Sensor Glitches in Messy Salty Winter Weather

[theotherdave]

So I drove from the Lehigh Valley in PA to the Toronto area to visit family for the holidays. Our MME Rally was as always an absolute DREAM to drive. BlueCruise isn't perfect, but it sure does cut down the long distance stress - just the right amount!

But the last half of the drive was wet, salty, and very nasty. Lots of salty dirty spray from trucks along the Thruway in New York, and the QEW in Ontario. Next morning the MME was throwing errors on startup - nearly 15 of them! Errors with Adaptive cruise, Hill Start, Parking Assist, 1-Pedal, Collision avoidance, Lane Keeping etc etc - a litany of errors to click through. Most of them obviously dealing with dirty sensors. So I went and got the car washed, and things got better - mostly. After that, every morning I started the car, it would throw an error on Hill Start, and then start up without 1 pedal drive. If I "rebooted" it - just turn it off, open and close the door, and start it up again, it would be fine. And then next morning - same problem. And same solution.

Then we had more bad weather, and more nasty salt, and it started throwing the pile of errors every morning. And the power steering seemed to be disabled. It was like steering an old manual steer car. But if I drove for 5 minutes or so, stopped at a parking lot, powered off, and then started up again, I'd be back to the old Hill-Start-no-single-pedal issue, and then one more restart and it would be fine. This lasted for about a week and we were starting to get worried we'd have to take it back to the dealer and start the painful gauntlet of watching mechanics try to troubleshoot electronics <sigh>.

But no - my wife took it out and gave it a thorough wash in a hand-car-wash, carefully washing in every nook and cranny. And the problems cleared up! We drove back to Lehigh Valley, and the drive was a bit dirty and salty, but not nearly so bad as the northbound one. And this morning, while still quite dirty today (we got in very late, and will wash her today), she started up with zero errors. Fingers crossed! Hopefully just dirty sensors.

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[MacherAWD]

So I drove from the Lehigh Valley in PA to the Toronto area to visit family for the holidays. Our MME Rally was as always an absolute DREAM to drive. BlueCruise isn't perfect, but it sure does cut down the long distance stress - just the right amount!

But the last half of the drive was wet, salty, and very nasty. Lots of salty dirty spray from trucks along the Thruway in New York, and the QEW in Ontario. Next morning the MME was throwing errors on startup - nearly 15 of them! Errors with Adaptive cruise, Hill Start, Parking Assist, 1-Pedal, Collision avoidance, Lane Keeping etc etc - a litany of errors to click through. Most of them obviously dealing with dirty sensors. So I went and got the car washed, and things got better - mostly. After that, every morning I started the car, it would throw an error on Hill Start, and then start up without 1 pedal drive. If I "rebooted" it - just turn it off, open and close the door, and start it up again, it would be fine. And then next morning - same problem. And same solution.

Then we had more bad weather, and more nasty salt, and it started throwing the pile of errors every morning. And the power steering seemed to be disabled. It was like steering an old manual steer car. But if I drove for 5 minutes or so, stopped at a parking lot, powered off, and then started up again, I'd be back to the old Hill-Start-no-single-pedal issue, and then one more restart and it would be fine. This lasted for about a week and we were starting to get worried we'd have to take it back to the dealer and start the painful gauntlet of watching mechanics try to troubleshoot electronics <sigh>.

But no - my wife took it out and gave it a thorough wash in a hand-car-wash, carefully washing in every nook and cranny. And the problems cleared up! We drove back to Lehigh Valley, and the drive was a bit dirty and salty, but not nearly so bad as the northbound one. And this morning, while still quite dirty today (we got in very late, and will wash her today), she started up with zero errors. Fingers crossed! Hopefully just dirty sensors.

I get that every winter in New England, when your cameras are blurry all the sensors start triggering and systems shut of. Though I have never had power steering issues. I actually like that the car does this, it tells me the car does not try to be over confident in bad weather.

To solve this I join the monthly membership at our carwash each winter, unlimited washes for Jan, Feb and Mar, that way whenever we get any weather I zip it through.

 

[Sikkun]

For the steering, do you usually drive in unbridled and it reset to a different mode?

That will change the feel of the wheel.

