I took delivery of my new Focus about 2 months ago. 3 times now the collision avoidance alarm has gone off while driving along the open road. It goes off after a few seconds, but the 1st time it went off I was a bit alarmed. Has anyone else experienced this? If it keeps going off I'll switch it off.

Might be some debris/insect remains on the sensor within front grille of car giving false positives.

The CA is very sensitive, even on low, and although you can stop it taking over the brake you can't stop it's stupid bonging at you 

 

Would happily turn it off completely if I could.

You can switch it OFF but remember, your insurance is aware that you have this system built in and incase of accident this will void your insurance. I've confirmed this with my insurance LV.com and turning it OFF had an increase of nearly £150. Hope this helps.

2 hours ago, Ams said:

You can switch it OFF but remember, your insurance is aware that you have this system built in and incase of accident this will void your insurance. I've confirmed this with my insurance LV.com and turning it OFF had an increase of nearly £150. Hope this helps.

It wont void your insurance. It's like saying you're insurance is void if you turn your parking sensors off. It's a driver aid and shouldn't be relied upon.

So I've just chatted with direct line advisor.  They say switching the system off will not void the insurance.

You can't actually switch it off completely, just the active braking part.

20 hours ago, gbores said:

I took delivery of my new Focus about 2 months ago. 3 times now the collision avoidance alarm has gone off while driving along the open road. It goes off after a few seconds, but the 1st time it went off I was a bit alarmed. Has anyone else experienced this? If it keeps going off I'll switch it off.

Mine has never gone off on an open straight road. The only time it has gone off is when I have pulled sharply into a left hand filter lane and there has been a wall or fence hard up against the roadside with no pavement, or a lamppost or pedestrian crossing point near the road edge.

what car is testing one.... theirs's goes off all the time.  It says its user adjustable, but when they went to reduce its sensitivity, it was already set on low.  so they are turning off the braking assist, but the audible nag is always on

I thought other posts were saying there's a software update

 

 

On 9/3/2019 at 1:49 PM, Ams said:

You can switch it OFF but remember, your insurance is aware that you have this system built in and incase of accident this will void your insurance. I've confirmed this with my insurance LV.com and turning it OFF had an increase of nearly £150. Hope this helps.

I'd call back and speak to someone more senior, I'm doubt the info you were given is correct.

Aye, perhaps it was how you worded the query.  I was clear that I was asking about turning off the active braking part, not the entire warning system.