BMW M140i Front Park Assist!

[browny1993]

Hi,

I recently bought a new 2017 BMW M140i that i specced myself at the dealer. I opted to have amongst other things front and rear park assist fitted which i thought would be great, and the rear park assist is! However i have found myself being increasingly frustrated and not using in some cases the front park assist. The reason is simple, because every-time you want the front park assist to activate you have to press a button near the gear selector which in alot of cases i forget to do or have to fumble around with when pulling into a parking space/ manoeuvring in tight places (which i do every day at work). For me this sort of defeats the point of of having front park assist as you surely want it to tell you automatically when you are getting close to something. My Dads 2017 Golf GTI has front park assist and it activates automatically when it gets close to an object, which to me is a far better system!

Am i doing something wrong and is their a setting in the iDrive i am missing and is this just a feature with the 1 series or on every BMW?

[Boosted LS1]

Why can't you just park the car in either direction? Surely your post is a joke?

[SmilerFTM]

You have to turn it on rather than it working automatically all the time so as the parking alarm doesn't go off every two seconds when you've got your nose stuck up someone's arse on motorways and (well everywhere) as so many BMW and Audi drivers do

[Nickbrapp]

Sounds like a cop out, both my leon and Astra have front park assist that comes on below about 5mph, does sometimes come on in traffic but doesn’t beep for some reason

[Prinny]

SmilerFTM said:

You have to turn it on rather than it working automatically all the time so as the parking alarm doesn't go off every two seconds when you've got your nose stuck up someone's arse on motorways and (well everywhere) as so many BMW and Audi drivers do

You are EricMCN AICMFP.

[STe_rsv4]

So you buy a high performance car but you don't have the ability to park it without a computer telling you how to do it?
If you are that nervous / concerned surely it's not that hard to stop, look down then push the park assist button before proceeding to park?

[SmilerFTM]

Prinny said:

You are EricMCN AICMFP.

I was hoping for a put down as I did state the obvious reply but you've completely lost me

[SmilerFTM]

Prinny said:

You are EricMCN AICMFP.

I've just seen the thread he's posted

[Prinny]

SmilerFTM said:

Prinny said:

You are EricMCN AICMFP.

I've just seen the thread he's posted

Special... with a capital Z. It has to be trolling, surely?

Back on topic OP, is it not something you can code to ‘always on’ for the key using Carly, or equivalent? (NCS expert & INPA if your Deutsch ist gut).

The local Independent BM specialist should be able to help if you don’t want to buy it.

[Mr Tidy]

I had an E87 with front and rear sensors, and they only operated once you had put it into reverse - then the fronts would work until you got past 10 mph.

That seemed like a reasonable set up to me.

I'm surprised you have to physically turn them on in a 140i.

[Smuler]

browny1993 said:

Hi,

I recently bought a new 2017 BMW M140i that i specced myself at the dealer. I opted to have amongst other things front and rear park assist fitted which i thought would be great, and the rear park assist is! However i have found myself being increasingly frustrated and not using in some cases the front park assist. The reason is simple, because every-time you want the front park assist to activate you have to press a button near the gear selector which in alot of cases i forget to do or have to fumble around with when pulling into a parking space/ manoeuvring in tight places (which i do every day at work). For me this sort of defeats the point of of having front park assist as you surely want it to tell you automatically when you are getting close to something. My Dads 2017 Golf GTI has front park assist and it activates automatically when it gets close to an object, which to me is a far better system!

Am i doing something wrong and is their a setting in the iDrive i am missing and is this just a feature with the 1 series or on every BMW?

My front parking sensors activate automatically when I’m pulling close to objects , they start in the red band so pretty close ; but not to far away it would be a pain. Perfect.

The only iDrive setting which might be relevant is that I have “auto PDC” ticked. But this does give me a graphic when I’m driving for example through narrow spaces. I don’t rely on it but maybe it influences the sensitivity of front sensors so if you have it try it.

They come on whenever reverse is selected so the need for the button should be minimal.

[SebringMan]

I love all of the heroes in this thread. Clearly they enjoy bragging rights/bullying other or never have anyone except themselves drive the car. For instance I'd never let my sister drive my M3 ; It's a tricky car to parallel park without destroying the rims at the best of times (I park quite close to the kerb myself on one way streets ; mirrors aren't cheap to replace .).

IME on a Ford the front Park assist is poor, but I rarely do park in frontwards as most of my cars have low profile wheels. I used to mock the park assist but when I tried it the feature is handy and gets the spacing bang on. For me it's not necessary but for other users it would be handy ; i.e zero excuse for kerbing the wheels or holding up a line of people as they try to get into the space for the 5th time.

[Monty Python]

How would the front parking assist know when to come on? How would the car differentiate between parking and moving along in stop-start traffic?

[Smuler]

Monty Python said:

How would the front parking assist know when to come on? How would the car differentiate between parking and moving along in stop-start traffic?

It doesn't, in my experience, and a on a few occasions it has come on for me, in bumper to bumper slow traffic although I'm not normally that close.
The second graphic I refer to is equally uncertain. It's come on when due to congestion and narrow lanes I was , in it's opinion, too close to the bollards it assumed I was going to park
It's speed related, for another example I drive through a narrow 'gate,' and sometimes I go too fast to set it off, other times I'm a little slower and it will come on.

For me, neither of these sensors are too intrusive or irritating. And as I said above, fully operational, the need to press the button for the fronts should be minimal.

[Monty Python]

Smuler said:

It doesn't, in my experience, and a on a few occasions it has come on for me, in bumper to bumper slow traffic although I'm not normally that close.
The second graphic I refer to is equally uncertain. It's come on when due to congestion and narrow lanes I was , in it's opinion, too close to the bollards it assumed I was going to park
It's speed related, for another example I drive through a narrow 'gate,' and sometimes I go too fast to set it off, other times I'm a little slower and it will come on.

For me, neither of these sensors are too intrusive or irritating. And as I said above, fully operational, the need to press the button for the fronts should be minimal.

Which model do you have, and does it have intelligent parking?

[Smuler]

Monty Python said:

Which model do you have, and does it have intelligent parking?

I have a X1,2017. The relevant option is Z0A Driver Comfort Package which includes (beside the ex light pkg)

508 PDC front and rear
5DP Park Assist


This exact option no longer seems to exist on the configurator (least not for my model) so I can't give any more detail.

But it would seem I have this full facility , though I've never let the car park itself

https://vimeo.com/114975195

[LocoBlade]

Works exactly the same way on the F2x as the E87, selecting reverse turns both on until you go over ~10mph, its only if you're going into a gap forwards having not selected reverse beforehand that you need to turn them on manually.

I must say it doesn't bother me but the wife's Leon has them enabled all the time and I there's no real reason BMW couldn't do the same. They aren't a problem in traffic, the only time they might go off if you were sitting stationary in town traffic and really are too close to a car in front or if a pedestrian crossed between the stationary cars.

Mr Tidy said:

I had an E87 with front and rear sensors, and they only operated once you had put it into reverse - then the fronts would work until you got past 10 mph.

That seemed like a reasonable set up to me.

I'm surprised you have to physically turn them on in a 140i.

[Monty Python]

It's not really much of an effort to press one switch though...