Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) recalibration required after wheel alignment?

[VW_t83]

Hi All,

I booked my year 2020 VW Golf MK8 in for two new front tyres and a full wheel alignment at my local tyre centre and they said that they were unable to carry out the wheel alignment as my car was an Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) equipped vehicle and they did not have the equipment capable of carrying out the ADAS recalibration following a wheel alignment. I was told that recalibration is required whenever there is a change in wheel alignment on an ADAS-equipped vehicle. This is because the system’s sensors must accurately calibrate to the new wheel alignment. There is no mention about this in my Golf's owner's manual.

Does anyone know if Volkswagen advise that ADAS recalibration should be performed after a wheel alignment? I would be interested to hear if anyone has experienced the same issue that I have had and I would be grateful for any advice.

Thanks.

 

[tos]

VW Erwin says that every time when doing something with suspension, cameras and radars must calibrated.
Log in and see erwin.volkswagen.de it costs about 8 euros for one hour, you can print to pdf everything you need...
Also you can see TPI and other recall infos.

 

[VW_t83]

Hi tos, thank you for your helpful advice and information about the useful VW Erwin website. I can confirm that I will be having a full wheel alignment check carried out on all four wheels. I live in the UK and I have been quoted £270.00 to carry out an ADAS recalibration following the wheel alignment. I also posted this question on the technical forum at www.volkswagenforum.co.uk and an experienced staff member and administrator of the forum said that ADAS recalibration “Is recommended IF anything is done to the alignment”.

 

[tos]

It must do also with lowering springs, many of people ignore it, because it still working... but not as it should do

 

[mrmatto]

Realistically, it depends. I got an alignment and they didn't do anything with cameras or sensors. It was a pretty minor update to the f/r toe, and r camber. I can't imagine that affecting any sensors.

 

[VW_t83]

Realistically, it depends. I got an alignment and they didn't do anything with cameras or sensors. It was a pretty minor update to the f/r toe, and r camber. I can't imagine that affecting any sensors.

Hi mrmatto, thank for your reply. On another car forum that I posted my question on I received a reply saying “If you’re only getting the front alignment checked, then Adas calibration will not be required. A 4 wheel geometry check with adjustment to the rear wheels will need adas rechecked”. Another reply to my question said “Generally speaking ADAS recal is only needed if the thrust angle is changed. The thrust angle is half the difference between the rear toe angles, it should be zero, or nearly zero. If the thrust angle is non-zero (usually because one or both rear toe angles are wrong) then the vehicle will tend to crab along the road. This upsets the path prediction algorithm in the ADAS software. So the thrust angle should be set zero and then an ADAS calibration performed. What this means in practice is that if you have an alignment done and no adjustment is made to rear toe angle (i.e. thrust angle is already zero, or close to zero) then no ADAS cal is required”.