After market audio parking sensors

k6chris

Does anyone have any recommendations (or otherwise) for after-market parking sensors? I have an older, large, Volvo and knowing where the edges were would be very useful!! Are they easy to self fit?


Thanks

System

Why would you need parking sensors on a MX5 or a Yaris? Neither have a bonnet or boot so large with poor visibility to the rear. Hell with the MX5 you can put the hood down and almost touch the back edge of the boot lid from the driver's seat.

Korkyb

I bought 2 sets of "Dolphin DPS400" for my kids cars.


A bit more expensive than some but it was Auto Express award winner (some time ago).


Both sets installed & working well!

knightstyle

I have bought and fitted several cheap sets bought on Ebay. All worked fine, came with a cutter and good instructions.
Hardest part was getting the bumpers off some of the cars to fit and run the wires.

Joe_Horner

knightstyle wrote: »

I have bought and fitted several cheap sets bought on Ebay. All worked fine, came with a cutter and good instructions.
Hardest part was getting the bumpers off some of the cars to fit and run the wires.

This. Have fitted them to our last 2 cars and my MIL's. Price ranged from about £11 down to £6.99 for the last set delivered and all are still going strong between 1 and 3 years later.

The only slight criticism is that the cutter they supply wasn't really up to going through the 10mm thick GRP bumper on mine so ended up buying a normal drill bit as well. No problem with the ABS ones on the others though.

Also, get a pack of grommets in case you can't find an existing one to feed the wires into the car and need to drill a hole for them.

First set took me about an hour to fit, subsequent ones 30 mins or so each. Total cost less than £15 per car.

Richard53

Joe_Horner wrote: »

First set took me about an hour to fit, subsequent ones 30 mins or so each. Total cost less than £15 per car.

I'd like to fit some of these to my Golf. Are these the ones that take power from the reversing light supply? I fitted some to a car a long time ago, cost about £10 all in, but it was a car with old-style electrics. As you say, pretty easy to do. Drill, fit, splice into reversing light supply, done.


With the Golf (2006) I tried to fit an LED bulb to the reversing light and all I got was a bulb failure error on the dash. I'm assuming this is because of the electronics, and that reversing beepers will do the same. Any ideas?

Joe_Horner

Richard53 wrote: »

I'd like to fit some of these to my Golf. Are these the ones that take power from the reversing light supply? I fitted some to a car a long time ago, cost about £10 all in, but it was a car with old-style electrics. As you say, pretty easy to do. Drill, fit, splice into reversing light supply, done.


With the Golf (2006) I tried to fit an LED bulb to the reversing light and all I got was a bulb failure error on the dash. I'm assuming this is because of the electronics, and that reversing beepers will do the same. Any ideas?

Yep, that's the type & should be no trouble.

The bulb failure is triggered because LED bulbs take a lot less current than a normal one (which is kinda the point of them!) so the system sees them as a blown filament.

Richard53

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Yep, that's the type & should be no trouble.

The bulb failure is triggered because LED bulbs take a lot less current than a normal one (which is kinda the point of them!) so the system sees them as a blown filament.

... but if the system sees a normal bulb plus a string of sensors, won't it equally think there is something wrong? Or is it only low current draw that causes it to complain?

Joe_Horner

Richard53 wrote: »

... but if the system sees a normal bulb plus a string of sensors, won't it equally think there is something wrong? Or is it only low current draw that causes it to complain?

It's only the low current tat matters.

A normal 21w reversing bulb draws nearly 2 amps, an LED one is less than an amp, which is a lot less. The sensors, even when beeping, are a few tenths of an amp extra which the car electrics don't care about.

Richard53

Joe_Horner wrote: »

It's only the low current tat matters.

A normal 21w reversing bulb draws nearly 2 amps, an LED one is less than an amp, which is a lot less. The sensors, even when beeping, are a few tenths of an amp extra which the car electrics don't care about.

Good news, many thanks Joe.