Alarms tripped by snow blocking sensors

First drive in very light snow this year. The LTA lane assist, collision avoidance, and parking assist alarms kept rotating across the main digital display. I hit the back button to make it go away, and they just kept returning for the whole drive. The flash of the screen changing is pretty annoying.

Is there any way to disable this?

I'm not going to stop and clean the sensors in the middle of a road trip. I don't care about parking sensors while doing 45 mph either...

 

There is not much you can do, based on my dealer saying. The front sensors are extremely sensitive to any snow deposits or dirt.
A littlte salty water from the car in the front of you and you loose front collision and cruise control

 

Turn LTA and cruise control off. Hit the button to the left of the steering wheel to turn pre-collision off at well.

pretty sure that did the trick for me last year when I had similar warning due to snow buildup.

 

I have lta disabled, and don't use adaptive cruise control, just regular cruise control. I don't really use cruise control if it's actively snowing, though.

Haven't seen any pre collision system warnings, though.

 

Experienced this the past weekend and it is annoying as hell. It would be one thing if you could dismiss the alert and not have it come back, but it is persistent. Meh.

 

I wasn't using cruise control.

How do you turn off LTA? I click the button on the steering wheel that looks like a car turning off lane, and I only get lta active and lta plus something centering active. LTA can be pretty annoying too.

I'm guessing the button with a car + cone + star disable both collision sensors? parking and pre-collision. I didn't see any other buttons on the left side that made sense.

 

IIRC, you have to press and hold the LTA button to turn it off.

I also turn off the parking asset and collision detection, and I have driven in slushy snow a few times without any warnings going off. Collision detection is the car and cone button to the left of the steering wheel on the dash. You have dig thru the MID menus to turn off parking assist. Fortunately, once you turn both off, they remain off permanently until you turn them back on. I wish the auto stop/start was that way.

Matt

 

So I actually ran into the pre collision radar covered issue this morning on my way to the airport: 32° and sleeting. Hitting the car/cone button to the left of the wheel did nothing, the persistence message remained.

I think the button left of the wheel is the parking braking assist, not pre-collision. I think pre-collision is in the MID menu. Someone correct me, or I'll look myself next week.

 

OK, I just looked it up in the manual. The button on the dash left of the steering wheel (car backing into a cone symbol) is the Parking Support Brake (PSB). I leave that one disabled because it slams on the brakes every time I back out of my garage and get too close to some bushes on the side of our drive way.

The Pre-Collision System (PCS) is the one that doesn't like when the sensors get covered in snowy/sleety conditions. It can be enabled/disabled in MID gear menu (2 cars running into each other symbol) But it automatically comes back on when you start the engine.

The Intuitive Parking Assist is the one that sounds off multiple warning beeps and buzzers depending on how close you get to other objects while parking. I leave that one disabled permanently because I find it incredibly distracting when I'm maneuvering in tight spots. It is also enabled/disabled in the MID gear menu. It has the P and cone symbol.

The Lane Tracing Assist (LTA) is the button on right side of of the steering wheel. It enables/disables a variety of nanny driver assist functions that I don't find useful at all, so I leave it off permanently too. It also doesn't appear to like snowy/slushy/sleety conditions.

Finally, I always turn off the auto stop/start feature every time I start the engine.

It's a shame we have to jump thru all these hoops just to drive our trucks in nasty weather without multiple warnings being displayed.

Matt

 

Thanks for the informative post. I will look for disabling pre-collision through the MID in the future.

 

I use this once each winter and it does a good job of keeping water off and out of the parking sensors.

Rain-X 620036 Plastic Treatment - 12 fl. oz.

$6 Rain-X 620036 Plastic Treatment - 12 fl. oz.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T9LR2BQ

 

Does it damage the paint on the sensor? Have you tried putting it on the grille spot as well?

 

I haven’t had any paint problems. When I apply it, I wipe off any overspray.

 

Good call!

 

That's one think I hate about the truck. It might seems a small detail but is very annoying.

The same happens when you intentionally turn off traction control, or stability control, or even when you use a multi-terrain selection while on 4x4. The display will continually tell you that stability control is off, even when you acknowledge the message. (I know, I turned if off myself).

 

Corporate attorneys hard at work protecting their asses!

