My experience with after market Windshield and LKAS calibration

  • Thread starter Thread starter Heino
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 13
  • Views Views 3K
Heino

Heino

Active Member
About 3,5 Months ago... I was driving to work in the morning, when a rock flew out from under a Truck and hit my windshield.

At first I thought all was well, but literally a minute later - a crack started growing in my windshield.

Low and behold, it was time for a windshield replacement. At first I hit up the national chain that was going to do a mobile install in my drive-way for around $650. I then researched some local Auto Glass shops and found one with great reviews.

After sending pictures to them, I got a quote for $295. What a deal I thought! So, I went ahead and scheduled an appointment with them. I was told it would take a couple of days to get the windshield.

When I dropped my car off - I asked about the glass quality. I was ensured that the replacement windshield is of excellent quality. As a matter of fact, I was told that there are only two major US Auto Glass distributors, and that most glass comes from China. Therefore, the replacement windshield is as good as OEM.

A half-day goes by when I get a call from the glass shop. The replacement windshield was damaged, and they would have to order a new one. The shop realized this after having removed some of the existing trim already on my vehicle. Two more days go by, when they are finally able to complete the installation.

I get my vehicle back, and I thought all would be well... as I had also asked them about the LKAS camera. They said, they are very careful with the removal, and will put it back exactly where it belongs. No calibration would be needed.

Well, that did not turn out to be the case! When I tried using lane keep assist - my car was hugging the left side of the lane, to the point I could not use it while driving in the right lane. As I would be too close to passing traffic.

Fast forward to this week... I finally make an appointment with the local Honda dealership to get the LKAS camera calibrated for $275. What a deal, I thought... but, wait. There's more!

I get a call from the dealership on Monday afternoon stating, they are seeing internal faults with the LKAS camera, and they are unable to adjust it. A replacement camera will be roughly $1600!

Oh my... but, I really love having the lane keep assist for road trips, or even for driving around town on the highway. So, I bite the bullet and tell them to proceed with the swap.

Tuesday rolls around, and I get another call. This time the good news / bad news type. The good news is that the replacement camera is working. However, it will not calibrate / focus with the replacement windshield that I have. Apparently, the Honda OEM windshield is denser, and only costs $3,400. I would be all in for around 5K! Yikes.

I asked if there was anything else that could be done, and was told one of their master technicians with over 24 years experience will be back on Wednesday. He could look at it, if I am willing to leave the car with them a bit longer.

I agreed. As I would be out $1,600 for a replacement camera and no functioning LKAS.

Luckily, in the end it all worked out. The master technician was able to get LKAS recalibrated - and once more my Clarity drives the way it should, using the lane keep assist feature!

I figured I'd share this story with others, as a cautionary tale. I feel the local Auto Glass shop damaged the original LKAS camera, but here I am almost 4 months later and cannot prove any of it. Going the cheaper route may not always be the best option.

OEM glass may be more expensive, but ultimately the better product. Also, be careful where you have this work performed. Modern cars have too many things that can go wrong with them, and they aren't cheap to fix.
 
My 2c
1) no guarantee the big chain glass dealer wouldn't have used same glass and have same issue
2) To me LKAS is useless so I never would have paid the $1600 regardless, but I presume you could have tried to find a used one from a wreck?

At this point you may wish to see if they'll return the part or if not put back in the old one so you can sell the new one and recoup something. Part of me wonders whether the original even had an issue or it's solely the glass as they're claiming now...
 
JFon101231 said:
My 2c
1) no guarantee the big chain glass dealer wouldn't have used same glass and have same issue
2) To me LKAS is useless so I never would have paid the $1600 regardless, but I presume you could have tried to find a used one from a wreck?

At this point you may wish to see if they'll return the part or if not put back in the old one so you can sell the new one and recoup something. Part of me wonders whether the original even had an issue or it's solely the glass as they're claiming now...
Click to expand...

I have no reason to believe the dealership lied to me about the internal faults they were getting from the camera. As for LKAS, it's one of my favorite features of the car, and I use it and "brake hold" daily.

Now, the idea of getting a used camera off of a wreck is a great idea - however, my time is very limited. So, I'm okay with what I paid. LKAS works again, and I'm a happy camper, per se! :)
 
This story reminds me of my experience with windshield replacement a couple of years ago. I took my Clarity in to Safelite, since they were the preferred vendor of my insurance (AAA). The tech there told me I had two choices - 1) Same day replacement with aftermarket glass; the problem would be that there was a 50/50 chance that the camera would be able to be recalibrated. 2) Wait two weeks for OEM glass to be ordered from Honda; then the calibration was certain. Since I was covered by my insurance, there was no cost difference between the two. I chose to wait the two weeks and when I finally got my new windshield, everything worked fine.
 
Heino said:
I have no reason to believe the dealership lied to me about the internal faults they were getting from the camera. As for LKAS, it's one of my favorite features of the car, and I use it and "brake hold" daily.
Click to expand...

Another alternative would have been to install a Comma 3 from Comma.ai. It's LKAS is a dramatic improvement over the stock Honda system.
 

Attachments

  • clear.webp
    clear.webp
    82 bytes · Views: 13
BrianRC said:
Another alternative would have been to install a Comma 3 from Comma.ai. It's LKAS is a dramatic improvement over the stock Honda system.
Click to expand...

I just watched a video on this... I had no idea. Really cool tech! Wish I would have known about this one sooner.
 
Consumer Reports did an indepth review of all the autopilot tech in autos in 2021, I think. They ranked Comma.ai number one. Well above Honda and Tesla and everyone else.
 
