Retrofit Rear Parking sensors

[Girardi]

Hi all.

 

Did this a little while back so I thought I'd throw a little guide together. Done on a mk1 Octavia but the concept is the same regardless of car.

 

Step 1

Buy a parking sensor kit. I got mine from the Bay of E and cost the sum total of £14.99 shipped from the UK in 24 hours. They came in silver and the match is near on perfect but there are plenty of others out there. You get four sensors, a control box, speaker and a hole cutter in the box:

 

Step 2

Using some masking tape, a tape measure and a steady hand, mark your bumper up to be cut. I found the centre point with a plumb line first (pays to be parked somewhere level) going down from the boot lock.

 

After finding the centre line, I used the measurements shamelessly stolen from chicken_eyebrow on this thread to mark everything up.

 

In essence for a mk1 Octavia, you're looking at 45mm down from the black rub strip for all sensors. 217.5mm from your plumbed centre line to each of the middle two sensors, and then from each of those middle two measure a further 445mm out to the outside ones. Measure this a number of times and if you aren't happy, start again. You are about to permanently drill your bumper - measure three times, cut once.

 

You should end up with this:

 

Step 3

Break out toothed bit from the sensor box. Be careful, if it's anything like mine was it's razor sharp! Take a deep breath (no going back now) and drill the holes for the sensors to go in:

 

GULP!

 

Step 4

Assuming step 3 went ok (or even if it didn't - to be honest you're stuck with it now so you might as well carry on even with a wonky sensor), you should now have 4 lined up holes in your bumper.

 

Feed the sensors in until they fit tight up against the outside of the bumper - there's little rubber 'thingies' that keep them in place once in.

 

Get the boot carpet up and remove the foam insert on top of the spare wheel. In this well should be two rubber bungs, your going to aim to get the cabling routed up through one of them. I went in the one on the rear wall in the middle as it's less likely to cause any water ingress. Remove the bung.

 

From outside the car, you should be able to reach up under the bumper and get hold of the sensor cables. Don't pull these too hard or you'll pull them out of the sensors themselves (which would be bad) - by feel and by looking through anywhere you can find underneath, you should be able to route the cables up to the bung you just removed and poke the ends through the hole. Be careful to avoid the exhaust as the last thing you want is a cable melting because you didn't route it correctly.

 

With all the ends through the hole and no excess left over, you should have this:

 

Using a stanley knife, cut the centre section of the bung you removed from left to right and feed the four ends through. It'll be a tight fit, but they should all fit. Once done, make sure everything's good and tight and refit the bung, using a bit of silicone sealant around the cut you made to prevent any water ingress.

 

 

Step 5

Connect the four sensor ends into the control box. You should also have a red/black cable for power. Remove the interior boot carpet enough to get at the back of the rear lights. There will be some wiring going to these. Using a multimeter (and a willing assistant that you trust!) get the car into reverse so the lights come on and find the cable that has power for reverse. I take no responsibility if you get reversed over at this point. I have been told you can put the ignition to the first setting (ie not got the engine on) and put it in reverse if you don't have a willing assistant - I get the wife to do it in payment for one cup of tea.

 

Please note this will vary from car to car, but I had power through the black/blue cable. Earth is brown. You need to run the red cable from the sensor control box to the live wire, and the black cable from the control box to your earth.

 

The image below shows everything connected up. Please note - I used some 'vampire taps'. These work but gave a dodgy connection and a mate of mine has now shown me the light as to how these damage your wiring - so they have since been replaced with some proper wire splicing. However, this is here for illustration purposes and if you choose to use similar then that is entirely up to you!

 

 

Now plug in the power to the control box:

 

 

Step 6

Find somewhere nice to put the speaker. It's loud, so you might want it under the carpet. I ran it up the wring to here, just behind the rear speaker:

 

 

Plug speaker cable in to control box, then find somewhere to secure the control box itself. On the mk1 Octavia, there's a nice little shelf just under the rear light that lends itself quite nicely:

 

 

Now do what you want to to tidy up the cabling. I used electrical tape every few inches to keep it all together. Replace the foam insert in your wheel well and put all the carpet back where it was.

 

Finally, step back and admire your work!

 

[Girardi]

Should add that these have now been on a few months and work perfectly, despite being a cheapy kit they are very good and very accurate.

[johnmb]

Mine , being exactly the same make , have been on and going good for 4 years now . But at the price easy swap , once the holes are cut .

[sebring]

which sensors did you get? have you got a link?

[Girardi]

Posting from mobile so apologies if the link doesn't work. I bought http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/330340144598 in colour 5 - Silver but there are others available to suit. Pretty good match IMHO.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mikey vrs]

I fitted a set of these to my car last year,they have worked fine with no problems,i painted mine so i got a perfect match,on the mk2 octavia if you remove the bumper & look on the inside face you will see the holes for the sensors are already marked on the bumper so its easy to get them in the exact place. 

[AndyFoz]

Brilliant guide, £8 I paid for my sensors in 1hr job done. Thanks

[orly]

My Octy has a towbar fitted by a previous owner.  It's quite big with one of those plates to stop the trailer's tow bar socket (whatever they're called) from damaging the bumper when hooking up, and both light and power connectors.  After the wife had an "incident" whilst reversing recently I'd like to fit a parking sensor as per this excellent guide, but I'm worried it might pick up the towbar and constantly beep, so would be grateful if anyone who has experience could advise please?

 

Thanks

 

Olly.

.

[orly]

Decided to remove the towbar (as I have nothing to tow) which I did using unpluggable electrical connector blocks so that I can refit it later fairly quickly if required.  The reverse and ground feeds I needed for the sensor control box are already going to the white "power" towing hook-up socket anyhow, so I just used those (yellow is reversing lights, white is -ve/ground - that's if your towbar is wired up the "standard" way)

 

Great procedure write up though.  A nice easy job for a Sunday afternoon, and I'm really pleased with the results in terms of looks, and how well the sensors work.

 

Thanks

 

Olly.

 

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Edited 10 May, 2015 by orly

[giltbrook]

Thanks for the very clear guide, Giradi,  I have just purchased an Otavia and this is one of the mods I intend to do.

[Tsporter]

Just done, thanks for the excellent guide. I got my kit for €9 from China. They're working well.

[newtooctavia]

Might have a bash at this soon ( well, I'll ask the mechanic to do it ! ) Thanks for the guide, will show it to him

[newtooctavia]

Got them fitted by the mechanic through the week, they work a treat

[PGA78]

Great thread!

 

Followed this and had mine fitted in under an hour.  Much easier and clearer than the instructions in the box.  They do a great job for £9.99.

 

Thanks

[WelshSkoda93]

I've just done mine using your guide, thanks!