MichaelYYZ

My 2013 G37S M6 Sedan was the subject of a hit-and-run collision in a shopping plaza parking lot recently. The rear bumper's right corner ended up scratched and dented. I had it repaired by a reputable body shop in Toronto and the insurance company covered the entire cost of the damage. The paint job appears excellent.

The invoice also shows this:
Repl R Rear Otr Parking Sensor Unit
Recalibrate Park Sensors Sublet

The fact of the matter is that now the sonars seem to be overly sensitive, sometimes being triggered even when there's no object nearby. At times, I even feel that the wrong sonar is triggered (e.g. the left corner sensor, instead of the right corner sensor).

The question is what should I do:

1. Could I recalibrate the sensors myself? Is there a procedure available?
2. Should I contact the dealer? Would they recalibrate the sensors under warranty?
3. Should I complain to the body shop? Although I'm not sure they know what they're doing.

Thanks for your suggestions.

MichaelYYZ

No one would happen to have any suggestions?...

DBall

Isn't there an option for it in the settings menu?

MichaelYYZ

I am not aware of any settings. I'm going to upload some photos to show the symptoms. The sonar system appears to be working fine when there are objects in its close proximity but it's triggered randomly when there's nothing nearby.

MichaelYYZ

Another photo...

MichaelYYZ

The system is triggered when there's nothing behind.

MichaelYYZ

Another similar situation.

MichaelYYZ

And here is a last instance of this weird behaviour. What should I do?

Mik3G37S

iTrader: (8)

I'm pretty sure there is a setting to adjust sonars' sensitivity and since I have a 2013 6MT sedan too I'm pretty sure you have that setting as well.

chris_s

why not take it back to the shop that was supposed to have fixed it in the first place?

JSolo

iTrader: (14)

Search the forum for diagnostic menu. I can't remember the exact sequence, but involves rotating one of the ***** quite a few times while some other button is depressed.

I recall seeing settings in there pertaining to sonar adjustment.

13_SkylineSedan

I would say reduce the sensitivity, found in "Settings >> Sonar" on the main screen. Most of your photos look like you are backing out of, or backing into a steep driveway and when set to the highest sensitivity the sonar can see the ground as an obstacle.
Just an idea...

MichaelYYZ

Thanks very much. Only the second photo and possibly the third one were done with the car on a very mildly inclined slope. The other three were taken on horizontal ground.

I will check and change the sensitivity settings and report back. Is there a factory default setting for the sensitivity?

I also noticed on page SN-12 of the N03-SN section of the Service Manual that the sensitivity can be adjusted in four steps with a system (Consult) that only the dealer would have. I hope the body shop did not mess with this setting.

MichaelYYZ

Also, it appears that the position of the sensors is very critical - a +/-10 degrees tolerance. Could it be that the body shop reinstalled them incorrectly? It's a large, reputable and expensive body shop in Toronto, but that does not mean that they could not make mistakes.

Is there a way to check the position of the sensors without having to remove the bumper? Thanks.

MichaelYYZ

I looked at the settings menu. There are four levels of sensitivity for the sonars and, for both the centre and the side sonars, the setting was at the second lowest level (out of four). So, I changed the sensitivity to the lowest setting. Unfortunately, it still did not get rid of the spurious beeping that I mentioned about before.

What changing the sensitivity setting did was change the threshold of the various levels of alarm for a real obstacle. I noticed that, in the case of a real obstacle, the second lowest setting would coincide best with the vehicle guide lines (i.e. same colours for the same distance ranges for both the sonar and the lines). So that seems to be the ideal setting.

But the problem is the warnings when there is no nearby obstacle. It's like some spurious signals are triggering the system with no reason. Often it just beeps a few times and then it stops. But it is now very disturbing when I back up knowing that there's nothing behind and suddenly the warnings go off out of the blue. This was not happening before the rear bumper repair.

I can try to go back to the body shop but I'm not sure if they would be able to resolve the issue... Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.