Fitting Parking Sensors

[rickycowslip]

hi, I found this forum having been faced with the question - rear parking sensors on a Fiesta mk7... two hours later and having successfully fitted a working set of £15 sensors from Ebay, I can confidently give some tips and advice

1. Most responses I found on google suggested the need to remove the bumpers. Having no manual in my possession, and faced with a plethora of screws and bolts in weird places, I was averse to doing this on my shiny new car... After a bit of head scratching I realised this was not necessary.

2. The kit comes with a drill bit for cutting the holes in the bumper. Once I had cut the holes, the sensors merely plugged through these holes and the wires dangled down inside the bumper. Lying down under the car, you can wiggle the wires until you can get hold of them.

3. Regards position of sensors, I found this http://www.parkingsensors.co.uk/custome ... fiesta.aspas a guide. Tip: don't use permanent marker pens on bumpers, white spirit does not remove it... Regards the drilling, yes scary drilling into your lovely new bumpers, but rest assured the drill bit leaves a very clean hole and the sensors plug in perfectly looking very professional.

4. Inside the boot, pull up the side carpeting to reveal a rubber grommet on each side of the boot floor - handy for pushing the wires through. Push a knife through to make a small hole, then feed the wires from each sensor through these grommets, two on each side. Fiddly, and you get a bit wet in the rain, but you now have nicely fitted sensors with wires neatly found in the boot.

5. Ok trickiest bit - connecting the power wires to the reversing light wires. Again I worried I had to remove the rear lamp cluster to do this. But no, all you have to do is prize off the carpet over the rear light cluster on the passenger side, then look inside where you'll see the wiring plug going into the back of the light cluster. This just pulls out - I say just, but course without being told that I was fearful of breaking it, so I prized it out carefully with a screwdriver. Once out I was able to confirm it just pulls out over a small click.

6. Hardest bit - joining the wires. You now have five wires going into the plug, and a black and a red wire you want to attach from the sensor unit - which two wires do you connect ? Memories of James Bond films spring to mind... Originally I used a trial and error method, but a subsequent tip from the fordownersclub forum suggests "The black wire from the sensor goes to the blue and black wire on the lamp cluster and the red wire goes to the blue"

7. Once you identified the wires, you don't have to cut the Fiesta ones. Merely use a sharp knife to scrape away a section in the middle of the wire to expose the wire itself. Then wrap the sensor wire around the exposed area tightly and wrap it in black plastic insulating tape found in your kitchen drawer. Check you have a clean connection by engaging reverse gear and standing in front of the sensors to get the continuous beep. Alternatively, "Self Stripping Tab Connectors", a pair for 55p at local hardware store. Clips over the existing wire allowing you to insert the connecting wire, then just clips together to make a tight electrical bond.

8. Once happy it all works, push the lighting plug back in, stick the sensor units to the car body wall just under the carpet, stick the buzzer on the other side, tuck all the wires under the carper and tuck the carpet back in neatly.

There you go - job done. Cost £15. Took me an hour and a half with head scratching - with my learnings above you should be able to do it in under an hour. For those who doubt the quality of a £15 set off Ebay - all I can say is that I bought a similar set for my Mitsubishi two years ago and they've been working perfectly ever since. Good luck, feel free to ask me any questions...

[jam_rs]

Thanks for dropping in

[Graphite]

Thanks for sharing Ricky!

[nofinchance]

Hi I ordered a kit after reading your guide. They are a quality item and the sensors are available in a range of colours so look good on the car. Best of all they come with a hole saw although drilling is unnerving. I have a few things to add however that may help someone considering this.
1. Your link to the positioning of the sensors is dead so I went with copying what I had seen two fiestas I had been following recently. The first sensor goes underneath the reflector in the bumper (fog light on drivers side) in line with the change in pattern of the glass at the half way point of the reflector/lamp and half way down the remaining bumper from this point. The next sensor needs to be around 13 - 14 inches to the right of this point in the black insert on the bumper. At this point if you feel behind the black insert you will notice a square section and a cable clip on the reverse that is the size of the reverse sensor. Do the same from the right side of the car and you have your mounting points.
2.Good tip this one stick about 5 rows of decorating masking tape on the bumper from under the reflector/fog lamp all the way along to the other side. Now you can mark with a marker pen as much as you want before cutting. Once the holes are done remove the tape.
3.The hole saw in the kit is very good but gets clogged with each cut so you need to remove the centre drill to clean it out before the next cut.
4.One thing not mentioned here or in the kit instructions is that you need to fit and plug in the sensors in order so a b c d or 1 2 3 4 .YOU MUST PLUG IN THE CORRECT SENSOR TO THE CORRECT CORRESPONDING POSITION ON THE CONTROL BOX !! Also do not fix the box down until all the connections are made.4 sensors,alarm and the power feed.
5. On my car the wiring colours were different to what we have on the original post. I wired blue to live red on the unit and black from the unit to the blue grey wire. Also take out the light unit your feeding from makes the whole thing a lot easier.
Other than this great tip post and remember measure twice cut once DOH !