# Front assist warning might



## onsiteaudio (Mar 13, 2018)

My Atlas SEL had some front assist troubles recently. Curious if anyone else has experienced this or had any insight. I bought it with 8 miles on it and had to travel quite a bit for work. Somewhere around 1000 miles driving in freezing temps and snow i received a "front assist failure" warning, losing adaptive cruise control. But once I thawed getting gas everything came back. On another trip with no bad weather and temp in the 70's somewhere around 3500 miles "front assist failure" warning appeared again completely out of the blue. Took to dealer and they said they could not recalibrate and had to replace front sensors. They said the road tested and all was satisfactory. I drove off the lot and 10 min later at highway speed perfect temp again the error occurred. I have an appointment for round 2 and at least they are giving me an atlas loaner ea time. Anyone know what this might be? Traveling with no cruise is painful sometimes...

-Ken


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## AudiVW guy (Feb 7, 2006)

onsiteaudio said:


> My Atlas SEL had some front assist troubles recently. Curious if anyone else has experienced this or had any insight. I bought it with 8 miles on it and had to travel quite a bit for work. Somewhere around 1000 miles driving in freezing temps and snow i received a "front assist failure" warning, losing adaptive cruise control. But once I thawed getting gas everything came back. On another trip with no bad weather and temp in the 70's somewhere around 3500 miles "front assist failure" warning appeared again completely out of the blue. Took to dealer and they said they could not recalibrate and had to replace front sensors. They said the road tested and all was satisfactory. I drove off the lot and 10 min later at highway speed perfect temp again the error occurred. I have an appointment for round 2 and at least they are giving me an atlas loaner ea time. Anyone know what this might be? Traveling with no cruise is painful sometimes...
> 
> -Ken


we had this issue with ours only in snow or icy weather.. the front sensors and camera are really low to the road.


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## GTINC (Jan 28, 2005)

AudiVW guy said:


> .....the front sensors and camera are really low to the road.


Your point? Low compared to other vehicles? Lower than for best performance?


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## liquidzoo (Jan 30, 2018)

I don't have this issue, but I have a different one:

My front assist warning comes on randomly at low speeds.

Pulling out of my street, in slow moving traffic, occasionally when I pull to a stop when turning. It's weird, and completely annoying.


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## ref001 (Sep 20, 2017)

While I am not sure what your exact problem is, I have had the front assist warning light come on (and stay on) after my Atlas lost a battle against plywood flying out of the back of a pickup truck on a highway. This took out my entire front bumper and needed to have it and the sensors replaced. After getting it fixed at an auto body shop, 1 week later the light came on and stayed on again. The auto body shop contacted VW and told them to bring it in to the shop. It was recalibrated (the entire process took 6 hours I’m told) for the full recalibration to work with the new sensors. It has been completely fixed since this process was completed. My Atlas is fine too, can’t even tell I got into that fender bender.


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## OZ.IN.USA (Jan 29, 2011)

AudiVW guy said:


> we had this issue with ours only in snow or icy weather.. the front sensors and camera are really low to the road.


Not that low. The Front Assist Sensor is three feet off the ground behind the VW Emblem. In some instances snow and/or ice can accumulate on the emblem and grille and give false or no readings.


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## AudiVW guy (Feb 7, 2006)

OZ.IN.USA said:


> Not that low. The Front Assist Sensor is three feet off the ground behind the VW Emblem. In some instances snow and/or ice can accumulate on the emblem and grille and give false or no readings.


go take another look. it is located at in the bottom of black grill about a foot up.. the camera, sensors and temp sensor..


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## rhgti1 (Sep 8, 2004)

onsiteaudio said:


> My Atlas SEL had some front assist troubles recently. Curious if anyone else has experienced this or had any insight. I bought it with 8 miles on it and had to travel quite a bit for work. Somewhere around 1000 miles driving in freezing temps and snow i received a "front assist failure" warning, losing adaptive cruise control. But once I thawed getting gas everything came back. On another trip with no bad weather and temp in the 70's somewhere around 3500 miles "front assist failure" warning appeared again completely out of the blue. Took to dealer and they said they could not recalibrate and had to replace front sensors. They said the road tested and all was satisfactory. I drove off the lot and 10 min later at highway speed perfect temp again the error occurred. I have an appointment for round 2 and at least they are giving me an atlas loaner ea time. Anyone know what this might be? Traveling with no cruise is painful sometimes...
> 
> -Ken


Did the dealership check the battery condition? I was getting random Adaptive Cruise Control errors right before my battery died when my Atlas was six months old. It was related to low voltage. After a battery replacement there are no more errors.


