Parking sensor replacement after ding

[thrope]

I have had a 2013 gen 3 Prius T-Spirit for about two months. Great so far.

Unfortunately I had a little touch of a wall backing up. No visible damage to the bumper, but since the the reversing / parking sensors don't work properly. The thing beeps at quite a high speed even when in completely free space, then goes to constant tone as soon as anything is remotely near. 

I touched the wall straight on so I guess it might be one or both of the middle sensors. Are these easy to change?

Any idea how much this would be?

I am in Arnold Clark country and have to drive 50 miles to get to a genuine Toyota dealer (after the experience buying the car from AC I don't particularly want to go back there). Are there any independents in the Glasgow area that could do something like this?

I searched online for the part but I think I can only find third party / aftermarket kits and not the OEM single sensor.

 

 

[Heidfirst]

Hi John, welcome to TOC 🙂

The sensors themselves should be easy enough to change but if they are Toyota oem they aren't going to be cheap - you will probably pay more for 1 than you would for a whole kit from a good 3rd party supplier. You could try Parts-King on here for a quote (he is the Parts dept for a Toyota dealer in Wales & usually gives members a small discount).

I would have thought that any competent auto-electrician should be able to do this if you don't feel up to it.

Which AC did you buy from? I have been quite happily using AC (mainly Bishopbriggs but also Linwood) for servicing for years. The excellent service supervisor from Bishopbriggs recently moved to the AC Mount Vernon dealership but I haven't tried them yet.

 

[TheProfessor]

Arnold Clark are so unbelievably bad here in Dundee.

I can highly recommend Struans in Dundee as an official Toyota Dealership. Been with then on and off for years and never once have they been anything other than brilliant.

[Heidfirst]

1 minute ago, TheProfessor said:

Arnold Clark are so unbelievably bad here in Dundee.

but Arnold Clark don't have a Toyota dealership in Dundee ...  🙄 You might as well say that the Ford dealer is no good at servicing a Honda. 😛

[TheProfessor]

39 minutes ago, Heidfirst said:

but Arnold Clark don't have a Toyota dealership in Dundee ...  🙄 You might as well say that the Ford dealer is no good at servicing a Honda. 😛

I never said I'd taken my Prius. There is no way in hell I would. 

But I have taken my and my wife's previous cars (both Kias) there, given we bought the cars from them and they threw in free servicing for a few years. They are the official dealership for Kia in Dundee. I was also forced to use them once with a previous Toyota, as my insurance company wanted to use them for repairs after someone crashed into my parked car.

And really it doesn't matter. The kind of ineptitude they demonstrated would apply to any car under any circumstances.... I've had to deal with them maybe 30 times over the past 10 years, and in each and every time they demonstrated an insane amount of incompetence... things like leaving the oil filler cap off, cross threading an oil filter (so it leaked all the oil out onto my drive when I got home), claiming they test drove my car for 20 minutes (the problem only occurred on longer journeys) but the Dashcam shows them driving it for about 1 minute around the block. Failing to refit the side indicator or remove masking tape after a crash repair (for some reason it took them a further 2 weeks to do this). Forgetting to put the spare tyre back in the car. Misfueling my Dad's car (they put petrol in a diesel). Fitting a replacement rear side window to the car, and somehow not noticing that it wasn't tinted like the other side was (as standard on that trim level). Not reconnecting the positive cable to the Battery (it was just hanging loose resting on top of the terminal). Fitting directional tyres backwards. I could just go on and on and on and on. 😄

[thrope]

Didn't mean to start an AC bashing thread! My experience was mostly based on sales. Almost every word spoken about the car was a lie, they won't sell a Toyota extended warranty  but push very hard for their own warranty (which they finally admitted doesn't cover the hybrid drive train) and service plan which seems be very poorly reviewed online. 

The "mats" which they more or less oblige you to take for £25 were terrible, too small and no clips which I understand could be an MOT failure. 

Anyway personally I would rather avoid them, although I suppose swapping out a parking sensor shouldn't have too much scope for complications. 

Mainly just wanted to get an idea of the price / options and whether there are any Toyota independents? There seem to be loads for German makes but haven't been able to find a garage listing themselves as an independent Toyota specialist in the Glasgow area. (Maybe it doesn't matter for this as not involving hybrid system or anything). 

 

 

 

[Heidfirst]

8 hours ago, TheProfessor said:

I never said I'd taken my Prius. There is no way in hell I would. 

But I have taken my and my wife's previous cars (both Kias) there, given we bought the cars from them and they threw in free servicing for a few years. They are the official dealership for Kia in Dundee. I was also forced to use them once with a previous Toyota, as my insurance company wanted to use them for repairs after someone crashed into my parked car.

