Anyone else with a FCW (Forward Collision Warning) problem?

[gwilli]

Have just got back from pulling 5th wheel to Texas and back. Truck great except that the FCW (forward collision warning) does not seem to work. This is strange in that the front sensors work magnificently for the ACC (adaptive cruise control) which works spectacularly just as described and the rear sensors have actually engaged the brakes when backing too quickly with obstructions near by so why does the FCW not work? I asked the dealer to check and they confirmed they could not get it to actuate so they called it in to the Chrysler techs whose response was (verbatim per the work order report): "FCW is considered an assistance feature only. The system is not designed to be tested (unless related fault codes exist). Please refer to forward collision warning section of owner's manual." In other words, the system does not know it is not working so there are no codes generated and the dealer should not try to check it unless there is a code! Further, it is not an active assist?! Well, then, why do you have the ability to select "warning only" or "warning with active braking"? What is the active braking - me putting my foot on the brake in time? What a joke that is, and the manual does indeed say that it is supposed to generate braking if that is selected to do so! On another forum others have indicated that their FCW engaged the brakes at highway speed with nothing in the way to seemingly cause that to happen which scared the sxxt out of them and could have caused passenger injury if not for seat belts being worn! Now that is scary! I have now set my FCW to "warning only" to eliminate (hopefully) the chance of my FCW randomly activating, though in my case, it has not ever done that either correctly or incorrectly. My dealer service rep was as bad as the Chrysler tech answer and said "well it is not an autonomous vehicle and I am supposed to be alert to fully all driving situations!" No kidding, Sherlock, but none the less, the system that they advertised, describe in the manual, and that I paid for to assist me when I don't have my main FCW (female collision warning alert) sitting in the seat beside me should be working or be deactivated/deprogrammed so that nuisance engagement does not happen! They should take it out until they have a fix/perfect it! Funny that every other driver's aid feature works great including the lane assist, parallel parking, 90 degree parking, etc. so why do they blow me off on this one! I smell a bunch of B.S. on this from Chrysler. If you have this issue please respond and maybe we can force some action to be taken on this "truck of the year"!

 

[runamuck]

I disabled mine early on after it decided a couple of times in stop and go traffic to slam on the brakes for me. I wasnt even sure what was happening at first.

 

[Bluesurf]

I have the FCW on my 2014 Summit and on my 1500. The FCW saved me at least a dozen times in local driving. People shoot out of corners and driveways. It applied the breaks in the nick of time. Saving me fender benders and a bad motor vehicle record.

 

[gwilli]

Glad yours works! They must have some programming issues or quality issues with it as mine does not work!

 

[JohnnyMac]

My wife's MDX has it. Apparently Acura thinks it's important enough that they generated a recall to adjust sensitivity on them. You should calculate how much you spent to have that option on your truck and ask for a refund for it since they don't want to fix it.

 

[Levi]

Last time I washed my 2019 Longhorn the warning (but not braking thank God) would randomly go off with nothing in front of me. It quit after a while but I got to thinking maybe something got wet and was causing a short. Strange.

 

[Rocko1]

Have just got back from pulling 5th wheel to Texas and back. Truck great except that the FCW (forward collision warning) does not seem to work. This is strange in that the front sensors work magnificently for the ACC (adaptive cruise control) which works spectacularly just as described and the rear sensors have actually engaged the brakes when backing too quickly with obstructions near by so why does the FCW not work? I asked the dealer to check and they confirmed they could not get it to actuate so they called it in to the Chrysler techs whose response was (verbatim per the work order report): "FCW is considered an assistance feature only. The system is not designed to be tested (unless related fault codes exist). Please refer to forward collision warning section of owner's manual." In other words, the system does not know it is not working so there are no codes generated and the dealer should not try to check it unless there is a code! Further, it is not an active assist?! Well, then, why do you have the ability to select "warning only" or "warning with active braking"? What is the active braking - me putting my foot on the brake in time? What a joke that is, and the manual does indeed say that it is supposed to generate braking if that is selected to do so! On another forum others have indicated that their FCW engaged the brakes at highway speed with nothing in the way to seemingly cause that to happen which scared the sxxt out of them and could have caused passenger injury if not for seat belts being worn! Now that is scary! I have now set my FCW to "warning only" to eliminate (hopefully) the chance of my FCW randomly activating, though in my case, it has not ever done that either correctly or incorrectly. My dealer service rep was as bad as the Chrysler tech answer and said "well it is not an autonomous vehicle and I am supposed to be alert to fully all driving situations!" No kidding, Sherlock, but none the less, the system that they advertised, describe in the manual, and that I paid for to assist me when I don't have my main FCW (female collision warning alert) sitting in the seat beside me should be working or be deactivated/deprogrammed so that nuisance engagement does not happen! They should take it out until they have a fix/perfect it! Funny that every other driver's aid feature works great including the lane assist, parallel parking, 90 degree parking, etc. so why do they blow me off on this one! I smell a bunch of B.S. on this from Chrysler. If you have this issue please respond and maybe we can force some action to be taken on this "truck of the year"!

