[Poll] "Clean Parking Assist Sensor" and Intelligent Clearance Sonar Issue??

Ah.

 

During a week of rain here my front sensor was not working and I was getting the errors. Tapping on the sensor with my fingertips, pretty hard, fixed it every time. Wiping it did not.

I suspect there is moisture somewhere inside it and tapping it causes the water to drip down.

This Winter will be the first for many Prime owners that got a cheap 2017 this year. Interesting to see how these sensors cope with the inevitable ice!

 

Oops. Sorry for the misplaced post. The two in the middle of the vehicle are not visible on the vertical surface. Put your hand just underneath the bottom edge of the car in the area below the front door on each side and you can feel the indentation of each one. It would be too difficult to take a pic. I hope this helps.

 

Hi Everyone. New member. I have this issue on my 2018 Prime and have been working with the regional Toyota tech. So far the car has been in 3 times for attempted repairs. The first time was the dealer mechanics, the second was directed by the regional tech and they replaced the front 2 sensors. The last was spent all day while the regional Toyota tech tried to replicate the problem with a garden hose. They have asked me to make videos detailing the issue. So far I've made 9 with maybe the most interesting one being this one where I show the corner sensors still working while the front sensors are failed. Might want to listen with the volume off since between disappointment in a new car having such a nagging problem and no caffeine I cant seem to differentiate between corner and side sensor. This was also before I discovered the alarm goes into "clean the sensors" mode once you reach 2-3 MPH. We've had a rainy week and the car has turned into an alert factory.

I cant post hotlinks yet so I'll try to post the straight url below.

 

This issue happened to me today. It was raining a lot today and I did drive through some heavy stuff. And then the sensor alert thing happened and it kept saying to clean them. So I did, several times, to no avail. It's supposed to rain hard here for at least another day or two so I'm just going to put up with the annoyance of it (it actually does come and go) until it can dry out for a few days. I haven't had a car with issues since 1993 and never with any of my Prii. I'm so hoping this is going to "fix" itself.

 

I just watched your video - this is EXACTLY what mine is doing.

 

My 2017 Prime Advanced is demonstrating the same problems. The Clean Parking Sensor Warning goes off, the the "ICS Unavailable" warning comes on. Beeps constantly when driving, sometimes - extremely distracting! All this started when the heavy rains came last week. I have cleaned the sensors many times, they're almost immaculate.

Exterior sensors should work in the rain, no?

 

It seems to be pretty random for me. I have had it go off during very light or misting type rain and yet not go off in heavy downpours. I just ignore the beeping and wait for it to disappear on its own. I wiped all the sensors when I first got the car, but too tired to keep doing it. Lol

 

I had the same issue on two different occasions when I first got the car. I have not had that message in a while now.

 

Try tapping on the sensor with your fingertips, firmly. I had luck with this. The water inside "drips" down from the agitation.

Thank you to everyone who has gone to the dealer for this and persisted on a fix. It will help get a recall or TSB created for all users with this issue.

 

With all the rains in California, the ICS beep warnings and also he "Clean Parking Sensor" alerts are driving me crazy. I have cleaned the sensors but the alerts still occur randomly.

 

There are a total of 12 sensors on the vehicle:
Two black ones in the grill on the front.
A sensor on each front corner of the vehicle (two total)
A sensor just in front of the front wheel wells on each side (two total)
A sensor just behind the back wheel wells on each side (two total)
A sensor on each rear corner of the vehicle (two total)
Two sensors in the rear bumper.

All of the sensors are between 19 - 22 inches from the ground on the sides and front of the vehicle.

 

There are a total of 12 sensors on the vehicle:
Two black ones in the grill on the front.
A sensor on each front corner of the vehicle (two total)
A sensor just in front of the front wheel wells on each side (two total)
A sensor just behind the back wheel wells on each side (two total)
A sensor on each rear corner of the vehicle (two total)
Two sensors in the rear bumper.

All of the sensors are between 19 - 22 inches from the ground on the sides and front of the vehicle.

 

I got the "Clean Parking Assist Sensor" today on my 2018 Prius Prime Advanced with only < 1500 miles.
I know mileage has nothing to do with this. The point is my car is practically still new. After reading this
thread, the problem appears to be the car driven through heavy rain. That's what happened to me. The error
went away after sitting in the sun for a day. Not sure what generation my car is. But it's a 2018. Toyot
NEVER fixed this sensor problem!

 

The sensors are mounted in the exterior of the car, so this is not surprising that they get dirty.

What fix were you expecting from Toyota?

 

My 2018 Lexus RX has similar sensors. It's from Toyota. I never had issues with the sensors
deployed on this Lexus. Have driven through all kinds of weather conditions. I guess because
I don't have these issues on my RX, it's assumed an issue on the Toyota. I don't know. Maybe
the Prius sensors aren't as good?

 

Also, I didn't even drive through muds or anything during a brief 10 minute heavy rain on Monday PM.
I didn't even clean the car. I actually scheduled an appt. today to bring the car in for Toyota to check
this Saturday. But as I said, it sat in the sun all day at the train station today. Error disappeared after work.
Guess some sensors got 'wet'? I don't know.

 

It's possible the RX sensors could be better quality and/or protected with different materials that don't get as dirty (no matter what gets piled on them). I've gotten the clean sensor message and it went away very similarly to the way you describe above. Mine happened during a very wet snow with a lot of slush being thrown around by traffic. So I wasn't surprised by the message even though it was the first time I'd seen it. The lack of the sensors ability to detect what it needs for proper functioning disables dynamic cruise and collision avoidance. Typically cleaning and drying the Toyota Emblem on the front bumper is all that's needed when that message shows up on a Prime.

 

Or the RX sensors aren't as sensitive therefore don't care as much if they are as dirty as the newer Prius' sensors.