BSM sensor calibration with TTS

Good day. About a year ago I installed an aftermarket bumper with BSM slots in it. Everything worked fine up until about 3 months ago. The BSM switched off with all of the associated lights. Inspected the sensors for dirt and fit. No problems. Suspecting that a sensor had gone bad. Took it to the dealer. They said the sensors were fine. They just need to be recalibrated and they won't do it due to the fact it's an aftermarket bumper. Has anyone tried the recalibrating those sensors with TTS?

 

What bumper?

 

Steelcraft FORTIS 76-23380

 

I would call a collision repair place and see if they can recommend a shop to re-calibrate these for you.

 

Thanks, I just did. Gonna cost about $250.00. Kind of wanted to do it myself but may have to bite the bullet.

 

If you have the necessary equipment you could do it your self. The equipment doesn't look cheap. The calibration write up should list everything needed to perform the calibration

 

I have the TSS, dongle and laptop. I work at a machine shop. So i can make the reflectors. Just curious if anyone on here has navigated their way through the process before.

 

Good luck. Do you have access to TIS? The manuals walk you through all of the steps. There is a video for the calibration on a Toyota minivan on Youtube. The angles will be different for the Tundra but the steps will be the same.

The first issue I see is placing the reflectors and ensuring the reflectors are at the correct angles relative to the truck; there are several steps just to find the correct reflector placement. Depending on what manual or section you read you have +/-3.6 (or 4) degrees of tolerance on the horizontal plane, you can easily eat that up with poor placement or improperly manufactured reflectors. You can possibly make these calculations using strings and other tools; the manual uses a laser device to determine ranges and angles.

The other issue I see is accessing the bolts on the sensor to calibrate the sensor in the vertical and horizontal planes; this is probably why the dealer doesn't want to touch it for cal. On the van cal vid the sensor and bolts are completely exposed so the calibrator can tighten and loose bolts from the sensor face as necessary. Based on the installation instructions of your bumper it looks like you can only access the bolts from the inside of the bumper.

 

It looks like I can buy a two day subscription for $20.00. I think that's all I would need. I'm really good with RADAR principles and theory. So knowing the beam width, I'll be able to calculate the size of the reflector. I have access to several "pencil lasers". The challenge for me so far. Is finding an area that's got a smooth flat surface with enough room to lay out the grid.

 

Oh good, yeah that is what I did to pull the manuals I needed. Its all in the manuals and you can download them as PDFs. The instructions list all the materials needed for the set up. I think it includes needing a plumb as well to make sure the sensor is vertically oriented properly.

From what I read the radar calibration mode may be different than normal operations which covers a 150 degree arc. They sell the reflectors so you can probably pull the part number from the manuals, from the parts you can probably pull the reflector specs. Going off memory I don't think you need more than 12 feet from the sides of the vehicle (edit the video is saying about 13 feet), the reflectors sit at the base points of a large isosceles triangle. They put the reflectors roughly 20 degrees off perpendicular with the truck. You run the diag, the system tells you what adjustment to make, rinse repeat.

This is the vid I was talking about for the Sienna:
https://youtu.be/_RPCYwpN6YE

 

I definitely want to do a video on this with some step by step instructions. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has this problem. Thanks for the link.

 

A vid would be nice and helpful for the community, especially with more BSM bumpers coming to market.

This one is for an LX570 which uses the same sensors with a little more detail:
https://youtu.be/qPk65L9SAVw

 

A master tech giving a BSM overview and common problems:
https://youtu.be/tF6HV6MnVfI