We added windshield coverage to our insurance policy a few years ago. It’s pretty inexpensive. It could be that newer glass is inferior, who knows? We’ve had 4-5 replacements or repairs within the last 5 years or so, which is more than we had in the past several decades, by about 4-5. We simply request the factory glass each time.

We also had HondaCare with the Clarity, which would cover the camera. Modern vehicles are an assemblage of expensive components waiting to fail.
 
Good on you Heino. I'm glad you got this fixed to your need. Back in the day when I told people I paid $1550 for the 8 year , 120K milage honda care, folks told me I wasted my money. Between my car insurance which does include glass windshield replacement, and VSC (HondaCare), this whole deal would likely be covered. No interest in bragging or "rubbing it in." just a comment about why extended warranty can be a good thing. No end of nay sayers back when we talked hondacare and the vehicle was new, but I have zero regrets. And yup, this is an example of when that additional warranty is worthwhile.

BTW- cost does matter. If I paid 35K to get the car off the lot, then 1550K is actually small potatoes. My meaning is just that if HondaCare was more expensive, the cost might not of been worth it.
 
Heino said:
About 3,5 Months ago... I was driving to work in the morning, when a rock flew out from under a Truck and hit my windshield.

At first I thought all was well, but literally a minute later - a crack started growing in my windshield.

Low and behold, it was time for a windshield replacement. At first I hit up the national chain that was going to do a mobile install in my drive-way for around $650. I then researched some local Auto Glass shops and found one with great reviews.

After sending pictures to them, I got a quote for $295. What a deal I thought! So, I went ahead and scheduled an appointment with them. I was told it would take a couple of days to get the windshield.

When I dropped my car off - I asked about the glass quality. I was ensured that the replacement windshield is of excellent quality. As a matter of fact, I was told that there are only two major US Auto Glass distributors, and that most glass comes from China. Therefore, the replacement windshield is as good as OEM.

A half-day goes by when I get a call from the glass shop. The replacement windshield was damaged, and they would have to order a new one. The shop realized this after having removed some of the existing trim already on my vehicle. Two more days go by, when they are finally able to complete the installation.

I get my vehicle back, and I thought all would be well... as I had also asked them about the LKAS camera. They said, they are very careful with the removal, and will put it back exactly where it belongs. No calibration would be needed.

Well, that did not turn out to be the case! When I tried using lane keep assist - my car was hugging the left side of the lane, to the point I could not use it while driving in the right lane. As I would be too close to passing traffic.

Fast forward to this week... I finally make an appointment with the local Honda dealership to get the LKAS camera calibrated for $275. What a deal, I thought... but, wait. There's more!

I get a call from the dealership on Monday afternoon stating, they are seeing internal faults with the LKAS camera, and they are unable to adjust it. A replacement camera will be roughly $1600!

Oh my... but, I really love having the lane keep assist for road trips, or even for driving around town on the highway. So, I bite the bullet and tell them to proceed with the swap.

Tuesday rolls around, and I get another call. This time the good news / bad news type. The good news is that the replacement camera is working. However, it will not calibrate / focus with the replacement windshield that I have. Apparently, the Honda OEM windshield is denser, and only costs $3,400. I would be all in for around 5K! Yikes.

I asked if there was anything else that could be done, and was told one of their master technicians with over 24 years experience will be back on Wednesday. He could look at it, if I am willing to leave the car with them a bit longer.

I agreed. As I would be out $1,600 for a replacement camera and no functioning LKAS.

Luckily, in the end it all worked out. The master technician was able to get LKAS recalibrated - and once more my Clarity drives the way it should, using the lane keep assist feature!

I figured I'd share this story with others, as a cautionary tale. I feel the local Auto Glass shop damaged the original LKAS camera, but here I am almost 4 months later and cannot prove any of it. Going the cheaper route may not always be the best option.

OEM glass may be more expensive, but ultimately the better product. Also, be careful where you have this work performed. Modern cars have too many things that can go wrong with them, and they aren't cheap to fix.
Click to expand...
This sounds like the auto glass repair company is completey at fault here. You should go back to them and have them refund you for your time lost, and the cost to actually get everything fixed.
 
I had mine replaced more than a year ago with Safelite, and they did the calibration. Insurance covered it ($200 copay). Everything works fine except LKAS is sometimes a bit erratic (false alarms), but not to the point of making it unusable. Then just two months later I got another chip, but this one I had it "repaired". Still holding out, maybe until I decide to sell it, unless I get another rock...
 
I was just reminded by a post by @Landshark - that I too have Honda Care on my vehicle. Something I purchased 6 years ago when I bought my vehicle, and never used before. Totally forgot I had it.

I called Honda earlier today, and am keeping my fingers crossed that this repair is covered.
 
JFon101231 said:
Part of me wonders whether the original even had an issue or it's solely the glass as they're claiming now...
Click to expand...

As the story goes, the master tech was able to calibrate the new camera through the aftermarket replacement windshield. So, the issue wasn’t the glass as the dealership suggested when they offered to fix the problem with a $3400 windshield.

It is certainly a valid question to ask if the master tech may have been able to calibrate the original camera, which Honda originally fingered as the culprit, since the only tech capable of performing that work was on vacation at the time. “Hey, you don’t mind throwing money at parts, do you?”

With the new camera installed and calibrated, the ideal course of action would be to get reimbursed from HondaCare for that cost. Of course it’s possible that they’ll blame the windshield for the failure and deny the claim.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top