Ok well some of you may remember that a couple of months ago SWMBO wrote off the side of a Tigra with the rear left of the Octy whilst reversing out of a parking space. There was no damage to the Octy but I did consider fitting reversing sensors.

Anyhow she's gone and done it again:thumbdwn: - this time the rear right of the Octy into a so**ing great tree trunk outside our house. Now the tree must be 80 odd years old (the house is 82 years old), has never moved and has a trunk that must be two foot across but once again the Octy appears to be undamaged.

Given the law of averages though I think I am now definitely going to invest in some sensors so, not having much time and wanting a quick and easy solution I was going to order some simple buzzer sensors that only need two wires to operate - one to the reversing light and an earth. But - before I click the "order" button will I be OK to connect into the back of the reversing light given the Octy II's lights are BUS controlled and not a pukka switched supply as of old?

Ta

Cheaper fix..............ban the missus from driving it!!

The after market reversing sensor kits I've seen show the feed taken from the wire to the reversing lights.

I would speak to your dealer as Skoda do a proper aftermarket kit.

You can just open the rear light and jam the wire in there with the bulb, then zip tie it 2 inches further down to the cable loom. Not very elegant, but it does the job.

THanks for the replies guys.

The Skoda kit is likely to be significantly more than the £20 ebay option but thanks for the reminder.

Re the wiring I think I might be able to stretch to something better than jamming a wire in (I have a soldering iron...) but that is pretty much the answer I was looking for - namely will it work and the Maxidot show a bulb fault with an extra 3.6w of load - I'm guessing from the replies Yes and No respectively

I fitted an aftermarket kit to my mk2 and just tied into the reverse light feed for the power, no problems so far in almost 12 months use, the auto electrician who fitted an aftermarket kit to my mk1 did the same thing with no problems in 3 years ownership.

Thanks Stubax - THat's good enough for me.

Another question though - what are the spacings of the OE sensors? I'd like to make anything I fit look as OE as possible and obviously the OE sensor positions will have been thought about and tested so should work Ok with other sensors...

You should place the two outer ones roughly at the outside face of the rear wheels, when looking from behind, then divide the space between them in 3 equal lengths, thus obtaining the position for the other two sensors.

Make sure they all point backwards and as horizontal as possible, and that they are about 45cm's above the ground. Pointing the outter sensors a bit outwards is a bad idea, essentially making them useless for backing into tight spaces.

Everything you need to know should be on this thread:

http://briskoda.net/forums/octavia-ii/octy-ii-vrs-reverse-sensor-positions/87350/

I did a short guide on page 2 as well, for fitting el-cheapo ebay kit. Still functioning just fine nearly a year on...

Oh and just to add re: extra load and bulb fault light - I don't think you need to worry. I did actually trigger the bulb failure light when fitting mine (and panicked!), but it turned out I'd actually blown the brake light bulb (probably by being a bit rough with the cluster in getting it out).

Once the bulb was replaced, all was fine. I don't know for sure but at a guess, the bulb failure will trigger when there's reduced/no load, as opposed to slightly higher load.