PARKTRONIC issue - still new to how these things work

[zen]

Hi guys

Ive just bought a 2015 C63 - wow, what a beautiful machine! it drives fantastic, lovely car and its clear i dont know how everything works yet but i think the parking sensors arent working properly. - at least i dont think so.

When i start the car - the red and yellow bars both fill up on the left and right on the dash (i think these are visual guidance for parking?) but when i put it into reverse, the bars arent showing up at all, nor are they when going forwards to park. I tried reversing near my OH car at an angle and there was a beep but no lights on the dash. Ive tried reversing right up to my door and i darent go any further and no beep and no lights on the dash.

So am i right in thinking that the bars should gradually fill up and beep as you get closer to objects? the parking sensor button is on, the guys who i got the car from said theyd just replaced one of the parking sensors so im wondering if the garage has messed something up or maybe a fuse gone.

Ive just read to try cleaning the sensors to ill try that tomorrow but does anyone have any advice with this? are the fuses in the boot?

thanks for any advice

Gaz

 

[brandwooddixon]

If the parking sensors indicators light all the way up and there's a load beep that usually indicates that one of the sensors may be at fault, in which case the system disables itself.
Some cars have the indicators for the rear sensors at the back of the car, say above the rear window on the headlining.
Other than that, as you approach objects you should see more of the indicator light up, a beeps will be emitted the closer you get until its a continuous tone once the indicators light red.

 

[mioba]

When in reverse is there not lights in the back visible from the RVM

 

[Botus]

Mercedes sensors are not like everyone else's - in some ways they are better, with a far more sensible approach about when you want them - but in most ways that are actually needed they are unhelpful and unusable

On most brands they ONLY come to life if the car has been put in reverse - which is pathetic if you
roll backwards without using the gears
and they don't come to life going forwards in to a tight space

Mercedes do it differently, which is obviously a much needed / welcome idea - but then due to utter incompetence during the design phase didn't work out how to do this correctly. So just gave them a very short distance before they wake up - Thus Merc sensors mostly come in very late and very quietly to avoid being nuisance when they spring to life needlessly in slow moving traffic. Had they, if they adjusted sensitivity / distance based on the amount of steering lock applied and or on the speed when obviously maneuvering it would mostly sort all the issues re activation in moving traffic, yet could still inform the driver early enough so the driver has time to actually react

Get someone to walk around the car whilst you sit in there and see if each corner behaves whilst stationary - then you will understand if they work and get your head around the display and the very short reach they have without damaging anything...

 

[LostKiwi]

Mercedes sensors are not like everyone else's - in some ways they are better, with a far more sensible approach about when you want them - but in most ways that are actually needed they are unhelpful and unusable

On most brands they ONLY come to life if the car has been put in reverse - which is pathetic
if you roll backwards without using the gears
and they don't come to life going forwards in to a tight space

Mercedes do it differently, which is obviously a much needed / welcome idea - but then due to utter incompetence during the design phase they didn't work out how to do this correctly and just gave them a very short distance before they wake up - Merc sensors mostly come in very late and very quietly to avoid being nuisance when they spring to life needlessly in slow moving traffic. Had they, if they adjusted sensitivity / distance based on the amount of steering lock applied and or on the speed prior to maneuvering it would mostly sort all the issues re use going forward in traffic yet could still inform the driver early enough so the driver has time to actually react

Get someone to walk around the car whilst you sit in there and see if each corner behaves whilst stationary - then you will understand if they work and get you head around the display and the very short reach they have without damaging anything...

Neither of my cars do as you say.
In both cases rear parking sensors are only active whilst in reverse (which frankly I prefer).

Both also have rear displays so you need to look at those (makes sense really as when reversing you're looking out the back).

Audible alerts start around a meter out from an object and change in rate as you get closer.

