Scoob
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2013
- Messages
- 748
- Reaction score
- 7
- Location
- Oxfordshire
- Your Mercedes
- 2012 C350 CDI Sport Estate
Hey all,
Just thought I'd share this one...
I've had Parking Sensors fail before, one of the rear ones to be specific. The symptom of failure was two red (the proximity ones) lights showing as soon as the car is put into reverse and the annoying beep irrespective of their being an obstruction. Number of illuminated bars stays constant, and car can't "see" anything. Sensors changed, life goes on.
A year or so ago, my car was part of an air bag safely recall. They did the work but also, unexpectedly, gave the car a wash. Nice gesture, sure, but my rear parking sensors stopped working that that point. It looked like the guy washing the cars had held the power washer too close, as two of the sensors seemed to have been pushed in a couple of millimetres, rather than being flush with the rear bumper as they should be. Waste of time speaking to a Mercedes dealer about such things, as it's never their fault / it was already like that, blah blah. Not worth the energy. I don't need parking sensors, so I wasn't overly fussed and they'd still work much of the time and it was obvious when they did fail, so no danger there. I thought I'd just get them checked and the faulty one replaced when it bothered me.
Anyway, one thing I've noticed is that after cleaning the sensors they'll almost certainly be totally fine for the next few times. We're not talking caked-on mud here, just a little grime from the road - stuff that never used to bother the car at all.
The odd thing here is that the fault initially started when the car was very clean, so I just assumed they'd damaged the sensor. However, now just giving them a quick wipe - even if really not that dirty- sees them working reliably for a while.
Yesterday, when I gave them a quick clean, I did try to get my fingers behind the bumper hoping to "click" them back into place, but I wasn't able to move them. Perhaps there's some knack to it. I can't really get underneath the car to check more closely at the moment.
Anyway, just rambling really, but it does seem the sensors - since being damaged by the power washer - are REALLY sensitive to even the smallest amount of grime. Is this a known thing?
Just thought I'd share this one...
I've had Parking Sensors fail before, one of the rear ones to be specific. The symptom of failure was two red (the proximity ones) lights showing as soon as the car is put into reverse and the annoying beep irrespective of their being an obstruction. Number of illuminated bars stays constant, and car can't "see" anything. Sensors changed, life goes on.
A year or so ago, my car was part of an air bag safely recall. They did the work but also, unexpectedly, gave the car a wash. Nice gesture, sure, but my rear parking sensors stopped working that that point. It looked like the guy washing the cars had held the power washer too close, as two of the sensors seemed to have been pushed in a couple of millimetres, rather than being flush with the rear bumper as they should be. Waste of time speaking to a Mercedes dealer about such things, as it's never their fault / it was already like that, blah blah. Not worth the energy. I don't need parking sensors, so I wasn't overly fussed and they'd still work much of the time and it was obvious when they did fail, so no danger there. I thought I'd just get them checked and the faulty one replaced when it bothered me.
Anyway, one thing I've noticed is that after cleaning the sensors they'll almost certainly be totally fine for the next few times. We're not talking caked-on mud here, just a little grime from the road - stuff that never used to bother the car at all.
The odd thing here is that the fault initially started when the car was very clean, so I just assumed they'd damaged the sensor. However, now just giving them a quick wipe - even if really not that dirty- sees them working reliably for a while.
Yesterday, when I gave them a quick clean, I did try to get my fingers behind the bumper hoping to "click" them back into place, but I wasn't able to move them. Perhaps there's some knack to it. I can't really get underneath the car to check more closely at the moment.
Anyway, just rambling really, but it does seem the sensors - since being damaged by the power washer - are REALLY sensitive to even the smallest amount of grime. Is this a known thing?
