I think my front radar is now useless been through some heavy rain just lately and now shows front assist/ACC is unavailable & suspect water ingress may be the problem, before I go to the dealers & takeout a loan for the costs I would like to see if anyone out there can answer a few questions. (Not had it plugged in to diagnostics yet but seems the radar unit is a fairly common issue)

 

Is the unit prone to water ingress over time.

Does anyone have a link or easy guide to the radars accessibility. (Don't want to remove the bumper)

If I managed to get the unit out can this be opened up to dry out maybe.

If a second hand one was sourced (there are many around) what would need to happen, ie can you just fit it & hope for the best or would there be some re-programming & calibration need to be done.

And lastly anyone done this or have contact for anyone who could look into this for me Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire area.

 

Thanks for looking & any replies 

 

 

The front radar is quite well protected, only snow has caused mine to stop working as it can't throw out a signal, but cleared.

 

Without wanting to state the obvious, is it activated?  I only ask as my blind spot warning suddenly became inoperative when in Spain, error message blind spot unavailable, which would have been a real pain!  On checking, for no apparent reason it had been deactivated (no tick), easily sorted after a moment of panic.

 

Disconnect the battery for a couple of minutes if all else fails and see if that resets it.

Recent weather may have had an effect. Mine sometimes disables on really bad road conditions, normally from debris getting splashed up against it. Leaves, mucky water etc. Normally either a wash or standing overnight brings it back on again. 

Mine too has been inoperative in snow, but the one time it stopped working in fine weather and when it hadn't been deactivated was due to a broken bracket holding it in place.   I don't know how it happened as there were no marks to indicate it'd been knocked and it suddenly went off when I was driving along a road with no other traffic nearby. 

The chances of water ingress are low, possibly a bent/broken bracket is more likely.

 

But if it is water damaged i have one i could sell you if you were interested.

15 hours ago, Silvershadow said:

I think my front radar is now useless been through some heavy rain just lately and now shows front assist/ACC is unavailable & suspect water ingress may be the problem, before I go to the dealers & takeout a loan for the costs I would like to see if anyone out there can answer a few questions. (Not had it plugged in to diagnostics yet but seems the radar unit is a fairly common issue)

 

Is the unit prone to water ingress over time.

Does anyone have a link or easy guide to the radars accessibility. (Don't want to remove the bumper)

If I managed to get the unit out can this be opened up to dry out maybe.

If a second hand one was sourced (there are many around) what would need to happen, ie can you just fit it & hope for the best or would there be some re-programming & calibration need to be done.

And lastly anyone done this or have contact for anyone who could look into this for me Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire area.

 

Thanks for looking & any replies 

 

 

 

the ACC radar is not prone to water ingress - it can withstand that stuff.

 

the ACC radar however is on very precise brackets, that hold it in precise location, hence any slight knock/deviation, and the ACC radar will b unhappy.

recalibration is not an easy task either.

 

u can access the ACC radar without removing the bumper.  u need to pop the radar cover off though.  to do that, open the bonnet, and u'll see two pop plastic rivets above the radar cover, take these out.  then using a flat screwdriver or similar too, carefully push/pop out the cover.

 

below is a pic of the ACC radar itself......exposed.

just ignore the Open / Closed / arrows.

 

 

 

I also have « Front assist / Rear trafic assist unavailable » message sometimes. As far as I can remember, VCDS scan points out a low voltage battery. I have to say the message tends to appear  when my Mk3 has not moved for a couple of days.

The battery is the original one, soon 6 years old. I will probably replace it before the end of the year.

Edited 3 November, 20232 yr by Bap33