Mk4 Forward collision warning and ice.

[Alex.S 36]

Can ice obstruct the radar sensor? 

[Waggy 4]

I think the front collision system relies on the forward facing camera as much as the radar. Ice and any condensation will definitely affect the performance of the camera and the collision system.

[alexp999 3,393]

The radar is in the lower front grille. Behind the blanked off square section. 

[Waggy 4]

Direct from the owner's manual : "The system may fail or operate with reduced function during cold and severe weather conditions. Snow, ice, rain, spray and fog can adversely affect the system. Keep the front camera and radar free of snow and ice. Failure to take care may result in the loss of control of your vehicle, serious personal injury or death."

[Alex.S 36]

Thanks for the replies. Had heavy  fog here yesterday afternoon, I thought the headlights would have come on, they didn’t, I had to manually put them on so I could manually put front and rear fog lights on. Also is auto high beam an extra? I’ve a 2020 ST-Line X 182. No extras. 

[alexp999 3,393]

Auto lights don’t work in fog on any car, it’s so infuriating driving in fog seeing the number of cars who haven’t overridden their lights and put them on manually. 
 

Auto high beam needs the windscreen cameras used for traffic sign recognition. Depends on the options at the time yours was built what pack it was in.  If you don’t have traffic sign recognition you won’t have auto high beam though. 
 You can tell also because when lights are on auto you’ll get a white high beam symbol with an A in it, on the top of the drivers display. 

[Guy Heaton 228]

Unless you have the active cruise control.pack you dont radar, just camera.

[Alex.S 36]

32 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

Auto lights don’t work in fog on any car, it’s so infuriating driving in fog seeing the number of cars who haven’t overridden their lights and put them on manually. 
 

Auto high beam needs the windscreen cameras used for traffic sign recognition. Depends on the options at the time yours was built what pack it was in.  If you don’t have traffic sign recognition you won’t have auto high beam though. 
 You can tell also because when lights are on auto you’ll get a white high beam symbol with an A in it, on the top of the drivers display. 

I’ve got speed sign recognition. I think traffic sign recognition is in the same pack as blind spot assist etc I’d assume auto high beam is in same pack. Or maybe with the led lights. I looked in vehicle settings- lighting..not listed. 

Any idea what temperature the auto start stop doesn’t work at? At 1C just now , not working. The owners manual doesn’t give a temperature just “too low or too high” 

[Alex.S 36]

37 minutes ago, Guy Heaton said:

Unless you have the active cruise control.pack you dont radar, just camera.

I’ve not got any pack.  I got a message to my app saying “The collision warning system has detected either a system fault or an obstructed radar sensor”.

i thought the pre collision avoidance was radar? 

[Guy Heaton 228]

Nope, just camera unless you have the pack.  If you have a vignale the pack is standard though.

 

[alexp999 3,393]

It’s standard on ST too. 
 

Usually the description of pre collision assist is the radar not camera. 
 

Active city stop is the description given to the camera and lidar system. 
 

What do your cruise control look like? Do you have a distance button?

 

It wouldn’t give a warning about radar if you didn’t have it. 

[Alex.S 36]

20 minutes ago, alexp999 said:

It’s standard on ST too. 
 

Usually the description of pre collision assist is the radar not camera. 
 

Active city stop is the description given to the camera and lidar system. 
 

What do your cruise control look like? Do you have a distance button?

I don’t use the cruise control but no I don’t see no distance button. 

[Alex.S 36]

I know someone with a fiesta 2019 zetec, it’s got pre collision avoidance.  

Standard throughout Ford vehicles I thought

[Guy Heaton 228]

It is standard but uses different methods.

[alexp999 3,393]

Pre collision assist is a radar system in the lower front grille and operates up to 50mph. 
 

Active city stop only operates up to 30mph and uses the lidar system on the windscreen. 
 

Perhaps Ford are fitting the radar for pre collision assist but only enable adaptive cruise and fit the buttons for it if you pay for the pack. It’s not the first time that hardware is present for other features but they are just turned off at a software level if you haven’t paid for them. 

[Alex.S 36]

So all fords have a working radar collision avoidance system? 

Ive only had the collision alert once. Turned the sensitivity down to low. Been good since. 

Active city stop and adaptive cruise control will be convenience pack I’d think.

[PLB 28]

27 minutes ago, Alex.S said:

So all fords have a working radar collision avoidance system? 

Ive only had the collision alert once. Turned the sensitivity down to low. Been good since. 

Active city stop and adaptive cruise control will be convenience pack I’d think.

Do you have the front radar module fitted; I stand to be corrected but I am fairly sure it is mounted behind the square plastic section on the front grill.

I have checked and I do not have it fitted on my Titanium X however I do get occasionally the red flashing Pre collision warning messages displayed.

Therefore, I presume in my case it’s only using the windscreen camera.

To be honest I thought the front radar is only fitted if you have the Driver Assistance Pack which includes Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Centring Assist and Stop & Go and is limited to Auto’s.

I didn’t go for the Assistance Pack therefore I assumed the front radar wouldn’t be fitted.

[Alex.S 36]

Zetec and above have Pre-Collision Assist with Autonomous Emergency Braking
and pedestrian/cyclist detection.

How Does it Work? The Pre-Collision Assist technology operates using radar and camera technology. The road ahead is scanned by this equipment to monitor for obstructions, such as pedestrians. ... The technology has a stored collection of pedestrian shapes which the windscreen mounted camera and front bumper radar scan for.

 

[Alex.S 36]

I’ve scanned thru the online brochure , the only mention of the pre collision assist is listed on the zetec as standard list. 

Not in any of the packs. I reckon pretty much every Ford has radar and camera tech for this feature. 

[PLB 28]

18 minutes ago, Alex.S said:

I’ve scanned thru the online brochure , the only mention of the pre collision assist is listed on the zetec as standard list. 

Not in any of the packs. I reckon pretty much every Ford has radar and camera tech for this feature. 

Ok, I am a little confused.

Can someone confirm, is the radar unit mounted directly behind the square flat section on the front bumper shown on the picture below.

If so Its definitely not there on my car.

Alex, its easy to check have you got a radar module mounted there ?

[Alex.S 36]

I don’t see anything

I’m sure you’ve googled it too, I’ve tried..getting nowhere. 

Zetec and above have the collision avoidance.

the question is..is there 2 different types of collision avoidance? 1 with just a camera and another with radar and camera? 

[PLB 28]

9 minutes ago, Alex.S said:

I don’t see anything

I take it you have the square section underneath your number plate as shown in the picture.

You can put your hand behind and feel . Is there anything there?

In my case there is nothing there.

If nothing is there then someone needs to confirm where the Radar unit is mounted.

[Alex.S 36]

2 minutes ago, PLB said:

I take it you have the square section underneath your number plate as shown in the picture.

You can put your hand behind and feel . Is there anything there?

In my case there is nothing there.

If nothing is there then someone needs to confirm where the Radar unit is mounted.

Nothing there. 

[PLB 28]

1 minute ago, Alex.S said:

Nothing there. 

Thanks for checking. 👍

 

[Alex.S 36]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F264304133292

 

my cars in darkness just now but I’d say that’s whats on the front of mine.