ADAS and alignments
When aligning vehicles with ADAS systems, are the resets required every time? We have been seeing a lot more of these vehicles lately. what are the options for independent shops?
They are required when SI says they are. Depends on the system and OEM.
Resets (calibrations) of forward facing sensors is recommended by most OEs any time thrust angle changes. Bob is correct in pointing to current SI.
Is any of this information available from alldata or identifix? we unfortunately dont have access to OEM service information.
Everyone has access to O.E. info. All it takes is some moo-lah. ;-) Most have short-term subscriptions available, which is what a majority of shops use. You could also try calling your aftermarket service information provider and ask THEM to get the O.E. info for you (presuming you and they were unable to find it in their system).
"Everyone has access to O.E. info. All it takes is some moo-lah. ;-)" Thats true, but the shop isnt going to buy them. My managers are having a hard time understanding why we cant align some cars. Ive been recommending we dont align any cars with ADAS, they obviously dont like that.. Ill try to call alldata on the next one I have.
With that thought process, you won't be doing any alignments in a few years. AllData will email any info you can't find or help you find it in their system
MotoLogic has OE information in their system and Identifix has a portal to OE documents. 2017 and 18 or so will require an OE website for current SI.
Alldata will email OE info for 2018, I've not tried 2019
Motologic will email missing content in the same way as ALLDATA. Just use the customer service link.
you are right, Ive told my employer the same thing. but I can assure you they are not going to buy the tools to do it.
Larry, Re.: "Ive been recommending we dont align any cars with ADAS" Your recommendations are echoed throughout the industry (if your managers won't believe you, maybe they will all the other techs out here?). And, bad situations resulting from improperly performed alignments on cars with ADAS have been published in several trade publications (do they read any?). Do your managers understand
Hi Bob, I "Googled" ADAS+Alignment and got several hits (after I got frustrated with the ads from tool makers when I searched specific magazine sites). Here's one recent article: rts.i-car.com/collision-repa… .
My apologies, I assumed by this comment, "And, bad situations resulting from improperly performed alignments on cars with ADAS have been published in several trade publications (do they read any?)." you were referring to vehicle that had not been in a collision and just had a wheel alignment performed causing the system to not work correctly. I used your search criteria and could not come up
No, I see now that it is I who should apologize. I meant to write "And POTENTIALLY bad situations...". I see now that it was pointed out why there was confusion. I'm sorry.
From MotoLogic. 2015 A6 front camera calibration.
What is the process for calibrating the front camera? If it's service info, I will look when I get home
There are 2 different procedures depending on what service or repair has been done. The details are in SI including MotoLogic.
G'day Jaime, I invite you to consider that not all members in this forum have access to O.E. info.
Michael, not all members of this forum are in a region that has O.E. access.
Havent contacted them yet. we wont be doing any resets that require targets, we just dont have the space to set it up. as far as the vehicles that require test drives to reset, is anyone here doing them? how much are you charging?
Hello Jaxon, You're correct sir. I digress. There are some folks here who do not live in the US, therefore do not have allowance to purchase O.E. service information that U.S. residents can. Thank you for pointing that out.
Jaime we in Canada and yourself in the US sometimes take for granted the access we have to OE websites. Many countries are denied such access. I used to just take for granted it's online so anyone can access it. Not true of pay for use sites like the OE manufacturers. Alldata, Pro Demand and Identifix either have the information or will email it to subscribers, if they ask for it. Some don't
Hello Jaime, Thank you for hearing me.
I have not done any ADAS calibrations but if it's not specified to perform them in service info then I bet the calibration process is assuming an aligned vehicle. So if it isn't specified to recalibrate anything then I would think correcting thrust angle would only make the ADAS system more accurate, if anything.
Let’s take a Toyota Camry forward facing cameras as an example. SI says to mark target placement using the front and rear emblems and a plumb bob to mark the centerline of the body. Then measure and bisect that centerline to place the target (3 places, center and 555mm to each side). That process assumes that thrust angle is correct. If it is not that calibration is inaccurate by the amount of
Yes. So am I right in my thinking. That if the calibration assumes the alignment is good. Then correcting thrust angle would make the ADAS system on that car more accurate? Performing an alignment on that Camry, in your example, wouldn't throw the camera calibration off? It would correct it, so to speak?
Well...that's close. The only way to ensure an accurate calibration on those vehices that use centerline as reference is to make sure thrust angle is correct first. BTW...we are evaluating an aftermarket targeting system that aligns the targets based on thrust angle reference.
I thought it important to mention... A body shop owner / customer of mine was recently dragged into court to explain he had done everything precisely by-the-book when repairing a vehicle. He had sent the vehicle to the dealership to have the alignment adjusted, and subsequently the ADAS system recalibrated while there. His documentation indicated everything had been performed as it was supposed
Sadly this is going to be a target rich environment for litigators no matter how accurate we are in the services we perform. Every OE stresses that this is an assist technology and the driver still needs to be vigilant and actually DRIVE the vehicle...who knew ;) .
While I understand your worry about being hassled by lawyers I think the more we as a group stand up for ourselves the quicker the problem will go away. Those lawyers will learn that the top notch techs/shops know what they are doing and you won't gain anything by going after them. As far as not getting compensated, well that happens if you are subpoenaed and have to go. I haven't been in that
Very interesting story on the vehicle being out of alignment. What year, amke and model? As to your comment on the legal side. It's a pure liability element. We are the professionals and are to know to use the correct procedures and tools. The only people that get to determine what those are had always been the OE. You should research the John Eagle case. They won the case because the
2016 Subaru Outback Limited. Still under warranty, less than 5,000 miles on it. The problem happened since day one of ownership. I am very aware of the John Eagle case. I owned and operated a body shop for over 20 years. Once the insurance industry started attempting to tell me how to repair the vehicles I decided I had had enough and quit the body shop. I didn't need an untrained back yard bob
I do know on the Dodge vehicles you are supposed to reset the ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) and the SAS (Steering Angle Sensor). I am not sure if this is much help in your current situation, but if you do not reset on the Dodge products then a SAS code will automatically set.