8-Sensor Park System

Last update:

08/03/2005

INSTALLATION OF 8 SENSOR PARKING RADAR

This write-up applies to the Cosworth saloon, facelift model 1998, and an eight sensor parking system for front and rear bumpers. Although this is specific to the facelift model fitting it to others will be very similar.

Both sets of sensors (front and back) will pick up objects from approx 1.5 metres away and the unit will start to bleep. The bleep speed increases as you approach the obstacle until, when about 0.8 metres away the "attention" light comes on and at about 0.5 metres away the "stop" light comes on and the bleeps are fast. The distance display, in tenths of a metre, also flash and the display indicates which direction you are going in. (see above) By experimentation I have found that when the display reaches zero distance, the car is actually about 25 - 30 cm away from the obstruction, so giving a modest safety margin.

1. 1. Installing rear sensors a. Positioning sensors Remove interior panels from the boot and boot lid, to gain access to wiring for offside light cluster, fuel cut-off switch, and reversing lights in boot lid. Also remove carpet and underlay from boot floor. It was not necessary to remove the bumper. The positions are as shown in Photo 1. I chose positions that would give a horizontal rearward line for all 4 sensors, but the outer pair were positioned to cover a slightly outward angled beam. For the positions shown there were no obstructions on the inside of the bumper. I used masking tape in the vicinity of each location before marking the sensor positions. A ⅛th pilot hole was drilled first, to act as a guide for the hole cutter provided as part of the kit. When using the hole cutter only minimal pressure was applied in order to avoid overheating the composite material of the bumper or running on into any obstruction further behind.
b. Wiring Using a length of plastic coated curtain wire, or similar, with each sensor’s screened cable attached in turn, the cables were fed in the correct order across the car [In my case, e, f, g, h, going from near to off side] inside the double skin of the bumper to an oval hole on the inside at the offside end. Once all wires were through, the sensors were pressed into the holes until flush with the bumper and the 4 cables covered with black insulating tape for protection.
2. Installing front sensors a. Removal of front bumper The front bumper must be removed so that positioning the sensors avoids all strengthening webs, headlamp washers, wiring and other obstructions. The instructions given on the Ford Scorpio website did not apply to this car. There are no clips to be rotated 90º on each side and there are four holding bolts at the front, not two. There is no need to remove the washer bottle. The following items secure the front bumper to the car: Remove them in this order, supporting the bumper at the middle and each side. Removal is a 2-person operation. Remove the headlamp side covers, 3 torx headed screws. Disconnect the cable multiplugs to the front sidelights and indicators and, if fitted, the fog lights. Remove two plastic screws each side of the front wings.
Pull off the air intake pipe extension and remove the four bolts holding the front bumper to the car – two each side.
Disconnect the pipe clipped across the rear of the bumper moulding, which connects the nearside headlamp washer with the washer bottle. Note the internal web on the bumper
The sides of the bumper are held to the front wings by two plastic mouldings (lugs) on each of the wings, which correspond to slots in the bumper sides. To disengage these care is required to avoid snapping the lugs. This is done by easing the bumper sides outwards and upwards slightly. Once the sides of the bumper are clear of the wings, slide the bumper forwards away from the car and put it on the ground. I put it on an old blanket to protect the paintwork
b. Positioning sensors It is now possible to check that the proposed positions of the sensors will not foul anything behind the front skin. Mark up the hole positions as described for the rear bumper, but see Photo 7 for dimensions, and drill the pilot holes. Use the supplied hole cutter as described above.
Wiring Fit the sensors in the correct order across the car [in my case, a, b, c, d going from near to off side]. I used plastic covered curtain wire to guide each screened cable inside the double skin to the offside of the bumper where they exited roughly in the position of the offside headlight side cover. Once all through, the 4 cables were covered with black insulating tape for protection over most of their length. The bumper was then re-attached to the car and secured with the bolts only at the stage and the loom wiring re-connected. Because the front bumper may have to be removed from the car for other repair or maintenance reasons in the future, I decided to fit connectors to the sensor wires. I used two 4-pin mini DIN plugs and sockets, one for each pair of screened cables (8-pin DIN were not available). One pair of cables from two sensors was soldered to a plug and the other pair to a socket, in order to ensure correct re-connecting during any future operations.
