On 21/08/2021 at 06:27, mfizz said:

Good news guys, they admitted liability and now I'm going through insurance. I wasn't trying to help them I just wanted to avoid the hassle of dealing with the legal battle if they turned around and said I went in to the back of them. So I was being nice and playing along as not to get their backs up.

 

@AlVal pacc is something I wanted to do... How did you get past the cp yourself and the FEC/SWAP?

I'll message you.. 

On 20/08/2021 at 18:12, mfizz said:

......they will charge by the hour and taking the bumper off alone is a 3 hour job.

 

lol, taking the front bumper off  is nowhere near as long as that. 

 

takes me 20-30 mins, and that's me at home with jack stands, doing myself.

 

a Skoda workshop with all the equipment/tools/people should do it in 10-15 mins tops.

dealer is milking it again, quoting 3 hrs!! 

 

either way - good thing its all sorted for u and insurance will cover the repain.

Edited 23 August, 20214 yr by JR RS

6 hours ago, JR RS said:

 

lol, taking the front bumper off  is nowhere near as long as that. 

 

takes me 20-30 mins, and that's me at home with jack stands, doing myself.

 

a Skoda workshop with all the equipment/tools/people should do it in 10-15 mins tops.

dealer is milking it again, quoting 3 hrs!! 

 

either way - good thing its all sorted for u and insurance will cover the repain.

probably, they milk in general don't they. They are following whatever times ekta quotes them. We have Hortons here in the UK who are relatively good and their charges are £135 for the labour and £135 again for calibration. Considering no dealer in their right mind charges below £50/hour i can only assume that even they are quoting for 1.5 hours or 2 hours for the job as well with the calibration being separate.

5 hours ago, mfizz said:

probably, they milk in general don't they. They are following whatever times ekta quotes them. We have Hortons here in the UK who are relatively good and their charges are £135 for the labour and £135 again for calibration. Considering no dealer in their right mind charges below £50/hour i can only assume that even they are quoting for 1.5 hours or 2 hours for the job as well with the calibration being separate.

 

Yup, not doubting wat u said.

 

Just shocked at how much time the dealer quoted - they really milking it!!

 

The actual radar calibration process, including the A5 camera, is approx. 45 mins, and it involves both static and dynamic states of calibration.

I have just been looking at how to calibrate the radar sensor.. Essentially a laser pointer and make sure it points straight back with little / no deviation. If all one had to do was to calibrate the camera, is this all the dealers are charging for?

Whilst this is still ongoing I wanted to take time out to thank you to the members of this community. When I posted this issue I only just had the accident. The speed at which members of this community responded and advised on what to do speaks volumes. So Thanks All 

I've followed this thread with interest as my car suddenly came up with the message "front assist unavailable about 3 weeks ago and it went into the dealer yesterday for investigation.  They've reported that the mounting bracket is broken and they'll replace this and calibrate it when it goes in for its service on 7 September as they don't have the bracket in stock.  

 

It's a mystery as to how it was broken as I haven't hit anything and the message appeared as I was driving north up the A470 around Merthyr Tydfil after leaving the Cyfarthfa Retail Park.  There were no other vehicles nearby and there was no sound of hitting anything in the road.  In the retail car park, there's a section I always chose where the spaces are a bit wider and away from the area where most other shoppers park.  It's a single row and I park in forwards to make loading the boot easier.  The front is facing a small grass verge and then a hedge and there was nothing near the front of the car to damage it.

 

If it was damaged prior to this, could it have worked for a while until the unit moved sufficiently to stop working?  There's no sign of any damage on the front.  It's possible it could have been kicked on the front by some yob in Cyfarthfa with nothing better to do as it was keyed on the rear nearside door in that car park about 4 years ago.

7 hours ago, Penpusher said:

I've followed this thread with interest as my car suddenly came up with the message "front assist unavailable about 3 weeks ago and it went into the dealer yesterday for investigation.  They've reported that the mounting bracket is broken and they'll replace this and calibrate it when it goes in for its service on 7 September as they don't have the bracket in stock.  

 

It's a mystery as to how it was broken as I haven't hit anything and the message appeared as I was driving north up the A470 around Merthyr Tydfil after leaving the Cyfarthfa Retail Park.  There were no other vehicles nearby and there was no sound of hitting anything in the road.  In the retail car park, there's a section I always chose where the spaces are a bit wider and away from the area where most other shoppers park.  It's a single row and I park in forwards to make loading the boot easier.  The front is facing a small grass verge and then a hedge and there was nothing near the front of the car to damage it.

 

If it was damaged prior to this, could it have worked for a while until the unit moved sufficiently to stop working?  There's no sign of any damage on the front.  It's possible it could have been kicked on the front by some yob in Cyfarthfa with nothing better to do as it was keyed on the rear nearside door in that car park about 4 years ago.

Absolutely 100% possible it could have been damaged. At the very moment I had the accident I went inside to check, chucked on the ACC and it picked up the car in front. Eventually when I drove away it was intermittentently picking up the car in front followed by completely gone. I can only imagine it had dislocated in the first instance and some more driving dropped it completely, picking up nothing but the bumper itself.

