The show is about figuring out why the car’s safety-tech warning lights are on when your scanner doesn’t show an obvious error code. That can make diagnosis harder, so the episode is about better troubleshooting steps.
A trouble code is like a “clue” stored by the car when it detects a problem. If you have a code, it’s easier to know where to look; if you don’t, you have to dig in other ways.
Term
manufacturer and brand specific
ADAS diagnostics aren’t always the same across every car brand. The steps and tools needed to confirm and fix the issue can vary depending on the manufacturer.
The blind spot module is the computer that helps the car notice other vehicles in your blind spot. When it detects something there, it can warn you so you don’t change lanes into it.
Front radar is a sensor up front that “sees” cars and obstacles using radio waves. It helps the car decide when to brake automatically or adjust cruise control distance.
Emergency braking in ADAS refers to automatic braking triggered when the system detects an imminent collision. It’s typically supported by sensors like front radar and/or cameras that estimate object distance and closing speed.
Adaptive cruise control is like regular cruise control, but it also slows down or speeds up to keep a safe distance from the car in front. It uses sensors to monitor that car.
A scan tool is a device a mechanic plugs in to talk to the car’s computers. It helps find what system is acting up, even if the warning light is vague.
Control modules are the car’s computers that control different systems. For ADAS, there can be multiple computers, each responsible for a different sensor or feature.
Laser radar is a sensor that uses lasers to measure how far things are. It helps the car “understand” the scene in front of it for safety features.
Term
ICC
ICC is a short name manufacturers use for one of the driver-assist systems. In this context, it’s another computer/module name you might see on the scan tool, separate from the general ADAS modules.
Some cars store extra diagnostic info inside the computer modules. If the usual error codes aren’t showing up, this “record of behavior” can still reveal what the car thinks is wrong.
ADAS cameras often look through the windshield. If the view is blocked or covered, the car may not be able to read the road properly and will warn you.
ADAS calibration is when the car “re-aims” and sets up its sensors so they match the car’s current alignment. If it’s not calibrated, features like lane keeping may not work even if the warning light is confusing.
Calibration means adjusting the car’s camera/radar so it lines up correctly with the road and the car. It’s often done with special targets and a computer tool.
The Toyota Sienna is a minivan that has driver-assist tech like cameras and radar. Here, they’re calibrating the camera and checking the radar to figure out why the dashboard warning light is on.
A radar cone is a physical calibration aid used during radar sensor setup to create a controlled reflective target geometry. Bringing it “just in case” suggests the shop may need it to complete radar calibration depending on what the vehicle’s ADAS configuration requires.
Term
ROB data
ROB data is extra diagnostic information pulled from the car’s computers. Sometimes it shows a problem even when the dashboard doesn’t have a normal trouble code.
A security key mismatch means the car’s anti-theft/security handshake doesn’t line up. This can happen if a computer module was replaced with a used one but wasn’t fully set up to match the car.
ECM means the engine computer. Even though it’s mainly for the engine, if its security setup is wrong after a replacement, it can cause other systems to act up too.
VIN is the car’s unique ID number. When a computer module is replaced, it may need the VIN updated so the car knows it’s the right module for that vehicle.
Immobilizer matching is the anti-theft setup step after replacing a module. It makes sure the car’s security system and the new computer agree, so the car can use the module properly.
DLC stands for Data Link Connector, the standardized diagnostic port used to connect a scan tool to the vehicle. Some immobilizer-related procedures historically involved grounding pins at the DLC, though this episode describes a newer scan-tool-based method.
The immobilizer is an anti-theft system. The “handshake” is the car and key exchanging the right code—if it doesn’t match, the car won’t allow starting.
Think of the ECU security key as a lock-and-key code for the car’s main computer. If the code doesn’t match what the car expects, you can get security warnings.
GTS is Toyota’s official diagnostic software/tool. It’s used by technicians to run deeper service actions like security resets, not just read codes.
Term
Toyota TIS
Toyota TIS is Toyota’s official service information system. It’s part of the process for getting the right setup/permissions to run certain diagnostic procedures.
An ECU security reset is like rebooting the car computer’s security/handshake state. It can be needed after some repairs or electrical events so the car’s systems start talking to each other correctly again.
They mention a Chevrolet Impala as the other possible example where the dash shows an ADAS warning but no error codes show up. That often points to settings or system status rather than a broken part.
