Front parking sensors - where do Citroen fit the switch?

[ivorex]

The switch is a push on/off button about the size of a large shirt button and has a red light that comes on when it is activated. The button itself is stuck onto the front top edge of the coin tray in front of the gearstick, which I must admit I was none too impressed with when I first saw it and assumed it would not be long before that came adrift. But it has stayed there even with constant use and looks and feels a good place for it to be. A wire goes from the back of the button and disapears immediately under the console so that you do not really see a wire.......... no hole was drilled. The front sensors two black and two white (on my car) are very neat and nicely fitted.
Would I have it fitted again if I ordered a new car ? Yes I would.

[Dreamsphere]

Oooh err! Yes please!

[Sernal]

Hi Bigfeet, Thank you very much for posting up the PDF doc. That's exactly what I was looking for. My wife has now looked through the document and she's much happier as to what they're going to do when fitting the kit.

Why on earth the dealer couldn't do this I don't know.

Thanks everyone.
Sernal.

[Sernal]

Hi Ivorex, Thanks for posting up the description. With your description and the PDF from Bigfeet it's certainly explained how the dealer will fit it.

Thanks again
Sernal.

[Sernal]

Hello Everyone

Well my wife collected her new DS3 and is very happy with it, except for the front parking sensors. The dealership fitted the offical Citroen front parking sensor accessory kit.

Rear Parking Sensors
The rear sensors work perfectly and work as expected.

The sensors are integrated with the HighWay display in the car and when you put engage reverse gear, the Highway unit displays the picture of the car, and the audio remains silent until you get close to an object behind you.

As you get closer to an object behind you, the display updates and warning beeps sound from the Highway unit. The beeps progressively gets faster the closer you get to the object, the display also updates showing the car and warning bars to show how close you are to the object (green, amber, red bars). When the beeps reach a constant tone you're very close to the object (the display will also show this).

My wife is very happy with the rear sensors and they work the way she expects them to work.


Front Parking Sensors
These don't work as expected. We knew they wouldn't be integrated with the Highway unit and there would be a separate beeper. This was expected, it a shame Citroen don't do factory fitted units on the DS3.

What we weren't expecting was:

1. Turn on the ignition and the front parking sensors beep for 4 seconds and then turn off (this might be some sort of initialization sequence).

2. Engage reverse gear and the front parking sensors turn on and beep constantly (a beep every half second). They beep even when there's nothing near the car (tested this in an empty car park with nothing else in sight). This is not consistent with the rear sensors and my wife finds this confusing. They should not beep if nothing is nearby.

3. If you do reverse and the rear sensors also start beeping, then the audio from the front sensors drown out the rear sensors. That's not very useful. My wife finds it difficult to differentiate the between the two different tones.

4. The range of the front sensors is a little short. When you move forward closer to an object, at around 10 inches the sensor starts beeping faster. At around 7-8 inches it's switches to a constant tone.

5. The front sensors only stay on for 15-20 seconds and automatically turn off.


We're going to take the car back to the dealership and see if we can get something done. The first thing is to stop the front sensors from turning on when you engage reverse. That would be a start.

If you have front parking sensors fitted on your DS3, do they work in the same way?

Regards
Sernal

[ivorex]

Okay, here we go;
I am in the garage when I switch on the engine so the front sensors are on and the alarm is sounding as I reverse out due to the close proximity of the garage walls.
Once clear of the garage but still reversing the front sensors are still active but no alarm sounding.

On the road if I select reverse, both front and rear sensors are active but only the rear sensor alarm sounds as I near an obstacle.
I assume if I was parallel parking in a tight spot the front sensors would trigger the alarm as I reversed in, but selecting reverse in an open space does not trigger the alarm.

[Barola]

There is a switch for the front sensors and the sensors themselves are fitted into the main bumper structure.

I have installed a latest design (2016) used front bumper that already has factory parking sensors/wring on my 2011 car that has factory installed rear parking sensors. I was wondering is there a way or part sold by dealer to connect front sensors to the existing rear sensors control box?