Parking sensor issue

[kerrso05]

To be truthful I didn't want  to as this only really happened during lockdown plus it wasn't happening all the time. Its the type of thing that I know if I took it to them it wouldn't happen, like that creaking floor board that only happens when you least expect to do and then when you get someone in to fix it it suddenly disappears. I did phone the  Dealers and they booked the car in to get a look at it and then..... it suddenly went away. I phoned the Dealers and spoke to their maintenance manager and told him about the sensors and said to him that it had disappeared.

He said that this problem had been reported around the country and the fault also was appearing in other models like the UX. He said if it happened again then he told me to bring it up and they would blow air around the sensors and that usually clears the problem....he said the problem was a build up of rain water around the sensors and once you blow the water out it immediately disappears. That's when I came onto this forum to see if anyone had this problem. So here I am trying to get to the problem or the solution. If it gets really bad then I will definitely take it back to them but at the moment it is only intermittent...once every couple of months. I have driven about 4 Lexuses over the last number of years and I have never really had problems with them although in saying that about 10 yrs ago I had a Lexus IS which had rusty alloy wheels and when I took it back to the dealer (the same dealer) they replaced all the alloys and in fact they replaced 3 sets of alloys, so I know the dealer will sort me out....I just don't want to put up with any hassle or doing without this fabulous car for any length of time. Also I will probably be changing it for an EV in about a years time...maybe a Tesla or maybe the ID4 or maybe the Lexus UX electric. My son in law drives a fabulous Golf GTE which gets about over a hundred mpg...yes, don't believe me.....he drives the car to work on pure electric about 20 miles, plugs it into a charger near his work drives home on all electric (20 miles). The only time he has to use the petrol is at the weekends and that is only after driving 30 miles of pure electric....so that appears to be the way to go.

PS the blue is beautiful in my lexus because it has like sparkly bits in the paint which just lifts the colour.....really beautiful car to drive

[CHX]

I know where you're coming from. Luckily, in my case, the sensors kicked off as soon as the Lexus tech guy sat into my car.  I invested a good amount of my retirement pay-out into a luxury car so I was a bit exercised when it didn't turn out as I expected. Also, being retired, I had the time to keep after it. I've been driving Toyota Carinas and Avensis since 1981 without a problem.(First car 1976 Datsun 1200 bought new) I hope to move to EV over the next few years (if I live that long) and I expect to stay with Lexus if they come up with a practical range EV at ES level. Still the best drive ever in my experience. Would love to go EV full time but I have regular long drives down south to meet the family and would not be comfortable on a long drive on pure EV at present. 

[Gediredi]

The dreaded sensor issue is back!

Took the car out today to collect something, It was raining very very heavily to be fair. On the way back the damn yellow light came on - Parking assist unavailable! first time in months!

I parked the car up, switched the car off and on again (I work in IT -can you tell?) and it cleared the fault. I checked the sensors and nothing unusual, no leaves just a bit wet.

Guess I will wait for them to dry out a bit and reapply the silicon unless there are better ideas out there?

[Frank the Hornet]

Hi have been battling this over last 3 weeks my RX450H went in for service no issues, had the standard car wash at the dealership ( great job ) didn't use the car for a few days loads of heavy rain then the fateful bleeps on the front sensors when I move forward or slow right down, no objects all around the car ,no error messages at all.

Tried WD40, 3 times with a bit of success but the damm bleeps came back.I have applied Vaseline as per advice of other members , hope not speaking too soon but all OK and their has been plenty heavy rain.

 

[kerrso05]

Frank the Hornet, I would suggest that the next dry day you get, that you go round each of the sensors and either get the lend or buy a high speed blower (I use a small blower that I have for drying the car after washing it). Then you can follow that up with a thin layer of vaseline

I phoned my Lexus dealer and spoke to the maintenance manager and he said that they knew about this problem and it was also appearing on the new UX and some of the NX and told me if I ever had the problem again that they would bring the car in to the workshop and put a high speed blower on the sensors and blow any water that would be around them. In my case I think the fault may have been caused by having a cermic coating put on at the dealers in that I think that it may have have hardened the rubber seals around the sensors. Like you I have used vaseline and it seems to work

[malcolmw]

Another vote here for the Vaseline I used on our NX. I applied this fix last Christmas and have had no problems since. We will see this winter if the effect lasts.

Interestingly, our car is ceramic coated also.

[kerrso05]

I do think that the cermic coatings may have a detrimental effect on these sensors....I think it may harden the rubber seals

[CHX]

Hey guys!

