C5 Parking Sensors - turning on/off?

[petef]

HI all

Just bought a 2009 Series 3 Exclusive Automatic Estate C5. It has a few issues to deal with including non working front parking sensors. Yes they are fitted, but do not show on the central display. Rear sensors work fine. Lexia shows no fault with parking assistance, but I'm not sure if its possible to turn the front sensors off and on. Can someone please advise?? The configuration section of parking assistance on Lexia seems to just concern itself with whether the car is saloon/estate and manual/auto. Do I access the something in the BSI?

Other issues with the car include the need to suppress front road/tyre noise, which I have begun to realise is a bete noire with this model. Will post my experiences later

[Stickyfinger]

HI all

Just bought a 2009 Series 3 Exclusive Automatic Estate C5.
It has a few issues to deal with including non working front parking sensors.

Other issues with the car include the need to suppress front road/tyre noise,

SNAP ....I got a big RED one
Parking Sensors : Are you sure they are not just blanking plugs on the front ? Nothing behind my ones. Not been into that area with the Lexia yet so cannot help there.
Michelin Pilots on my one, noise is very low compared to the Mk2.

[petef]

Sensors definitely there - can see the two inside ones and their wires

[vborovic]

Are the front sensors turned off by the button on the center console? Beside the radio/nav unit ... if not, then the best way to check is with the DiagBox ... the BSI Car Setup has the parking senors configuration, maybe they're set to only rear sensors (for whatever reason) ... it would be good to check via your VIN if the car had factory fitted front sensors or not ...

[petef]

The rear sensors can be turned on or off using the dashboard switch in the normal way. Its just that the front sensors don't do anything - almost as if they don't exist. Except that they do...........................

[vborovic]

Get someone with a DIagBox/Lexia to run a diagnostic on your car ... there are a few things that come to mind that are possible, but most would have some other effects to your car ... blown fuse in the BSI fusebox one of them, but it would prevent some other things to function properly which you would notice (depending on the equipment in the car that is) ... it is possible that there was/is some kind of fault in the sensors, and the previous owner or whoever else decided it's easiest to turn the front sensors off in the BSI setup (easy to do) ... unlikely, but not impossible, that the wire from the front sensors to the main module is cut off while doing some work on the car (below it to be precise) ...

[petef]

The front engine undertray is missing and the front bumper undertray is damaged somewhat so possibly the sensor wiring has been damaged too. I will try to turn the front sensors on in the BSI - presumably this is straightforward in the BSI section of Lexia? - and see what happens.

[vborovic]

From memory, you have in the BSI: Car Config, something like that, and then there is an option Parking sensors/aide, something like that... where the options are listed as combinations, so be careful what you pick ... front only, rear only, front+rear ... then repeat the same triplet with the parking space measurement ... and repeat once again if the camera is fitted ... and again if the measurement AND camera are fitted ... stupid, I know, but that's how the software works ... also, the first option is none ... ... given some evidence of the front end damage, I'd go with the sensor wire damaged route ... but in any case, the diagnostic will help you identify what's going on much faster ...

[petef]

Many thanks , hopefully will try tomorrow and report back - Hurricane Gonzalo permitting!

[vborovic]

One thing I've noticed (by accident) today, while looking in the boot, under the left wheel cover (wheel arch, where the parking computer is located, or where the car battery would be located if the car was a 3.0) is that the parking computer (3 cables from it) is not fastened with the 2 screws to the plastic compartment that houses it ... factory parking sensors on my car (C5 Tourer) ... so, I've figured out one source of vibration, because the parking computer could move around several millimeters and bump around, which made some noise that could be heard on occasion, but not from the drivers position ... if you have the same car, and extra time, pull the left cover compartment (it has the "fishnet" cover) out, and you'll see on the top the parking computer (if you have that feature in your car), and check if it can move around or if it is fastened with 2 screws in place as it should be ... just a friendly rant from my side ...

[petef]

Curiouser and Curiouser!
On the Lexia trawled my way through the BSI menus until I found the parking assistance in 'Configuration' Sure enough the sensors were set to 'Rear', so I scrolled through to 'Front and Rear' and hit validate. It appeared to register the change, but going back out through the menus it transpired the change wasn't permanently registered and the setting reverted to 'Rear'. Thinking I might be prevented from selecting 'Front and Rear' because of some defect in the front sensors I then tried to turn all the sensors off completely by selecting 'Absent' However this didn't register either - in other words I can't seem to change anything. What am I doing wrong - is there another step to register the change selected? I did notice an 'click on' rectangle labelled 'Configure' bottom right on screen but this needs an accesss code to get into. Surely I can change the settings easily - but how??
Incidently I have no parking space sensors or cameras fitted to complicate the issue

[vborovic]

I use DiagBox, and up to the latest available version of the software, I was always able to do BSI changes, parking sensors being the most recent changes (while doing some testing on my car) ... in which car state did you try to save the new settings (out of the 3 possible: economy mode, ignition only and engine running)?

Can you access the parking assistance computer/module? It should have the option for testing of each parking sensor if I recall correctly ... that should give you some kind of hint ...

[DickieG]

To confirm whether your front sensors are factory fitted or aftermarket, factory fit ones have an additional sensor in the side of the bumper in order to measure the size of a parking space, is that the case with your car?

Generally speaking with the majority of car manufacturers the front sensors only come into operation after the car has been put into reverse first so have you tried that to get them to operate?

[vborovic]

Not true, i.e. when the car is in gear (D), and you're stationary, if someone comes over your front hood space (under 1m), the sensors will register it and show you the parking diagram ... not necessary to be in Reverse ... as for the factory fitted ones, they too come with and without the parking measuring space (the 5th and 6th sensor on the side of the front bumper Dickie mentioned) and no button under the steering wheel to initiate the space measuring mode (and the parking computer is also different in those cases) ... is it for specific markets or whatever, not sure ...

[petef]

Hello again

First, to answer Richard's point, I believe the car is factory fitted with 4 front sensors only. No 5th and 6th side sensors or parking space switch. You can see the wiring for the two inside sensors going into the main loom, so I would have thought not an after market add on. How do I find out from the VIN number if this is definitely the case? As regards Viborovic's query, I attempted the reset of the sensors on the Lexia with the ignition on and engine not running.

Don't know what to do now, might even have to check with Citroen Glasgow..........

Incidently Richard, the Activa is still in France and running better than ever. The suspension is so much better, thanks to replacement spheres and the ECU you virtually gave me a long time ago