Remove ADAS?

[POIDH]

2017 Fabia with the ADAS sensor only connected to warning light on dashboard. It does not connect to the braking system. MOT looms in October.

It has developed a fault. In my view a warning on the dash adds nothing to my safety - if anything the number of false positives is an issue.

Is there anyway of removing this system?

[Peter T]

Actually it is connected to the braking system that is why you have it fitted. What is the problem of the unit? Has the front sensor become detached in some way? possibly through a car wash or small frontal impact? Best way forward is ascertain what is wrong and go from there.

[cliffords]

I don't think it is connected to the brakes.
It just shows a warning on the dash re proximity.
I have a similar age car. It does not engage the brakes, you can drive into the back of the other car.

Writting for a friend of course.

[stevemcs]

It has nothing to do with the mot ?

It seems on Skodas the bracket rusts and the sensor moves, you could just get it calibrated,

[Sheepshanks]

They won't have fitted a radar sensor just to turn a light on. What's the point of that - warning you in case you're staring at the dash rather than looking at the road?

I'm sure the car will have both CEB (City Emergency Brake) and AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking).

[POIDH]

Sheepshanks said:

They won't have fitted a radar sensor just to turn a light on. What's the point of that - warning you in case you're staring at the dash rather than looking at the road?

I'm sure the car will have both CEB (City Emergency Brake) and AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking).

That is exactly what it does. I had a Leon before this of similar age with the same warning light and no brakes.
It has triggered a good few times - from warning of being too close to car in front to proper assuming I was going to hit wall on a country lane corner, thinking a humpback bridge was also a collision, not liking a tree filled roundabout, and so many more times. Between the Leon and this I have probably had the 'too close' warning in the hundreds of times, and the 'crash!' warning 30+ times.

You had to pay extra or go to posher model to get it connected to the brakes and the cruise control. In this car it most certainly is not connected to either brakes or cruise. My neighbour has a same age Superb and they have a bigger sensor and theirs is connected to cruise and brakes.

This then is why I wonder if I can remove. And a warning light of a safety system IS an MOT fail - I have even just booked in for my MOT and mentioned it to the garage who confirmed.

The sensor is completely clean. There is a slight movement when I give it a good wobble - but it is surrounded by plastic trim (as the sensor is smaller than the ones attached to brakes and cruise) so hard to tell if this is normal. I might wander around a few neighbours cars and ask to wobble theirs - we have 6 Skoda's in the cul-de-sac....

[Sheepshanks]

Can you turn off front assist in settings?

[POIDH]

Yes - but it still throws the error. I'm assuming it 'checks' itself every drive, even when it's not switched on.

[SandhurstCars]

Never done it but I expect you can remove it from the installed list in VCDS or similar to make the car think its not there

[POIDH]

I came back to resolve this thread. As the solution was remarkably simple.

I replaced all the brake and rear tail light bulbs. ADAS has not thrown an error since and has just passed clean MOT today and no error codes at all.

It turns out that ADAS is connected to all sorts - steering sensor, brake lights, ABS etc etc.

My garage suggested we check battery first, then did we have any bulbs out or bulb issues. We did not have any bulb issues or warnings - until three weeks ago when my son followed me home and noticed that on one bump one of my rear tail light bulbs flickered for a few seconds. I changed all four rear tail light bulbs and brake light bulbs on both sides. Two of the rear right tail light W5W bulbs were working but blackened....and they were the two causing the ADAS errors.

[silentbrown]

POIDH said:

It turns out that ADAS is connected to all sorts - steering sensor, brake lights, ABS etc etc.

So it can apply the brakes!

It won't apply the brakes every time it triggers a warning, only if you fail to take action after it's beeped at you, and it thinks a crash is otherwise imminent.

[POIDH]

silentbrown said:

POIDH said:

It turns out that ADAS is connected to all sorts - steering sensor, brake lights, ABS etc etc.

So it can apply the brakes!

It won't apply the brakes every time it triggers a warning, only if you fail to take action after it's beeped at you, and it thinks a crash is otherwise imminent.

But in this case it does not. Promise you.
I could drive at a wall and it would smash through.
It was an upgrade in cost to be connected to the brakes and cruise control.

[Sheepshanks]

POIDH said:

But in this case it does not. Promise you.
I could drive at a wall and it would smash through.
It was an upgrade in cost to be connected to the brakes and cruise control.

You're thinking of Adaptive Cruise Control?

As I said earlier in the thread, I'm sure it would be linked. We have several VW Group cars in the family and it's just very random / unpredictable in the way AEB and CEB work. If you drive slowly up to a wall it won't work - drive quicker and it probably will, but I wouldn't want to guarantee it!

[silentbrown]

POIDH said:

It was an upgrade in cost to be connected to the brakes and cruise control.

Connected to cruise control would be an update - plenty of cars have AEB but no ACC.

But, you literally just said it was "connected to the ABS"?

Edited by silentbrown on Monday 13th October 16:30

[cliffords]

POIDH said:

silentbrown said:

POIDH said:

It turns out that ADAS is connected to all sorts - steering sensor, brake lights, ABS etc etc.

So it can apply the brakes!

It won't apply the brakes every time it triggers a warning, only if you fail to take action after it's beeped at you, and it thinks a crash is otherwise imminent.

But in this case it does not. Promise you.
I could drive at a wall and it would smash through.
It was an upgrade in cost to be connected to the brakes and cruise control.

Seconded as per my post above its NOT connected to the brakes . I know this for sure

[SAS Tom]

It is connected to the brakes. It was standard on all Fabia’s I’m sure. I bought a new one in 2016. Insurance was cheaper because of this feature.

[stevemcs]

My suoerb has ACC and i do not just it one bit when approaching traffic at a reasonable speed.

[POIDH]

silentbrown said:

Connected to cruise control would be an update - plenty of cars have AEB but no ACC.

But, you literally just said it was "connected to the ABS"?

Edited by silentbrown on Monday 13th October 16:30

I think my garage's point was that all the sensors and electronics on even a modest new car are connected somehow. It's connected to steering sensor- but doesn't steer the car. I've got cruise, but not ACC, but it's connected. Etc. Proven by a dodgy rear bulb (that was still working) playing havoc with an ADAS system.

Edited by POIDH on Tuesday 14th October 08:25

[Adrian E]

Being ‘connected’ to the ABS doesn’t mean it can provide an instruction to the brakes. It’s likely one of the parameters used to determine if the driver has already reacted to a situation before throwing the warning light.