PDC Parking Sensors are a fantastic addition to the modern the car making it easier to (Yes you guessed it!) park. This comes with many advantages such as it being much less likely for your pride and joy to get marked or damaged or the added confidence when it comes to squeezing your car around in a tight space without having to back up for another bite at the steering.
This extra convenience makes them one of the best accessories you can have. However there is nothing quite like the frustration of putting your car in reverse and hearing a solid buzz or seeing a warning light indicating a parking system fault rather than the correct intermittent ping.
The way in which these systems are set up is so that if even one fault appears the whole system shuts off and this is for good reason. Can you imagine if one sensor stopped working yet the others carried on? You could have a narrow fence post behind your car right in front of the broken sensor. The others would report no obstacle and the first you would know about it would a noise and a nice dent. For this reason the whole system stops working to ensure that you take extra care when parking to try and avoid this situation.
To diagnose what has gone wrong with the system often an expensive diagnostic scan is required. The problem can be a faulty control unit or a wiring problem although these are uncommon, far more likely is a problem with one of the sensors.
The first thing to do if your parking system stops working is to inspect the individual sensor where they can be seen through the bumper. Often you will find one with some visible damage. This can be corrosion or even just a stone chip but any damage can stop the sensor from working. Often changing a sensor that appears damaged is a good first step and can get the parking sensor system back up and running without expensive fault finding.
Due to the variety of sensors fitted to modern cars the sensor should always be removed from the car the part number checked and the sensor compared to the photographs on our website before ordering to ensure the correct part is supplied.