Alignment Related Questions

[Dan Albrich]

- Post alignment was told need to re-caliberate cameras. Does that ring true?
- Assuming true: Les Schwab quoted me $350 to re-caliberate. Is it reasonable to do this myself, or is it important to be done with special equipment etc. i.e. should I have the dealer do this if need be?

-Dan

PS: The dealer indicated uneven wear. Some of the story omitted, but ended up getting an alignment and tires rotated. I'm presently at 80K miles, and have never done alignment on this car. Oh and of course, thanks for any information. I didn't see others on this forum asking about alignment.

 

[alecbray]

I don’t think you need to re-calibrate the camera. It was most likely calibrated when you had correct alignment and re-alignment shouldn’t “break” the calibration. A sign that you need to re-calibrate the camera is if you are getting a lot of erroneous “BRAKE” messages along with automatic application of brakes when not needed or if you find the car not tracking properly in the lane when on cruise control with lane tracking on.

 

[Landshark]

- Post alignment was told need to re-caliberate cameras. Does that ring true?
- Assuming true: Les Schwab quoted me $350 to re-caliberate.

I’d start by asking Schwab for an explanation of why they believe recalibrating the cameras is needed after an alignment.

 

[Dan Albrich]

So first off, thanks guys @alecbray and @Landshark. I had the same thought process. i.e. If the caliberation was perfect when car was new, and assuming I needed an alignment and got one, wouldn't that just put stuff back? The part of me that feels stupid is doing the alignment at all. Car was driving perfectly and not pulling. i.e. no hands on steering wheel, it drove straight and still does. Before my alignment, all Honda Sense features were working perfectly.

When I got the call from Les Schwab asking for the recalibrate I said "no". My thinking is to get the information, then decide if/when/and how things are done. i.e. Even if it needs it, I might do myself, or if I'm worried done using some special equipment take to dealer. But no on-demand $350 extra deals in my world. That's just a "no" and then consider.

BUT... After they did whatever they did at Les Schwab, my lane assist is broken. Adaptive cruise control is fine. My right blinker still shows the camera, and my backup camera and lines work. But gone is my "lane keep assist." I'm increasingly feeling like an idiot for doing the alignment. My dealer has been generally dishonest and bad to work with (reason I took it somewhere's else) after they identified uneven wear on tires that I cannot see. Anyway, this may be a live and learn moment. I do want to take some steps to get lane keep assist function back. I'll do some research on that. Thanks again for the replies. -Dan

PS: oh and by "doesn't work now" what I mean is if I hit MAIN to turn on functions and then the lane keep button the lane lines *never* go solid. They stay grey, and the car doesn't self-adjust in the lane the way it did prior to alignment.

 

[megreyhair]

- Post alignment was told need to re-caliberate cameras. Does that ring true?
- Assuming true: Les Schwab quoted me $350 to re-caliberate. Is it reasonable to do this myself, or is it important to be done with special equipment etc. i.e. should I have the dealer do this if need be?

-Dan

PS: The dealer indicated uneven wear. Some of the story omitted, but ended up getting an alignment and tires rotated. I'm presently at 80K miles, and have never done alignment on this car. Oh and of course, thanks for any information. I didn't see others on this forum asking about alignment.

Are you talking about wheel alignment? I had it done before and I didn't have to re-calibrate and my lane assist is still working fine.

 

[Landshark]

The part of me that feels stupid is doing the alignment at all.

I'm increasingly feeling like an idiot for doing the alignment.

after they identified uneven wear on tires that I cannot see.

PS: oh and by "doesn't work now" what I mean is if I hit MAIN to turn on functions and then the lane keep button the lane lines *never* go solid.

There’s no value in beating yourself up over the decision.

Uneven tire wear can be difficult to see, however it can be easily measured. It can be caused by overinflated or under inflated tires, an alignment issue or even a defective tire. Understanding the type of wear can help identify the cause. Did they explain the wear to you?

Can you explain hitting “MAIN” to turn on functions? Are you going into the settings menu on the touch screen or just putting the car in READY mode and pressing the LKAS button by your left knee? If all else fails, try disconnecting 12V power to do a reset.

 

[Dan Albrich]

So I might be using incorrect terminology. On the steering-wheel (right-side) is a button labeled "MAIN" in upper-case characters. On the same control area are two buttons. One adjusts the follow-distance for adaptive cruise control and one turns on and off the lane lines on the display.

When both are engaged the car will follow the car in-front of it at a set distance. The lane line thing will try to keep the car in its lane. You still have to keep hands on the steering wheel, but if the road turns slightly, the car's steering wheel will turn slightly to match, automatically. I've been calling this lane keep assist but it may have some other name. The button is labeled LKAS. If one presses MAIN, both functions (LKAS and adaptive cruise) become unavailable. Pressing again, toggles both back to being available. In general, I just leave the MAIN button in the ON position where the other two can be enabled. I only tried turning MAIN off and on because I'm having issues with the lane setting.

So for normal in-town driving I don't use any of this stuff at all, neither the adaptive cruise control or the lane keeping. But for long trips on the freeway I find both very helpful. At the moment (due to a ill family member), we've been driving at least 60 miles a day (couple times a week) on the highway, so these functions are more useful to us than normal. But yeah, something Les Schwab (the tire place), did during the alignment broke the lane function.

 

[Landshark]

So I might be using incorrect terminology. On the steering-wheel (right-side) is a button labeled "MAIN" in upper-case characters. On the same control area are two buttons. One adjusts the follow-distance for adaptive cruise control and one turns on and off the lane lines on the display.

Thanks for the reminder. I mistakenly thought there was a LKAS button next to the CMBS button. It’s been over a year since we sold the Clarity and I kept LKAS disabled for 4 1/2 years of ownership after experiencing it a couple of times.

Going back to my question about settings, can LKAS be enabled/disabled via the touch screen settings menu? I don’t know and as much as I wouldn’t trust Schwab as far as I could throw them, it isn’t likely that they modified your settings.

Another possibility is an obstructed sensor, most likely the camera, since ACC uses radar and you’ve indicated that is functioning properly. It’s also possible that the camera or a connection has failed or perhaps it just a communication error that could be remedied by doing a reset.

 

[Dan Albrich]

So I figured out what I did. I'll share for the benefit of this thread (maybe others). First, I forgot that the lane-lines thingy (I've been calling lane keep assist) doesn't ever engage unless traveling 45 mph or faster. I either didn't know this, or forgot it. So my lane lines were never broken, and still work. Thanks @megreyhair for your note that you had alignment and it didn't break anything. I was trying to test this in-town, not on freeway, and traffic wasn't moving 45 or faster.

Along the way, -- don't do this-- I went into maintenance mode (found the key sequence online) select LKAS. Selected AIM or similar. I was thinking I could open, and change nothing and save. Nope. Going in there without any target causes a red screen to appear on the center display with an aiming error (and a few Japanese characters that I cannot read). I found the pattern online to print on my home laser-printer. Initially set on a ladder next to the car, but my ladder rungs were wrong height, so ended up using a trash can to hold it up, and re-calibrated the passenger camera. This would not of been necessary if I hadn't messed with maintenance mode. And of course, I didn't realize the 45mph requirement prior to doing this, or I would not have.

So happy ending: My car is doing fine. All of my functionality is back, including the lane-lines LKAS that was never broken (requires 45mph to engage). Thanks to each of you for your help. Anyway, maybe this thread will save someone else. i.e. definitely don't try tapping the LKAS setup for no good reason.

-Dan

PS: My passenger camera also works again, post-re-calibration. Had I not opened this maintenance menu, this part would not have been needed.