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Reading through the long term test reports in November's Top Gear magazine, i came upon the report for the Jag F-Pace being run by Paul Horrel. It centres round something which i'd never really thought about, that of the sensors/cameras/radars, or whatever, most cars have at the top of the widscreen, and specifically, that they need to be re-aimed or re-calibrated during the replacement of the screen. Not only does there seem to be some difficulty in some cases arranging for the work to be done, with windscreen fitters only able to do certain parts of the job, the rest needing to be done by a dealer, but there also seems to be some debate as to how this should be done!.
The jist seemed to be (certainly regarding the F-Pace), Auto Windscreens would fit the screen, but wouldn't do the re-calibration because it is a franchised dealer job, but franchised dealers don't change the screens. So you need to line up the two appointments.
As for the re-calibration, this seemed to require a technician to drive the car for 20 mins, during which time it must go above 40mph. But some windscreen companies, including Autoglass, say this is not neccessary, simply aim the camera at a static target. Where it gets a bit murky though, is that for this method to work properly, apparently the tyre pressures and wheel alignment need to be spot on, and the car needs to be on a smooth flat and level surface. Could be tricky to do this on your drive then?.
May not be a huge issue to forum members, many of whom seem to regard such systems with scorn and mistrust, but for the type of driver who relies heavily on the tech, not having the re-calibration done properly, could result in accidents.
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