Blind Spot Monitor Sensor Calibration

After taking and driving my truck on the beach a couple months ago, the blind spot monitor system went out. After taking the truck in for service recently at my local dealership, they said the the system needed recalibration and that would be $100 because it was not under warranty. I got a 2016 Tacoma with 17,000 miles. They said the the sensor may have come out of calibration because of some damage they noticed on the bumper. The damage was there when I bought the truck slightly used and the sensors worked fine for several months until the beach trip. My question is, is the recalibration not covered under warranty?

 

First off, welcome to the forum. Now on to your problem. Do you have another Toyota dealership near you? If so give them a try. Some dealers are just plain stupid.

 

I've had mine recalibrated under warranty. Users have reported it crappin out after driving in dusty conditions, rain, or snow. I don't see how they could state it's not covered under warranty. If your headlights went out during a rainy day, would they not cover that either?

 

Should be covered under warranty, I would try a different dealer as mentioned above

 

This comes down to discretion of the dealer.

If there's no damage, they may recalibrate it for free, out of good will. That's what happened to me. 5k miles in, and the code went off. I reset the code with my Techstream and it stayed off for some time, but eventually came back. It appears that if any trouble codes are tripped (hit a big bump and it vibrates), it will not try to work properly again until you clear the error codes.

If there is any damage, you'd be hard pressed to get them to take care of it. As I understand (from many of my Toyota master tech friends), it's very time consuming to calibrate the sensors, and uses specialized equipment. This is not something you can do in your garage or at home.

Sometimes, if it's dirty you can clean them yourself (carefully) and they will start working again. Especially without mudflaps, it's easy for dirt to get caked up in that opening.

Lastly, keep in mind that it may not be alignment-related. (I think) there is a TSB for the wiring harness and possibly sensors going bad. Talk to your dealer about that.

 

Where are the blind spot sensors on our trucks? Is it the same as the rear parking sensors?

 

The BSM sensors are inside the plastic corners of the rear bumper. They do not poke thru the bumper like the parking sensors..! They send their signal thru the plastic...

 

Thanks.

 

i just had this happen, went to the beach, BSM stopped working. My Dealer quoted me $580 to re-calibrate the sensors. I am waiting for a call back from the manager. I have the full bumper to bumper warranty. So frustrating.

 

WTF???? sounds like they would sell you blinker fluid too. I'd run far far away from them

 

For sure..... and they guy was a huge asshole talking down to me like I was lying to him and i just ran the baja 1000 in my stock tacoma.

 

Should have bitch slapped him and told him to go finish his GED

 

haha PROseur. I wish I could.

Update: I talked to the service manager, this guy was much more reasonable. He said that due to the debris that was packed up into the area between the sensor and the bumper the sensor had become mis-aligned. This is the root of the problem. It takes some special equipment and about 4 hours (according to the manager) to re-align the sensors. I guess it is a very precision kind of test, re-test situation until they are aligned. I explained to him that I was driving the car under normal conditions. It is a TRD Off-Road version and i drove it on some fire roads to go mountain biking and at the beach to go camping. I asked him to inspect the undercarraige, and notice there is no expressive mud, there is no scrapes or scratches. I am using the vehicle for what it was designed for and if those sensors are placed in a way that allows mud and debris to "pack between them" that it was a design flaw and clearly nothing I did wrong. I asked him if he thought that was reasonable driving for my vehicle, he said yes, but he cannot get a replacement sensor for free if it was caused by mud and debris. I told him that was not really my problem and more of an internal toyota issue.

In the end he agreed to clean and re-align the sensors for free, and if the sensor ends up being bad we will have to discuss what will happen at that point.

I told him that seamed reasonable and that he needed to explain to his technician how to deliver good customer service.

We will see what happens next.

side note: i definitely think there is a design flaw there that lets crap get into the bumper. I bet people who drive in snow and ice get this all the time. I might try to duct tape up the gap or something when I get the truck back. TBD...

 

Final update: they re-aligned the sensors and everything works fine. All work covered by warranty as it should be.

If you buy a new Tacoma and you get the blind spot monitors and plan to drive on dirt, sand or snow and Ice I would recommend mud flaps, or doing something to enclose the rear bumper. It is a straight shot from the tire to the area where these sensors are and mud, rocks, slush, sand etc will get shot right up into this area and give you BSM system issues over time.

 

I am going through this issue right now. Stopped working in snow storm and now they are saying $250 to reallign. they are saying it looks like somebody hit it (I think i know the tiny mark they are referring to which has been there for months), and warranty manager said just because of the code they won't "it would cause problems with toyota if they warranty it" I am going to try to find another dealer, but do you guys think i really just have to get lucky and get somebody who will do it out of pocket or is the code excuse BS?

 

I would be polite and professional and refer to the fact that you bought an off road vehicle and the advertising and marketing is to be used to go skiing, mountain biking and hiking. That you have not done anything "extreme". Or been taking it mud riding. Tell them they SHOULD talk to Toyota and tell them this code is not aligned with the products intended use. I had to talk to them a lot to prove my point. Just stand your ground and tell them you used it as intended and the design of the sensors in an open bumper is a flaw, not your misuse of the truck . Good luck.

 

What is BSM re-calibration process? Any tech details? I mean low level stuff.

 

found it: http://www.ttguide.net/operation_check-392.html

 

Just my own experience here: mine crapped out one day and I had a shop take a look. They said Toyota will have to recalibrate. I took the bumper caps off, wiped down the sensors, replaced the caps, and the BSM instantly worked again. The shop never even took the caps off to look.