 

Now imagine a broken bracket going at high speed, the force and just aging of the plastic it eventually gives so it suddenly drops.. which would result in the the message ACC unavailable or even the radar impaired.

Edited 27 August, 20214 yr by mfizz

I've got my car back after the service yesterday and they've replaced the bracket and calibrated the front assist so it's all back as it should be.  They charged £60.00 for the initial diagnostic and £36.00 for replacing the bracket and the calibration, so it cost me a lot less than I thought it would.

4 hours ago, Penpusher said:

I've got my car back after the service yesterday and they've replaced the bracket and calibrated the front assist so it's all back as it should be.  They charged £60.00 for the initial diagnostic and £36.00 for replacing the bracket and the calibration, so it cost me a lot less than I thought it would.

 

Sounds like what they've done is for £36 is just replace the bracket and then remount your old sensor. Done a basic settings reset and moved on.

 

The full calibration takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to do. Indies charge around 130. Hortons charge 135. And everyone else charges 200+

2 hours ago, mfizz said:

 

Sounds like what they've done is for £36 is just replace the bracket and then remount your old sensor. Done a basic settings reset and moved on.

 

The full calibration takes a good 45 minutes to an hour to do. Indies charge around 130. Hortons charge 135. And everyone else charges 200+

It works now, so that's what matters and I don't want to pay for any unnecessary work.  The invoice says "Carried out radar calibration and replaced bracket".  There's also a page headed "Standard suspension + level control 4 wheel total alignment" and it says at the bottom of the page "ACC was adjusted.  An alignment was performed". 

31 minutes ago, Penpusher said:

It works now, so that's what matters and I don't want to pay for any unnecessary work.  The invoice says "Carried out radar calibration and replaced bracket".  There's also a page headed "Standard suspension + level control 4 wheel total alignment" and it says at the bottom of the page "ACC was adjusted.  An alignment was performed". 

Looks like you've got a great deal there.

Indeed! Mind sharing the dealer? I'll go there too if it's nearby...

6 hours ago, mfizz said:

Indeed! Mind sharing the dealer? I'll go there too if it's nearby...

It was Sinclair Škoda Swansea.  I did have a full service and MOT and the cam belt and water pump were replaced too, so it wasn't an isolated charge but was part of a bigger bill.  They did say when I first took it to see where the problem was that the cost would be £120.00 for the diagnostic, but they only charged £60.00 as they said they quickly found the problem and so only charged for the time they spent on it.  Maybe the other work they did was a bit quicker than expected and so they reduced the charge for the calibration etc?  Having seen other comments on here about main dealers and their charges, it seems unlikely.

Sinclair Skoda Swansea was where I got my 280 from last September (wasn’t local as I’m in Somerset!), didn’t have any service or warranty work done by them obviously but I can’t fault their sales team, very friendly and helpful!

Quick question guys I wanted to know if the lane assist and the front radar are connected somehow.

 

What's I'm waiting for my car to be repaired I still need to be able to drive the car. However due to the fact of the radar is misplaced it would randomly start breaking at high speeds, so I removed it.

 

But now when I started the car it came up with an error saying front assist unavailable which was as expected but also said lane assist is unavailable as well and I cannot seem to turn it back on either

Whilst I'm driving the car!

 

Also it came up with dynamic road sign display unavailable, even though it turns on after a few seconds, but the message remains. I still have light assist available.. every minute or so, lane assist and driver assistance lights comes on for a few seconds comes on in orange not the usual amber..

 

ACC (front radar) and Lane Assist (rear radars) r linked.

Switching the ACC to fully off on the cruise control stalk will give u a message saying that Lane Assist is also turned off. But it's not an error or warning.  The message will flash in MFD for 2 secs or so, n then disappear.

It becomes available again when u pull the cruise control stalk forward.

 

The road signs in restricted mode message is normal for those that activated TSR in a region which doesn't have the correct map data.  It's a warning, but it continues to work for the most part.

 

Light Assist is not related to any of the above.

Edited 21 September, 20214 yr by JR RS

Thanks @JR RS, went into panic mode there.

 

Got an auto start stop error as well I suppose I get that one (car used to always start back up when it detected that traffic ahead moving)

 

Interesting about the TSR.. I've never had that before I would say speed map data for the UK is pretty conclusive. Could it have been triggered because of removing the radar?

Edited 22 September, 20214 yr by mfizz

Interesting thread! In my day job I have been talking to an accident insurer repair sub-contractor largely about the immense challenge of repairing level 2 and above autonomy tech, and re-calibrating it.  Whilst it might be straightforward to carry out the calibration oneself, bear in mind the whole point about calibration of any device is that it is traceable back to the reference SI unit, and should have a certificate to confirm just that. So unless you are using an accredited laboratory or workshop, your home done calibration is worthless, which from a practical day to day use might be fine, but if involved in an accident then it might suddenly become important.