Parking sensor picking up towball

[MarkH]

I posted here a few months ago about one on my parking sensors triggering erroneously.
Just in case this traps another owner, it turned out to be as follows:

I had fitted a TorkLift EcoHitch towbar (well, really a bike carrier mount).

Initially I just had the hitch and then, some weeks later, I added a tow ball. There were no initial problems with any of the parking sensors.

Sometime later I fitted a plastic/chrome towball cover, for when I didn't have the bike carrier attached.

About that time, ONE sensor started triggering. I swapped two of the sensors and the problem stayed at the same position - so, the sensor was actually OK.

Long story short - after some weeks we discovered that, even though the towball is dead centre, one of the parking sensors would detect it - but only when the plastic towball cover was in place.

Given the sequence I have laid out, above, I can't believe how long it took for us to discover the cause.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Just wait until you have a bike carrier there! All the while you're in reverse, it will scream at you.

On BMW's designed for hitches, the towing interface recognizes if there's a trailer plugged in to the electricals, and switches off the rear sensors, enables trailer stability control, and changing the view of the rear-view camera. The i3 wasn't designed for that. That function might be buried in there somewhere, but activating it would require having a harness and plugging something into it. In Europe, in many places, using a bike carrier requires that you put on some auxiliary lights so they aren't blocked...that enables all of those functions.

 

[MarkH]

Just wait until you have a bike carrier there! All the while you're in reverse, it will scream at you.

I can handle that - at least it's expected.
I can turn the gong off, too, but it also turns off the camera.

I've found that you can turn the volume of the gong down (to a certain minimum level) by touching the volume button while the gong is sounding.
It may be possible to set the minimum volume lower through a BimmerCode setting?