“Forward collision reduced” is a message that your forward-collision safety system isn’t working at full strength. It can show up if the system is turned off or not set up correctly, even if there’s no stored error code.
Scan data is what a diagnostic tool pulls up from the car while it’s running—like sensor readings and system status. If there’s no error code, this live data helps you figure out what the system is doing.
They’re saying the warning can happen if the ADAS system was turned off in the car’s menu. Turning those options back on can restore normal operation and clear the warning.
ADAS calibration is the process of setting up the car’s safety sensors so they’re aimed and configured correctly. If it’s not done (or the system is turned off), you can get warning lights even when no specific error code shows up.
The instrument cluster is the screen/gauges you see behind the steering wheel. Some car settings and warning-related options are controlled through its menus.
The infotainment unit is the car’s multimedia and information system (screen, radio, navigation, and settings menus). It often hosts vehicle settings and can control or display ADAS-related options and warnings.
The center stack is the dashboard area in the middle with the screen and controls. A lot of car settings—sometimes including safety-system settings—are changed from there.
Used control module programming is the process of configuring a previously used electronic module so it works correctly in a specific vehicle. Modern cars have many modules, and ADAS functions often require correct software configuration and sometimes calibration/initialization after replacement.
A cloning service copies the configuration/data from one control module to another so the replacement module behaves like the original. This is often used to reduce the complexity of programming when installing used modules, especially for systems that must match vehicle configuration.
The Nissan Rogue is a common family crossover. The host is using it as an example of a car where the camera-based safety warning can blink, and you may not find a clear trouble code to fix.
A forward camera warning is the alert from the camera mounted at the front of the car. Sometimes it can flash even if you don’t get a trouble code, because the system is deciding whether conditions are met.
AEB means the car can automatically brake to help avoid a crash. This warning light usually means that safety system is not working or can’t be used right now—even if the car doesn’t show an error code.
A service bulletin is a manufacturer’s guidance for mechanics about a known problem and what to check. It can help explain why a warning light is on even if the car doesn’t show an error code.
Calibration is the car’s way of making sure the windshield camera is lined up and working correctly. If it can’t calibrate, the safety system may stay disabled until the issue is fixed.
It’s the dashboard warning light for a system that watches for pedestrians ahead and warns you about a possible collision. In this case, the light is on, but the car doesn’t log an error code.
PEB is the car’s pedestrian emergency braking feature. The scan data shows it’s turned off, which can trigger the warning light even though there aren’t any stored error codes.
This is a 2022 Wagoneer. The host is checking whether it was built with a driver-assistance feature, because the car’s warning behavior suggests something is missing or disabled.
This is a Stellantis information system dealers/technicians use to look up how a specific car was built. The host uses it to confirm the car should have the ADAS-related hardware.
Sales codes are the factory’s “build sheet” style identifiers. They can tell you what options the car was originally configured with, even if the car’s menus don’t show it.
ADAS stands for driver-assistance systems. The ADAS module is the computer that controls those safety features, and here it shows the system is currently turned off.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a midsize SUV made for both regular driving and tougher roads. People talk about it in car repair contexts because some used ones can develop problems as they get older. If you’re looking at one, it’s important to check it carefully for warning signs.
They switch to the official repair/diagnostic manuals for the car. That helps them find the right information instead of relying only on random internet posts.
This is a safety system that watches the road ahead and warns you if a crash seems likely. If the “off” light is on, it means the warning system isn’t active right now.
“Over the air” (OTA) updates are software updates delivered wirelessly to the car. OTA updates can change ADAS behavior and settings—like FCW/PEB defaulting to off—without a traditional dealer visit.
Company
YTECH
YTECH is the diagnostic tool the host uses to check what software the car modules are running. It helps confirm whether updates are installed correctly.
UConnect is the car’s main touchscreen/infotainment system. In this case, the host checks UConnect updates because the car’s software can affect safety-feature settings too.
A software update is a change to the car’s electronic control software (often for modules like infotainment or driver-assistance systems). Dealers can sometimes “force” or apply an update to correct behavior when the system is misconfigured or a feature is disabled.
The infotainment center is the car’s main multimedia interface—typically the touchscreen and its control module. Because it integrates with other vehicle systems, infotainment software can affect how warnings and settings are displayed or toggled.