 

[Botus]

On a BMW aside from the utter stupidity where they don't come on at the front till you hit something

they have a 2.5 meter range on every corner,
on mine a massive traffic light display per corner on one screen where you can quickly see all 4 corners easily
I think with noise that progressively increases in level as you get closer
certainly with a tone that clearly beeps faster and faster in a very clear and easily understood fashion
a clearly identifiable tone per corner with very obvious front rear spit with the sound coming out of each corners individual speaker
user controllable vols setting
very clear mute of sound sources like radio so you can hear the sensors
once active you couldn't hit anything unless u are very silly - it would be easy to park blindfolded once active

Whereas on my Mercedes 4 corner radar sensor type parking sensor setup

Have a range of 1 meter per corner before showing on the display and I think 0.5m before audible support
they come on under 10 mph and stay on till you are over 15mph
no vol adjustment at all - even in high level attempts with dealer tools by people who can wind it up on all other Merc models
they are so quite I can't really hear them
they don't mute the radio at all
I noticed for the first time in 8 years last week there is actually a tiny tone difference front to rear
they activate so late you can't trust they actually function
they react so late in normal driving its impossible to react to the noise once they come to life
(in fact I have never trusted them at all and I sometimes get out to look)
the user display is a disjointed mess the front is in the speedo cluster, so during maneuvering the steering wheel spokes are mostly in the way and back is so bad I can't see them at all when reversing whilst I have the mirror set to see what is actually behind you
I hate to admit it but even though the rear camera is almost unusable as night, I now use it more than I ever expected

On my fathers conventional ultra sonic parking sensor Merc 211 the very same list applies as I have in my car except, they have a range of 1.5 meter per corner before support and the the front sensor display is in a worse place than the 221, and they are unusable for parking.

Mercedes sensors = Beep crash
BMW = Beeb Beeb miss it
Ford = Beep Beep miss it

 

[zen]

When in reverse is there not lights in the back visible from the RVM

lights in the back? not seen any, but i think i ve been watching the display screen instead

 

[zen]

Mercedes sensors are not like everyone else's - in some ways they are better, with a far more sensible approach about when you want them - but in most ways that are actually needed they are unhelpful and unusable

On most brands they ONLY come to life if the car has been put in reverse - which is pathetic
if you roll backwards without using the gears
and they don't come to life going forwards in to a tight space

Mercedes do it differently, which is obviously a much needed / welcome idea - but then due to utter incompetence during the design phase didn't work out how to do this correctly. So just gave them a very short distance before they wake up - Thus Merc sensors mostly come in very late and very quietly to avoid being nuisance when they spring to life needlessly in slow moving traffic. Had they, if they adjusted sensitivity / distance based on the amount of steering lock applied and or on the speed when obviously maneuvering it would mostly sort all the issues re activation in moving traffic, yet could still inform the driver early enough so the driver has time to actually react

Get someone to walk around the car whilst you sit in there and see if each corner behaves whilst stationary - then you will understand if they work and get your head around the display and the very short reach they have without damaging anything...

thanks, ive seen a video where a guy shows how close it gets before they beep - ridiculously close

 

[zen]

Neither of my cars do as you say.
In both cases rear parking sensors are only active whilst in reverse (which frankly I prefer).

Both also have rear displays so you need to look at those (makes sense really as when reversing you're looking out the back).

Audible alerts start around a meter out from an object and change in rate as you get closer.

theres definitely no beep within a metre

 

[zen]

wow, i cant believe how poor these sensors/the system is from what ive been seeing. I expected a lot better from Mercedes

 

[zen]

ok so i just got my daughter to walk around whist i was in reverse and drive and at first no sound from the rear, but the 2nd time she walked around both back zones beeped, the front right zone beeped but not the left so im going to clean all the sensors tomorrow, as the guy who delivered it today said they had been polishing it for age yesterday so i wonder if theres a lot of residue on them

She was literally next to the car before they beeped - WTF is the point in that?

thanks for everyones input

 

[grahamcol]

The parktronic on my CLK wasn't much good before one of the sensors went kaput, even less useful now. Very poor system and the system in my mate's Toyota from 2001 is considerably better.

