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Guide to remove the front bumper and replace the parking sensor
My parking sensor went faulty and the local dealership here wanted $416 for it plus a diagnostic fee to find out which sensor is bad. If the parking sensor was around $200 then I would have bought it from the dealership. I decide to just live with it but the the yellow triangle is always on unless I turn off the parking sensors. One day with nothing to do I decided to find out if 1 or both of the sensor is bad by taking the bumper off and swapping the sensors around. Turns out that only one parking sensor is bad. I then search online for anything that's cheaper then $200 and I found some on eBay and AliExpress for between $25-$80 shipped. I ended up buying one on AliExpress for $39 shipped and it took just over a month to arrive from China.
Well done, both with the work and with the write-up.
About 6 months ago, someone carelessly backed into my ES, and one of the parking sensors (and lots of other things) needed to be replaced. After reading your post, curiosity caused me to go back and check the paperwork for the work that was done on my ES. The body shop billed the insurance company $258 for the parking sensor. (I'm not sure how much of a factor the exchange rate was in the difference between the $258 and the $416 that your dealer wanted for the part.) What jumps out at me, however, is that the cost of the parking assist system on a new ES was $500, which includes 8 sensors and the associated electronics. It boggles my mind to think that Lexus could be charging over 1/2 the cost of the entire parking assist system for just 1 of the 8 sensors in the system. The profit margin on vehicle replacement parts has to be outrageously high.
My parking sensor went faulty and the local dealership here in Vancouver wanted $416 for it plus a diagnostic fee to find out which sensor is bad. If the parking sensor was around $200 then I would have bought it from the dealership. I decide to just live with it but the the yellow triangle is always on unless I turn off the parking sensors. One day with nothing to do I decided to find out if 1 or both of the sensor is bad by taking the bumper off and swapping the sensors around. I couldn't find a guide online on how to take the front bumper off so I just went for it and figured it out as I go. Turns out that only one parking sensor is bad. I then search online for anything that's cheaper then $200 and I found some on eBay and AliExpress for between $25-$80 shipped. I ended up buying one on AliExpress for $39 shipped and it took just over a month to arrive from China. The colour was a bit off so I put the AliExpress sensor on the center part of the bumper since it won't stand out as much.
Wow thanks for this diy I needed to remove my bumper tomorrow to put my led signals in and I didn't know what the file was saying when it was saying the remove the sensor connection
My experience: I got the bumper off no problem and replaced the sensor with a $20 sensor someone said would work. I put the bumper back on and we drove off--in short it doesn't work. So I bought an OEM sensor for $240 and it is the right color and works 100%. So, I saved on all the $$$ from labor and dealer costs, but the sensor I paid "regular price". Buyer beware. Still cheaper than $900 some folks were quoted.
I actually did this sensor replacement on my 2015 ES 350 and did a video on it. It takes some patience to remove the bumper but is is *very* doable and a DIY project.
10-28-16, 03:48 AM
Guide to remove the front bumper and replace the parking sensor
