broken parking sensors....dispute with insurance company

[PTE993]

Our 2000 X5 is in the bodyshop at the moment having its rear bumper replaced. We are having this done under insurance.

We managed to hook it on to a post when reversing and foolishly pulled forward rather than stopping to remove the obstruction. This managed to peel the bumper away from the car. Hence the new bumper. However as a consequence a couple of the rear parking sensors were pulled off and the whole - front and rear - parking sensor system stopped working.

Although they have replaced the rear sensors/wiring loom, the front ones are still not working. And the insurance company is saying that is an unrelated/pre-existing/co-incidental fault and nothing to do with the damage resulting from the rear bumper being pulled off and are currently unwilling to replace the front sensors.

This is untrue since all the sensors - front and rear - were working fine (although clearly still didnt prevent our careless driving in the first place ). The Insurance Company said that they would speak to BMW directly and I am waiting for them to come back to me.

Ahead of my conversation with the insurance company does anyone in Pistonheads land know how the BMW parking sensor system works and what could be affected that would cause both front and rear to fail?

Thanks in advance... of course all comments about X5's, 4x4's, poor driving etc welcome....but only if you can help answer my question about the parking sensors..

[TheEnd]

http://www.e38.org/part2driverinfo.pdf

Page 124 for schooling on PDC

Lots of people seem to get problems with them, but the only course of action i can see is getting BMW to investigate and fix the problem, and make the cause known so you can see what happened, then either you pay, or the insurance company pays.

[PTE993]

Thanks for the .pdf. That's really helpful. I got some more help on an X5 forum and all roads seem to lead to a problem with the PDC control unit. I suspect that the contacts to the front sensors have been affected by the PDC being dislodged when the rear bumper was pulled away.

The insurance rep actually looked at the vehicle today and we have agreed that they will send it to BMW for them to have a look at. I hope that they will be able to quickly identify the problem.

[Fox-]

A new PDC unit is 25 quid off ebay, takes 10 minutes to fit, and fixes most problems.

[turbo-ww]

Or buy a smaller car and don't let the wife drive....

Edited by turbo-ww on Wednesday 25th March 23:04

[PTE993]

to the last poster... what can I say, no defence...


like the idea of £25 for a new PDC and self-fit....that'll be my fallback if they wont fix it... From what I've learned today it should be reasonably accessible by the spare wheel somewhere..

Rather surprised myself when I was able to fix the FSR on the air-con...it was really straightforward and I reckon I saved a fortune over getting BMW to check it over, diagnose the problem and then royally stiff me to replace...

[Fox-]

On the E39 its on the opposite side to the CD changer. Open the thing where the battery is and you can see it. It's white and has 3 connectors.

[PTE993]

...Turbo WW... just seen your car profile... assume that's your current motor... Don't get me started... I sold my C2S a while back with the full intention of getting a Turbo once I had completed our house extension, garage block etc.. unfortunately it turned out to be a more expensive adventure than we'd anticipated... and not got the cash together for my next toy ...oh well...I'll have a nice garage block just have to wait that bit longer to put a decent car in there... somewhere for the lawnmower to rattle around in the meantime..

[PTE993]

Thanks Fox... I am going to call the BMW garage where the cars meant to be inspected tomorrow and try and direct them to that in the first instance so they dont spend ages trying to find a problem somewhere else...