Unfortunately hit a deer on way home tonight, neither me nor emergency braking stood a chance as it lept in front of us. I was only travelling about 40mph.

 

After the initial thump, the only warning to appear on dash was front fog. Pulled over a few hundered yards down the road, got out fearing the worst  ( once nearly had a car written off after hitting a deer ) and to my utter amazement, couldn't see any damage. Some blood but no apparent damage.

 

Continued to drive home, it looked like the front fog wasn't working. Tried every other function I could think of - lane assist, ACC  etc - everything working.

 

When we arrived home, all it took was a slight tap on the fog light for it to work and the warning message to disappear. Probably a loose connection then. There is however a hairline crackon bumper at the corner under neath the headlight - You'd hardly notice it unless you look very closely. As far as I can see there is no bodywork damaged. Headlight washer cover smothered in blood but headlight washers work.

 

Thinking I've been very fortunate, about 45mins later a 'front assist' and 'ACC' warning message appeared, this time however I couldn't clear them. Checked the front sensor (mk3 Octavia - in middle of grill) and all looks fine, but I can't clear the error message.

 

The system worked for 45mins after the accident so I'm thinking it may well be a loose connection that's causing this error.

 

Anyone have an idea what I should do to rectify the error? Can the radar unit simply be unplugged / plugged? I've tried switching engine off / on but front assist and ACC error messages still present.

 

I recently had the same Front Assist error on my Pre-FL Octavia after hitting a bird at speed. All looked ok and each time I started the car all was ok then after 5-10 mins ' Front Assist Unavailable' messages appeared. The radar was exposed under the number plate and I guessed that it had been knocked out of alignment. It was held by 3 screws on a bracket. It took 4-5  attempts to 'mend' it, by leaving the screws alone and moving, as carefully as possible,  the entire bracket up/down. I saved myself a trip to the dealers and probably a few £ for a professional alignment.  Although your radar is behind the badge, I expect it's a loose wire or possibly moved on a bracket, if it's not screwed directly to a frame. 

The radar is a complicated piece of high tech. To work reliably it has to perform various self-check functions periodically, and errors will result in it declaring itself unavailable. If there is nothing obviously wrong that you can fix yourself such as a loose connector or broken mount point, and the problem persists, some kind of dealer diagnostic may be the best option. 

Both above replies right, going to need insurance job. Thought I'd got away lightly (which is more than can be said for Bambi) with superficial damage. Headlight and fog light been pushed back slightly but they're intact. However it's just been pointed out to me several hairline cracks on bumber, bonnet dented and out of alignment. Further hairline cracks on grille suggest the radar is out of alignment so defo an insurance job. Bugger.  Best of it is I bought two Waitrose venison burgers yesterday - karma me thinks.

 

I've never fully understood the 'free' Ensurance I have with my Skoda and SEAT but thought I'd give it a try - probably best having the alignment done by Skoda. However there's a catch...  you can't use Ensurance on an 'at fault' claim.  So there you have it, the reason it's free is because whoever deals with the claim is only there to make money from the 3rd party. All this 5hit about only using genuine parts, Skoda paint blah, blah, blah -  all they're interested in is screwing the 3rd party for as much money as THEY can get out of them. In otherwords they're parasites.

 

No wonder insurance is so expensive when you have sharks / ambulance chases like this.  ( my moan for the day ).