old codger opened his door without looking... A blast on the horn and an exchange of words which his parentage was put into doubt after he called me a 4 letter word with UN in it and things were sorted. 

7 hours ago, SlappyTheFish said:

Without ACC on then Front Assist does nothing.

 

2 hours ago, TheWanderer said:

I can assure you that it does work without ACC working, 

 

7 hours ago, SlappyTheFish said:

 

I'll echo what TheWanderer says - Front Assist DEFINITELY works when ACC is not in use. My wife NEVER uses ACC and still has had Front Assist work.

Old topic, hoping @trimata is still around, or someone can answer... in the photo that trimata posted of the pre-FL and FL models, which of the two is the FaceLift?

I have a 2020 Octavia Scout with around 6000km on it (bought new in October 2020). In the past few days the ACC has abruptly shut itself off with the "ACC not available" message appearing in the virtual instrument cluster, however simply turning ACC off and back on by pushing the cruise control lever back and a second later bringing it forward again has successfully re-engaged ACC each time.

I looked at the nose of my car today to see if maybe the radar cover had got dirty. I see something that maybe looks like the white car to the left in trimata's picture; although when trying to peer through the grill slots of down from the top with the lid open, I couldn't see whether there was anything behind that flat plastic square, and in any case it's not dirty.

I ran a fault scan with OBDeleven and there is NOT a fault in the ACC module, however there IS an "unknown" fault in "Steering assistance" with a time stamp that coincides with the most recent ACC disconnect:

 

  

Interestingly, there's only this one, whereas ACC has disconnected two or three times recently.

 

Any thoughts/suggestions on "ACC not available", NO idiot light on the dashboard, re-sets trivially by just turning ACC off and back on again with the cruise control (smaller, lower left) lever?

 

thanks!

-Jay

 

On 23/05/2019 at 14:48, trimata said:

This is a photo of how the sensor looks on the pre-fl and the fl models. Your grill should be different than this, but the sensor is the same.

The others are right about the ASR, but also you can get this message if the sensor is iced. However i don't think that this is the case in Prague now

 

 

My thoughts are not too worry and get it booked into Skoda to sort out.