Park Assist Module
The controller for the ultrasonic parking sensors, and on many vehicles for the camera views and automated parking that build on them.
Each sensor is a small speaker and microphone in one. It emits a chirp above the range of hearing and times what comes back, and distance is the flight time. The module drives each sensor in turn, collects the times, and decides what is genuinely there.
That mechanism explains almost every fault these systems have, and almost none of them are electrical. The sensor face has to vibrate, so anything that stiffens or covers it stops it working: an extra coat of paint after a bumper respray is the classic, along with ice, packed snow and thick mud. Anything inside the cone — a towbar, a bike rack, a thick number plate surround — is reported as a permanent obstruction, correctly.
Ultrasound also has honest limits worth knowing rather than treating as faults. It reflects poorly off soft or angled surfaces, so a hedge, a kerb or a sloped bollard can genuinely be missed, and heavy rain on the bumper produces false readings.
The free diagnostic is the noise. A system that beeps continuously the moment reverse is selected has one sensor reporting a permanent obstacle, and which corner it sounds for usually identifies which.
Also known as: parking sensor module, PDC module, park distance control module, parking aid module, parking assist control module
Referenced by 3 codes
Codes involving this component (3)
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