New parking sensor needed. VW quoted £280 - any advice on alternative companies?

NShep · May 25, 2015

I didn't believe my parking sensors and so I parked too close and hit one of the front parking sensors. I need to buy a new plastic grill and a new parking sensor but VW are quoting £280 plus VAT just for the sensor. Has anyone else had this problem?

Does anyone know of a way to either isolate one parking sensor or see if the sensor has come unplugged or something?

Any ideas or advice would be gratefully received.

bathurg · Jun 2, 2015

I had one of my sensors give up (you get a different type of sound continuously when putting it into reverse). It cost me over £200 to get the faultly one found and replaced by VW. The sensor itself was "only" about £80, and then all the rest was labour to remove the front bumper and then some extra to respray it the same colour.

I have seen some stuff about how to track down which sensor is faulty but from my personal experience the solutions proposed required better hearing that I had! The problem it seems is that they are all linked, if one goes, then none work so finding the faulty one needs the specialist instrument or trial and error. Also it looked very fiddly and I did not have the time or a garage to attack the problem myself.

It's a bit depressing but we figured it is cheaper than a new bumper and it keeps the insurance down a tiny bit - plus we tend to use them for tight spots (passenger gets to have some exercise when it gets really tricky!)

G.

sandalfarm · Jun 2, 2015

on my skoda when one failed it was easy to test ,switch the ignition on and carefully put your hand over the ? faulty one and it should make a clicking noise as well as being missing from the display, the are £20 ish on e bay and the bumper parts from some where like justkampers is about £30 not looked carefully at the van as my wife is out in it but there are plenty of sites for advice just use a search engine to find one you like