Aftermarket bumper and parking sensors

hitek79

New member
Does anyone have any experience with this? Does the fact that my van has factory installed parking sensors mean that I can't do a custom bumper? Has anyone tried re-installing the sensors into an aftermarket bumper? Thanks for any input.
 
Aluminess has the option to drill the holes for the sensors, so I assume you can switch them over. What bumpers are you considering?
 

renaud33

New member
Had my bumper drilled for the sensors and they don't work with their boxes. Not sure if there is an adjustment, was going to ask MB when I take it in for service.
 

JFloFoto

Active member
I have an aftermarket front bumper and my sensors function. I had to extend the furthest sensor wire from the harness clip which was a matter of simply splicing in additional length. The sensors are finicky and have to be positioned correctly to work.
 

Wrinkledpants

2017 144WB 4x4
Had my bumper drilled for the sensors and they don't work with their boxes. Not sure if there is an adjustment, was going to ask MB when I take it in for service.
There is no way to adjust if you have objects in front of the sensors, like a box from Aluminess. You can move the sensors around (like to reposition within an aftermarket bumper), but you can't selectively block off 3-D positions in space.
 
I"m ordering an Aluminess rear bumper and I need to decide weather I should have the rear sensor option or just disconnect and forget about them. I was told high probability of false beeps with box and spare tire on bumper. Your feedback is much appreciated!
 

autostaretx

Erratic Member
I could swear i've seen mention of a dealer calibration procedure after bumper/sensor repair, so there may be a way to make the Sprinter happy with the swapped bumper...

--dick
 

bobloblaw

Member
Sorry, this is kind of off topic, but does anyone know if you can add parking sensors to a van after it's been built if it already has active safety?
 

Boxster1971

2023 Sprinter 2500 144wb AWD
Does anyone have any experience with this? Does the fact that my van has factory installed parking sensors mean that I can't do a custom bumper? Has anyone tried re-installing the sensors into an aftermarket bumper? Thanks for any input.
My Sprinter has aftermarket bumpers installed by Airstream with parking sensors that work. The bumpers are similar plastic material like the OEM bumper covers.
 

Wrinkledpants

2017 144WB 4x4
I could swear i've seen mention of a dealer calibration procedure after bumper/sensor repair, so there may be a way to make the Sprinter happy with the swapped bumper...

--dick
You can install the sensors in whatever bumper you want. What you can't do is hang things in front of the sensors, and calibrate out those things. If you have an Aluminiess box that hangs out over the rear bumper, you're going to get false readings from the sensors. No amount of calibration will fix that.

The dealer can disable the parktronic feature, but they can't disable individual sensors or block out certain parts of the 3-D space from false readings.
 

Wrinkledpants

2017 144WB 4x4
Sorry, this is kind of off topic, but does anyone know if you can add parking sensors to a van after it's been built if it already has active safety?
In theory you could, but it would be massively expensive. I've never heard of someone retrofitting something that complicated, but if you have deep pockets and really want that feature, I'm sure someone would try it.
 

IPT

Active member
Reviving this thread. I know Aluminess has one bumper that works with the Parktronics and one that doesn't. Does anyone know if the Parktronics (2018 144" 2500) will allow installation of the Roambuilt nudge bar? If I knew the parktronics would have caused so may limitation for after market stuff I would have saved the couple of $$grand.
 

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