Next step is to remove the side plastic trim in the driver’s foot well between the door and the pedals. Then jack up the front of the car and remove the offside road wheel, in order to remove the wheel arch lining. I then fed the sensor cables through into the wheel arch via an existing hole above and forward of the washer bottle filler, over the top of the suspension [there is a convenient lip or channel to lay the cables in] and down towards the rear of the wheel arch. I secured the cables with plastic ties or duct tape where convenient. There is an existing cable from the direction repeater light on the wing that goes into the car interior via a rubber grommet. I fed the sensor cables through the same grommet and into the car [driver’s foot well].
The wheel arch lining was then replaced and the trailing edge of both sides of the bumper refastened using new rivets as required. The road wheel was re-fitted and the car lowered to the ground. The sensor cables were then routed to the boot under the carpet side trims, under the rear seat back and in to the boot, clipped to the existing wiring loom as required all the way back to the rear light cluster. Plastic trims were replaced afterwards.
3. Installing display unit a. Positioning The position I chose is shown in Photo 10, as this enabled me to see through the dipping door mirror and watch the display at the same time, whilst not interfering with forward vision. b. Wiring The single wire from the display unit was concealed between the dashboard and the door closing trim, down into the passenger foot well [you will have to remove the trim panel between the door and the foot well side], and then under the carpet side trim to the rear seat, across under the rear seat squab and into the boot alongside the front sensor cables.
4. Installing the controller a. Connecting wires to car loom You now have all the sensor and display unit cables adjacent to the offside rear light cluster. The Controller requires connecting to an “ignition on” power supply, negative [I used a bolt on the rear light cluster] the brake light [this powers the front sensors] and the reversing light. The cable to the reversing light was led under the rear parcel shelf and alongside the wiring loom into the boot lid. I did not cut any existing wires, but pared back the insulation for about 10mm and soldered the Controller cables to the existing car cables, insulating the joints afterwards. This will avoid problems with the sensitive wiring system of this car. To avoid disturbing the loom and its protective wrapping:- • the power supply was connected to purple with orange at the fuel cut-off switch [this is 12v live, but only when the engine is running]. • the brake cable was connected to purple with black near to the rear light cluster. • the reverse cable was connected to purple with black near to the reverse light cluster in the boot lid. Naturally, it would be advisable on your car to double check the colour coding and that you have 12v before cutting into any insulation!
b. Positioning The Controller was positioned as shown in Photo 11, and a short slit was made in the carpet side panel for the cables. The base of this panel below the Controller is about 20mm above the boot floor, so is a convenient place for any over length cables to be coiled up. All that remained was to test the system, to ensure that near side sensors lit up the near side display and that there were no blind spots in the sensors’ coverage [there weren’t!], and replace the boot panelling and floor carpet.

5. Conclusion

I am very pleased with the result. The installation looks “original” to the car and the sensors pick up anything within about 1.8 metres, including high kerbs. It makes parking in a tight space much easier than before, particularly as the shape of the Scorpio makes it difficult to judge precise positioning.

I have found the unit really excellent. Reverse "sees" further than forward for some reason and already I have avoided a prang when reversing slowly out of a blind parking bay and a car shot across my stern from my blind side, but the sensor went into alarm mode so I instinctively hit the brakes. So, I would recommend this kit - especially as the Scorpio shape makes it difficult to precisely judge distances. If front sensors were more sensitive and if the display was easier to see in daylight, I would award 10 out of ten. With those two qualifications, I give it 8 out of ten.

Name: 8 Sensor Parking Radar with Smart Display
Price: £54.99 + £7.50 p&p and insurance
Seller: gtonline, Belshill UK (email: tgonline@blueyonder.co.uk)

Neil D Wallace; August 2004