Aftermarket parking sensors

[85genius]

Hopefully someone can help with this, but I have just bought some after market parking sensors and was planning on fitting them this weekend (weather permitting) but then when I was speaking to my mate he said BMWs can get funny and throw up error messages if you start messing with the wiring.

The type I bought are powered by the reverse light, basically just splice one the cable from the sensors control box into the reversing lights power feed, earth the other cable to the control box then all I have to do is plug in the sensors and the beeper. I have fitted this type to my last 2 cars, (actually a reversing camera on my last one but fitted the exact same way) and had no problems whatsoever.

But having been told that in BMW's the ECU monitors all the electrics I was wondering if its safe to do it in the same way on my Z4 or will I get errors galore, or even worse find my lights stop working

Any advice would be appreciated before I start cutting into the wiring

 

[NathanZ4C]

Wire from the reserve light and the negative on the battery. No problems at all.

It generally only it the voltage becomes too low (i.e. LED's) rather than increasing the load that it becomes too much of a problem.

 

[85genius]

Cheers Mate! Exactly what i wanted to hear.

Now the scary part though cutting four holes in my bumper

I'm assuming I'm going to have to take the bumper off too which I havn't done yet on the Z but saw a thread on here that makes that bit look easy enough, just hoping thus crap weather goes away for the weekend so I can get it all done

 

[NathanZ4C]

How did you get on?

 

[85genius]

I lent my sister my drill, so only got it back Saturday afternoon and was out for a mates birthday, needless to say I wasn't in any state on Sunday to start cutting into the Z.

I'm hoping for a nice evening this week as I'm busy working on my garden this weekend then off on a road trip across Europe next weekend and would really like to have it done before I go

I will try to remember to get a load of photos as I'm doing it

 

[phil.a]

make sure you have enough clearance at the back, easy to cut the hole then find the sensor does not go all the way in,

 

[d3matt]

I want to fit front & rear sensors to my E85. Years ago I brought a £18 kit of eBay and it worked very well. Looking on there now, there's loads - but there's a CANBUS type or a standard type (for older cars) - what should I get?

Did you fit yours ok without taking the bumpers off?

 

[russ67]

If you make any mistakes you can have my rear bumper for £50 if you want it.

It's already cut for pdc

 

[Killiestu]

85Genius how'd you get on with those reversing sensors?
Looking at fitting them to my own car but was worried about them causing a fault, I fitted them to my vivaro with no problems at all but you never know.