Radar Control

The past few mornings, in the high 20's, my radar control has been "Radar not available".

There is a yellow triangle icon, with an explanation mark in the center, and my radar icon is yellow, with a message "Radar Unavailable" (has happened off and on 4-5 times).

However, after about 15 minutes, if i turn the truck off and back on, all is normal.

This is a off/on problem which i'm sure the Stealership cannot remedy

 

Maybe dirt or ice on the grill sensor

 

Let's start with the basic questions.

So you have an aftermarket grille or is it original?

Aftermarket suspension or big tires?

Is the sensor shield clean and free of ice, both front and back?

Is it snowing?

 

——-
Stock grill
Stock suspension and tires
No snow
Have cleaned sensor shield with window cleaner multiple times

 

Two more last ditch questions:
is the top of the windshield (camera) also clear?

Did you check the wire harness that runs under the hood to make sure it didn't get knocked loose? There are two plugs along that wire: one on the back of the sensor and one near the hood latch.





I'd take it into the dealer. They should have a fancy reader that pulls safety codes. If nothing else, an intermittent "unavailable" error instead of the usual "clean sensor" error points to either a bad calibration or a loose wire. They should recalibrate under warranty, even for an intermittent error.

 

The one time it happened to me it was in a torrential thunderstorm here in south Florida. I got a radar unavailable and clean sensor. After about a minute of driving it came back and never happened again. I assumed it was the amount of rain or some ick that got kicked up from the car in front of me and fell off while driving.

@Rock Lobster is correct. The dealer should just check for codes and do a recalibration for you, but you know how they love to use the "we can't replicate the problem" excuse to get out of doing warranty work. Hopefully it left a code recorded somewhere.

 

Does the constant speed feature still work when this happens?

 

Something is wrong with your radar system.
I drive in heavy snow and slop and rarely ever get that warning.
When I do, I typically find 1/4" or more of slush on the surface of the grill...
If your window is clean and your grill is clean, there should be no warnings at all.

Take a video of it happening so that you can show the dealership.

 

Am I wrong or do I vaguely recall a TSB related to water getting in the radar sensor and causing issues so they replace it and seal it or something?

 

Old TSB, the dealer did that to mine on a maintenance visit in 2019.

And the official fix was taking a piece of sticky foam weatherstrip and covering the top of the sensor, like a ghetto rain cover. Mine was still working so they didn't replace it.