Brand
Chrysler Jeep dealerships
The host is pointing to Chrysler/Jeep dealers as the right place to get the fix. Dealers have the manufacturer tools and instructions that independent shops may not.
LIVE
Welcome to the Automotive Diagnostic Podcast.
We're going to explore ways to sharpen our diagnostic skills, find learning resources,
and hear from experts in the automotive field.
This show is brought to you by Automotive Seminars. If you're looking to stay up on the cutting-edge
diagnostic strategies and techniques, this is the place. You've got live four-hour seminars
that are put online that you can join in, ask questions, interact with the instructors. With
some of the best of the best, they've got Keith Perkins, John Thornton putting on classes like
and it does get a bit confusing again. So you read up on it. So take some time there to understand
what you're working on, take a step back, get everything in line. So you know exactly what
I'm actually going for and what the warning light is actually pertaining to. And that's kind of where
I'm going with this today is, you know, we get in these cars and we see or we get called to a car
to diagnose it. And we see, okay, there's a warning light on, maybe one of the systems is not functional.
Where do we go with it? And what do we actually look at? Now, of course, you're going to scan it,
you're going to look for codes. Okay, again, that's obvious. And if you have that, you're going to be
going down that path. And you know, the service information is going to guide you to what you
need to do in most cases. But sometimes you get these lights on, and there aren't codes or there
aren't real obvious codes that point you to a direction that you need to go. Now, one of the
most common things that we see here, and we've been seeing this for a while, it's not anything
necessarily new is with Toyota and Lexus vehicles. They have something in the control modules on
newer models, I don't know exactly when it started. But if you go 2020 plus, everything's
going to have this. And I know there was ones prior to that as well. But we know if 2020 plus,
and we're getting called to a Toyota, hey, there's a light on, one of the symptoms isn't working,
we don't have any codes, is that you want to be looking at the ROB or record of behavior data
that's stored within the module. Now, depending on the tool you're using, you can look this data up
in the specific module that has it under special functions, or some of the tools will allow you
to just look at the entire vehicles, record of behavior, and it'll break it down by module.
And really, all this is just another set of diagnostic trouble codes, but it's accessed
differently through the module. And this can pertain to a lot of different things. But a lot
of the time what we see is these are advanced driver systems that have information for you
within the record of behavior. And if there's an error that is going to be constant within that
ROB data, a lot of the times it's going to disable a system and throw a warning light.
But if you're just doing a regular code scan, you might not see any codes in there. And it could
be just as simple as, hey, the radar is dirty, or the windshield is obstructed, or, you know,
it could be a misalignment. It could be other things as well, too, that could cause an ADOS
warning light and ROB data. And I'll actually mention one here, because this one, we actually got
called out to do an ADOS calibration. The shop wasn't exactly sure why the warning light was on,
but they just assumed, okay, it's an ADOS warning light, this system does not work.
I think it was the lane keep assist that they were trying to get to work, but it wasn't functional.
There was a warning light on the dash for one of the ADOS systems, they said, hey,
can you come out and calibrate it? Okay, cool, it's X amount, we'll bring out our targets,
we'll get it set up. And for the windshield camera, it's actual targets for this, it was a 21 Sienna,
and you set up these targets and calibrate it with the scan tool. And then for the radar,
there's a cone, and a lot of times we'll just bring the radar cone with us just in case,
because we don't always know what we're getting into on these vehicles up front,
we ask a lot of questions, and we have a script that we run to try to get the information,
but you never know. Anyways, we get there, and we find that there are no codes in the vehicle
that indicate there's a misalignment or anything. Now, it does have a warning light on the dash
for the forward camera. And there's no codes in that module, but if you go into the ROB data,
it allowed you to see what was going on. And it was something a little different than what we
normally see again, you know, obstruction, misalignment, it's kind of what I was thinking I
was going to find. But it actually was referring to a security key mismatch. Now, this vehicle was
actually running, operating, it started fine, literally the only thing that the customer
facing that they could see was wrong was that this warning light was on the dash and that the
ADAS systems didn't work. And again, the ROB data indicating that there's a security key mismatch.