And really it doesn't matter. The kind of ineptitude they demonstrated would apply to any car under any circumstances.... I've had to deal with them maybe 30 times over the past 10 years, and in each and every time they demonstrated an insane amount of incompetence... things like leaving the oil filler cap off, cross threading an oil filter (so it leaked all the oil out onto my drive when I got home), claiming they test drove my car for 20 minutes (the problem only occurred on longer journeys) but the Dashcam shows them driving it for about 1 minute around the block. Failing to refit the side indicator or remove masking tape after a crash repair (for some reason it took them a further 2 weeks to do this). Forgetting to put the spare tyre back in the car. Misfueling my Dad's car (they put petrol in a diesel). Fitting a replacement rear side window to the car, and somehow not noticing that it wasn't tinted like the other side was (as standard on that trim level). Not reconnecting the positive cable to the battery (it was just hanging loose resting on top of the terminal). Fitting directional tyres backwards. I could just go on and on and on and on. 😄

You can't tar all garages (not even the ones in the same chain) because of 1 bad one. Especially so when your answer isn't relevant to the op's question - he is looking for somewhere around Glasgow not Tayside.

[Heidfirst]

7 hours ago, thrope said:

Didn't mean to start an AC bashing thread! My experience was mostly based on sales. Almost every word spoken about the car was a lie, they won't sell a Toyota extended warranty  but push very hard for their own warranty (which they finally admitted doesn't cover the hybrid drive train) and service plan which seems be very poorly reviewed online. 

The "mats" which they more or less oblige you to take for £25 were terrible, too small and no clips which I understand could be an MOT failure. 

I bought an official Toyota Extended Warranty from AC Toyota Bishopbriggs for my last Avensis & I didn't buy their mats for the new one (just swapped them from the old car). Their service plan (at least the one that I have) is a lot cheaper than the official Toyota one & I am assured complies fully with Toyota warranty requirements.

I believe that there used to be an independent in the Hamilton/Motherwell/Wishaw area that was good for Japanes cars but I can't remember the name - sorry.

[alan333]

11 hours ago, Heidfirst said:

AC Toyota Bishopbriggs... ...Their service plan (at least the one that I have) is a lot cheaper than the official Toyota one & I am assured complies fully with Toyota warranty requirements.

And it's a Toyota stamp in the book (or the printout or whatever) if you choose a Toyota AC dealer to do the work.  We've had the AC service plans on our last few cars - consider 3 services and an MOT for £419 on a 2.0 petrol - if you were to say an MOT would be £40 at your local garage, then it works out £126 per service.  If you count the MOT at the maximum fee allowed by the government recommended charge of £54.85 then it works out at £121 per service.  Personally, I reckon AC make some of their money back by people selling their car before the plan is used therefore only using 2 of their 3 services etc.

[alan333]

22 hours ago, Heidfirst said:

I have been quite happily using AC (mainly Bishopbriggs but also Linwood) for servicing for years. The excellent service supervisor from Bishopbriggs recently moved to the AC Mount Vernon dealership but I haven't tried them yet.

Was that Wullie by any chance?  I phoned looking for him a couple of months ago to be told he's no longer there.

[thrope]

12 hours ago, Heidfirst said:

I bought an official Toyota Extended Warranty from AC Toyota Bishopbriggs

That's the dealer I was at - but there was no chance. They would only sell Arnold Clark Autocare, no chance for an official Toyota. This was this summer. I guess the service plan satisfies the warrenty requirements if its an Toyota branch, but I understood it was kind of a scam as it didn't include any parts and was more a way to get you in to gouge on other things (charing for air filters, oil etc. that would normally be included in the price of a service). Anyway I didn't try them out because I wanted the Toyota warranty for a hybrid and was so unimpressed with sales trying to gouge / rip off for everything they could that I'd rather take my business elsewhere if possible. 

[Heidfirst]

7 hours ago, thrope said:

That's the dealer I was at - but there was no chance. They would only sell Arnold Clark Autocare, no chance for an official Toyota. This was this summer. I guess the service plan satisfies the warrenty requirements if its an Toyota branch, but I understood it was kind of a scam as it didn't include any parts and was more a way to get you in to gouge on other things (charing for air filters, oil etc. that would normally be included in the price of a service)

Ask the service desk rather than sales. 😉

My AC service  plan includes normal consumables (oil, filters) as per Toyota schedule.

[Heidfirst]

9 hours ago, alan333 said:

Was that Wullie by any chance?  I phoned looking for him a couple of months ago to be told he's no longer there.

Yup, the very same.

[Heidfirst]

9 hours ago, alan333 said:

And it's a Toyota stamp in the book (or the printout or whatever) if you choose a Toyota AC dealer to do the work.  We've had the AC service plans on our last few cars - consider 3 services and an MOT for £419 on a 2.0 petrol - if you were to say an MOT would be £40 at your local garage, then it works out £126 per service.  If you count the MOT at the maximum fee allowed by the government recommended charge of £54.85 then it works out at £121 per service.  Personally, I reckon AC make some of their money back by people selling their car before the plan is used therefore only using 2 of their 3 services etc.

I had 1 service & an MOT left on my last car's plan but they rolled it over onto the new one at no extra cost 🙂

 What they are doing is locking you into their servicing as you can't take it to a non-AC Toyota dealer for servicing under it whereas under the official Toyota one you could.