navin in KC

I get this error most any time that it rains or snows. I've got two questions:

1) where is the sensor so I can see if it is clogged or blocked?

2) should I ask the dealer to replace the sensor? If other people don't have this in the rain, then something is wrong with mine.

SENS8

I've seen this message (in 28,000 miles on 2007 S8) ONLY once in snow-- when it was plausible-- and never in rain, etc.

Ringmeister

<center><img src="http://www.fourtitude.com/gallery/albums//Audi/A8-S8-V8%20(D1,%20D2%20and%20D3)/A8%20-%20D3/6.0/Exterior/018.jpg"></center><p>If you have ACC, it is the black square shape in the middle of your lower grill just beneath the center section of the bumper (under your front license plate).

In this linked picture from our friends at Fourtitude, you can see the sensor below the license plate characters "D1".

navin in KC

thank you. I'll take a look at that spot this morning

Scott in Cincy

Maybe twice in the year I've had it, but not in the rain or snow...it was just an error. My personal opinion is that they can also error out because of other radar sources. I would take it to the dealer and have them replace it.

CanAm Eight

I will look forward to hearing what your dealer has to say about the Adaptive Cruise.

I have been trying for two years to get Audi to fix the very spotty operation of the Adaptive Cruise system without avail. I am told it operates correctly, and the blocked sensor warning alerts are `a safety feature'.

I have several posts over the past few year on this subject.

navin in KC

My dealer doesn't seem to want to help me at all. My opinion is that they aren't a very good dealer, but I didn't buy the car from them.

They hooked the car up to their computer and it find NO problem with the sensor. They, therefore, cannot replace it. I argued with them for about 10 minutes about this and they refuse to replace the sensor. They say that Audi will not reimburse them for the part if there is not an "error" in the system proving that the part is bad. It is very frustrating and I believe that there is nothing that I can do, outside of replacing it myself. Anybody know how much that part is?

AudiTK

I'm not sure I would rush out and replace the sensor (yet). I can give you some advice from a similar problem I have been having with the BMW active cruise, there was not enough details in your post for me to confirm if the details are similar but I will post my experience and you can decide.

I live in in Western Canada, and there is little tall grass, signs or other wise things along the side of the hi ways or even other cars on the road at times for the ACC to reflect off, and as such it generates an error condition. The condition I get is sensor is dirty and instructs me to clean it. On inspection there is no build up on the sensors. No bugs, no road grim, nothing. Its clean.

The system works 100% in the city, driving on the freeways, side streets or any other place in the city that makes sense to use the ACC.

After a year of messing around with this and back and forth to the dealer, BMW Germany informed me that there is nothing they can do and they have seen this problem in select parts of the world, one of them being western Canada and some misc parts of the USA. The condition occurs when the sensor doesn't see anything for some time, and times out with the assumption of an error condition. They didn't have a specific error code programed for it, so the system generates a malfunction code on the assumption the sensor was dirty. In my case BMW wasn't going to replace or repair the system.

In Europe you could hold down the ACC power on button, and that would activate conventional cruise, but it was disabled in the North American markets (deeming us too stupid to know the difference of what mode was engaged).

In my case the system works perfect in urban areas but once I hit the hiway out of town it stops working and warns of sensor blocked/dirty messages. In later generations of the system, starting in 2014/2015, the system was programed to do a test mode I was told that checked the data bouncing off the ground right in front of it to determine if the system is still working correct, before generating a shut down. They refuse to update my car with the technology to do this so it works better on roads that don't have road signs, mile markers, tall grass, brushes/trees and other things along the road for the reflection to bounce back from confirming the system still works correct before it times out in what they called a "blind sensor" condition.

so, not sure of your exact issues but wanted to offer this insight in case it helped you.

In my case I was able to get coding done to the car that allows the European ACC conventions to work, like holding down the power on button for 5 seconds and it powers on to conventional ACC mode. They may have a similar thing available for the Audi also, I think both systems are made by the same company. Easy way to confirm availability is to see if the European cars have a way to enable conventional cruise, and if so, its often available to be coded into the NA versions cars also.

richard-tx

If the alignment of the ACC radar is off, it will give that message. Have the dealer align the thing.

haggisuk

Mine as others does it in the rain too. don't worry about it, if it works when its not raining then all is fine.out
Think about it for a second, it uses radar to see car in front, Doppler radar can see weather fronts (rain) so if its raining or snowing heavy then the radar cant see the cars for the rain or snow.

So if its raining heavy then you don't want it to assume that's a car ahead because you could quickly end up in an accident.