Good afternoon,

 

My 2013 Superb 2 estate Elegance diesel has developed an intermittent fault with the right side rear parking sensor. Sometimes it erroneously reports an obstruction as soon as the car is put into reverse (continuous sound and indication on the graphic). I'm guessing one of the two sensors is faulty and have procured a replacement, my plan is to swap one, see if it fixes the problem and if not swap it for the other, which should work (as long as they are not by coincidence both faulty).

 

My question is: can I remove the sensors without pulling off the whole of the bumper? The Elsawin seems to suggest I have to take the bumper off, which requires the light clusters and quite a bit of trim to be taken off first. It looks as if I might be able to just undo the 4 screws that secure the front of the black plastic deflector and then bend it out enough to get a hand in and remove the sensors one at a time. Has anyone done this? If so are there any pitfalls?

 

Alan

I'll answer my own post: I've just found that this is a trivially simple job. removing the torx screws that secure the black plastic panel at the bottom of the rear bumper allows enough clearance to get a hand in and release the sensors. This takes about 10 minutes and just needs a torx driver.

 

I changed the outer sensor for a new one - the problem persisted, I moved the old outer sensor to the inner position - the problem seems to be fixed. As this was an intermittent problem I'll have to leave it a week or two to be sure it is a permanent fix.

Good result - I hope!  Did you buy the new one from ebay, I have bought new ones there when retro fitting front parking sensors on my car and they can be quite cheap if you watch out for them to appear, genuine VAG ones I mean.

Hi Rum4mo,

 

I bought a cheap (about £12) sensor from Ebay. It came in a plain box but seemed to be identical, fitted perfectly and seems to work as it should.

I'm hoping the problem is fixed for good, but as it was an intermittent issue I won't know for a while. The issue only ever occurred on the right hand side so if new sensors don't fix it the only other thing it can be is the little bit of loom at the back of the car before it splits left and right.

 

Anyway - fingers crossed that a £12 sensor and 10 minutes has fixed it.

 

Alan

Well, the repair seems (says he touching wood) to have worked. I have used the car half a dozen times since and made sure I did some reversing on each trip - so far there has been no recurrence of the fault.

 

It would seem that there was just one faulty sensor, and changing that has done the trick. The other possibility was an intermittent fault in the loom at the back of the car - I noticed it was a bit kinked inside the bumper. I suspect it was just left that way when the tow bar was fitted (when it was about a week old) and I just wonder of straightening out the cable run might have coincidentally helped solve an issue.

Edited 23 September, 20187 yr by Othen
Grammatical error

... still no recurrence of the problem - so I think I can say the fix worked - that was £12 well spent.

Exactly same problem here, except I have a 2006 Octavia Elegance. Even more stuff to remove to get bumper off, it seems. CD changer, on the left,extra parcel rack on right in boot etc..... so gave up on that option and cut a piece of the lower bumper cover, underneath, (out of sight )to give me access to get my arm in to the second sensor from the right. Finally got it out, but came away with the mounting bracket as a previous listing  member had. No problem. I can stick that back. Ordering a new one from eBay now.. part no. 7H0 919 275C.

Ok. Got new sensor on eBay for about £12.

Stuck the holder back in place with two part epoxy glue from pound shop.!

Refitted electrical plug and fitted sensor into housing. Tested, all ok.

only problem , is new sensor is black. Now I need beige touch up paint !

On 01/10/2018 at 13:20, Bampidave said:

Ok. Got new sensor on eBay for about £12.

Stuck the holder back in place with two part epoxy glue from pound shop.!

Refitted electrical plug and fitted sensor into housing. Tested, all ok.

only problem , is new sensor is black. Now I need beige touch up paint !

I'm glad that was some small use Bampidave, I'm supposing the Octavia is somewhat similar to the Superb, but does not have the black insert panel underneath the rear skirt that is actually quite useful for gaining access. I'm pleased to say that a couple of weeks on there has been no recurrence of the fault, so we can mark this down as a cure.

