Adaptive cruise control

[SwissCheeseHead]

I'm new to using the adaptive cruise control, but from my understanding, all I need to do is set the speed I want to go and if the car senses that the car in front of me is going slower, it is supposed to slow down right? The little "car" indicator light is suppose to come on saying that it senses a car in front of me.

It has not been doing this but there are no lights on my dash indicating that the front sensor is malfunctioning. Can someone enlighten me?

[mazz]

if you have adaptive cruise control it will activate when you set the cruise speed . you have another little button that control the spacing to another car in front of you. I assume you have gotten close enough to another car for the adaptive cruse to see the guy in front of you and slow your speed to match the guy in front of you. yes it is suppose to slow down and the car indicator should show a vehicle in front of you. When adaptive cruse is not working snow in front of sensor or heavy rain etc you get a warning flash and then you can go to regular cruise control without the adaptive feature
Mazz

[SwissCheeseHead]

if you have adaptive cruise control it will activate when you set the cruise speed . you have another little button that control the spacing to another car in front of you. I assume you have gotten close enough to another car for the adaptive cruse to see the guy in front of you and slow your speed to match the guy in front of you. yes it is suppose to slow down and the car indicator should show a vehicle in front of you. When adaptive cruse is not working snow in front of sensor or heavy rain etc you get a warning flash and then you can go to regular cruise control without the adaptive feature
Mazz

I've let the car get to as close as a half car length before hitting the brakes. The distance setting is set to 3 bars (furthest) which tells me something isn't working the way it should be. I've set it on clear days, both in highway traffic and in street traffic.

[dmclone]

Tap the cruise control button(on/off) on the steering wheel once. You should then see an icon come up with 3 bars. 3 bars means that it will keep the longest distance. Then when you're ready, hit the rocker switch on the steering wheel. At this point you should see the speed display. This means your cruise control is working, As you get close to a car a car will appear in the display.

[SwissCheeseHead]

Tap the cruise control button(on/off) on the steering wheel once. You should then see an icon come up with 3 bars. 3 bars means that it will keep the longest distance. Then when you're ready, hit the rocker switch on the steering wheel. At this point you should see the speed display. This means your cruise control is working, As you get close to a car a car will appear in the display.

That's what I'm saying. It's not working like this. I will set the cruise at 3 bars at 60 mph and it will get as close as a half car length before I have to hit the brakes to stop from rear ending the car in front of me.

[Debonair]

Not sure if you have seen this already but HERE is Infiniti's video about these features.

[SwissCheeseHead]

Not sure if you have seen this already but HERE is Infiniti's video about these features.

I couldn't watch this particular video (won't load at my work pc) but I did youtube ICC and the two that I watched were very similar from Infiniti. The longest distance the car senses is about 390 feet both videos said. That's definitely not happening.

[SmoovC]

Does the DCA work, Swiss?

[SwissCheeseHead]

Does the DCA work, Swiss?

DCA works intermittently at best. I can't trust it to do what it is supposed to do. I did do a visual check on the sensor and it has normal dust and dirt buildup on there but nothing that is caked on it. I'll clean it off and see if that helps.

How sensitive are these things to being dirty? Does it need to sparkle in order for it to be effective? If that's the case, then it will be a pain to clean ALL the time because it's not that dirty.

[mazz]

your unit must not be working .I clean mine when I wash the car but not before every drive. occasional in our area snow cakes up or heavy rain or even a low sun interferes with the sensors ability to "see" . DCA should work as well all the time and when it doesn't we get a warning signal call your boys up in Madison Zimbricks they can help they know their stuff

[SwissCheeseHead]

your unit must not be working .I clean mine when I wash the car but not before every drive. occasional in our area snow cakes up or heavy rain or even a low sun interferes with the sensors ability to "see" . DCA should work as well all the time and when it doesn't we get a warning signal call your boys up in Madison Zimbricks they can help they know their stuff

That's my next step. The car's warranty just expired on the 31st but maybe they will fix it since it's so close. How do you know about Zimbrick? Did you get your car there?

[SwissCheeseHead]

So just out of curiosity I looked up how much a front sonar unit would cost....I almost shat my pants. It is $2100!!!

[mazz]

I noticed you mentioned getting service their recently and they did a good job. I am on my 9 th Infiniti I bought my 2006M there . I am just south of the border in lake summerset closer to Madison than Chicago for service. did this just start acting up ? or did you just try the feature for the first time .

[SwissCheeseHead]

I noticed you mentioned getting service their recently and they did a good job. I am on my 9 th Infiniti I bought my 2006M there . I am just south of the border in lake summerset closer to Madison than Chicago for service. did this just start acting up ? or did you just try the feature for the first time .

