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Are Followed
Automakers: Collision Repairers Must Ensure ADAS Calibration Procedures Are Followed
The importance of proper ADAS calibrations was a key focus as the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) brought collision repairers and automakers together at an event in Las Vegas during the SEMA Show.
Scott Kaboos, assistant manager of collision repair training and technology for American Honda, told those attending the OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit that automakers call for many calibrations to be done on a level floor with good reason.
“We did a little test,” Kaboos said, noting Honda’s service information says there can be no more than 1 degree of pitch or slope to the floor when performing calibrations. “Traveling around to a lot of our dealerships, we found that most of their floors do not meet that requirement. So we started asking ourselves: How important is this? Is this really detrimental?”
Kaboos said the Honda training center in Illinois drove a new Civic at the NHTSA target used to test emergency auto-braking, and the system worked 10 times in a row, stopping the vehicle three or four feet from the target as designed.
“So then we took that same car and put the rear wheels in our drain in our wash bay at our training center,” Kaboos said. “We calculated the slope on that, and found that the car was sitting at a 1.6 degree incline. We re-aimed the radar, using the factory specifications and tools. When we were done, the scan tool said aiming was complete. There were no codes. We test drove the car around the block. It gave us no indication there was anything wrong with the car. There were no lights on the dash.”
But then the vehicle was driven at the same NHTSA target.
“We had very different results,” Kaboos said. “It honestly blew through that target at 20 miles an hour like it wasn’t even there. The light on the dash didn’t blink. It didn’t beep at us. It just punted that target. That was a big eye-opener to us on the training side as to how important that one little line in the service information is: do this on a flat floor.”
Shop Showcase Kaboos said the other noted requirements—proper air in the tires, a with Ed Attanasio full tank of gas—are also important. “Anything that changes the ride height or ride angle of the car is going to throw off all the geometry,” he said. “You’ve got to pay attention to all of Social Media for Shops that.” Subaru of America’s Ted Hicks with Ed Attanasio said during the same SCRS session that complete repair of the underlying metal where an ADAS camera or radar is attached is also critical. “I asked a panel of technicians in SEMA Show Goes On Dallas: what’s the single biggest problem you’re having with calibrations of with Ed Attanasio blind-spot monitoring radar units and the EyeSight cameras that come from Scott Kaboos of American Honda said testing body shops after a repair,” said Hicks, Media and Publicity for Shops at the automaker’s training center demonstrated the need to perform ADAS calibrations on a level floor when called for in the procedures a regional technical training manager for the automaker. “They said that the panel that the camera or unit mounts with Ed Attanasio to has got to be exactly correct. If the sheet metal behind it is bent, the radar
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