Menu
What's new
By:
Advanced search...

Parking Sensor woes

M

mullis126

Members
Messages
59
Reaction score
3
Location
Cornwall
Car
Accord 2.2 i-CDTI
I'm having problems with the factory fit parking sensors on my i-cdti exec and haven't found the answers I need in previous threads.

Essentially my parking sensors have just stopped working. No beep when I put the car in to reverse. Nothing.

I got my multimeter out and made the follwing measurements:

Power supply: 11 Volts (Not brilliant but the wiring looks pretty cheap - certainly no issues with the battery)

Sensors: All measuring between 1 and 1.2 Meg Ohms. All clean and located correctly as well.

Speaker: Open circuit

I've noticed when you put the car in reverse that the red LED on the speaker flashes continuously. Does anyone know what resistance I should get across the speaker? I can't find a circuit diagram but surely it should only be a few ohms if its deigned like a normal loudspeaker.

If its not that, it must be the controller, which is a much more expensive part. Anyone have any ideas?
 
Errrr... I don't believe the 7th gen came with factory fit parking sensors - only the 8th gen. Are we still talking about a 7th gen here? (i.e. 2003-2008ish)

If it's 7th gen, then they are dealer fit and it's not worth fixing when you can replace with non-OEM cheap enough.
 
You've said 'speaker open circuit' - surely that's your problem.

Speakers generally exhibit a DC resistance of between 4 to 16 ohms. That's ***uming it is a moving coil loudspeaker and not a piezo transducer, which would most likely read the same order of DC resistance as your sensors.

Put your meter on AC volts and see if the reading across the speaker goes up when you put the car into reverse. The meter should register some AC voltage even inaccurately if the electronics is generating a tone. If you're getting that it would tend to clear the electronics from suspicion and point the finger firmly in the direction of the loudspeaker.

Eurocarparts do a complete kit for around £30 - it seems to be on almost permanent sale :)

HTH
Robin
 
Thanks for the information chaps. Didn't realise the 7th gen didn't come with a factory fit system.

Strangely the symptoms have now changed after a week. When you put the car in to reverse now, it beeps as normal then sounds a continuous tone before switching off. I believe those are the symptoms of a dead sensor?

If you can get a complete kit for £30, that has to be the way ahead - one new sensor from Lings is around £60.

Do you have to remove the rear bumper to fit a new kit or is it doable with the bumper still in place?
 
If it's just a sensor, perhaps you could get a breakers one? To tell which one is "gone" put the car into reverse with the ignition on but the engine off (obviously) so that the sensors are active. Put your ear right up to the each sensor and you should here "clicking" from each sensor, which ever one is not clicking is your broken sensor.

FWIW, I find that the control units on the Honda / Bosch reverse system seems to go before the sensors. These are mad money! So I normally replace with colour coded ones from here (http://www.parkingsensors.co.uk/). Don't order the Micro ones, just the standard size ones and you'll be able to re-use the existing OEM holders for the sensors.

Now unfortunately, to fit these you'll need to remove the bumper and right inside wheel arch trim (to get at the control unit and wire) :(
 
Thanks for the info jayok - that's a great help. I'll do some more investigation when I get a chance on friday
 
jayok said:
Also these are the one I've used before. Others go them cheaper on ebay, but these come with a lifetime warranty

http://www.parkingsensors.co.uk/product/dolphin-audio-parking-sensors-dps400
Click to expand...
Just to round things off, I bought a set of these last week and fitted them this morning. Very pleased with the kit though the wires they supplied are a little short - I had to use the exist power supply wire and terminate with a chocolate box which goes against my OCD with that sort of thing. Good quality kit though, especially at that price.

It would have been better if the monkey who fitted the original kit at Honda UK hadn't made one of the sensor holes bigger than the other 3. Bit of insulating tape and super glue fixed that one for now...
 
I have just bought the dolphin kit too. Haven't fitted it yet though. have to drill the holes myself too. Eeeeek! scary.
Geoff, Is there a lot of space behind the rear accord bumper? Would it matter how high the sensor is installed?
Which wires were short?

Is the buzzer quite loud? Does it need a volume adjuster added to it?
 
accord_n22 said:
I have just bought the dolphin kit too. Haven't fitted it yet though. have to drill the holes myself too. Eeeeek! scary.
Geoff, Is there a lot of space behind the rear accord bumper? Would it matter how high the sensor is installed?
Which wires were short?

Is the buzzer quite loud? Does it need a volume adjuster added to it?
Click to expand...
There's loads of space behind the bumper but you still need to remove it in order to feed the sensors wires through in to boot / spare wheel well. Fortunately its dead easy and there's a guide on here.

With drilling the holes, you've probably seen the supplied tool in the box already. Fortunately my holes were pre-drilled already from the previous set, however my recommendation would be to take your time, mark the holes out with a pen first and use a centre punch or scribe to mark a pilot hole. This will help stop the drill bit from slipping when you first start drilling. (Don't use a hammer with the punch or scribe though!)

I would place the sensors so they are horizontal which is half way up the bumper from memory - i'm away with work at the moment so can't check. You don't want them to point up or down as that will limit their range and sensitivity. In terms of height, it won't make much difference as you'll be installing them somewhere on the bumper but too low will result in lots of false alarms.

The sensors wires were easily long enough. The issue I found is the 12V wire is too short for a tourer. The kit is designed to be powered from the reverse light which would mean routing it up the tailgate in to the roof lining and then back down - too much like hard work!

I find the buzzer volume is fine - it certainly doesn't need to be any louder.
 
Thanks Geoff. Some great pointers there. Still need to gather some more bits i.e. cable ties and a new battery for my cordless drill but other than that I should be good to go. Sometimes I feel its not really needed as I haven't really had an issue with the car with reversing but I always feel its handy to have as a guide. The fear comes when you rely on it and then it either fails or gives you a false alarm. lol.

Will look for the guide and have a good read.

Did you add a fuse to the 12v positive wire going into the parking sensor brain box? If yes what rating fuse did you use?
 
I didn't use a fuse but there is no reason why you couldn't if you were concerned about over voltage. Saying that, I'm not sure what power the parking sensors use but it won't be a lot so even a domestic 3 amp fuse will probably be overkill.

You'll know if the sensors aren't working as it'll give an error tone or nothing at all when you select reverse - any system i've had fitted to my cars has always sounded a tone to let you know its functioning correctly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top