Interesting to see your posts. Hope everything keeps going well for you. I've had no problems now since last February or so and I've travelled through some intense rain from the Atlantic.

Gediredi..............I was in IT before retirement. When I was having problems I found that pulling in to the side, switching off and on also cured the problem but, usually, not for long.

[Frank the Hornet]

Thanks to keerso05, malcolmw & CHX.

A common link seems to be the coating, I too had this done i when I purchased the RX in October 2017, I will carry out the drying recommendation

That said the only ( tiny ! ) item in the 3 years is replacement of the key fob Battery, bar far my best experience of a brand.

Thanks again.

 

[kerrso05]

Don’t get me wrong but it could be a faulty sensor but it seems strange that the common theme in this problem is a lot of us have had Cermic coating done on our cars. Frank you are totally right about the Lexus brand because I had Volkswagens and Audi’s in the past and they wouldn’t have had the reliability or anything like the driving experience as the Lexus......my latest Lexus ES is just a dream to drive (just a shade to large...lol)

[Steve Oliver]

On 10/26/2020 at 2:44 PM, Gediredi said:

The dreaded sensor issue is back!

Took the car out today to collect something, It was raining very very heavily to be fair. On the way back the damn yellow light came on - Parking assist unavailable! first time in months!

I parked the car up, switched the car off and on again (I work in IT -can you tell?) and it cleared the fault. I checked the sensors and nothing unusual, no leaves just a bit wet.

Guess I will wait for them to dry out a bit and reapply the silicon unless there are better ideas out there?

And? Has the silicon worked again?

 

[Gediredi]

1 hour ago, Steve Oliver said:

And? Has the silicon worked again?

 

Well hard  to tell. Not much driving going on with the new lockdown and i I think zero in heavy rain,  small amount in light rain, but it is true that I haven't had a reoccurrence since I reapplied it. 

[kerrso05]

Lashed here today and yesterday and I took my Lexus ES out today and no annoying sensor warning and lights flashing....so far so good. So the silcon must be working. Steve, did you get any kind of Cermic coating done on your car?....I'm just trying to track what might be causing this problem because I got a Cermic Coating put on my car immediately before I took purchase of it and I'm thinking this may be causing the problem

[CHX]

I've had two very minor occurrences of the problem over the past week in very heavy rain. Was in situations where I could switch off and on immediately and problem solved. One instance involved sharp braking and another involved bump over roadworks (both in heavy rain). Ceramic coating? ...yes. Haven't had a problem for a long time before this so not overly worried. The main worry is forgetting that sensors may not be working in tight parking situations

[Gediredi]

Took it out today in standard Manchester drizzle for 40 minutes and no problems at all. By the way.. no ceramic coating on my car.

[Steve Oliver]

On 11/16/2020 at 1:47 AM, kerrso05 said:

Lashed here today and yesterday and I took my Lexus ES out today and no annoying sensor warning and lights flashing....so far so good. So the silcon must be working. Steve, did you get any kind of Cermic coating done on your car?....I'm just trying to track what might be causing this problem because I got a Cermic Coating put on my car immediately before I took purchase of it and I'm thinking this may be causing the problem

It's making me think... I recently (and I mean at the last wash a week ago) applied a few sprays of Autoglym Ceramic Coating to the car.... first time I've used it... Surely it can't have been that!?  I'm currently in South West Wales experiencing some dreadful weather and each time I go out, I now have front left, left centre and right centre sensors going nuts... detecting things that aren't there and generally causing a complete nuisance of themselves. I've had to turn off the auto-braking lest it should try braking me with a false positive - I've had "BRAKE" appear a few times already 😩 Unfortunately I don't have a silicon spray with me but when I get home (also Wales before anyone says anything!) I'll be drying the sensors and giving it a try. 

I have to say that I can totally see that if water gets round those little rubber ring seals, it probably would cause a problem and I imagine silicon or Vaseline might stop that, as long as you're not locking any water inside.

[kerrso05]

Steve, I don’t know if Auto Glym Ceramic Coating would be causing your sensor problem but I got my ceramic coating applied professionally by my Lexus dealer. But why I am looking at it as a culprit is because ceramic coatings are a new process in waxing a car and if you think of it it has Harding process in its chemical DNA and although it does bead the rain and water it may be hardening the rubber around the sensors which may not helping the sensors. Look I’m not saying this is the cause of all our problems but it may be the cause. What you would advise to do is try and blow the excess water away from the sensors.... make them as dry as possible and then spray the silicone or a light covering of Vaseline. 
It also may be a simple problem of faulty sensors but lets us know how you get on and best of luck.