 

[Rocko1]

Same problem, same situation. Go the run-around as well. Told me the Adaptive Cruise Control had to be turned on. Yet to get a audible or visible warning no matter how close to another vehicle. Need to get FCA involved and some answers. This is considered a safety system enhancement. NHTSA may need to hear about this one.

 

[dstroud1]

I’ve been battling this since I purchased mine in August 2018. I got the surprise while traveling 70mph on the interstate and the stupid truck locked up the brakes while passing under an overpass. One occasion it locked up during a light rain while I was merging onto the interstate and started sliding coming to a stop a couple feet from the concrete barrier.

The system is now turned off because Dodge has no clue of why this is happening, therefore they have no fix. One trip into the dealer they had the truck for several days and could find the reason. I was told that they ordered a complete forward collision system to replace the one in the truck but said that the system was on back order. I’ve since learned that they never order the parts.

When I picked up the truck the told me to “drive safe”!

Yep, the NTSB needs to be made aware. I’ve been meaning to send them an email. I’m getting no help from Dodge. I’ve also hired an attorney since this issue meets the lemon law requirements.

I’m just thankful that I wasn’t hurt because of this crap.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[madtrucker2016]

Have just got back from pulling 5th wheel to Texas and back. Truck great except that the FCW (forward collision warning) does not seem to work. This is strange in that the front sensors work magnificently for the ACC (adaptive cruise control) which works spectacularly just as described and the rear sensors have actually engaged the brakes when backing too quickly with obstructions near by so why does the FCW not work? I asked the dealer to check and they confirmed they could not get it to actuate so they called it in to the Chrysler techs whose response was (verbatim per the work order report): "FCW is considered an assistance feature only. The system is not designed to be tested (unless related fault codes exist). Please refer to forward collision warning section of owner's manual." In other words, the system does not know it is not working so there are no codes generated and the dealer should not try to check it unless there is a code! Further, it is not an active assist?! Well, then, why do you have the ability to select "warning only" or "warning with active braking"? What is the active braking - me putting my foot on the brake in time? What a joke that is, and the manual does indeed say that it is supposed to generate braking if that is selected to do so! On another forum others have indicated that their FCW engaged the brakes at highway speed with nothing in the way to seemingly cause that to happen which scared the sxxt out of them and could have caused passenger injury if not for seat belts being worn! Now that is scary! I have now set my FCW to "warning only" to eliminate (hopefully) the chance of my FCW randomly activating, though in my case, it has not ever done that either correctly or incorrectly. My dealer service rep was as bad as the Chrysler tech answer and said "well it is not an autonomous vehicle and I am supposed to be alert to fully all driving situations!" No kidding, Sherlock, but none the less, the system that they advertised, describe in the manual, and that I paid for to assist me when I don't have my main FCW (female collision warning alert) sitting in the seat beside me should be working or be deactivated/deprogrammed so that nuisance engagement does not happen! They should take it out until they have a fix/perfect it! Funny that every other driver's aid feature works great including the lane assist, parallel parking, 90 degree parking, etc. so why do they blow me off on this one! I smell a bunch of B.S. on this from Chrysler. If you have this issue please respond and maybe we can force some action to be taken on this "truck of the year"!

The old saying is your the test dummy when some thing first comes out. Your input to Ram will fix it for them. but will not help you because they would never say that they messed up. RECALL they shake in their pants

 

[Scott Buxton]

Just bought Ram 2500 Tradesman 4x4 6.4 Hemi, the FCW does not work at all under any of the modes the owners manual says on the far setting more cautious drivers that do not mind frequent warnings may prefer this setting, no matter how fast I approach another vehicle it shows nothing, watched the youtube video published on Aug 30 2018 by Heather Scott Project Chief FCA North America (2019 Ram 1500 Forward Collision Warning System) it's clearly depicted that it should give you progressive warnings, took to dealer and after two hours was told it only engages when impending collision exists and do not try and duplicate the concern, thinking about writing a letter to FCA, not sure what our next step should be ? thanks for any help.

 

[Danek]

Okay Dodge Ram. FCA Engineering.... what is wrong with the 2019 Dodge Ram Laramie Longhorn.... and many others FCW system?
The ACC, RPA, FPA all operate flawlessly. No dealership has a clue as to why the FCW doesn’t work. It turns On, turns Off, user preferences can all be set, off icon appears In instrument cluster when turned off. Absolutely no response in any combination of settings.
I paid for this option... why won’t Dodge fix it?
HELP!