 

Turning off pre collision assist is not something I'm able to do while driving.

 

I can change the sensitivity, I cannot turn it off.

 

For those of you having issues with the front sensor warnings, you can permanently disable the pre-collision assist by either using Carista or TechStream. I doubt the dealer will enable(disable) this due to liability, but it is very easy to do with the carista app & dongle if you do not have access to TechStream.


go to Driver Aids > “pre-collision system (PCS) driver aids: remember last state” and the change the selection from “NO” to “YES”

This will allow for business as usual under normal circumstances. In the event it is snowing or there are icing conditions, switch the PCS setting to OFF using the MID and it will now stay disabled, regardless of restarts, until you turn it back on in the MID menu.

 

Perhaps my MID is in need of a software flash or update, but that is not an option for me.

 

I'm almost positive you have to be stopped to turn the Pre-collision system Off. You can not do it while driving. Also, the default setting is for the system to be On, so it will default to On when you restart the truck.

Matt

 

I am able to turn PCS off while driving. Just verified today. Full digital dash on mine.

 

Thanks. I stand corrected. Good to know it can be turned off while driving.

 

For a veihicle supposedly designed in Michigan, they're really not well thought out for snow...

I've had mine just over a year now, but this was the first snow for it. (there was no snow at all last year to worry about)
I knew I'd loose the sensors, but today's 2.5 hour commute in the dark, with that bloody dash lit up with amber warning lights, and flashing messages that you can't kill easily was awful.

Did they really think anyone was going to stop to clear off sensors? Is there any logic to having to find buttons hidden by your knee, behind the wheel, and menu items in the mid to eliminate the distractions?

I will have to try the Rain-X. Can't hurt...

I like the Tundra, but there are plenty of times I really miss my '97 Ram. It didn't complain, you just turned the key, and drove... I feel like I need a co-pilot to manage the damn software while I drive some days.

 

Rain-X makes no difference, as I learned today with my freshly rain-x’ed sensor. Only option was to turn off all systems on the MID menu to make the warnings go away. Annoying.

 

How about once you clear the warning message, it just stays cleared, and doesn't keep flashing at you in the middle of the dash. Is that something we really should be paying more for? Do people with the higher trim models have less annoying messages?

I don't expect the sensors to function with ice buildup. I mean I guess they could put heaters in there, but that's unlikely, and yea, it would cost more, and probably be only marginally successful.

When the system does ice up and fail, what I don't want is to have to spend a moment's worth of concentration to get my dashboard to stop flashing at me. It only happens under bad driving conditions when I want to be looking outside the cab, not keep getting drawn to the dash by a warning I already acknowledged. When I say flashing, it's just the messages changing on the Mid. I'm wired to assume a change on the dash is indicating something I need to check. Once I've checked it, I don't need, or want it to alert me again in a few seconds.

Yes, we can disable sensors, and the messages should stop. Either I missed one, or it enables on restart, so the parking sensor was on my ass this morning at 3am when I'm just trying to go to work. This isn't a bug, some software engineer made a decision that the warnings will not simply stay cleared, because I guess the big glowing amber warning light isn't enough, and we need text as well.

 

Once I dismissed the messages of radar/front sensors along with front camera blocked, they would keep coming back on. Unless you turn them off they keep reappearing as a hazard. And with those blocked the MTS wont let you select "snow" for the 4HI setting. Kinda silly. So to answer your question, no, higher trims still deal with it without a way out unless you turn off sensors

 

As someone else stated, I’m not sure there is a practical way to prevent sensor blockage due to snow/ice/mud etc, however Toyota can easily program the warning to only pop up once on the MID rather than constantly popping up after being cleared (there are still warning lights illuminated, that should be enough after the first warning!). Add this to the list of other silly programming quirks like the remote start shutting off when the door is opened and my screen constantly asking for pin.
Still love the truck despite the annoyances.

 

So I checked the other day. I may have been subconsciously ignoring the PCS menu item. Yes, I can turn it off. Oops.

I'm still convinced that I wasn't able to once I got the warning that it was disabled because it was covered in snow. Maybe I'll get another chance today or Friday to find out.

 

Mine too. I put it in garage and deal with it Saturday morning. If it is still happening.