Active Cruise Control and Snow = Dirty Sensor and no Cruise Control

[ducatirdr]

Just picked up my 15 with ACC. Tested it out this weekend during the snow Saturday. With the coming Ice Age I was hoping that when the sensor got covered with snow I would simply be defaulting to Dynamic Cruise without the sensor data. I heard about some programming that could be done to allow the cruise to be used with a dirty sensor. Something about European setting to allow a long push to activate it on the Cruise On/Off button... Anyone know of a method to allow cruise to work in the manual method rather than Active when the sensor is dirty?

It only took 5 miles of snow build up to stop the cruise from working. This is a bugger for me as I'm a sales guy that does a lot of windshield time and I have nerve damage in my right knee that gets really messed up for days if I have to keep it on the gas pedal for hours at a time. I tend to use cruise a LOT. Not having cruise work when my knee is acting up really worries me.

[artem123]

Well, forgive me, please, but using cruise control, adoptive or not, during treacherous weather, icing and snow, IMHO is not a good idea...

[kip1]

Ihave had this once, it was a terrible snow storm. It works quite well.

[ducatirdr]

I had this happen on the second day of ownership. It was a very lite snow that melted as soon as it hit the pavement due to warmth on the pavement from previous sunny days. The air was 32F and right at freezing. This caused a small layer of snow to stick to the front nose of the vehicle producing a 3mm coating on the square ACC unit mounted just under the license plate location.

I cleaned the unit at a stop and then proceeded back to the highway. After less than 10 miles it shut off due to the warning that the ACC unit was dirty.

I can understand snow storms shutting it down but this was really light. The manual states fog and rain can shut it down after it gets dirty. That's what had me panic a bit.

As I mentioned, I use cruise a lot to give my right knee a chance to flex while on long drives. Permanent nerve damage in that knee from a 2500 mile motorcycle ride caused by holding my leg in one place is the culprit. I had the front of my leg and top of my foot go numb for months in 2007.

[kip1]

Dont sorry, we have snow 6mo, it has done it once.

[ducatirdr]

It seems like my dealer has no escalation path for customer questions like this one, or the one about my iPhone 5s not playing youtube over bluetooth yet a 5 plays video over BT just fine... Grrrr

I will live with the shortcoming that there is no manual override for this cruise control shutdown due to a dirty radar/laser sensor. I love active cruise and hope they come out with a flash sometime in the future to provide a workaround back to dynamic cruise when the sensor is dirty and shuts the cruise system down.