 

Best wishes,

 

Alan

Do you now have one black sensor, and three colour coded ones?

 

How were the sensors attached the back of the bumper on the Superb, are they clipped or glued?

Yes. I  now have one black and 3 beige sensors.

 

I haven't got a Superb. I,ve got an Octavia Elegance as stated.

 

My sensors were clipped into holders which were glued to the inside of the bumper.

Sorry, that was meant for @Othen, I'd heard of the temperamental attaching of the sensors on the Octavia, hence my curiosity as to how they're attached on the Superb,

1 hour ago, silver1011 said:

Sorry, that was meant for @Othen, I'd heard of the temperamental attaching of the sensors on the Octavia, hence my curiosity as to how they're attached on the Superb,

Hi Silver1011,

My Superb is a 2013 Elegance model, but I suspect they are all much the same.

The sensors are clipped into their holes (not glued). The clips are a sort of clothes peg affair moulded into the plastic material of the black insert into which the four sensors fit. If you undo the four torx screws at the front of the plastic panel there is enough clearance to slide a hand inside without breaking anything. With your other hand apply a little pressure to the outside of the sensor and at the same time prize off one side (it doesn't matter which) of the plastic clip - just enough to push that side of the sensor backwards a few mm. Then prize off the other side of the clip (a small screwdriver might be useful) and the whole sensor will slide all the way out. The sensor fits into a soft rubber grommet, which will probably fall out, so look around or feel for it inside once you have the sensor out.

Once the sensor is released it will dangle down on the end of the loom, you will be able to pull it out from the bumper far enough to release the electrical connection (I think there is a little plastic pin to push out of the way, then it just pulls off).

Re-fitting is more or less the reverse. Remember to replace the rubber grommet around the sensor and it should all go together easily enough. Make sure there are no kinks in the loom and it is not trapped anywhere before you tighten the four torx screws.

I hope that helps - easy job, takes about 10 minutes.

If you want to do it hard way and remove rear bumper, then you can look my video and see, how tricky this can be: 

 

Still I prefer to use "Othen" propose method. 

7 hours ago, Lutz said:

If you want to do it hard way and remove rear bumper, then you can look my video and see, how tricky this can be: 

 

Still I prefer to use "Othen" propose method. 

Thank you Lutz, that was a really useful video.

I see what you mean if one just needs access to the sensors - 10 minutes for the Othen method or half a day to remove the bumper and re-fit it!

Touched up my new, black sensor with a touch of my wife's gold, glitter nail varnish...perfect ! Great match. Doesn't affect the operation. All working ok.

 

1 hour ago, Bampidave said:

Touched up my new, black sensor with a touch of my wife's gold, glitter nail varnish...perfect !

 

Sooooo - we could train our nail varnish wearing partners to do our stone chips and their nails at the same time..?

 

I read a post somewhere asking where to source aftermarket add-ons for Skodas. Someone said "Don't bother - you cant put lipstick on a pig."

 

Well now, maybe we can....   

One off the rear parking sensors also failed on my 2012 Superb. Does any body know the catalog numer for the replacement part, so I order the right one on Ebay?

Seems like I have just made a serious Boo Boo whereas if I had looked at this post I would have known better, anyway, reversing sensor was playing up, working then not working, so stuck it in a garage to be checked out and later received a call saying one of my sensors was gone and the cost for a replacement Part was £95.83 plus Labour - with lots of other things going on i.e. just had new boiler installed etc. I just said go ahead and fix it and ended up paying £155.83 in total.  I have absolutely no idea what Skoda would charge for this part but  I am amazed that you can buy the equivalent on Ebay for £12 so serious lesson learnt 🥵

Followed @Othen's instructions, removed the sensor, sprayed some contact cleaner on the contacts that were oxidised, problem solved! Thank you very much for your help!