Front Assist: No sensor view

[sailorp]

Car is a 2018 Polo GTi+ pre-pdf and is out of warranty.
13k on the clock.
So I have this warning notification.
Front Assist: No sensor view.
The warning has been intermittently displayed for couple of months, and now is permanent every time I start up.
I see a number of VAG forums mention this issue (Tiguan, T-Roc, Seat etc).
This fault stops the ACC from working, which is irritating as I use ACC on motorways in the Polo and my Skoda Superb, it's a good piece of kit to have.
The emergency brake assist is also disabled, which some might see as a good thing, as the emergency brake is way too sensitive in this Polo compared to my Skoda.
Anyway:
Does anyone else have this warning?
Where is the sensor?
Is it behind the VW badge on the bonnet as in other new VW models?
Is it worth trying to replace the sensor myself before resorting to the dealers?
Can the VW badge be easily prised out without having to remove other front trims?
Any other tips on how this might be overcome before I hand it over to VW?
Thanks for any comments or suggestions.

[sailorp]

Mods please delete this duplicate post?
Thanks

[monkeyhanger]

Why has your 2018 Polo GTI+ have no warranty left?

Most (if not all) markets in Europe get a 3 year warranty. You should have comfortably more than a year's warranty left on that basis.

Had a couple of occasions where ACC sensor view is impaired - usually in extreme weather - monsoon levels of rain or a covering of snow on the sensor.

Is your sensor permanently out of action, or just occasionally? Could be a fault with another system that shares the same controller, potentially throwing up a fault for all associated systems linked to that controller.

[sailorp]

Thanks for that, helpful on the warranty.
I didn't realise that they have a 3-year warranty, thought it would be one year only.
It was a demonstrator, hence second hand I suppose, which may affect it.

[SRGTD]

Thanks for that, helpful on the warranty.
I didn't realise that they have a 3-year warranty, thought it would be one year only.
It was a demonstrator, hence second hand I suppose, which may affect it.

The 3 year factory warranty is ‘attached’ to the car, and remains in place for three years irrespective of whether or not the car changes ownership during that first three year period.

So you’ll have the benefit of the factory warranty until the car is three years old.

[sailorp]

The Polo went in to have this fixed yesterday.
Service personnel said that fault history was downloaded and cleared, and sensor re-calibrated.
Have driven car twice this morning.
Fault has re-appeared, intermittently, all morning.
Fault light is on more times than it is off, so whatever the fault is, it's there more often than not.
So car is booked in again tomorrow.
I've asked the person who books it in to arrange for a new sensor, but she says that's down to the service technicians.
So when I take it in tomorrow I'll ask if they wouldn't mind changing the sensor, to save me coming back again.
I'll keep the forum advised.

[sailorp]

So the car went in again, two days after initial inspection.
Turns out that the service receptionist person who gave me the car keys after the first attempt to fix it gave me the wrong explanation.
She said "recalibrated the sensor" but should have said "reset".
Anyhow, when attending for the second time, the service reception guy said that the sensor had been "reset" (not recalibrated). They would first check car tracking (in case car was crabbing down road, and sensor was not looking precisely ahead!...sounds a bit suss?) He said that a tracking fault would not be covered under warranty, whereas a new sensor would. If tracking was ok, only then would they check the sensor itself.
On collection of the car after leaving it overnight (for them to order and receive the parts) I was told that the service technician fitted a new sensor.
All has been well since then, although in the current climate I have hardly driven more than 10 miles.
I guess that VW have a set method of dealing with this problem...
Reset the unit and see if that fixes it.
If not, check calibration (in case car tracking is out).
And if tracking is OK, then check and if necessary replace the sensor.
Pity they cant check the sensor for faults on the first visit.
Just means car owner has to have multiple visits to dealership, with all the buggering about which that entails.

[monkeyhanger]

Nothing suss about the geometry/tracking story, but the old set-up for ACC sensor (sensor in the lower front grille) was more susceptible to being out of alignment than the new one fixed behind the badge. I had some ACC issues on my MK7 Golf R with the old set up, they had to do the 4 wheel alignment before every recalibration of the ACC sensor.

The R was in 3 times before I realised that the failure used to happen at the same place on my commute - northbound through the Tyne tunnel, after the straight descent under the river Tyne, the upward ascent is a spiral - you spend about half a mile on a constant 30 degree turn left. When you emerge through the end of the tunnel, the sensor throws a wobbler- but only if you were in the right hand lane, nearest the wall.

Doesn't happen with the Polo's new system, but it gas occasional difficulty in accounting for you being on a long shallow bend where it looks like the opposite side of the road ahead is in your path.

VW do seem to have poor diagnostics at times - reset, send you away and have you back again when it didn't work before replacing the part- customer inconvenience for repeat visits doesn't even register for them

[Griff74]

Mine did this once months ago. Got into it after work (was parked nose in to a space facing a wall) and the error came up as soon as I started it. Switched it of and checked the sensor was clean etc, no impact marks on it, got back in the car and it was still there. Drove about a mile to the supermarket to get dinner with the error on. When I came back to the car and started it and the error was still there so decided to have a good look at the sensor in the car park under the lights, defo no damage or marks on it etc, out of frustration I gave it a smack (I know!), got back in the car, started it up and back out of the space, moved forward and by the time it shifted into 2nd the error went off, ACC came back online and it has been fine since.

[stuartrendall]

In the VW handbook I think I remember reading that in multi-story car parkes front assist may not function correctly. I imagine its a mix of low lights, crevices everywhere and a plethora of cars but seems stupid since that IMO is where it will be most useful.

[SRGTD]

In the VW handbook I think I remember reading that in multi-story car parkes front assist may not function correctly. I imagine its a mix of low lights, crevices everywhere and a plethora of cars but seems stupid since that IMO is where it will be most useful.

Agree it would be useful, but there’ll also be other scenarios similar to multi storey car parks where front assist might not work as hoped. Programming front assist to recognise all of these scenarios and for the car to react appropriately would probably be very difficult, if not impossible to achieve.

IMO and all things considered, we should always be mindful that front assist and other similar driver aids are there to assist - but not replace - the driver, and the driver should still anticipate and be ready to react to the actions of others, as was the case before cars were fitted with driver safety aids.

It’ll be different if we do ever get truly driverless cars though! I for one am not looking forward to that day .