Now, if you look into this, and there was some digging here to figure out exactly what this
meant. And I was kind of thinking like, Hey, as a module been replaced, was it the actual,
was it a camera? Was it a radar or something in there? And it turns out, looking at the ROB data
and looking at the rest of the system, that the engine control module had actually been
replaced with a used one. And you could actually look at the engine control module and you could
see writing on it as well. Okay, yes, this is definitely a junkyard one. Now, someone had
actually done two of the three steps that are necessary in the replacement of the module.
They rewrote the VIN, which you can do with a scan tool and aftermarket scan tool,
they did the immobilizer matching, meaning that the security handshake between the ECM and the
immobilizer, this is the, it's not the four to 13 style, where you would ground the pins of the DLC
and leave it for 30 minutes. This one's actually done through the scan tool under special functions,
but the same idea. And someone had done this, right, because you're not going to have a used
ECM work in one of these to actually start and run the vehicle, if you hadn't matched the immobilizer
system. So the question is, okay, why do we have a security key mismatch? So this is actually
different than the immobilizer handshake, you know, to actually disable the vehicle. This is
with the ECU security key. And this is a newer process on these Toyota vehicles. Again, I don't
know the exact starting date for this, but it was somewhere around 2021. Basically, the vehicles
that required you use GTS, and I realize that's the official scan tool platform for all of Toyota,
but about that time that they started introducing GTS as the scan tool platform,
there is an option through that tool to do the ECU security key reset. And what that does,
to me, I'm more familiar with the Chrysler setup. This is more of like a proxy alignment and less
to do with actual immobilizer data, because this is not preventing the vehicle from starting.
It's not actually tied in with the immobilizer, the vehicle, but it does say ECU security reset.
And what it does when you run it in GTS is it's going to look through all the modules,
see which ones need to be matched, and then it will do a security right. Now, you have to be
logged in for this, you got to have an official account with, you know, Toyota GTS. I mean,
you could do a short term sub and use a J box. That's what I'm doing on this one. But you have
to purchase a sub through Toyota TIS and get that all set up on your laptop in order to run this.
And I'm not familiar with another tool that can do this. If there is something out there,
I'd be very curious to know about it. But right now, in order to do that security reset,
you need to use GTS. So that wasn't done when this use module was installed. Maybe the person
didn't have GTS. Maybe they weren't aware of it. Because again, it's not super obvious. The car
will start and run. And there wasn't any codes in the ECM, but it's not completely matched.
And you get this warning light on the dash. There were ROB codes and other modules as well.
But customer facing, that was the only thing that they saw that was wrong. And understandably so,
hey, there's something wrong with my ADAS system. Well, it just doesn't agree with the information
that is in this use control module. Now, it worked, ran the ECU security reset, and everything was
good. Warning lights were off, cleared all the data. It's good to go. But a couple things on
those Toyotas to watch for both the ROB data and that ECU security reset, which you're going to need
GTS to run that. Now, the other thing that we see on vehicles is warning lights that are on.
Again, that we get there with no codes. And there's actually nothing wrong with the vehicle,
meaning that there are no broken systems. There are no issues that need to be repaired or fixed.
But there is a warning light on the dash. And you can actually see this across a few different
brands. But General Motors is the first time where I ran into this. I believe it was on an 18.
It was either a Malibu or an Impala. But the shop called me in because they had just gotten this car
in on trade. It was a used car lot and they were going through it. And there was a warning message
on the dash, the little center information thing in the middle of the cluster that said
forward collision reduced. It would come on at startup on the dash. No codes were present.
And there was nothing like obviously wrong with this vehicle except for that light coming on.
And look through scan data and again, check for codes really didn't find anything. But if you
do some reading, and this is actually really important to know for a lot of different makes and
models, if ADOS systems are turned off for one reason or another, let's say the customer did it,
let's say maybe at some sort of battery reset, and things turned off that way,
you will get warning lights on the dash that are basically an indication to the customer that,
hey, your system is turned off. And all you need to do is go into wherever those settings
are determined and flipped on and off, and make sure everything is turned on.
And that's the way I handle this. If I have a warning light for an ADOS system,
I don't have a code in any module or the ROB data for the Toyotas, I will go and make sure
that everything is actually turned on. And I've talked to some people who if they do ADOS calibrations
at all, they manually go in and turn everything on because they don't know what systems did the
customer have activated before after. And that's not a bad way to do it. But especially in this
case, if you see warning lights, you don't have any direction, figure out where this stuff is
controlled. Now that could be through the instrument cluster, but it could also be through the center
stack, the infotainment unit, whatever that is, the radio, the touchscreen, a lot of vehicles
will have controls and vehicle settings there. And also within the instrument cluster, so you
got to figure out where is it actually controlled. Now, this particular GM was through the center
stack through the center console. Now, we've seen this a few other times on various GMs.