 

[sonic]

On a BMW aside from the utter stupidity where they don't come on at the front till you hit something

they have a 2.5 meter range on every corner,
on mine a massive traffic light display per corner on one screen where you can quickly see all 4 corners easily
I think with noise that progressively increases in level as you get closer
certainly with a tone that clearly beeps faster and faster in a very clear and easily understood fashion
a clearly identifiable tone per corner with very obvious front rear spit with the sound coming out of each corners individual speaker
user controllable vols setting
very clear mute of sound sources like radio so you can hear the sensors
once active you couldn't hit anything unless u are very silly - it would be easy to park blindfolded once active

Whereas on my Mercedes 4 corner radar sensor type parking sensor setup

then come on under 10 mph and stay on till you are over 15mph
no vol adjustment at all - even in high level attempts with dealer tools by people who can wind it up on all other Merc models
they are so quite I can't really hear them
they don't mute the radio at all
I noticed for the first time in 8 years last week there is actually a tiny tone difference front to rear
they activate so late you can't trust they actually function
they react so late in normal driving its impossible to react to the noise once they come to life
(in fact I have never trusted them at all and I sometimes get out to look)
the user display is a disjointed mess the front is in the speedo cluster, so during maneuvering the steering wheel spokes are mostly in the way and back is so bad I can't see them at all when reversing whilst I have the mirror set to see what is actually behind you
I hate to admit it but even though the rear camera is almost unusable as night, I now use it more than I ever expected

On my fathers conventional ultra sonic parking sensor Merc 211 the very same list applies as I have in my car except the front sensor display is in a worse place than the 221 and they are unusable for parking.

Mercedes sensors = Beep crash
BMW = Beeb Beeb miss it
Ford = Beep Beep miss it

On both of our 212 E350 & 171 SLC the parking sensors work all-around the car at under about 10mph.
Set up is slightly different, the 212 goes red with about 6" to go ideal. The 171 goes red with about 3" to go, a bit tight.

 

[Botus]

lights in the back? not seen any, but i think i ve been watching the display screen instead

up on the head lining ( I can't see these on mine at all) unless I stop having any sight out the window and move my head just to look at the sensors display - they are just about visbile if you try to look for them on the my fathers w211 with a little view out of the window at the same time

if there is NO noise are they muted on the button ? (but I thought they reset on key on off)

 

[sonic]

up on the head lining ( I can't see these on mine at all) unless I stop having any sight out the window and move my head just to look at the sensors display - they are just about visbile if you try to look for them on the my fathers w211 with a little view out of the window at the same time

if there is NO noise are they muted on the button ? (but I thought they reset on key on off)

On our 212 the rears are perfect, I can see them with the rear view mirror in its normal position.
On the 172 I have to tilt the mirror down slightly to see the rear sensors.

 

[Botus]

On our 212 the rears are perfect, I can see them with the rear view mirror in its normal position.
On the 172 I have to tilt the mirror down slightly to see the rear sensors.

I fitted a set of 20 quid sensors on her focus - they are utterly fantastic - loud clear, work to perfection, with noise from 2.5 metres and a traffic light display (per corner for the rear) that is mounted on the top of the rear view mirror exactly where it needs to be - even the wiring was a doddle, just an earth and one small wire that goes to the live feed of the reversing light

 

[EmilysDad]

I have no problem at all with the parking sensors on my ML ... they nag me at times when I'm parking on my drive but they're looking at at a small wall at the side of me & do what they're supposed to do.

 

[zen]

up on the head lining ( I can't see these on mine at all) unless I stop having any sight out the window and move my head just to look at the sensors display - they are just about visbile if you try to look for them on the my fathers w211 with a little view out of the window at the same time

if there is NO noise are they muted on the button ? (but I thought they reset on key on off)

ahh i see, ill have a look

 

[zen]

I went to work today and as i was parking near a bush, both front sensors registered on the display and eventually beeped

i tried reversing into the bush but the rear sensors seem hit and miss. they beeped last night but not today and dont register on the display so i think they need looking at but the system does seem very poor.

 

[Blobcat]

They do have a tendency to fail with water ingress over time.