The diagnostic calls that don't fit the playbook

The most serious ADAS problems often arrive with no DTCs and no warning lights. A scan comes back clean, the car gets delivered, and a missed calibration surfaces later as a comeback or a denied claim.

These failures are silent, conditional, or tied to sensor geometry, and none of them fit the scan, read the code, fix the code routine still in wide use.

This session covers how to recognize ghost codes, intermittents, and "no fault found" scenarios, and the repeatable process high-performing shops use when the scan and the repair disagree.

What You'll Learn:

✔ Why the hardest ADAS problems stay silent How failures can slip past a clean scan, and why customer complaints don't always match the results:

• Why a clean scan can still mean a missed calibration
• Failures that are silent, conditional, or geometry-based
• Why the scan-read-fix routine misses modern ADAS
• Reading the gap between customer complaints and scan results

✔ The three kinds of diagnostic ambiguity 

Ghost codes, intermittents, and "no fault found" each call for a different response:

• Ghost codes: stored history DTCs cleared during the repair and dismissed
• Intermittent failures that won't reproduce in the bay
• True "no fault found" after glass, alignment, or mounting work
• How to tell which one you are actually dealing with

✔ Where shops break down 

The process gaps that let calibrations slip through:

• Over-reliance on the scan tool
• No escalation path when something feels off
• Ownership gaps between estimators and technicians
• Production pressure that rewards speed over validation

✔ A four-step process for the gray-area calls 

A repeatable model for the cars that don't fit the playbook:

• Anchor to the repair event and what you touched
• Check OEM requirements tied to R&I, not just faults
• Evaluate system risk for safety-critical features
• Default to validation when the data is ambiguous

✔ Documentation that holds up against scrutiny 

What it takes to get paid when there is no code to point to:

• What insurers need to see when no DTC is present
• Documenting the reasoning behind a calibration, not just the result
• Tying every calibration to the OEM procedure and the repair event
• Example phrasing that connects the work to the requirement

✔ Real OEM examples where a clean scan hid a problem 

Walkthroughs of calibrations that never got triggered:

• Honda windshield replacement and lane keep assist dropouts
• Toyota millimeter wave radar behind the emblem
• Subaru EyeSight sensitivity to alignment and glass
• What was missed in each case and the correct approach

Who Should Attend

• Shop owners and operations managers who want fewer comebacks
• Estimators identifying and pricing calibration work
• Calibration technicians performing the work
• Service advisors explaining calibration to customers
• Anyone who has had an ADAS charge questioned by an insurer

Level: Intermediate (201) - For shops with ADAS experience who want a repeatable process for the calls that don't fit the playbook.

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