Hi I’m hoping somebody can help as I’m very baffled. 
I have recently bought a Skoda superb estate 65 plate (I’m new to Skodas), 

prior to buying it, on my test drive, there  was an alert on the dash saying ‘front assist not available’. Being a complete novice I didn’t even know what front assist was, I said could it be sorted before I came back to pick it up and buy it and they said they were happy to have a look. I have since done a little research and figured out what front assist is and why it May became not available. 
Anyway, I receive a call from the owner of the garage who said ‘the sensor was visibly out of line so we’ve repositioned it and the light has gone off’ 

so I was happy to go and buy the car. 
However once I got home I thought I’d flick through the menu using the steering wheel scroller and came across ‘assist systems’ clicked on it, there’s only an option for front assist which was unchecked, so I clicked to turn it on, and it said unavailable. 
I called the dealer back and told him this and he said he would book it into Skoda for recalibration. 
Fabulous I thought. 
So yesterday i dropped it at the dealer, who said he had an appointment at 1pm with Skoda, at 5pm he called and said they had carried out a recalibration and he has a invoice proof of it. however they apparently informed him the button on the steering wheel (which I hadn’t actually noticed) which has the picture of the car with line around it, doesn’t do anything and never will as the car has front assist but not cruise control. 
I’m a little confused by this as the manual says this button can be used to activate/deactivate front assist. 
So once I got the car back, I went straight to the scroller button, to try find the ‘assist systems’ option’, assuming now now the sensor had been recalibrated I would be able to turn on the front assist. 
However, to my confusion, there’s no longer an option for ‘assist systems’ in the menu. It’s vanished! 
He did say ‘they’ve also carried out an update for you but god knows why that would delete an whole option. 
so I’m not left with an invoice to say the sensor for front assist has been recalibrated and ‘all ok’

but with no way of deactivating, or activating it, to see if it actually works. 
Is there something dodgy going on here?

 

Sounds dodgy. I would confirm that the car doesn’t have cruise control, unless you mean ACC and contact the local Skoda dealer, to check if it really was booked in for a recalibration. A VCDS guru might be able to confirm that the Front Assist option can be removed, although I would have thought it could be disabled rather than completely removed from the menu. My Octavia had Front Assist with manual cruise control, I.e.  not Active Cruise Control.  It did work effectively. 

Ah I have no idea, he gave me a print out of ‘pR numbers’ For my car which they apparently gave him to show there’s no cruise control. 
this is it.. 

Quite simply, does your car have cruise control, look on the steering column for a second lever for the ACC lever or on top of the indicator stalk, to see if there is a small switch. I have drive a baseline Superb without cruise so perhaps your car genuinely doesn’t have it. 

 

Look for a sticker like this in the boot. Probably near your spare wheel. Take a picture and post on the site & someone will be kind enough to decode what spec ur car came with. You could prob decode it yourself by entering the codes into google & searching their meaning. I’m sure there’s a handy conversion website somewhere. 

Okay I can confirm I definitely don’t have any cruise control just front assist. 
I’ve called the Skoda dealership and they confirmed he did bring the car in and there records state recalibration carried too. 
so now is just the mystery of the menu option for ‘assistance systems’ that has vanished from both the dash and the info swing. 
The technician who did the calibration wasn’t in today so I’m going to call back Tuesday when he’s in to see if he can help. There’s something strange going on with it!  
 

Maybe the technician has flashed the control unit to reinstall the right SW version...

Ahh you’ll have to speak a little more lay for me. At the bottom on the invoice is does say something about a campaign, and then says ‘update on engine control unit’ 

Oh I think I’ve just realised you mean software when you say SW, 

but sure if I have a sensor for front assist at the front of my car. I should have software to enable me to active/deactive front assist? 

Its a complicated subject. Basically you need 2 things for any ADAS system to work - the Hardware (Sensors, Cameras etc) and the software to run it.

You could have one and not the other. 

You could have the hardware in place, but as has been suggested above, the software to run it may have been disabled or deleted. Or you may have options appearing on a menu but unless you have the hardware installed they will not activate. 

 

As I mentioned above, go to your boot and find the sticker as in the link above. That will translate into the exact spec on that car as it left the factory. That will be a good place to start to see what was active on the car originally. Then you have more information on what to do next. 

There is a lot of different ADAS systems, some will work independant, some require other systems to be active - its a bit of a minefield. 

But by getting the info on what the car was originally spec'd with, you will know wether it is worth infesting anymore time in. And it will give you something to go back to the dealer with.

After that you will need to physically check to see if a Camera is installed on the windscreen, a Radar sensor is present behind the front bumper (possibly behind the badge - it is on the latest VW ) and if the car has cruise control, which is a pretty standard on a lot of Skoda's. Also is it auto or manual. All these factors will feed into what the car is then capable of from an ADAS point of view. 

Looks like mine got wet at some point so can’t make it all out 

Shame it’s wet. This was the best I could make out. If what I could read none of them suggest any ADAS options. 

 

Edited 30 August, 20205 yr by AJAMESR

Thank you for that! 
I guess what’s a little confusing, is that when I bought the car, there was definitely the software for front assist on both the dash and infotainment menus but just saying ‘unavailable’ when I tried to click it. 
and the dealership have said they have carried out a ‘radar calibration’ on the invoice. 
So I’m assuming I have the radar sensor behind the front bumper. Also because the dealer I originally bought the car from said he had taken the ‘ front grill’ off and ‘repositioned the sensor’ in attempt to fix the problem before taking it to Skoda. 
But I guess it could be one of the codes that we can’t make out! 

On 30/08/2020 at 14:04, BethP said:

Thank you for that! 
I guess what’s a little confusing, is that when I bought the car, there was definitely the software for front assist on both the dash and infotainment menus but just saying ‘unavailable’ when I tried to click it. 
and the dealership have said they have carried out a ‘radar calibration’ on the invoice. 
So I’m assuming I have the radar sensor behind the front bumper. Also because the dealer I originally bought the car from said he had taken the ‘ front grill’ off and ‘repositioned the sensor’ in attempt to fix the problem before taking it to Skoda. 
But I guess it could be one of the codes that we can’t make out! 

Take a pic of the front where the sensor should be. It can either look like sensor or just a plain piece of plastic.

On 30/08/2020 at 13:35, AJAMESR said:

Shame it’s wet. This was the best I could make out. If what I could read none of them suggest any ADAS options. 

 

What's that a screenshot of? Is it a public website?