According to my husband, the little round thing, I as called it, is actually the speaker, mounted next to my rear view window above the left rear passenger seat. (Sorry I am not very technical). The dealer showed it to me when I picked up the car. The speaker itself has a setting for low or high volume. I assume it can be mounted anywhere but this is where my dealer chose to install it.

 

The last time out I paid extra special attention to listen to the beeps on this system with a car parked behind me. The beeps were definitely coming from the dash area, maybe even up from the dash speaker?? My wife started to get annoyed with me sitting in reverse and not doing anything, so I had to leave it at that. It has been interesting to learn the different ways these things might be setup. I'll try to revisit this topic after a few months maybe with some real world experiences how useful this system really is.

 

Droid, I think we have two different systems. Mine is called "Echomaster" and the beeping is from the little speaker - I'm surprised it doesn't give my daughter a headache! The dealer installed it at my request. I only have two sensors on either side of the license plate. I've seen cars with four; once I saw a van with eight...I think someone must have gotten upset with reversing accidents by their significant other and stuck these at every different angle possible on the bumper!

This link below gives a description

http://www.pepboys.com/parts_supplie...chomaster.html

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Droid13

I think the system just uses the car's built in beeper. It sounds just like the car's other beeps in tone, loudness, and direction. I have no idea where the unit was installed, the only visible evidence of it's existance is the sensors on the bumper. It is offered as an available option right on the Toyota.ca web site and on the Camry brochure (Canadian version) so I assumed that while it may not be a true Toyota part, it has at least been designed to integrate well with the Camry systems and that appears to be the case. The sensors are black, but I've heard they can be painted to match body colour with minimal or no reduction in functionality (I read in the siennaclub.org forum about someone doing that). The surface of the sensor is just flat plastic, no holes or anything like that.

Did anyone who has the Toyota "Park Pilot" option (the 4 sonar backup sensors in the rear bumper) get any operating instructions? There is nothing I can find in the owner's manual. On the dash is a pushbutton marked "Park Assist" which the salesman told me turned it off, I've no idea why I would want to turn it off! Further there seems to be no indication whether it is on or off. If I accidentally touch the button with my knee I assume I won't know it's off until I hit the wall when I back into my parking spot? If this is the case it doesn't seem to be anything I can rely on.

I have Park Pilot on the new car I picked up last Friday and need some instructions and now the dealer has my money he's pretty well disowned me!

 

It should have come with a tiny manual about 4 pages long. You can tell it's working because you should hear 2 beeps when the car is put into reverse (sounds the same as the single beep when the car goes into "Ready" mode). The manual basically just explains various situations where the system might give unusual readings (might not pickup an angled wall or round pole, curbs might get detected initially but will fall below the sensor area as you get closer, etc.).

 

Paulgw — There is a small leaflet that comes with the Park Pilot installation kit, and which the dealer is supposed to give to the owner after installation. If your dealer has thrown it away, I can scan my copy and post it. Let me know.

Stan

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPL

Paulgw — There is a small leaflet that comes with the Park Pilot installation kit, and which the dealer is supposed to give to the owner after installation. If your dealer has thrown it away, I can scan my copy and post it. Let me know.

Thx for the offer Stan, I may have to take you up on that but will bug the dealer first when I go in about another problem either Friday or Monday. In the meantime can you fill me in on what the button on the dash is for?

Paul

 

Paulgw — I did bring in the 2-page "Manual" for the Park Pilot this morning anyway, so I'm attaching a zipped scanned copy. You'll see that the dash button silences the beeping by temporarily disabling the Park Pilot until the next time that you go into reverse. By the way, I find that it frequently mis-triggers, and each time the continuous beep starts, it seems to go on for ages (at least 5 seconds) before it shuts off. This can be very annoying, especially when there's nothing behind the car, or even off to the sides. Droid13 have you found this mis-triggering with your Park Pilot?

On a related issue, the ultrasonic transducers aren't available in my car colour (Aloe Green Metallic), and so black transducers ("for all other colours") were fitted. They really do stand out on the green bumper though. I wonder whether painting them would affect their operation? Any information on this?

Paulgw — Slightly off topic, but since you have just received a Kentucky-made TCH, I'd be interested to know whether you have been able to successfully re-program the automatic door locking/unlocking options as given in my Manual on pages 42-44. [Your Manual may be different. Mine is listed on the back cover as AU-1, OM 33678U. Let me know what version yours is.] These options let you change things like the default door locking, which occurs as soon as you move the gear lever out of Park, so as to occur only when the vehicle gets above 20 km/h. I have been unable to get any of these changes to work. Are you able to make these changes? If so, I wonder whether the instructions in your version of the Manual might be clearer (or indeed, correct!). I'd appreciate it if you (or any other people!) could let me know whether they've succeeded in making these changes, and if so how. I think you may have to cancel the one option before activating a different option, but I've also tried this without success. Step-by-step instructions please — I may be doing something non-obvious but incorrect in my attempts. Thanks!

Stan

 

I haven't noticed any unusual triggering. I always get a warning backing out of the garage until the rear clears the door opening but other than that it has been fine. I have heard of people painting the sensors to match body colour when colour matched sensors were not available. Apparently there is little difference in effectiveness. I have black ones too but they blend well enough with my car's colour that I don't care.

 

Many thanks Stan for the Park Assist instructions. You mentioned that the instructions describe the button on the dash, I can't find any reference to this button on the two sheets you sent me, am I still missing something?

We both seem to have great taste in car colour's, mine is also Aloe Green. Like you I was disappointed that it was one of the few colours for which Toyota did not offer colour matched sensors. So before I ordered the sensor option I looked into painting them, the salesman told me no can do. However my existing car had a single black sonar sensor which I'd never painted so before I traded it I gave it several coats of matching metallic touchup paint. Glad to say it still worked fine and I could not detect any decrease in sensitivity. I also found the following website with instructions:-
http://www.wjjeeps.com/park.htm

So, I plan to paint mine probably in the spring when the weather warms up, I'll try one first just to be on the safe side.

Regarding mis-triggering, I have not experienced any problems so far but then I have had the vehicle less than a week, I'll keep my fingers crossed!

RE OWNER'S MANUAL:- my manual is publication number OM33727U (printed in Japan) it however still has the door programming information on pages 42 -- 44. The answer to your question is NO! I tried this morning to change the locking feature to engage at 20 km/h but after 15 minutes gave up, the instructions just didn't seem to make sense to me.

My instructions are the same as in the online Camry iguide:- http://toyotaiguide.com/content/07Camry/iGuide.htm
Skip the intro and go to: keys and doors/Door Locks/Program Auto Door Locking; then click on the word PRINT at the lower edge of the fake wood. Let me know if you have any success, I am still confused regarding the difference between "ready" and "ON"!! If all else fails I will have the dealer to do it using their Intelligent Tester.