Urgent Advice Needed! Leon Cupra front radar sensor problem?

[y-cupra]

Hi All,

I am new here and was looking for a forum where i could get some good advice. I have 17 plate seat leon cupra and i am due in four weeks to give it back on a lease. Recently while i was driving on the motorway a warning came on the dashboard saying 'front radar assist unavailable'.

Since it was also due a service i took it to my local seat garage to get it look at along with a service. so the garage send me a video and phoned saying they did a full health check along with service and the front radar sensor at the bottom has came loose and needs replacing, they are quoting me for replacing the sensor , bracket and re calibrating the sensor just under £1300!!!

Now i was pretty pissed when i phone they said it was accidental damage and they cannot replace it under warranty. I did not hit the car and i am sure nobody hit me there is no sign of damage, i went to another garage that i trusted and they told me it is quite common on these cars and unfortunately they cannot re calibrate or do anything to fix it.

What are my best options here has anybody here had the same problem? I am pretty p***** as they said it was accidental are they trying to say i hit it? From what i have read online even if a stone hits it can throw it off and cause the warning light to come on. Thank you for reading this long winded rant any help will be greatly appreciated.

Regards Yasser,

 

[Lozzy15]

If it is just loose and not broken I can't see why it would need replacing, they attach to their bracket on rubber mounts so if it is loose it would just need to be re-attached. In regards to recalibration, this can happen on it's own. My Leon's front radar needs calibrating after it went out of spec on it's own. I was quoted £175 for it to be done.

Hope you get it sorted.

 

[Norbert]

If you got proper vag com cable you can reset the calibration and will work fine. After reset need a good motorway run to calibrate.
I did this 8months ago and work fine.

 

[bgb]

Buy the bracket firstly and fix it up as best as possible then cycle your ignition/go for a drive.

You may get lucky and it will reset itself!

If the cars going back, can you de-select front assist etc and get it to go away? Then play dumb when BCA say an issue?

 

[RUM4MO]

Well maybe not BCA more like NCA/DCA, maybe.

 

[Norbert]

Without calibrate on motorway drive always come back as faulty few miles later.
Need proper reseting with vagcom first.

 

[Lozzy15]

Without calibrate on motorway drive always come back as faulty few miles later.
Need proper reseting with vagcom first.

How do you do this on VCDS? I couldn't find how to do it a proper re calibration and all the info I found, including a youtube video shows specialist equipment needed to do it.

 

[Norbert]

Chassis 13 auto dist reg
Security access
I think was in basic setting and some resetting.
Make sure bracket fixed properly and drive the car in speed.
Mine perfect after this. every day try stop the car when im to close to turning cars

With vagcom possible to check the angles from the sensor but if same as was must be ok.
I rammed a car so mine was out of original angle.

 

[Lozzy15]

Chassis 13 auto dist reg
Security access
I think was in basic setting and some resetting.
Make sure bracket fixed properly and drive the car in speed.
Mine perfect after this. every day try stop the car when im to close to turning cars

With vagcom possible to check the angles from the sensor but if same as was must be ok.
I rammed a car so mine was out of original angle.

Ok I'll give it a try, was there a code needed for the security access do you remember?
Thanks

 

[Norbert]

Ok I'll give it a try, was there a code needed for the security access do you remember?
Thanks

No p
If you go security access the vagcom show which code need
I will try to find what i used

 

[Norbert]

Maybe 14117

 

[Lozzy15]

Cheers, I'll go have another play. Sorry for hijacking your thread y-cupra, hopefully you might be able to use this info too.

 

[y-cupra]

Cheers, I'll go have another play. Sorry for hijacking your thread y-cupra, hopefully you might be able to use this info too.

Thank you for all the replies guys, no worries lozzy15 i am glad i came here and asked because it seems excessive to pay what they are asking. The fact they are wanting to replace the sensor and bracket concerns me it just seems to have had been loosened off the bracket and probably needs re calibrating.

Do you mind me asking who you got quoted to re calibrate for £175?

 

[Lozzy15]

Thank you for all the replies guys, no worries lozzy15 i am glad i came here and asked because it seems excessive to pay what they are asking. The fact they are wanting to replace the sensor and bracket concerns me it just seems to have had been loosened off the bracket and probably needs re calibrating.

Do you mind me asking who you got quoted to re calibrate for £175?

That was quoted by Derby VW, but they couldn't do the work. The nearest place to me (Derby/Nottingham) that has the equipment to do it is Mansfield VW and that's what they charge. I have heard however that a couple of indy garages these days have the kit to do it and do it for a cheaper price to but I've yet to explore that rumour.

 

[Don M]

Thank you for all the replies guys, no worries lozzy15 i am glad i came here and asked because it seems excessive to pay what they are asking. The fact they are wanting to replace the sensor and bracket concerns me it just seems to have had been loosened off the bracket and probably needs re calibrating.

Do you mind me asking who you got quoted to re calibrate for £175?

Y-Cupra, im going through exactly the same saga with SEAT. My Leon went the same way whilst I was driving, less than 6 months old and under 3K miles. Guess what they said? - it must have been in an accident. When i got a second opinion (on SEATs advice) which stated there was no damage to the vehicle or sensor to indicate an accident, they said they dont believe independent garages only SEAT dealerships. Same thing hapened to my brothers VW - VW have now mover the sensor up to the badge on their new models - obviously a design fault. I'm now going to the ombudsman. SEAT Customer Service is shocking.

 

[BigJase88]

Shocking but not at all surprised at SEATS stance i would contact seat themselves instead of the dealership. Take it to the top

 

[Norbert]

Waste of time...
However our 3 door serviced and moted yesterday and they replaced wheel bearing under warranty.
Big surprise they did without arguing or seat head office involved.

Front sensor doable home with vagcom no point to argue with seat.I did mine after small ramming accident with previous fr.

 

[Don M]

Shocking but not at all surprised at SEATS stance i would contact seat themselves instead of the dealership. Take it to the top

Yes - you are right! I did take it to SEAT Customer Service, they told me to get second opinion and when i called back with the independent result (clearly no accident damage) they told me they only believed the dealership results! when i asked how i escalate this abysmal customer experience - she told me to contact the vehicle ombudsman - did that tonight. So annoyed.

 

[Don M]

Waste of time...
However our 3 door serviced and moted yesterday and they replaced wheel bearing under warranty.
Big surprise they did without arguing or seat head office involved.

Front sensor doable home with vagcom no point to argue with seat.I did mine after small ramming accident with previous fr.

thanks Norbert - i will no doubt have to bite the bullet at some point and sort it. will wait and see what ombudsman says.

 

[boggle]

OP do not pay out to have the radar recalibrated this is not the issue. Calibration is loaded at the radars manufacture.

The issue is probably the radar is out of alignment/loose

You will need VCDS. There should be faults stored under the radar. Too many faults and the radar wont run...
Reset faults and then see what comes back.

Using the measuring blocks you should be able to see the angle that radar is at and the deviation value, if its not set up corectly.

Google front radar retrofit and some topics cover corect placement

Dealers are pretty clueless and dont have the kit to calibrate either the front assist or adaptive cruise control.