[arkow]

Anyone replaced parking aid sensor in the front bumper on their X3? i need to change 1 of the sensors and not sure how to go about it..

Thanks

[arkow]

no one? is it uncommon that sensors go bad? or people just have Dealer fix them? i got a quote to replace 1 front sensor and wanted to throw up...they said the bumper has to come off..

[Scout10]

haven't had to. . . . still under warranty but if i did i'd
look at an exploded parts diagram for location.
look at an image of it on internet for detail.
Jack up the bad side, throw cardboard on floor, flash lite,
and have at it, twist off or depress a clip.
Its a simple item and if your going to attempt it . . . you've seen it before.
do it !

[arkow]

Originally Posted by Scout10

haven't had to. . . . still under warranty but if i did i'd
look at an exploded parts diagram for location.
look at an image of it on internet for detail.
Jack up the bad side, throw cardboard on floor, flash lite,
and have at it, twist off or depress a clip.
Its a simple item and if your going to attempt it . . . you've seen it before.
do it !

I will try this weekend, hopefully i can get to it without taking bumper off.. will update after this weekend.

Thanks

[smunn]

Originally Posted by arkow

no one? is it uncommon that sensors go bad? or people just have Dealer fix them? i got a quote to replace 1 front sensor and wanted to throw up...they said the bumper has to come off..

My car is still under warranty but I am not very trusting of the local BMW dealer after a GM change. Can you share what they quoted you as it looks like it came unglued when I looked at it. I do not see any clips that could have broken but.....

Also how did it go replacing the sensor yourself.

[arkow]

I haven't replaced it yet, but its about $250 for this sensor (insane). I am planning to get it done soon as its annoying when backing up as i get a warning on my navi system about the PDC sensors...

[Bambazonke]

Don't have an issue with my sensors but I am in the same boat as you. I have bought a set of LED fog lights to replace my halogens as they look awful when switched on with my Xenons working.

I have no option but to remove the bumper. My research so far is there are 10 8mm screws to be removed from under the bumper and on top, 6 T30 Torx screws from under the rubber strip seal between the bonnet seal and kidney grilles.

The problem is.... I have the motorsport version that has wheel flares that has at least 4 plastic rivets on each side that secure the wheel arch to the bumper. I am at a loss on how to remove these rivets without destroying them as I would like to re use them as they are colour coded to the car paint. My nearest dealer is also 400kms away from where I live.

I would welcome any advice on how to remove these rivets so I can re use them or is just not an option?

[jman001]

In order to replace the front PDC sensors it is necessary to remove the bumper cover. That requires loosening the screws that attach the cover to the fender and for that you need to remove the plastic rivets holding the black fender trim and the wheel liner. Then remove the nuts that secure the botom cover. There are also 4 torx screws securing the cover near the radiator. If only the sensors from one side are bad you don’t have to remove the bumper entirely, just the side that needs replacement. Hope this helps anyone.

[Opie55]

For the poster who said his came unglued, the sensor snaps onto a bracket that is held on with two-sided tape (at least other BMWs are, and I assume these are the same). You don't need a sensor - you can just buy the holder with new tape. But the bumper has to come off.

[chrispitude]

My wife and I bought a CPO 2016 BMW X3 five months ago. Last week, the front parking sensor started alerting constantly. Here's the front driver side, nothing to see here...



Here's the front passenger side - uh oh:



The sensor has fallen into the hole, and it looks (to me) like there is JB Weld or some other kind of gray epoxy where it fell off:





The gray epoxy-like stuff is very hard, no stickiness to it whatsoever. Here's a closer look:





I starting removing the wheel liner, but quickly realized that it's attached with one-time-use blind rivets (51118222901) which I don't have.

How is this sensor supposed to be attached? Does it make sense that this hard gray epoxy-like stuff is on it? If that's not normal, I might be able to argue that this part is not up to the CPO certification standards.

Thanks!

[Bambazonke]

Yes i have my front inner sensor took a direct hit from a stone and knocked it clean in. Ended up taking the bumper off to repair it with some Pratleys Plastic steel (the one where you mix the 2 tubes together) This was in May this year also took the opportunity to replace the halogen foglights with some OEM LED ones which i am really pleased with

[chrispitude]

Originally Posted by Bambazonke

Yes i have my front inner sensor took a direct hit from a stone and knocked it clean in. Ended up taking the bumper off to repair it with some Pratleys Plastic steel (the one where you mix the 2 tubes together) This was in May this year also took the opportunity to replace the halogen foglights with some OEM LED ones which i am really pleased with

You are a life saver!