I've seen it on the trucks like the Yukon's and stuff too. Same thing, warning lights on,
you just have to turn the system on. And there's different parts of it as well,
because it's not just having the actual systems on. It's making sure that everything is on about
them. And what I mean by that is, hey, have you ever been faced with the challenge of sourcing,
installing and programming a used control module and vehicle? I know a lot of us have.
It seems to be happening more and more often today with the volume of control modules on vehicles,
the cost of some new ones, or even the availability of new control modules. In some cases used may
be the only option. So what do you do here? I strongly recommend checking out SJ auto solutions
and Tommy Oliva. Tommy offers a cloning service for use control modules to make these things plug
and play for the vehicle that you're working on. In a lot of cases, he is also able to source the
control modules if you're unable to locate one for the vehicle that you're working on. But once
you get connected with Tommy, he's going to offer fantastic support from start to finish to make sure
that that control module is going to work in your application. He's also got tech support that he
offers through his website, along with some free resources there as well on information about
used control module programming. So make sure to check out SJ auto solutions. I can't recommend that
enough for the forward collision in this particular vehicle. If you just set it to alarm, it will say
that the forward collision is reduced, it'll have that warning light on. There is an alarm and
break. So you have different options for the settings of these. And they give that to the
customer so that they can change how these systems operate, which if you've driven a vehicle with
eight OS systems, that's nice to have, because sometimes they're just they're over aggressive,
they're beeping at you and pulling the steering wheel all the time. And you'd like to be able to
kind of turn that stuff either off or at least down, reduce the sensitivity of it. And that's
kind of what this is, is okay, we'll give you a warning if there's a forward collision approaching,
but we're not going to hit the break, unless you turn that on. And again, the setting for this one,
the alarm only was on, but not the alarm and break. So as soon as you flip that way, the warning
light turns off. Okay, so again, just many of you have run into this with eight OS systems before,
and you're familiar with this. But for someone who isn't who hasn't dealt with this is really good
quick information to get you to a fix or just to realize like there really isn't anything to fix,
it may just be instructing the customer on how that system operates. And of course,
maybe you just fix something, maybe there wasn't a complaint, but you're like,
why is this warning light on? Did I, you know, did I not do the calibration correctly? Did I
break something? No, the customer might have just had the system turned off. And they're just used
to the warning light being on. But that is the case in a lot of vehicles. And I actually come
back to that for the fourth vehicle I touch on. But before that, there are some vehicles where
you can have warning lights are on, and you don't have any codes. And it's not that the system is
manually turned off. Okay, there's obviously a ton of different vehicles out there. They're all
set up different ways. You know, I kind of consider like eight OS systems, you know,
they're in their OBD one phase of just it's kind of the Wild West, there's no strict protocols that
are is across the board on everything. And so certain vehicles are going to operate a little
bit differently than others. And of course, you would expect Nissan to fit that bill of doing
something strange. This was a Nissan rogue that we dealt with that had the it was the four or the
forward camera warning that was on this thing. And it would just blink. So this is the little
amber crash symbol that's over in the speedometer. There is two vehicles with a little collision
symbol between them. And it would just blank. And that was it. There was no codes.