 

[gwilli]

Just an update on my first post initiating this string...my FCW still works/does not work with great unpredictability. Since reading the followups I have been uncertain whether to leave it on in full mode or just in warning mode but decided to leave the full active setting on with "far" engaged. Fortunately I have never had it lock up for no reason as some have said. More often than not it does absolutely NOTHING ! Sometimes as others have said it will worn that I am approaching a vehicle in front of me which is turning right or left onto another street and it thinks I am approaching the back of the vehicle too fast so it warns but rarely brakes. Maybe twice it has applied braking but in none of those cases was it what I would call a close call. More often than not I have manually braked when my best FCW (my wife) alerted me just as I turned my gaze from in front to the side to glance at something (Murphy's Law) the very thing you hope the FCW would do if you are alone in the vehicle. Strangely enough all the other sensor attributes such as ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control), park assist, forward and rear park/obstruction warning assist work flawlessly so why does the FCW not work the way Chrysler says it is supposed to? Why do the dealers and Chrysler all give BS, vague, "I don't know" answers to our queries? My FCW mostly does **** but then some days it's almost like it appears out of nowhere and is active but still not to the degree that the manual or Chrysler U-tube clips say it should but enough to make you wonder if something was automatically downloaded to the programming via U-Connect (as I have not recently had it to the dealer for anything - my vehicle otherwise has been absolutely perfect - wonderful - best I've ever owned vs. GM and Ford!). Overall it seems like Chrysler brought this FCW out in their vehicles to compete ("We have that too!") but never resolved the programming/test issues and have put it out there with different levels of "cautious" programming so as not to have it create accidents (similar to some of the "for no reason" braking incidents described by others) and keep tweaking it on the fly but now have still not got a fix for it. This could be why some of our vehicles have different reactions than others with FCW on - hence all the evasive answers from Chrysler. Having worked in automotive engineering/management for almost 40 years I know about the politics, pressures, stupid decisions, and cover your ass directives so I'm thinking this is one of those! I agree that there should be a government mandated investigation into this. But, there can't be a recall because Chrysler has no fix and so could never give you your vehicle back if it is deemed a SAFETY issue! I think if my vehice were to unexpectedly lock up the brakes then that would be it for me and I would disable the FCW but the times it has actuated, though not what I would call a "close call", was from my thinking a "thank you for your concern" kind of like I tell my wife to keep her happy! LOL

 

[Danek]

If ANYONE that is having FCW non operational issues and finally gets a resolution, please post, Thanks in advance!

 

[skillzzs]

I too have FCW concerns, and in fact took them all the way to RAM corporate. Ultimately it’s the same story; it works fine. No fault codes exist. Even after going to a level two “specialist” and four different dealers, the result is the same. Nothing is wrong, according to FCA, which I feel is BS. I have since made a formal complaint with the NHTSA. The truck is advertised as able to stop the truck(and trailer if equipped) before a collision occurs, and I guarantee this is flat out wrong. I look forward to resolution but fear it will never work as advertised, and as such share this info with others considering a new truck with this safety feature.

 

[CougarBFMC]

Set to its lowest (closest) setting, my forward-collision system seemed to be fine over the past two months since I bought the truck, but the other day it slammed on the brakes when there was nothing in front of me, so I disabled that aspect.

 

[runamuck]

as they have taken the stand that these features are an enhancement only they may not be willing to spend much time and effort addressing people's concerns. doesnt bother me that much. when driving I pretty much can handle following cars that are ahead of me plenty fine without any help from the truck's electronics and in the 56 years that I have been driving, I have always been able to apply the brakes when needed. I dont text or look over the seat to chat with folks in the back seat while driving so I dont count on any of these systems to save me. YMMV

 

[JoeCo]

as they have taken the stand that these features are an enhancement only they may not be willing to spend much time and effort addressing people's concerns. doesnt bother me that much. when driving I pretty much can handle following cars that are ahead of me plenty fine without any help from the truck's electronics and in the 56 years that I have been driving, I have always been able to apply the brakes when needed. I dont text or look over the seat to chat with folks in the back seat while driving so I dont count on any of these systems to save me. YMMV

Yeah I'm with you, my next ram may have those features but I won't be using them. If you're driving, you should be paying attention to driving and only driving. It's good that it will save some accidents from happening, but I'm sure there will be a cost to that like most other things in life (even worse overall driving skill than we currently have).

Funny how it already has people talking, we visited my gf's friend over the summer and she was telling us about her new car that had all of that stuff on it. She also was telling us about how she was a good driver, then nearly immediately followed that by telling us that the automatic braking had saved her from several accidents! I always drive due to stuff like this and not trusting others, but you can easily guess who did all of the driving while we were visiting her.

 

[Brad B]

I have a 2020 limited and cannot get it to work no matter how I have the settings set- near to far. I have never heard it even give a verbal warning go off let alone brake for me. Dealership has now had it 3 times and is telling me that is just how it works! As it is not throwing codes, it must be working! Mopar website shows that even guardrails and signposts can set it off. My sales person said to be careful in slick roads with it on as you may slide... I can't even get it to work and I am trying to set it off. This does not look to be something they have never seen.

 

[Don Cooper]

I have a 2019 PW, Had rotator cuff surgery in Dec 2020, 1-1/2 weeks after surgery was driving under a bridge with no other vehicles around at about 40 MPH, Alert goes off and truck slams on brakes causing seat belt to re tear my newly repaired rotator cuff. Doctor is 100% sure this was a result of the FCW malfunction. This sucks. Any ideas out there on how to get Ram to own up to the issue, and possibly take some responsibility for my injury??