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## OZ.IN.USA (Jan 29, 2011)

AudiVW guy said:


> go take another look. it is located at in the bottom of black grill about a foot up.. the camera, sensors and temp sensor..


That would be the parking sensors in the bottom of the grille. The Front Assist is behind the VW Emblem.

To be clear, the front assist is related to the autonomous braking and adaptive cruise control not parking or 360 view.


The "Front Assist" Ambient Traffic Monitoring System identifies critical traffic situations resulting from distances that are too small and helps the
driver to reduce the stopping distance.


• The "Front Assist" w/ Autonomous Emergency Braking System is an integral part of the
automatic distance control ACC, but also functions independently of its activation.

• *A sensor integrated into the front emblem of the Atlas monitors the distance to vehicles
ahead.*


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## nottusyor (Apr 4, 2016)

AudiVW guy said:


> go take another look. it is located at in the bottom of black grill about a foot up.. the camera, sensors and temp sensor..


Front assist and ACC sensors are located behind the VW emblem, the parking sensors are mounted inside the front and rear bumpers, Lane assist uses a camera mounted in front of the rear view mirror, and the sensor you're talking about is the outside temperature sensor. 

OP Sometimes dirt or snow can cover the sensors causing the system to not work properly, but it seems like you already have it figured out that it's faulty sensors. Also keep in mind that the front camera for lane assist might not work properly if your windshield is dirty or if you add aftermarket tint over top of it. So just make sure you keep that area of your windshield clean as well as the VW emblem.


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## OZ.IN.USA (Jan 29, 2011)

nottusyor said:


> Front assist and ACC sensors are located behind the VW emblem, the parking sensors are mounted inside the front and rear bumpers, Lane assist uses a camera mounted in front of the rear view mirror, and the sensor you're talking about is the outside temperature sensor.
> 
> OP Sometimes dirt or snow can cover the sensors causing the system to not work properly, but it seems like you already have it figured out that it's faulty sensors. Also keep in mind that the front camera for lane assist might not work properly if your windshield is dirty or if you add aftermarket tint over top of it. So just make sure you keep that area of your windshield clean as well as the VW emblem.



 :thumbup:


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## msuterski (Jan 4, 2018)

My Atlas has been in the service for almost 2 weeks now because of a "Front Assist Unavailable" error. The error showed up out of nowhere in good weather when I started the car. Apparently local technicians could not figure out what was going on and were waiting for the VW engineer to show up. Took a work week for the engineer to finally arrive. 

It might be fixed tomorrow, but I've been told that a couple of times already (communication is not the strongest asset of my local service).

Other than that, the car is great so far.


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## sayemthree (Mar 2, 2006)

Any update on fixing this issue our lights just came on yesterday


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## dbizzle22 (Jun 6, 2012)

Has anyone with the ACC and Front Assist Unavailable issue ever had it fixed properly? Everything I read on the internet at various forums says its an expensive fix that isn't under warranty for some reason. On top of that, it's not even a warrantied or guaranteed fix if you decide to pay for it.

My dealer just told me that they show the grille was removed or tampered with and so the fix will cost me $1200 instead of being a warranty fix. Ridiculous. The error happened while the car was being driven in rain/fog/snow and no one hit or touched the car period.


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## dbizzle22 (Jun 6, 2012)

dbizzle22 said:


> Has anyone with the ACC and Front Assist Unavailable issue ever had it fixed properly? Everything I read on the internet at various forums says its an expensive fix that isn't under warranty for some reason. On top of that, it's not even a warrantied or guaranteed fix if you decide to pay for it.
> 
> My dealer just told me that they show the grille was removed or tampered with and so the fix will cost me $1200 instead of being a warranty fix. Ridiculous. The error happened while the car was being driven in rain/fog/snow and no one hit or touched the car period.


Update: The SA called back and said they're going to cover the repair after all! Pays to have a good attitude and civilized conversation with SA's!


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