E46 parking sensors

carrollf

Hi,

I would love to get parking sensors (back and front) fitted to my 2001 320Ci. Does anyone know roughly how much it would cost to get this done nicely?

Is it an easy job to fit them?

fc321

I would imagine this to be quite expensive if done by a BWM dealer! They normally charge around €150 / hour for labour

AMurphy

YOu should be able to purchase then on line for about $200.
If you are any handy you can fit them yourself.
however, I have a question, why would you need them in front?. they won't stop the car in front of reversing into you.:rolleyes:

carrollf

Hi,

The front sensors are useful when driving up to something and you want to get close! Most new BMW come with both rear and front sensors now.

I saw some Cobra parking sensors and the write up was good. KNow anything about them?

AMurphy

Don't really know anything about them, other than seeing them advertized in papers, sites, etc. A friend had an aftermarket one fitted to his van, now sold however, seemed to work fine.

here is a bargain.

Teh only time I had one go off while driving a friends, Envoy. He hadnt warned me about this item, so I'm sitting there wondering WTF is that beeper and continued to reverse over the post it was warning me about. No damage to the car.

I was listening to a lady on the radio relate her similar response to this thing as well.

Anyway, what's wrong with reversing/drive to touch/touch. and the last thing you want when scooting an abandoned shopping cart out of the way is some blasted beeper going off.

Anyway, still of the opinion that the forward facing ones are a bit like automatic wipers... bit daft.

Actually I think the best back up accessories are a 100db beeper, and strobe lights, to wake up thase dim muppets that are not watching and walk right behinid you as you back up.

Back-up alarm

btw, I came across one scenarion here and not sure if BU sensors would detect anything.
Some folks have a habit of driving and parking their trucks with the back gate down, so when you back out of a parking spot, this may be sticking horizontally about 18~20" into the lane, and in a manner that is it just out of view. Just like the towing hitches stick out of ROI cars and get your ankles as you try go between cars in the dark.

anyway, have fun

jayok

Don't know about the cost of the BMW parking sensors, but like everything BMW I'd imagine they are gonna cost a lot more than 3rd party ones.

If your interested, they guy that fit the alarm to my car also fit parking sensors. I didn't need them fitted to mine at the time but I was talking to him about how busy he was, etc, and was there much demand for the sensors. He said there was a huge surge since the arrival of SUV type of cars with poor rear vision. People simply cannot see behind them and the sensors give some hope. I'll PM you his details.

Alternatively you could do what I done for the missus's CR-V - install a reverse parking camera. These are not as expensive as you think (the kit cost €180) and a fairly easy to fit. They also have IR emitters on them for night time. This dash-mounted screen also doubles up as a rear seat monitor that s focused on the young lad's rear-facing baby seat!

Just my 2c.

AMurphy

On the SUV/Vans, I see a pretty simple lo-tech solution in Japan. A high mounted downward facing mirror on the rear top of the back window.

The other lo-tech up front solution is little flag poles on the corners of the vehicle.

And have seen back up CCD monitors on garbage trucks and mobile homes about here.