 

[theotherdave]

No I usually drive in Engage. And yes, the steering was quite heavy, but I have driven a car with a completely dead power steering before, and this wasn't THAT bad. It was more like a non-power-steering car.

 

[Runningslow]

Hill start and 1-pedal shouldn't be tied to the radar or proximity sensors in the bumper. You either have multiple issues occurring or an electrical issue.
I've only lost adaptive cruise and collision avoidance when the lower number has been caked with snow,. YMMV

 

[theotherdave]

I guess we'll see. So far a good solid car wash has cleared EVERY problem. Hopefully it isn't some "salty water oozing into a wiring harness" type of issue.

 

[HuntingPudel]

I got sensor issues in a snow storm. That was fun. I did not have any power steering issues. ??

 

[Philsky]

I got sensor issues in a snow storm. That was fun. I did not have any power steering issues. ??

I get them too whenever rain or snow is intense - makes me think - so what do driverless cars do when the sensors are blocked by weather ?

 

[Mach-Lee]

So I drove from the Lehigh Valley in PA to the Toronto area to visit family for the holidays. Our MME Rally was as always an absolute DREAM to drive. BlueCruise isn't perfect, but it sure does cut down the long distance stress - just the right amount!

But the last half of the drive was wet, salty, and very nasty. Lots of salty dirty spray from trucks along the Thruway in New York, and the QEW in Ontario. Next morning the MME was throwing errors on startup - nearly 15 of them! Errors with Adaptive cruise, Hill Start, Parking Assist, 1-Pedal, Collision avoidance, Lane Keeping etc etc - a litany of errors to click through. Most of them obviously dealing with dirty sensors. So I went and got the car washed, and things got better - mostly. After that, every morning I started the car, it would throw an error on Hill Start, and then start up without 1 pedal drive. If I "rebooted" it - just turn it off, open and close the door, and start it up again, it would be fine. And then next morning - same problem. And same solution.

Then we had more bad weather, and more nasty salt, and it started throwing the pile of errors every morning. And the power steering seemed to be disabled. It was like steering an old manual steer car. But if I drove for 5 minutes or so, stopped at a parking lot, powered off, and then started up again, I'd be back to the old Hill-Start-no-single-pedal issue, and then one more restart and it would be fine. This lasted for about a week and we were starting to get worried we'd have to take it back to the dealer and start the painful gauntlet of watching mechanics try to troubleshoot electronics <sigh>.

But no - my wife took it out and gave it a thorough wash in a hand-car-wash, carefully washing in every nook and cranny. And the problems cleared up! We drove back to Lehigh Valley, and the drive was a bit dirty and salty, but not nearly so bad as the northbound one. And this morning, while still quite dirty today (we got in very late, and will wash her today), she started up with zero errors. Fingers crossed! Hopefully just dirty sensors.

That seems abnormal. The worst I've gotten is adaptive cruise and collision avoidance errors from the snow blocking the radar. Clearing off the radar sensor fixes that. But you're getting powertrain and steering failures, that means something else is going on. You could have a damaged wire somewhere that is going to set codes whenever it gets wet, so that's worth investigating.

Almost guaranteed you'll have more issues with it. And it's not just because the car is dirty. More than that.

 

[theotherdave]

Following up. A few months have passed. No lingering issues at all. Like it never happened.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Following up. A few months have passed. No lingering issues at all. Like it never happened.

Yeah that's odd then, salt must have gotten in somewhere. ?‍ I've driven through really bad winter storms with 4" of snow on the freeway and the whole car is covered with snow and slush (all the radars and sensors were blocked and setting errors), but I didn't get power steering failure. Tons of salt use here, my car is white most of the winter.

 

[MachhE-CT]

Life is never good in nasty snowy salty winter weather. Geez I with no fondness remember driving 60’s rear wheel drive vehicles in the winter. Even with snow tires it was a challenge.

 

[theotherdave]

Update much later - the problem definitely came back, and got worse. Had it in the dealer 3 times and they tried firmware updates and it seemed ok but it came back again in hard rain.

Finally the problem persisted and would not go away. They found a cable connection in the sensor harness that was disintegrating and having a very poor connection. Replaced that cable and connector, and we seem ok now. Winter's coming - we'll see if the fix lasts.

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