TTS Radar "Clean Sensor" error

Bought used 2019 SR with emblem on center of grille. Bought a non-OEM grille from Amazon moving the sensor location to the bottom. It came with no garnish. Vendor never said I needed one. Before replacing grille I decided to take it to the car wash for the very first time and immediately began the switch.

At first, the TSS light turned on on the instrument panel right after turning the vehicle on. After a while, it took about a minute to turn on. Now it can go about 5 minutes before it turns on. Before it fails, the TSS works as designed, i.e. I can activate the cruise control and it will apply the brakes if the car in front gets too close. But then it won't.

As the title reads, Now I got an "clean sensor" message. I had made so many things at once I NOW know could generate this error. So, I am asking for help to diagnose the problem with or w/o a OBD2 reader. I've read several of the threads on several forums but they have not been helpful. Here is What I have done so far:

1. Checked and confirmed all connectors are tightly seated.
2. Sprayed contact cleaner to the connectors.
3. Un-plugged / re-plugged battery to try to have the computer reset or relearn the settings.

Any suggestions? I've read it might need to get recalibrated. How you go about that.

This is the new grille:

$120 Rongher Mesh Front Grille for 2016-2021 Tacoma SR SR5 TRD Sport TRD Off-Road TRD Limited, w/ Amber LED Lights, Matte Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MCTPXLK

 

There was a recall for a leaking tss sensor. The leak caused the symptoms you described. It might be worth checking if that recall applies to your truck and if so get the recall work done.

 

Mine is not on the recall, or so it seems. It is no longer under warranty. If reinstalling original grille does not fix it, should I just go ahead a buy a new TSS? Isn't there some sort of reprogramming (not permanently disable) procedure? Can't find it.

 

Same thing happened to me after car wash I got out wiped it with microfiber towel and the issue was corrected. However I am not a fan of the TSS and want to remove it. Are those the only functions Id be missing (the adaptive cruise control and auto braking?)

 

UPDATE: Re-aligned the TSS per vid bellow and it seemed to work. Ran one errand and on the way back for the 1st time since the swap I had no error msg or intrum panel lights go off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1iwmCio_zE&t=187s

From this vid I learned that if I press the cruise control switch for 3-5secs the TSS will not be engaged.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E49fX8rVOeY&t=14s

 

Your reward for figuring it out:

 

It is a cheap Chinese grille (you-get-what-you-pay-for) but it had the looks I wanted. I can see getting a better/nicer one later on but will enjoy this one for now. The TRD emblem was not included.

 

BWAHAHAHA!!

When I was a pup, and Al Gore had not yet invented the Interweb, we had to figure out things the hard way.

 

That is normal. Almost everyone will have that issue when they install a different grille. It'll eventually clear itself over time. I had the same issue you described and it was problematic for about 10 days. Don't worry about the recall, that was for 2018 tacomas and toyota fixed the issue so 2019+ tacomas are not affected.

 

following

 

When I was a kid, I often had to go into the Boston Public Library and READ an actual BOOK that was five or more years out of date to find out stuff.

 

I had the same thing happen to me today, I just bought the truck on Friday 7/22/23. It's a 2020 TRD off road and previous owner put the TRD pro grill on it. So today I was driving around 60mph no one Infront of me and I had the cruise control on, and then all of a sudden it went off and gave me an error message "radar cruise control on available clean sensor" here are some images of the truck from the front so you can see the grill that's on there, it went away when I turn the truck off and then on again and seem to be working properly the rest of the afternoon. Since I just bought the truck Friday I was right by the dealership and I swung in to let them know what was going on obviously they didn't know anything because it was a Chevrolet dealership that I purchased a truck from so I'm reaching out to you guys to see what I should do if anything, not quite sure how to align the sensor correctly. Another user mentioned that the sensor would just recalibrate itself. Kind of at a loss right now.

 

I went through this on my aftermarket grille.

From what I can tell, there are a number of variables. Most obvious is sensor positioning, which can really only be solved by recalibration (screw that, that costs money) or trial and error adjustment. Try to get it as square and perpendicular as you can. It's not super-duper sensitive to positioning, but sometimes small adjustments will get it back into its preferred field of view.

The other variable that I discovered the hard way, is that garnishes/shields can have flaws. Sometimes there's a speck of dust trapped between a decal and the garnish or sometimes its a flaw within the plastic itself. Either way, the sensor sees dust and/or air bubbles as a big patch of mud in its figurative eye, and reports an error. If, after a month or two of playing the positional trial and error game it still gives errors, try replacing the garnish. It just might fix it.

 

I have the same truck. I replaced our grill with an OE Toyota Trail Edition grill (same as the Pro grill, but with bronze lettering), however I wasn't going to pay the crazy price for Toyota's TSS garnish so based on various reviews here and elsewhere I bought this from Taco Garage. After I installed everything I also encountered a similar message, something about the connection - sorry can't recall exactly what it was. So I disconnected the two plugs (one on the TSS sensor itself and one clipped to the grill), sprayed the ends of the wiring and the connector contacts with

$38 CRC Contact Cleaner 2000 Precision Cleaner 02140 – 13 Wt. Oz., Aerosol Electrical Cleaner for Electronic Cleaning

CRC Contact Cleaner and securely plugged it all back in. Everything has been working perfectly since.

Not sure if that's the issue or not but you could give that a try. Afterward I'd try turning cruise control on and off a few times on a few different trips. I've also read that it can right itself. Or as as @Rock Lobster mentioned it could be the garnish too (easy to replace). Or it could be the sensor itself. Used ones pop up on Craigslist and FBMP now and then.

I've seen posts/stories about folks using washers and what-not to try and realign the TSS sensor, aiming it higher or lower or whatever. If it was working previously and then it stopped working, the alignment is probably good IMHO.

Hope that helps, it's a great truck and I'm sure you'll be happy with it. Best of luck and let us know how it goes!

EDIT: Not sure where you live, but I'm near PDX and still have the original grill if you want to return it to stock.

 

Frankly i wouldnt worry about it, pops on sometimes if the garnish area gets dirty or wet, goes away, 9/10 - unless you have the issue for a long time or extremely frequently, just forget about it.