Front parking sensors
- Thread starter PAH
- Start date
Not done the fronts, only rears. Cobra are the best on the market, fit flush (adjustable for different bumper thicknesses) and look as good, if not better, then OEM.
You can paint them yourself but it's not worth it as it works out about a tenner more to have them painted. If you have a search in the forum there was a question park sensors and I quoted the place I got mine from, they were painted perfectly. Let me know if you can't find the post.
You can paint them yourself but it's not worth it as it works out about a tenner more to have them painted. If you have a search in the forum there was a question park sensors and I quoted the place I got mine from, they were painted perfectly. Let me know if you can't find the post.
Yes I've just fitted them this week. Very good kit and I've fitted two rear sets to different cars previously without any problem. The fronts are a different matter though.PAH said:
Fiirstly, the leads from the sensors - although longer in a front kit than a rear kit - are still a bit too short for the long bonnet of the zed. They might just about do it, but the lack of any slack would make it very interesting trying to get the bumper off in the future! I did consider mounting the brainbox module in front of the bulkhead, as the wires to the buzzer and to the internal switch looked long enough to cope; but in the end opted to look for a way to extend the sensor leads. Cobra/Vodafone don't do extensions sadly, but other makes do so I bought a set via ebay (pretty cheap) and just snipped the ends off. Some multi-pin connectors and a bit of soldering gave me leads that were plenty long enough, and a convenient break point behind the bumper too. Note: the sensor leads are fine co-ax cables, so it's a bit fiddly.
I found one of the toughest jobs to be positioning the sensors on the bumper. Needs to be as flat a section as possible, but you don't get free choice like on the rear bumper because of the heights/locations of the crash bar/upper and lower grilles (and the rear bumper even has location markings to make it easy!). Also, unlike typical factory-fit front sensors, the kit doesn't have 6 sensors, but 4. So, the question is how far round the corner of the bumper do you mount the outside sensors without leaving too big a gap in sensitivity at the front? Educated guesswork gave the positions I chose - time will tell how it works.
Also, having eventually decided on the position for outer sensors, I drilled a pilot hole, only to discover it coincided with a large supporting bracket for the headlamp washers :headbang: Fortunately, I don't have those on the car, the bracketry is plastic and I had the right tool to just cut away the offending section
Sadly I don't yet know how they work - having finished the job and programmed the module, on connecting the sensor leads it told me sensor 1 is faulty and so it refuses to work at all
Job for the next guaranteed dry day: bumper off; check connection to sensor 1; check soldering job on connector of lead to sensor 1. To be continued....
Just popped outside for a quick snap. A bit dull, so they don't show up too well - but that's the idea I guess!ph001 said:
OK , so the good news is that after taking off the bumper I quickly found the fault was my shoddy workmanship! Faulty connection on one of the terminals in one of the multi-plugs. Pain to strip it out, but all fixed and works fine.
Dealing with the brand new replacement bumper bracket is another story - see here https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=123665
EDIT: to add link to other thread
Dealing with the brand new replacement bumper bracket is another story - see here https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=123665
EDIT: to add link to other thread
I put the module in the gap between the glovebox and the stereo, cable tied to the main upright bracket. Doing it again, I would position it as high up the bracket as possible, and not until the connections had been made for the final time after programmining and testing.PAH said:
The switch is positioned in the removable panel under the heater controls, so is virtually invisible but is nice and close to the gear lever.
The system activates when the ignition is turned on and stays active until either manually switched off or no detections made for 10 seconds. Can also be manually switched on, again auto off if 10 seconds with no detections
