Reverse parking sensors

[cpas]

Looking for some reverse sensors for the wife's eurobox, and wondered if anybody had experience of any aftermarket ones.

Halfords so a set for £80, and I have seen some that 'look' OK for about £40, but there are £20-£25 versions on e-bay. Ford 'genuine' ones are around £150!

I don't want to buy some, drill holes, then find they are crap, so can anyone recommend any that worl OK?

[paintman]

None of them - factory or otherwise - can be relied on 100% as a number of my customers have found

[McWigglebum4th]

A towbar is about the same price

[seeby]

ST happens even with them.Culprit object too high for sensors to pick up

[McSam]

They're meant to tell you when you're getting close to a car/wall, for those who struggle to judge the extremities of the vehicle. They're not meant to save you visually checking the space, tell you it's absolutely certainly clear and you should reverse with impunity..

If you do that, you're gonna hit stuff like above

[Fleckers]

i have them on my jag

bloody things, I use the over ride button each time I start the engine as I known where the front and back is with out needing beepers

[chili1]

I fitted a set of the Ebay rear sensors to my mate's 09 Focus last weekend. Came already painted and were a perfect paint match. Easy to fit and work as they should. The holes for the sensors were already marked on the back of the bumper, so couldn't go wrong. Dealer quoted £400 for a set for another mate's Kuga. I'm fitting a set off Ebay to his car next weekend.

[GTIR]

seeby said:

ST happens even with them.Culprit object too high for sensors to pick up

That's what happened when you don't check before reversing and just rely on the reversing sensors.

A bit a basic driving skillz are lacking.

[Welshbeef]

I really like them and now wouldn't buy a car without.

Just like heated dimming wing mirrors heated seats

[Nigel Worc's]

You'll get a cracking set for about £15 on fleabay, I have them on my 5 series.

I've got a reversing camera on my van, they are quite good too.

I'll find you a link to the sensors.

[Nigel Worc's]

These are like the sensors I have :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAR-REVERSING-REVERSE-PA...

[rouge59]

I got some off Ebay for 12 quid including drill bit to fit on our Boxster; they're a perfect colour match, took about an hour to fit and 12 months on they do exactly what they're supposed to.

[twink]

As above, got a £15 Ebay set on mine and they've been faultless since they went on 18 months ago.

[crowfield]

My Jaguar fitted ones failed, and the cost from Jaguar was a ridiculous amount so I bought some cheap Ebay ones ( about £14 ) Fitted the rear bumper perfectly and work brilliantly. Even look identical. Been fitted over a year now and show no signs of failing.

[Turkey]

Got a cheapo set on mine that the previous owner fitted. Just a basic 4 sensor kit which bleeps when you get close to an object, wired to the reverse lights for power. The accuracy is very good even with small obstructions, small tree branches etc.

Works okay now, but the buzzer broke a couple of years ago, it was external to the main control unit luckily. So I googled the part number and bought a new buzzer for a couple of quid and swapped that in (any 12V buzzer would probably be okay though, if loud enough). Also, one of the sensors kept giving false alarms, so I swapped them around (put it in a different hole), and it is fine now. So not a perfect expereicne, but the original equipment ones are pretty flaky too on many cars by all accounts. It's been fine now for about 3 years after swappuing the sensors around and replacing the buzzer.

I also sprayed the sensor caps too the colour of the car, black caps on a grey bumper looked naff, I used plastic primer and the finish has lasted about 4 years, but is chipping off slightly on one of the caps, I could respray them if it gets too much worse.

ETA - the one I have is very much like this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Auto-4-Parking-Sensors-C...

For the price you could buy two in case any sensors fail or the buzzers breaks in the future.

Edited by Turkey on Monday 17th February 19:16

[cpas]

Thanks for the responses. Obviously they are not a final solution to avoid everything, but we have got used to them on my car as a standard feature and they would be nice on the wife's car. I find them good just for final reversing up to a wall and for if somebody walks behind the car!!