How did you take the front bumper off? Did you have to buy more one-time-use blind rivets to reattach anything, or are all bumper fasteners reusable?

[rirrgang]

Put the aslt 7 of your vin in this website.
Instructions are there
https://www.newtis.info/

[chrispitude]

Originally Posted by rirrgang

Put the aslt 7 of your vin in this website.
Instructions are there
https://www.newtis.info/

Whoah, that's exceptionally awesome.

So before I take this thing apart, can anybody comment if that gray epoxy-like stuff is factory or not? Because if it's not normal, I'd sure like to complain to my dealer that this is not how a CPO car should be...

[________]

Originally Posted by chrispitude

Whoah, that's exceptionally awesome.

So before I take this thing apart, can anybody comment if that gray epoxy-like stuff is factory or not? Because if it's not normal, I'd sure like to complain to my dealer that this is not how a CPO car should be...

How do you think a CPO car should be?

[chrispitude]

Originally Posted by OnerDriver

How do you think a CPO car should be?

Not glued together, preferably!

[________]

Originally Posted by chrispitude

Not glued together, preferably!

CPO has nothing to do with that...

[Bambazonke]

Originally Posted by chrispitude

You are a life saver!

How did you take the front bumper off? Did you have to buy more one-time-use blind rivets to reattach anything, or are all bumper fasteners reusable?

Yes I had to buy a pack of 10 white plastic rivets to replace the 10 I drilled out. Took me 2 days to do it but now that I know where all the screws and grommets are and the sequence to remove them, could do it in a day now on my own

[chrispitude]

Originally Posted by OnerDriver

CPO has nothing to do with that...

I see from your post history that you've been equally helpful to others. Aren't you so clever!

Originally Posted by Bambazonke

Yes I had to buy a pack of 10 white plastic rivets to replace the 10 I drilled out. Took me 2 days to do it but now that I know where all the screws and grommets are and the sequence to remove them, could do it in a day now on my own

Thank you for the inspiration! I started down this path too (dropping your Torx screwdriver into the grill cavity is annoying) but then decided to try going in through the wheel well liner:



Here's a picture of the PDC sensor from the inside:



Yep, definitely broken. As others have said, the sensor itself clips into a plastic mounting plate. On this side, the plate was reattached by the previous owner/dealer with gray RTV-like stuff (which eventually failed). Here's some scraps of what I peeled off:



On the other (good) side of the car, the mounting plate was firmly attached with whatever adhesive tape is used from the factory, with no RTV in sight.

I used some JB Weld WaterWeld putty to adhere the mounting plate back to the inside of the front bumper. Hopefully it holds better than the previous repair.

I didn't have the proper blind rivets handy from a dealer, so I purchased the Harbor Freight plastic blind rivet gun, item 97757, and used the included Chinese rivets to put things back together. I'll replace them with the proper OE/OEM rivets at a later date.

While under the car, I also noticed three cracks (at three different places) in the plastic undertray, plus at least four missing fasteners. I'm not too impressed with this CPO certification thing.

[________]

Originally Posted by chrispitude

I see from your post history that you've been equally helpful to others. Aren't you so clever!

Thank you for the inspiration! I started down this path too (dropping your Torx screwdriver into the grill cavity is annoying) but then decided to try going in through the wheel well liner:



Here's a picture of the PDC sensor from the inside:



Yep, definitely broken. As others have said, the sensor itself clips into a plastic mounting plate. On this side, the plate was reattached by the previous owner/dealer with gray RTV-like stuff (which eventually failed). Here's some scraps of what I peeled off:



On the other (good) side of the car, the mounting plate was firmly attached with whatever adhesive tape is used from the factory, with no RTV in sight.

I used some JB Weld WaterWeld putty to adhere the mounting plate back to the inside of the front bumper. Hopefully it holds better than the last repairer.

While under the car, I also noticed three cracks (at three different places) in the plastic undertray, plus at least four missing fasteners. I'm not too impressed with this CPO certification thing.

You're welcome.
I enjoy telling people what they could've easily read on their contracts.