Parking/Rear sensor kits and fitting

Carolinemjs

Does any one have any useful information regarding available kits and the on site fitting service offered by some companies please?
I've done a bit of research but would appreciate any first hand experience, thanks.

knightstyle

I bought and fitted a cheap, about £10, kit from Ebay a couple of years ago. Very easy to do, hole drill came with it and just connect wires to reversing light. They came colour coded and were a good match for our red Juke.

takethatfan1978

I have just had some fitted to my scenic on Thursday. I used https://www.parkingsensors.co.uk. Bought the sensors from them and had my mechanic for however they do a fitting service

This is the second set I have had from them and have not had any problems. You can get colour coded ones too

iammumtoone

my advise check carefully what you are getting.

I have just had front and back fitted via the garage I purchased the car from (there were not cheap, but its not something I could do myself). Having never had these before I assumed they all worked the same. Mine have a switch, they are either on or off. Leave then on and they bleep all the time ie when I am in a queue of traffic, or just driving down a narrow street. This leaves me with having to turn them on and off all the time (a right pain). My fault for not asking enough questions but I assumed all parking sensors were just that, they come on when parking, not on all the time

F1F93

Just fit them yourself. Very easy to do. I have done plenty of cars myself. You only need very basic tools.

TadleyBaggie

Before drilling, make sure you know what is behind the plastic. On my Megane convertible much of the rear plastic bumper had a solid steel bumper behind it.

Carolinemjs

iammumtoone wrote: »

my advise check carefully what you are getting.

I have just had front and back fitted via the garage I purchased the car from (there were not cheap, but its not something I could do myself). Having never had these before I assumed they all worked the same. Mine have a switch, they are either on or off. Leave then on and they bleep all the time ie when I am in a queue of traffic, or just driving down a narrow street. This leaves me with having to turn them on and off all the time (a right pain). My fault for not asking enough questions but I assumed all parking sensors were just that, they come on when parking, not on all the time

And I would have assumed the same - thank you for pointing this out
Thanks to everyone for their contributions, I don't think I'll be doing it myself though! I had rear sensors on a campervan years ago and as I recall they worked when reverse gear was engaged - doesn't sound as though what we're talking about here work like this?

takman

iammumtoone wrote: »

my advise check carefully what you are getting.

I have just had front and back fitted via the garage I purchased the car from (there were not cheap, but its not something I could do myself). Having never had these before I assumed they all worked the same. Mine have a switch, they are either on or off. Leave then on and they bleep all the time ie when I am in a queue of traffic, or just driving down a narrow street. This leaves me with having to turn them on and off all the time (a right pain). My fault for not asking enough questions but I assumed all parking sensors were just that, they come on when parking, not on all the time

A simple relay which costs a few quid would mean they can be wired up to turn on and off when you are reversing. Then maybe a timer that keeps the front ones on for 30 seconds after reversing. So its the way the garage wired them up and not the type of sensors that you have.

But personally I would prefer to have a switch to turn them on and off as required.

iammumtoone

takman wrote: »

A simple relay which costs a few quid would mean they can be wired up to turn on and off when you are reversing. Then maybe a timer that keeps the front ones on for 30 seconds after reversing. So its the way the garage wired them up and not the type of sensors that you have.

thanks, so i could have them adjusted if I wanted?

takman wrote: »

But personally I would prefer to have a switch to turn them on and off as required.

Can I ask why you consider this better?

knightstyle

As I said you connect them up to the reversing light!
Then they are only on when you are reversing. They do not need a switch or relay.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Steelmate make very good kits, about as good as manufacturer fitted as you will find and in many cases better, very accurate can have visual readout as well as sound so you can see which sensor has 'seen' an object, not the cheapest obviously, but they sell spares so if you break a sensor or one packs up its an easy and cheap fix.

I had a good mobile sparky i've used for years fit them, he spent a long time siting them, time well spent there is more to siting and wiring these than drilling 4 holes and sellotaping a few wires in to a switch.
I had front and rear kit on a large pick up, no false alarms, unless you follow other vehicles @ less than a yard gap you shouldn't hear/see warnings.

The sparky will wire them depending on what sort of vehicle you drive, mine was a TC auto which have 'creep', so as the front sensors would only be needed at parking speeds he wired the fronts up through the brake light circuit, so they only worked when you touched the brake pedal enough to light the brake lights..this would be no good for drivers of manual or semi/satan autos with no creep.

The vehicle could be driven or reversed right up to touching distance once you were used to the system, i once 'watched' a small child walk across the front of the car well below bonnet height by watching the various sensor tell tales light up and extinguish as he passed, i would have the same make again.