Why Your Car’s ADAS Might Need a Reset After an Accident (Even a Small One)

Let’s be honest—car accidents are a pain, even the small ones. Whether it’s a quick bumper repair or just a scratch, most of us just want to get it fixed and move on. But if your vehicle has ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), it my be necessary to have a ADAS calibration following repairs. This can often be a difficult conversations for body shops to have with customers due to the additional cost requirements. 

So, what is ADAS? It’s the suite of smart features in your car that help you drive safer—like lane keeping assist, forward collision warnings, adaptive cruise control, and emergency braking. These rely on cameras, sensors, and radar all working in perfect harmony. 

The problem? Even a minor bump, bumper repair, or scratch near one of those sensors can knock things out of alignment. 

Let’s say you had an accident, got a small scratch on the bumper and got it repaired. Everything looks fine, but now your lane assist acts a little weird or your cruise control doesn’t feel quite right. That’s a sign something’s off. These systems need to be precisely calibrated to function properly—and that’s what an ADAS calibration does.

 Any time there’s a collision, bumper repair, windshield replacement, or even a suspension or alignment job, an ADAS reset may be necessary to make sure your safety features are fully operational.

 So if you’ve recently had any bodywork done—even just fixing a scratch—it’s a good idea to ask your repair shop about checking and resetting the ADAS.

 Small repairs can have big impacts. Don’t let a scratch stop your tech from keeping you safe.