Picking a front bumper; how important are parking sensors?

It's maddening trying to decide what bumper to go with. I find one that I love the style, but no spot for sensors. Another has spot for sensors, but doesn't accommodate factory fog lights. Then there is the winch issue; do I need one? Is the extra weight worth it or just get a removable winch cradle for the rear receiver?

My main concern with eliminating the front sensors is that it will compromise another system feature like adaptive cruise or lane departure.

When I installed the new RC rear bumper, it didn't have any way to mount the harness or modules for the sensors. No big deal. But, I lost my rear back-up camera, which I absolutely need for parking and hooking up trailers.

I don't need the front sensors as far as parking, but what other features am I going to lose if I get a bumper without accommodation for them? Will it throw a code?

 

As long as you don't turn on the button for the parking sonar, you won't see any codes if you delete the sensors (actually I don't know that you'll see codes if you do, but you WILL see an error on the instrument panel). Or remove the parking sonar button and then you don't even need to worry about accidentally turning it on. If you already deleted the rear parking sonar sensors, then I'm surprised you don't already have errors in the instrument panel if you did turn the system on at all. Either way - the parking sonar system in the Gen 2.5 operates through a standalone ECU and displays the info in the instrument cluster. If the button is turned off, then there is no power to the ECU or the sensors and the cluster doesn't know any different. If the sensors are unplugged or damaged and the switch gets turned on, then it will pop up errors.

Additionally, you won't lose any other functions by removing/permanently disabling the parking sonar because it is a stand-alone system that doesn't integrate with or control anything else.

Now, about the rear bumper - the only way you could have lost your rear back-up camera by replacing your rear bumper is if you didn't correctly reconnect the cable running from the tailgate to the wiring harness for the camera. There is a single plug that is ONLY for the camera back there (the other plugs are for the bumper-mounted items like trailer harness, license plate lights, parking sonar, and BSM radar). If you have the tailgate power lock, then there is an additional connector back there that runs up into the tailgate to operate that as well.

Finally, when looking at front bumpers, I wouldn't lose sleep over losing your factory fog lights. You could probably sell them easily enough on here, and a good set of aftermarket fogs by Diode Dynamics or Baja Design are going to have way better performance than the factory ones.

 

Wow! Awesome response! Thank you so much for the insight!

 

I'm going to piggyback off this question because it's somewhat relevant.

I was also kind of "scared off" when they say their bumper won't work with factory fogs. I have the Diode Dynamics SS3 Pros with the factory mounting kit. Is it safe to assume I can use the light pods in an aftermarket bumper by simply removing the bracket DD uses to attach the lights to the factory bezels?

 

While I’m not intimately familiar with the DD factory bezel mounts, the basic answer is “Yes.”
Most of the aftermarket bumpers are built to more universally use the mounting brackets that most aftermarket LED pods are sold with. Depending on the bumper and the light, you may have to fashion a bracket of some kind, but in the case of the more “brand name” light manufacturers (BD, DD, Rigid) they should all be pretty well compatible.

 

Correct you can integrate ss3’s by using the bracket and not the bezels. I modded the bracket to fit my custom bumper

 

@RainMan_PNW and @reywcms Thank you! That's what I thought. When the time comes I'll simply get the standard brackets from DD.