Had them fixed under warranty and they have worked ok since February, but have now started to play up again.

 

I tapped them gently with my shoe!!! and they worked for a while. I think therefore, there is muck inside the bumper and I will need to get it off and clean the contacts. Further tapping has not worked!

 

Any help for actually taking off the bumper would help. I think this has happened because I had a standard tow bar put on, and there has to be a hole cut in the bumper for it to be fitted. They do have a template for this and it was done properly. However, I think muck/water is now going inside the bumper and possibly interfering with the reversing switches and they probably need a clean.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks for any replies! M

IIRC to remove rear bumper. There are :

1) 4 black pop out rivets to remove. You pull the middle black pin out, I use some side cutters. Not to cut them ! But to just get behind the pin top and pull them out. Once the black centre pin is out then the black rivet body can be pulled out. Be careful and they can be reused when refitting. There are 2 black rivets one behind each rear wheel at the top and the other 2 black rivets are at the bottom of the rear bumber about 40cm in from each side.

2) I remove my 2 rear mudflaps. But if you don't have mudflaps I would assume the 3 torx screws are still there in the rear wheel arch behind each back wheel. They are the 3 towards the outside of the vehicle. The inner one can be left in.

3) open hatchback and final 2 larger torx screws on each side on the top lip of the bumper which was behind the back hatch door, about 10cm in from each side.

Put something soft on the ground under the rear bumper.

Then get someone to help you and gently pull off one side of the bumper from the side of the car. While your someone holds that and does not let it scratch the paintwork, do the same pull off on the other side.and place down on the something soft put on the ground.

The bumper still has wires inside to the 4 parking sensers but the wires will reach to place it straight down.

I had one of my parking sensors failed completely. It came up as a permanent fault on my VCDS and it pinpointed the faulty sensor. I got a replacement from ebay and just used touch up paint on the front face before fitting. A nice smooth paint and a buff up with T-Cut before fitting. It looks as good as the original colour coded ones now all back together.

 

So a VCDS scan may show you a faulty sensor. I smothered the 4 connections in vasaline and self amalgamating tape before refitting the bumper. They now work in the rain, before they were always permanent tone after rain.

Thanks for the help, guys!  I will have a go when I get time.

I smothered the 4 connections in vasaline and self amalgamating tape before refitting the bumper. They now work in the rain, before they were always permanent tone after rain.

Mine sometimes don't work if there has been a lot of rain either.... However, they always work when I have the caravan on the back and have to reverse to a loud screaming siren (good job I don't often have to reverse it!)... sods law, methinks.

When the bumper's going back on, maybe make a "grommet" from Duck Tape? (that's the specific brand, not a typo of "duct")