Front Park Sensor Fault and Warranty

[Tom_L]

Looking for some advice re my on-going saga with front parking sensors

Car was ordered (Midlands dealership) with the full front and rear system, but due to the flawless Audi ordering system, the car was delivered with rears only. I ended up going backwards and forwards with the dealership until they agreed to do a full genuine Audi retrofit instead of fobbing me off with some 3rd party bull****.

All is going well, everything works as expected up until just over a week ago. Front sensors become very sensitive and start activating at almost every low speed event (traffic lights, junctions etc) After personal inspection, it looks like both the inner front sensors have indentations (likely from stone chips). I eventually get it booked into my local dealer in London yesterday, after about a week wait proving that it was a legit retrofit by the original Audi dealer.

So yesterday they send me a lovely “Audi Cam” video showing me exactly what I already thought, the sensors have indentations on them. Now for the fun: Even though they admitted that Audi have issued a memo on the sensors being “overly” sensitive, they are refusing to cover the sensors under warranty. Instead they want £400 for 2 sensors and fitting Oh and the sensors are on back order and even though its 2016, it takes 10 working days to ship from Germany...

So a few questions:
- How is it my responsibility if the sensors are that sensitive to stone chippings? What is the best way to challenge them?
- For the time being, is it possible to disable the front sensors via VCDS (I got the “nah mate, head tech says no”)
- Why did I order front sensors?!

I guess the worst case is I have to get the sensor part numbers (luckily they are un-painted) and sort out the fitting myself.

Thanks for the help in advance

 

[Rob2k68]

Hmm odd, auto activation of OEM Front sensors is via a VCDS mod only so check the coding below and see if you can simply reverse it if bit 4 is already enabled :-

Enable automatic activation of parking tones when approaching obstacle
Select STG 10 (parking aid)
STG access authorization - Select function 16
Enter access code 71679
STG coding -> Select function 07
Select Byte 3
Enable Bit 4

As far as the sensor itself goes I don't see how and stone chipping will cause a false detection event as the sensor emits an ultrasonic cone - the detection obstacle has to be large enough to reflect the sound waves. Is there loose paint flaking off them ?

Are the PDC's absolutely flush to the bumper surface ? I wonder if the retrofit has them at an incorrect angle pointing downwards ?

 

[Snibo]

Maybe try another Dealer to see if you get different response ??

 

[Tom_L]

Thanks for the reply Rob! I’ll need to find a source for VCDS before I can have a play, but I will add a few things:

- The fault pretty much came up mid journey and has persisted from then on, hence why I thought stone impact. When I next get in the car, I’ll take a picture of the screen as I’m pretty sure one sensor is showing an obstancle when it should be clear.
- This is at least 5000 miles after they were retrofitted by the dealer with no issue until a week ago
- They are the middle/inner sensors that sit inside the grill/number plate surround, hence they are the black / unpainted sensors.

I’ve also gone back to my original dealer and asked them if they would support

 

[Schizophonic]

Can you tell us the name of the retrofitter, this person might be someone we've heard of and might help if we can vouch for their work or not.

 

[Rob2k68]

Thanks for the reply Rob! I’ll need to find a source for VCDS before I can have a play, but I will add a few things:

- The fault pretty much came up mid journey and has persisted from then on, hence why I thought stone impact. When I next get in the car, I’ll take a picture of the screen as I’m pretty sure one sensor is showing an obstancle when it should be clear.
- This is at least 5000 miles after they were retrofitted by the dealer with no issue until a week ago
- They are the middle/inner sensors that sit inside the grill/number plate surround, hence they are the black / unpainted sensors.

I’ve also gone back to my original dealer and asked them if they would support

Ah gotcha - does sound like something sudden has caused this then. Do you know if they replaced your grille ? - thinking how they are mounted as the original PDC grille will have the hole and mounting features moulded in.

 

[NHN]

I suspect the sensors were painted badly & its possible the paint has been disturbed on a micro level with road stones.

Did they lacquer them at all, are the sensors glossed over or matt?

TBH given they're a dealer with huge resources, goodwill, customer service etc, after the ordering system issue & the fact they were retrofitted, they should just remove, strip existing paint, test sensors & if all ok, repaint, lacquer, then retest, if all ok then refit, otherwise swap the sensors out for new as tbh that's silly to be so pedantic over 2 sensors given its a big dealership I'm sure.

If they're too recessed into the grill, if the grills the original, they can pickup the surrounding areas, also they can pickup up the plate plinths, I've had experience in retrofitting sensors to non pdc grills, so its something I'm aware is an issue, but resolved with testing & correct positioning of course.

 

[Tom_L]

I suspect the sensors were painted badly & its possible the paint has been disturbed on a micro level with road stones.

Did they lacquer them at all, are the sensors glossed over or matt?

TBH given they're a dealer with huge resources, goodwill, customer service etc, after the ordering system issue & the fact they were retrofitted, they should just remove, strip existing paint, test sensors & if all ok, repaint, lacquer, then retest, if all ok then refit, otherwise swap the sensors out for new as tbh that's silly to be so pedantic over 2 sensors given its a big dealership I'm sure.

If they're too recessed into the grill, if the grills the original, they can pickup the surrounding areas, also they can pickup up the plate plinths, I've had experience in retrofitting sensors to non pdc grills, so its something I'm aware is an issue, but resolved with testing & correct positioning of course.

Thanks NHN, appreciate the insight! The points you listed are exactly why I pushed for Audi to do a genuine retrofit. To the best of my knowledge they got a OEM sensor ready bumper, painted it and updated the loom to add the sensors.

I've added a few pictures, but as above, it should match the Audi factory setup. The sensor in question is the inner right sensor inside the front grill (unpainted I believe?) You can kind of see the marking on it, but its difficult to capture. The last image shows the display, that is with at least a car length clear in front of my car. That sensor is consistently setting the system off.

My next step is to speak to the manager, at the very least they should be able to give me 1 or 2 sensors as a goodwill gesture.

 

[Rob2k68]

It looks to me like it's pointing downwards slightly - is the other side the same ?

Mine are like this such that the front face of the sensor is a constant offset (flushness) from the grille :-

 

[Rob2k68]

Close up of mine :-