(T) faulty parking sensors

i've just been to my local fiat dealership for a parking sensor to replace my faulty one and had quite a shock when they told me it's £68 +vat.

am i being tight here or does that seam to be a silly price for one sensor?

does any where else sell this type of thing? 'cause i don't really want to spend that on one sensor unless i have to and the cars driving me bonkers beeping at me all the time?

Your problem will be the connection to the car. Do Vauxhall use the same connector / sensors? £68 + VAT is extortionate IMHO, considering aftermarket kits are £20ish from ebay. They won't 'talk' to the car though, and you'd get that annoying warning triangle on the dashboard.

So - Vauxhall or Dick Turpin I reckon. Anyone got more ideas?

not sure about vauxhall, i'll pop to my local one and see what they say later.
i like the Dick Turpin idea

the connector looks in good condition but i could try replacing it as it maybe cheaper than the silly price of the sensor.

i wonder if a sensor from a cheap £20 sensor kit of ebay would fit, surely they only have a plus and minus wire to all sensors.

If you're not in too much of a rush then I've got some old sensors in the shed, I can have a look at the connectors at the weekend?

that would be great thank you

Just back from the car, typing very slowly because I've got no knuckles left What were Fiat thinking of, shoehorning a 5-cylinder engine into a 4-cylinder engine bay

And I get to do it all again in another few years...joy. Anyway, I had a look at the reversing sensor connectors and they're absolutely nothing like the aftermarket ones, they have proper clip-on connectors like the rest of the car. I've fitted three sets of aftermarket sensors in the past and none of them had compatible connectors with each other, let alone the car wiring. I also seriously doubt whether the car would 'recognise' aftermarket items.

So - either Vauxhall or Fiat then, sorry.

What were you doing? Cam belt change or just polishing the engine block?

Cambelt change. You conventional four-cylinder people have nothing to worry about, the 2.4 is 'slightly' trickier. As a hint - Elearn says:

"On this version it is not possible to remove/refit the toothed timing drive belt on the car.
To perform this operation, remove/refit the power unit."

Which is why the quoted service time for a 90,000 mile service on a 2.4 is 9.40 hours. Given the propensity for water pump failure on these units I felt 4 years and 54,000 miles was safe. I'll post a separate thread about it in the near future, when I've got a bit more skin - also seems unfair to hijack Doody's post

ok thanks anyway, sorry for the delay with my reply.

Have you bought any new sensors yet? Just had two fail on mine, and I'm looking into the options now

Do they work if you park with rear facing sunlight for a couple of hours?
That was my experience after the big freeze. I think there was a problem with water in the sensors and the sun would dry them out. I haven't taken them out to check(dont know how) but might be a low cost solution.

hi mate,
no haven't done anything about it yet, been thinking about trading it in for the 2.4ltr one thats up for sale on various internet sites at the minute...

Good, in that case I've got some decent news for you. The part number (not the Fiat part number) is 687912, they are also fitted to (wait for it) various models of BMW! If you look on ebay at auction number 220585218541 as an example you will see that you don't have to pay Fiat main dealer prices.

If it's any consolation, they fail on BMWs too. Good old German build quality...bit like Bosch alternators I suppose

Taking them out is easy enough if you haven't got a towbar fitted (if you have, you might have to remove the rear bumper to get to the middle pair. Guess which ones have gone on mine). Firstly, remove the electrical connector. Each sensor is held in by two long plastic 'tongues' which clip into protrusions on the side of each sensor. From the outside of the bumper, maintain a steady pressure. From inside the bumper, move the ends of the 'tongues' away from the sensor body. Depending on how much caked mud is round it, it should just slide out.

HTH.

Attached are the relevant pages from e-learn

great thanks, i'll have a go at this over the weekend.