50 Story Idea? Email Paul.Nolan@Farms.com Better Farming | March 2024 Tractors, Trucks & Growing Grain nor front-end collision. The grill was broken and replaced, but they didn’t repair the sensor for the braking, which was bent and pointing up instead of ahead. As the car went under a bridge, the sensor saw the bridge and thought it was an obstacle in the path of the vehicle and slammed on the brakes. All was okay until the car was hit from behind by the semi that was following it. Make sure when you have an accident that your vehicle is repaired completely. If this vehicle had been properly repaired, damage to the sensor would have been checked and re-aimed, and this accident would not have happened. Lane departure warning This feature alerts you when you are leaving the lane in which you are travelling. It senses the lane markings with a camera mounted on the windshield. If you turn on the signal light to change lanes, the warning system shuts off until the signal light is off. This is the most common system that we must reset, because every time we change a windshield that has a camera mounted on it, the camera must be re-aimed. The system can be shut off until the camera aim had been checked and corrected. Blind spot warning This system warns you if you have your signal light on and if there is someone in your blind spot. It’s a great safety feature, but some models have problems with the sensors. The sensors are mounted on the inside of the rear bumper behind the rear wheel and tend to get wet and short out. They use thin wires with pins on the wiring harness that corrode off. We can’t buy those tiny pins for the harness separately; you must also buy a new harness and a sensor. Another problem is that you can’t have too much paint over the sensor. If the bumper must be painted, you have to know how much paint is on the bumper and how much you can put on over the sensor area before you have to replace the bumper. I wonder how well it works when the bumper is covered with mud or snow? Again, a great system, but it’s not a substitute for careful driving. Some old favourite warning systems: Brake warning systems My first few vehicles had the early type of brake warning systems. If you smelled something burning, you had likely left on the parking brake. We have a light for that now. If the brake pedal went to the floor, you had no brakes. Now we have lights that should warn you of brake problems before the brakes fail. Newer vehicles have a dual braking system. The brake system has two complete systems in one: One for the front axle and one for the back axle. If one system isn’t working correctly, the brake warning light comes on, and you still have the other system to stop you. On many vehicles, this light also warns you if your park brake is on. One thing to learn is what warning lights your vehicle has and how to check if they are working. When you start your vehicle, your warning lights should all light up. If they don’t, the warning light is likely not working, and it won’t An adaptive cruise control sensor that mounts behind the front bumper. This bracket is bent by about a quarter inch. The bracket is not sold separately. A new sensor was required for $871 plus installation. Ron Settler photo
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