Parking sensors

[jemgee]

Worked perfectly when backing into drive. Couple of days later started the car and got the warning light parking sensor fail. Washed car as bumpers dirty and cleaned and leathered off sensors individually.

Dashboard push button switch lights and goes off as normal, but none of the sensors are working so presume it must be the 'control box' or whatever

Any thoughts or is it main dealer time?

 

[safrane]

Water gets in and buggers them up.

If you put your ear to them you will hear them click...if not thats the one thats faulty...if all then fuse or control box.

 

[Contigo]

I just got a warning , Parking Help Unavailable which I am told that is a single failed sensor. If you have a stethoscope you can engage the sensors manually and then listen to each one, you should hear a clicking/pulsing sound if they are working. That way you can change the one which has failed. Some are easy to change some are PITA with bumper off job

 

[CatmanV2]

You don't even need a stethoscope. You can hear them, or even feel them with a finger.

C

 

[StuartW]

If it's just water, they will start working again once fully dry - try a hairdryer as this time of year they take a long time to dry

 

[jemgee]

Thanks for the hairdryer tip. I looked at the fuse list and the parking sensor is not individually fused so as everything else is working it won't be that. Any idea where the sensor control box is?

 

[Jkulin]

Listening to them is not the sole sign that there is a fault.

Mine displayed an error depending on whether I first engaged reverse or drive, if I reversed out the error came on and the only way to get the warning off was to finish the manoeuvre and then switch engine off and start again and shift into drive.

Turned out to be the offside front sensor and it was still clicking as if nothing was wrong, I guess a short was the fault.

 

[CatmanV2]

Agreed, but it's a good starting point

C

 

[Andy Marshall]

I have come to view my parking sensors in the same way one might view a wild bird that has befriended your house - lovely when present, but entirely unpredictable and may go missing for weeks or months at a time. Fly, fly little birds of beepy proximity sensoriness!

BTW, mine started working again yesterday! (after a months absence)
Hey, it's Italian and we all know that Italian electrons have a mind of their own.

 

[CatmanV2]

Odd. Mine work all the time. Although they often claim I'm close to something when I'm not.

Now the dipping mirror, on the other hand....

C

 

[Contigo]

It amazes me that the front sensors are not on at low speeds. Every other car I have had you just pull up close to a wall but oh no not in the GTS, you have to crane your neck to find the front parking sensor button! When I first got it, the Mrs was driving and I wasn't aware of this "feature" and I said go on pull up to that low wall the sensors will go off and they didn't, she decided to stop as she was close and upon inspection of the gap you couldn't get a ******* gnats whisker between the front bumper and the low brick wall!



what a sh!te design they are.

 

[Andy Marshall]

It amazes me that the front sensors are not on at low speeds. Every other car I have had you just pull up close to a wall but oh no not in the GTS, you have to crane your neck to find the front parking sensor button! When I first got it, the Mrs was driving and I wasn't aware of this "feature" and I said go on pull up to that low wall the sensors will go off and they didn't, she decided to stop as she was close and upon inspection of the gap you couldn't get a ******* gnats whisker between the front bumper and the low brick wall!



what a sh!te design they are.

If you go into your car set up screen you can enable stop/go parking sensors, which does turn them on when you get to a slow speed. They get bloody annoying though as they go crackers in traffic!

 

[Contigo]

If you go into your car set up screen you can enable stop/go parking sensors, which does turn them on when you get to a slow speed. They get bloody annoying though as they go crackers in traffic!

Yes I know there is a setting but as you say they go mental and annoy the **** out of you! In the mazda they are on all the time and don't ever go off in traffic.

 

[StuartW]

If you go into your car set up screen you can enable stop/go parking sensors, which does turn them on when you get to a slow speed. They get bloody annoying though as they go crackers in traffic!

They're just showing off to you that they're still working

 

[sofasurfer]

Odd. Mine work all the time. Although they often claim I'm close to something when I'm not.

Now the dipping mirror, on the other hand....

C

That's them failing..mine alert me that I'm going to hit something even though I am stationery...in fact I've never known a car with such neurotic sensors. Mine work fine at low speeds and next year I am going to replace all of the front sensors just for peace of mind. Expensive maybe....but worth it for my own sanity.

 

[voicey]

The sensors are properly **** - I've lost count of the amount I've fitted in the last six months.

You can also add door latches to that as well...

 

[bigbob]

The fronts on my car are very grumpy when wet and a few were replaced under warranty. I have a gravel drive and the Maser is the only car that can sense the gravel with its parking sensors.

 

[StuartW]

The sensors are properly **** - I've lost count of the amount I've fitted in the last six months.

Both front and rear or is it just the fronts that are poor?

I found the rears in the GTS fine but the fronts were somewhat temperamental

 

[BennyD]

Replace them with the Alfa ones on E-bay. Everything fits; the sleeve, the inner and the connector. I put in when I replaced my back bumper and they are about 20% of the price of the Maserati ones. The only difference is the Alfa ones don't have the two parallel lines across the sensor head, they are smooth.

 

[CatmanV2]

GT not GS Benny. Not sure if it's the same part, though it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest

C