Front Parking Sensors
 

Just finished installing front parking sensors. I tried some cheapies from eBay and they just didn't work properly for this car. So I ordered a more expensive one and it works great. You don't want those sensors on full time, so there is usually a mechanism for turning them on and off. The factory installed ones use a speed sensitive switch to turn them on and off. That's difficult to do aftermarket. The one I purchased as activated by the brake switch and set by the back-up lights. The weakness with that setup is that if you step on your brakes at speed, the unit could go off depending on the type of road you are on and whether it is raining or not. So instead of the brake switch, I installed a momentary switch. The unit stays on for either 5 or 20 seconds, so you don't need an on-off switch. I've set mine for 20 seconds. For the back-up light, I installed an on-off switch since it only needs to be activated for occasionally setting the unit.

There is a place in the corners of the grille to install 2 sensors. From my experience, you don't need 4 front sensors and this unit can handle two sensors. The placement of these sensors in the grille is hidden so you really don't notice them. The sensors come with a 4 degree frame which points the unit up 4 degrees. There are other frames included, 0 and 10 degrees, but the 4 degree frame works best. Because our car is low and the sensors are thus lower than recommended, you need the frame to point the sensors slightly upward. I installed the momentary switch just to the right of the trunk switch, and it looks built-in. I installed the on-off setting switch below that underneath the dash so it is out of the way but still reachable. Be careful to install it precisely where you have room in back. I removed the lower dash panel by removing the end cap and two screws, one under the end cap and one just below the dash on the right. It just pulls out from there. The display unit was installed on top of the rear view mirror and fit there perfectly.

Below you will find the links to the unit and switches as well as pictures.

https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item...18.MATT.2.html

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KA4FM4Y

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G821G6A

Nice write up.

I really don't see why you would need them for the FRONT of the car, however, I could use about a half dozen for the back of my car.:bonk:


humfrz

On parallel and garage (90 degree) parking, no issues. But when doing the 60 degree parking, I have scraped the front a few times, especially during the initial days of ownership. Wish I had those back then.


Now I just stop a little before as a precaution, with our cars small enough, its still pretty much in the parking bay.

I have the camera in back. The reason I need them in front is that I lost an eye when fighting in Vietnam and have no close depth perception. Most people don't know that depth perception at distance is handled by the brain recognizing relative sizes and not the parallax vision of your eyes. Judging close distances, however, is nearly impossible. In addition, with the falloff nature of the front hood, my wife often can't tell where the front of the car is located. It cost me a total of about $70 for the whole thing so it was worth the cost. Given that I run the wires carefully, installation took a total of about 2.5 hours.

Thank you for serving our country, wounded veteran.


I remember back in the day, in CT, I had hung a fishing bobber on a string, so that the then mrs humfrz would know where to stop (when the bobber touched the windshield) when entering the garage. One day, one of my sons couldn't resist giving it a swat, which wound it around the ceiling beam … thus making the string shorter. Yep, you guessed what happened the next time she pulled into the garage .. :eyebulge:

Did I mention she is the ex mrs humfrz ??


Carry on, soldier.


humfrz

Thank you. However, I can easily circumvent my injury. so I consider it very minor. You find ways, like parking sensors, to compensate. I've had a great life and have been very lucky. I really feel for other vets who suffer from PTSD and really disabling injuries.

My ex was actually great with our cars. That wasn't the problem....