anything indicating that there was, you know, a problem somewhere except for this light that
was blinking and the system did not work. I think when you would hit the button, it would give you
a message in the on the center information center and the instrument cluster saying that it was
unavailable. But other than that, like nothing happened. And so this is the AEB warning light
for this vehicle. And if you do some research, which I had to do for this one, I spent a lot
of time just staring at the light going through each module checking things. And come to find out
they have a service bulletin about this, I actually think a friend of mine, PJ, alerted me to this
at the time I was working on it. But there's information from Nissan that I think they released
for their technicians and for their customers, explaining a reason why this warning light might
be on and blinking with no codes or no indication that something is wrong. And basically what they're
saying to check for here is an obstruction of either the radar or the camera, depending on,
you know, which light is on, but that you can just have a dirty windshield or something obstructed
on the windshield or on the radar that could cause this to happen. And this was a long process on
this particular Nissan. But what we ended up finding out was that the camera had been changed
out on this at some point or another, or I'm sorry, the windshield had been changed out,
but the camera had been taken off and put back on to the windshield of this camera,
or this, this vehicle. And where the camera mounted to the windshield, we actually removed
it at one point, there was an actual like speck of dirt right in the center where that camera
was looking, because we had tried calibrating this thing is fail fail. And we looked at the
outside of the windshield and we didn't see anything obstructing it. And eventually took that
camera out. And I have a picture of this little piece of dirt that's just stuck to the windshield
right in the center of where that camera is looking out. We cleaned it up, got that out,
you know, glass cleaner, get it all clean, put it back together, it passed calibration immediately
and everything worked. And then that light stopped blinking. And that was it. But this was
something where, you know, Nissan's put some information out there saying, Hey, you might
see this blinking light. Here's what you should be looking for, because there's no other indicators
on the car as to what's wrong. I did end up looking through some data pins on this one. And
there was a couple that I think indicated that at least hey, the problems with the camera,
that there's something disabling the actual camera system as opposed to the radar of the vehicle.
But it wasn't much more than that. It wasn't saying like, Hey, there's an obstruction.
Now, this was an older Nissan. I think this was a 2017. And so this may not be the case with the
newer ones. Obviously, they change things all the time. But it's very possible you could see,
you know, a vehicle of that age in your shop. All right, so the last one I want to touch on,
this one was done recently. This was a 22 Jeep wagon year. And this actually was very similar to
when I mentioned you could have a light on because the system is not enabled. And that's what was
going on here with this 22 wagon year. It was the amber forward collision pedestrian warning
indicator on the on the dash. And so this is just again, it was on. And there was no codes,
anything about it, no codes in the vehicle. I think this thing was like, all clear,
except for like one body module with some obscure code that didn't have anything to do with this.
But as far as the ADAS systems go, and the systems even related to ADAS for communication,
you know, the instrument cluster where the light is on, the center stack where the controls were
for the settings, zero codes anywhere in this vehicle indicating that there was a problem.
Now, the one thing I found was in the ADAS module for this vehicle, it showed the PEB status as off,
and that is pedestrian emergency braking. And that's all it just said it was off and this
warning lights on. And so I was thinking like, okay, I just need to make sure that this is actually
turned on. And I struggled for a while looking through the instrument cluster settings, and then
looking through the center stack settings, and there was no option to turn the PEB status either
on or off. So I looked through the actual sales codes for this vehicle, because I was wondering,
is this actually equipped on this vehicle, right? Is this 22 Wagoneer supposed to have this?
Maybe somebody swapped in a part here that I'm not aware of. And one component, maybe the cluster,
is looking for this to be on, but the other components can't turn it on because it doesn't
exist. But turns out the PEB is equipped on this vehicle, according to the sales codes,
right from Stellantis IOP, it's supposed to have it. And again, the cluster assumes that it should
have it. And the ADAS module shows that it's, you know, it could be on, but it's toggled, you know,
it's in the off position, doing a little bit of digging. And, you know, I mentioned that with
these cars, we did some digging, research, you got to do that, you got to get out
there, find whatever resources that you have, whether that be an aftermarket information,
whether that be Google, YouTube, maybe you can access the factory information, even better,
right? Obviously, you should gravitate towards the service information before you're going outside
of that. But I did find info information about this particular problem, both on the service
information side, and on just the generic Google side. With the Google side of things,
I found that this is actually a common problem with this era of cheap wagon year. And I think
there was actually grand Cherokees as well listed on here. But people would say the same thing that,
hey, I used to have an option to turn this system on and off. It is no longer there and my lights on.
And that's where I was like, okay, maybe I'm on to something here, because I feel like there
should be an option to turn this on. But I've been through every single menu on this car.
