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How To: Adding Parking Sensors to an R56 MCS LCI/facelift

9K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  kevinherring 
#1 ·
Hi all, this thread is to log the installation of some SteelMate PTS400EX OE rear parking sensors in my R56 MCS LCI/Facelift. Not wishing to turn this into a discussion on whether PDCs are required on such a small car, I find them valuable not for parking per se, but for that one time when you didn't see a concrete bollard or a small child. For ÂŁ57, I think that's money well spent.

In short, this was a long task (about 4 hours with all the faffing and swearing) and I basically messed it up. I hope other people can learn from my mistakes as I was not able to find instructions on how to do this anywhere on the net. I opted for the OE version which uses the flush sensors and a smaller hole. These require fitting from the back (so the bumper needs to come off)

You will need:
8mm socket/spanner
Philips screwdriver
3 small wire tap connectors

1. Jack the car up to take the weight off the suspension and give you a bit more working room in the wheel arch. Jack it up until the rear wheels are just about still touching the ground.
2. Pull the rear part of wheel arch plastic trim off. This will reveal a metal screw [cyan]. This can be removed without taking the whole trim off by using a screwdriver bit and pliers, or you can just remove the whole thing.
3. In the wheel arch are there are 3 plastic fixings [purple]. I think 1 unscrews and the others pull off. These are a pain and I have to drill one of these out. I mean, stiff plastic screw and metal screw driver? Result? Stripped plastic screw.
4. There is another fixing to attach the bumper to the plastic wheel-arch trim [red], remove this.
5. Under the car either side of the exhaust pipe there are two 8mm bolts that hold the bumper to the chassis [orange].
6. Whilst you are under there, remove the plug to each of the brake/reverse lights [green].
7. Open the boot, there are two obvious metal screws in the boot lining, undo these [blue].
8. Now the whole bumper should just lift off.

This is where things went wrong for me. Originally I wanted the sensors in the factory position which is in the lower, matt plastic trim of the bumper. However, this trim is angled down to the ground and I wasn't confident that they would work properly. On the factory fit an angled shim is used to ensure they are horizontal.

Given this I opted to mount them higher up on the glossy bumper. However I did not take note of the metal bumper (part of the chassis) behind it! I later found out that there is not enough clearance between the metal bumper and the back of the plastic bumper!

9. Punch the holes in the bumper (you're committed now!) and fit the sensors
10. Run the cables along the same route as the brake/reverse light and feed them to the rubber grommet/seal on the right.
11. Cut a small hole in the grommet and feed the cables through there which will come out at the access panel in the boot.
12. Locate the wiring bundle that goes out the same grommet and unwrap some of the black tape.
13. There should be two brown cables - choose one of these for the ground.
14. The blue and white cable goes to the right hand reverse light, tap into this for both the permanent and switched live feed.

You can see in the photo [white] that I ended up taking my angle grinder to the end of the bumper to cut a notch to allow clearance for the sensors. Not ideal! If I'd positioned them about 1cm further out I wouldn't have had to do this! The two sensors towards the sensor just about fit but cause the bumper to bulge very, very slightly (but only if you really look).

In terms of performance the PDCs seem ok so far. There is a delay of 2-3 seconds between putting it into reverse and the initialisation beep sounding (which is too long in my opinion) - I am thinking about tapping into a permanent live and just using the reverse light for the switched live to see if this helps.

So that there is no confusion - the location of the sensors in the final photos is BAD! Do not put them in this position! I'm not sure where you should put them, just don't put them here :)
 

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