Fitting Reversing Sensors

Hi Very easy to do, kits come with a drill of the coorect size, 2 I've done had large rubber grommets which alloed entry to the boot. Couple of hours work. Worst part TBH was finding a route to mount nicely on dashboard. HTH Al

the bumper ones are ok but you have to be spot on with the drilling other wise it looks s**te, how about the one with the sensors all ready fitted that fits around the rear number plate.

I have to be honestly frank here, if someone cannot reverse park at all without using parking/reversing sensors, then they are not fit to be driving on the Queens highways!

I've had enough of crap parkers who take up 2 parking spaces with their pathetic efforts!

God only knows what their driving standardsa are like on the roads!

It should be made compulsory in the driving test to be able to reverse park a car with a trailer or caravan attached.... Now that requires some effort to master! Parking a car without a trailer is a doddle compared to parking a car with trailer/caravan.

Stephen.

Hi Very easy to do, kits come with a drill of the coorect size, 2 I've done had large rubber grommets which alloed entry to the boot. Couple of hours work. Worst part TBH was finding a route to mount nicely on dashboard. HTH Al

The message from GTH contains these words:

Just don't do what my mum did. She failed to realise they only work at shin level and remove the rear screen on a low branch in the churchyard.

the bumper ones are ok but you have to be spot on with the drilling otherwise it looks s**te & some bumpers have an impact bar behind the plastic making it nigh on impossible to fit them, how about the one with the sensors all ready fitted around a surround which then fits around the rear number plate, Halfords do them online just to give you a rough idea what they entail.

You've driven every vehicle on the market? Don't understand that some may have problems turning to look behind them?

But all it says is that you've never owned a vehicle fitted with them.

I cut a hole in the panel behind the bumper with a Q-Max cutter, painted the edge and fitted a grommet. After wiring I sealed the wires to grommet with silicone.

You might check if there are already partial holes in the bumper assembly for factory fit systems. Mine hadn't, but the sensors fitted ok.

If you get the type with warning lights as well as a bleeper, don't bother fitting it where you can see the lights as they're no help. So just fit it out of sight where you can hear the bleeper.

I wish I had sensors on the Passat.

Only driven 2 vehicles with them - first was a Transit fridge van with rear sensors - I could quite easily parallel park that in a space only a few inches longer than the van itself.

The other was a Mondeo hire car with front and rear sensors. They were the only decent thing about the car.

There speaketh a man who's not had a car with crap rear visibility. I've fitted them to my Touran and they've made a huge difference to my ability to shoehorn my car into small spaces, ones I wouldn't have attempted without.

With reversing sensors, you stand a sporting chance of using the space that the crap parkers have left you.

No doubt as good as yours (though less opinionated).

Tim

Yup. Just about everyone who drives an SD1 Rover finds it difficult to know where the rear bumper is to within about 18". Even after owning it for 20 years. Motor remarked on this in the original road test - and that most of the early ones had dented rear bumpers...

My BMW came with factory fit. Wouldn't have dreamed of paying for it if I'd bought new, but was hooked almost immediately. So pretty soon after fitted them to the SD1 - when they were an expensive accessory compared to now.

Thanks all for responses. I can park pretty well most of the time but I do worry about low walls, bollards etc that are commonplace in London.

After getting used to a sensor in a hire car I thought for the sake of £20 I may as well fit some.

GTH wrote:

The message from GTH contains these words:

The council round here have "redeveloped"[1] some local roads and have thoughtfully included stone plant troughs well below visibility level, but high enough to take out the bumper. Then they fitted 14" high black railings round the trees. After that things got worse.

If the trailer/caravan you wish to tow is over 750kg, then you do have to take an additional test. If you passed you test after 1st Jan 1997 you need to take a further test Category B+E.

Part of this additional test includes reversing with the traile/caravan.

CLive

Let us know how you got on fitting them...

Why is it that we always get Mr Perfect answering questions like this? In case you didn't know Stephen, people taking a driving test now (in fact for about the last 10 years) are not allowed to tow a caravan without taking a further test which includes reversing.

In message , GTH writes

Absolutely. Don't worry about the f****it's comments. I've been driving for 30 years, never had an accident since I passed my test and consider myself to be a reasonable driver but I admit that my judgement of parking distances is poor.

My Focus doesn't have sensors and is quite tricky to judge. Last year I had a Renault Megane hire car with sensors and they were great. Ironically, because of the Megane's square rear end, it was pretty easy to judge and didn't really need the sensors.

Bollocks.

Mallory explained on 18/06/2007 :

I can do that, but I still really do appreciate a vehicle being fitted with the sensors - I find them especially useful when I am driving a vehicle I am still getting used to the size of.

Dave Plowman (News) brought next idea :

Some have a display which show you which side the obstruction is. The beeper on mine packed in (must get a round tuit), so that would mean no warning without the display.