And through the scan tool as well, absolutely no option to toggle it from off to on position,
but it does appear to be off. And that appears to be causing the light. So then I switched my
search over to the service information side of it. And not that I wasn't in there before,
but I've got a more focused search of what I'm looking for here and searching like PEB and then,
you know, the status of the ADOS systems. And I end up finding what I'm looking for here on the
actual Stellantis IOP website. And this is where this was really helpful was there's a star publication
that I was only able to find through Chrysler's website. They do release some of the case numbers
publicly where you can find them on Google. Some of them you can't. I don't know the exact
reasoning behind one being, you know, behind a paywall and not, but it's kind of like an
internal service Bolton that didn't turn into a recall. They're used with Chrysler. And it's
basically saying that, Hey, this forward collision warning off indicator is on,
in that you need to go into the settings in the center stack and then turn it back on. Now,
it's not super obvious, but at the bottom of this, they mentioned that a flash over the air
to the radio software may set the FCW and the PEB to off as a default after an over the air
update to the software. Now, what they don't mention here is that this particular option
would just be gone. But there's enough of information here that I'm looking at the screen
in the star case, which looks like my screen and I see the forward collision warning options.
Yeah, those are there. The forward collision sensitivity, those are there. But the pedestrian
emergency braking system, which I see in the picture in the star case, but I don't see on my car,
I'm like, it is just gone. So this has to be some sort of software thing. Now, what happened exactly?
I don't know. Everything I can see about the radio, the instrument cluster, the ADAS module,
they all match the vehicle. Unless somebody did a really good job of changing the VINs over,
but this is like a 22 vehicle. I mean, it's possible, but it doesn't seem like that's
the likely candidate. And I maybe forced software into these modules and see what happens. So I go
through and I do everything I can with YTECH, checking for updates, checking for the correct
level of software, all appears to be okay. I even went into the UConnect website,
which is the information infotainment center, a customer could potentially download software
onto a flash drive and then do the update themselves on a certain year of Chrysler's.
But what you can do is you can type in your VIN number and it will tell you if you're up to date
on the software on the UConnect side. Because I was thinking maybe it's, you know, not the scan
tool programming side, it might be this actual UConnect software and something's going on with
that. It said it was fully updated. And so it didn't really give me anything more than that.
So at this point, I had enough time into it, but I had enough information to tell a customer like,
hey, here's what I'm dealing with. You've got this warning light on that basically it's toggled off
and it shows that in the scan tool, but I have no option to turn it on. It should be here,
it's not. I would suggest taking it to the dealer and seeing if they are able to force
some sort of software update on this radio, or, you know, maybe they know what's going on beyond
that point. But they agreed, they ended up taking it there. It was like a three week wait to get it
into the dealership. But once they did, they were able to fix it without replacing any components.
When they got the vehicle back, they had the option there to actually toggle it back on and off
like it's supposed to be there. So they didn't get a straight up answer of what the dealer did.
My guess is there was some type of software, either forced software or software update or
something to that infotainment center in order to turn that back on. Now, again, like I mentioned,
I found some basically forums of Jeep owners that were indicating that they had the same
thing happen. And then they brought it to the dealer and the dealer was able to correct something.
There was a couple of people from older posts saying that the dealer didn't have a fix.
I'm guessing they do now. Maybe you're at a Chrysler dealer. I know I've talked to a few
people out there that work at Chrysler Jeep dealerships. Maybe you know more about this
than I do at this point. But I thought it was interesting. And that's where I'm going to wrap
this one up at is you might have some of these 8S morning lights. It's not always super obvious
what they mean. But understanding the symptoms, really digging into everything you can with
the scan tool, even going beyond codes, looking at data, ROB data, understanding exactly what
systems are equipped on the car, how they are turned on or off. And then also digging to see
are there service bulletins that give me more information? What is in service information?
What's out there on the web that can help me get to the conclusion faster? So with that all out
of the way, we'll wrap this one up. Thank you for listening. Let's all get out there, start fixing
the world one car at a time.
About this episode
ADAS warning lights can show up even when scan tools find no codes, and the fix often isn’t a parts swap. The host walks through Toyota/Lexus cases where ROB (record of behavior) data reveals an ECU security key mismatch after a used ECM replacement, and explains Toyota’s GTS ECU security key reset. Other no-code scenarios include GM/Nissan-style “system turned off” settings, a Nissan windshield camera obstruction that stops after cleaning and recalibration, and a 2022 Wagoneer where PEB is off due to software/dealer configuration.
This week on the the show I share 4 examples of vehicles we got called in to look at ADAS warning lights that did not have any connected diagnostic trouble codes (or at least not in the traditional sense) and what we did to resolve the issue on these systems.
