Hey all, I swear my car has got a grudge against me for saying I might swap it for a new one,

First there was an unfortunate bump that ment I had to get dent devils out to repair that, then last week my parking sensors failed, they are not working at all, when I engage reverse, I get a series of loud shrill beeps (error message I guess?) and to top it all off, this morning I woke up to find a flat tyre!

could someone please advise on the parking sensors before I have to shell out more cash to get it scanned on the dealers machine?

or maybe I should just burn it lol.

Put the car in reverse with the ignition on and listen to the parking sensors, they should all make a clicking noise if they're working correctly. The sensors plug into a control box hidden behind the left side of the boot carpet behind the wheel arch (Under the CD changer if you've got one). Check the plug is still connected there (You have to unscrew the bag hooks to remove the carpet from the side of the boot). If sensors are silent then they or the wires for them need replacing. Might be worth trying the cage mod on the sensor plug if you have silicone grease handy, though I doubt if corrosion on the plug would cause an overnight failure. If it's anything in the control box or further up the canbus you'll need diagnostic info.

Hi, do you mean I should stick my ear physically against the sensors on the bumper? because there is no sound from inside the car except the Loud Shrill beeps I mentioned. In fairness I had noticed a while back one of my sensors was VERY sensitive in the wet, if one had packed in, would it shut down the rest?

If you get no beep or a continuous tone on engaging reverse, then ther is a problem. If you're getting beeps and an on screen indication that you're near something, then either a sensor is dirty, or has fallen from it's mount behind the bumper.

The latter seems to be your issue based on your post

thanks for your help thus far, unfortunately, I get nothing on screen as I have a Kenwood stereo instead as I wanted MP3 compatibility and had it sitting in the house doing nothing so thought I may as well fit it! I have put it in reverse and walked past all the sensors but it seems they have all shut down, after the initial Error beeps I get nothing..

You listen to the sensors for clicking. The beeps inside the car just tell you something is wrong.

thanks very much guys, i will have a listen for clicking, so am I right to assume if one is faulty, it shuts down the rest?

Not sure on this one, but it makes sense that if the computer managing it has any doubts as to the reliability of the information it's getting it's better not to pass it onto an over trusting driver, so I reckon one sensor out will cause what looks like a complete failure ...

Edited 15 December, 200916 yr by psycholist

Might be irrelevant, but when there was a sensor fault on SWMBO's Fiat the dealer recommended replacing the lot.