[Steve Oliver]

Will certainly keep you updated on how things go. 👍

[Frank the Hornet]

Hi Steve, I can say that my RX went to the Lexus for service and a great Power wash followed by heavy rain and left without driving for 2 weeks then the annoying  front parking sensor bleeping. started .( I did have the coating done when purchased the car in October 2017 so pretty sure not related to this  )   

I believe, no definitive evidence that it was the power wash & heavy rain- water getting into the front sensors.

Tried WD40 but the bleeping came back shortly afterwards, then the Vaseline last 4 weeks or so no issues & I actually enjoy driving again.

One member did say to use a Hair Dryer to ensure dryness, have not needed to try that yet.

[Steve Oliver]

I hear what you say! I just can't help feeling that heavy water pressure is involved in some way, it's really the only explanation. Bearing in mind, I went from having no issues to having 3 sensors all misbehaving simultaneously... Just doesn't make sense...

[kerrso05]

Yes I agree with you, Heavy Rain is something to do with it but remember I have had two other Lexus IS cars and nothing like this has ever appeared on them whereas this new Lexus ES is having this problem and also the new UX series.....so whether or not it is the design of the sensors or the ceramic coating harding up the rubbers around the sensors is the problem, I haven't a clue but it also appears that Lexus themselves don't know what is causing it. As I said before, I phoned my Lexus Dealer who I bought the car off said that they knew about the problem but mostly how they sorted it out was bringing the cars in and blowing the water out around the sensors and the rubber seals. Now I don't know if they where just saying that to get rid of me and my problem but it seemed a rather easy way to fix and what I do now is when I am washing the car I always blow dry it after I have washed it down (yes I know it is possibly over the top but I like to look after my cars and detailing is just a bit of a hobby of mine that I like to do).

So what I would suggest to you is try not to use that ceramic spray around the sensors and when you get a chance (when it stops raining which it never does in Northern Ireland where i live) try and blow dry the sensors and then coat them lightly with silicon or vasaline and see if that works and let us know in a months time or not. If that doesn't work then I would say it is faulty sensors and back to the dealer to get fixed.....that's my best advise.

[Steve Oliver]

Great to discuss these things. Will do and I'll be back in touch 👍

[Bernard Casey]

I took delivery of an ES300h (20 plate) three weeks ago. Every time it rains I get the two nearside sensors flashing in the display window. I spoke to the dealership but they suggested I dry the sensors and see if that works, obviously it is a "regular" problem they have to deal with. It seems to be an obvious fault that Lexus cannot or will not resolve by a recall of all cars. Is there any way of formally contacting Lexus for an honest answer and some indication of when they will rectify the fault?

 

I have just spoken to Lexus Liverpool and been told that they know about the fault and there is a software update that will solve the problem. Am I being naive in thinking I have found the holy grail? I will get my car booked in and keep you all updated.

[e-yes]

37 minutes ago, Bernard Casey said:

I took delivery of an ES300h (20 plate) three weeks ago. Every time it rains I get the two nearside sensors flashing in the display window. I spoke to the dealership but they suggested I dry the sensors and see if that works, obviously it is a "regular" problem they have to deal with. It seems to be an obvious fault that Lexus cannot or will not resolve by a recall of all cars. Is there any way of formally contacting Lexus for an honest answer and some indication of when they will rectify the fault?

 

I have just spoken to Lexus Liverpool and been told that they know about the fault and there is a software update that will solve the problem. Am I being naive in thinking I have found the holy grail? I will get my car booked in and keep you all updated.

hi Bernard,

Did you also get the paint protection applied to your ES ?

--E

[kerrso05]

Maybe I am wrong but I don’t think it is a software issue. As for your Lexus Dealer saying they know about the issue well they have known about the issue since the UX came out or maybe before and they all seem to say the same answer which is make sure the sensors are dry....which is simply ridiculous and in my opinion a “fob off” to get rid of you. My dealer was slightly better in that they told me they would take the car in and force air through the sensors. I did that myself and then coated the sensors with a very light coating of Vaseline and that was done just before the lockdown and so far I haven’t had any problem with the sensors. Personally I blame the Ceramic coating I had installed by the dealer before I took possession of the car as I think the ceramic coating may have hardened the rubber seal around the sensor