coolspot

hi there,

my first post here but will be many more to come as i have bought a total money pit of a car (not on purpose)

its a 530d se 2003 but has lots of msport stuff on it (more posts to follow)
my first question is that the msport front and rear bumpers have parking sensors but they dont seem to work. when i stick in reverse the idrive screen pops up as if theyre working but no sound..

is it that they arent connected at bumper level? are the msport pdc connections compaible with the s.e connectors? do i have to take the bumper off to check connections?

any help at all wil be much appreciated.

thanks

CertifiedOfficial

When you get the PDC screen, do you get the green/yellow/red distance indications...? I want to say you can disable the chimes in iDrive, somewhere.

coolspot

nope, no green/yellow/red lights, just the birdseye pic of the car and what appears to look like a proximity area / light / angle on the front and back. i havent seen anywhere in idrive regarding chimes though..??

Cricketts

One or more of the sensors in the bumpers is defective. Turn on the PDC and listen closely to each sensor. You will hear a faint buzzing or clicking sound. It's a dealer or Indy job. A bit expensive to repair but worth it. Personally, I cannot back up my car to park without it. Fear takes over

coolspot

i cannot hear the described sound from any of the sensors on front or back..is there an easy way of checking whether they are connected? i think maybe that when the previous owner put the msport bumpers on he either forgot to connect them / decided not to connect them for some reason / or perhaps the pdc sensors on the msport bumpers are not compatible with the s.e model. is there any way of confirming my assumptions easily? i.e how hard is it to access the pdc sensor connectors on the front and back?

Cricketts

go to RealOEM.com Online BMW Parts Catalog. Enter the last seven of your VIN, proceed to the parts and systems to find the PDC diagrams and you will get an idea. To answer your question re. "How hard" inspection or replacement requires removing the bumpers.

coolspot

hi, i took a pic of what comes on the screen when i stick it in reverse. please advise

twh

Have you checked the OBD codes? Wife's X5 was rear ended recently and a couple PDC's got dislodged and there was a message on the iDrive about some failure or another.