I see. I can't remember what I say sometimes

I've only owned the car since 10/23 so I haven't really had a chance to learn and play with everything to make sure it was working before my warranty ran out. I've only just recently looked up what each of the technology package features were and have been playing with them. It wasn't until last weekend that I thought the ICC wasn't working properly and throughout this week have been trying to make sure it wasn't something that I was doing. I just sent them an email last night explaining everything. Hopefully I will get a good response soon.

If they won't cover it, I guess I will just have to live without it for now, until I get some lots of extra money to put into fixing this, or finding a wrecked M that I could take the sonar off of.

[SmoovC]

Swiss, isn't the car still under the Factory 4 year/60,000 mile warranty? I know from your previous posts, it has only 30,xxx miles. Do you know the in-service date?

[SwissCheeseHead]

I was told by my service rep that the warranty expired on 10/31 when I called about getting my steering wheel trim replaced. I'm assuming this car was sold in 2010 as a 2011 model which would make sense. It's only got 31,200 miles on it.

I did send the service department an email, but I don't know if they will get back to me today about it.

[SmoovC]

Out of warranty by only a week? I would get the Service Manager involved, and if that doesn't work, get Infiniti Corporate to step in. Further, you could press the issue as a safety concern. JMO...

[SwissCheeseHead]

I'll wait to see what they say...I haven't called the Service department yet, just emailed. At least this way, I have some proof showing it was only a week.

[SmoovC]

Good thinking! Keep us "in the loop".

[SwissCheeseHead]

Random question. I noticed that the senor is not flush up against the mounting hole in the front bumper. Is there supposed to be a gap all the way around the sensor?

[SmoovC]

There is a gap between the sensor and the lower grille insert, yes.

[Larz]

I hope the dealer will let you slide for the week or so that the warranty stopped. I reckon the bottom line is if Infiniti Corp won't pay the dealership for the parts and labour, they can't let you slide. Maybe that suggestion of involving corparate is a good idea.

Personally, I never use the feature. Have you ever been on the motorway driving at 70mph and the car in front keeps hitting it's brakes? That annoys me and I go to a different lane. The computer HAS to let people behind you know that you're slowing by flashing the brake lamps, else they run up you pipes. That is why I don't use it. I don't want to be the guy that annoys or scares drivers behind me, but for safety, that is the only way the system can work. I use the reg cruise control and just change lanes or back my car down with the rocker switch if I seem to be closing on the car in front of me.

[SmoovC]

Regardless of whether is gets used or not, I would expect that it would work.

[SwissCheeseHead]

Regardless of whether is gets used or not, I would expect that it would work.

This is why I want to get it fixed. If I have to pay out of pocket for it, it's gonna have to wait, if I ever do it. But being a week out of warranty when I discovered it (who knows how long it has stopped working), I would still expect all the functions of the car to work.

Just knowing that it doesn't work if, in of itself, is irritating.

[mazz]

did you get a response on streeeeecccchhing the warranty?

[SwissCheeseHead]

did you get a response on streeeeecccchhing the warranty?

lol.

Update: Brought the car in today to my dealership. They said that they couldn't find out what was wrong but they were able to replicate the issue. They said the computer wasn't giving them any codes, the sensor was aligned properly and that sometimes, when on the closest distance setting that it would sense the car ahead.

He thought there might have been something that happened when they replaced the steering wheel trim around the switches so his thought was trying to replace the switches first. If not that, then they may go into getting a new sensor. He did mention that they would "go to bat" for me if they have to try the sensor. He was very nice about the whole thing.

Props to Glen at Zimbrick.

[SwissCheeseHead]

Had the car in to get the switches replaced. Did not fix the problem, which was what I originally thought. The tech then tried to re-aim the laser, even though it wasn't throwing any codes and discovered that the laser wasn't working properly. So that means my original suspicion was correct. New sensor with labor is $2600. The SA said he couldn't do anything at this point and suggested that I call Consumer Affairs. I'll be on the horn shortly.

[wideopn11]

Hope you can this worked out with no out-of-pocket BS about the warranty.

[SwissCheeseHead]

Now I'm really annoyed. The IBA OFF light is now illuminated and the car is throwing codes. This was from diagnosing the problem that I originally suggested! My SA says he can't do anything with Consumer Affair's involvement.

BS to the max.

[SmoovC]

I wonder if they messed with the switch (or forgot to plug it back in?), since they probably had the dash panel off to service the steering wheel switches? Worth a look, maybe.