Dealer fitted parking sensor

[Boris77]

Hi,

I've just taken delivery of a year old leon se, as part of the deal we got the dealers to fit rear parking sensors. Apart from them managing to stop the rear number plate lights working and fitting the speaker to the outside of the boot trim , I was wondering if the sensors have been fitted correctly.

As fitted to the bumper, the cup the sensors sit in has a ridge. The ridge is at the bottom where it looks like it can collect water, rather than the other way round where it might act as a sort of hood. Anyone else with dealer fit sensors be able to check and see if they are correct or not?

I have an image but haven't posted enough to be able to show it here, hope the description makes sense.


Thanks

 

[yellowcone87]

They shouldn't have a ridge at all. They should be flush with the bumper if they've used the same style sensor as official factory supplied sensors, as they should have done. The only difference between dealer fit and factory ones is that dealer fit ones require painting to match the car, sometimes on a black car they may not bother painting them. I've seen them do this before!

If your sensors are not the same as the ones on cars supplied with them from the factory its likely they've used a cheaper kit.

 

[Boris77]

Interesting. From what I understand they use a kit from cobra which I read was used across the vag range when retro fitting. The kit they fitted had to be colour coded before fitting. The ridge definately collects water and makes the sensors beep when they shouldn't.

I also found the near side light wasn't aligned with the bumper either, rent-a-monkey must of worked on the car.

Starting think I shouldn't of bothered now.

 

[yellowcone87]

There's a thread on here by another member who has used the cobra kit to fit them himself. The result is as good as factory models. You should find the thread easily enough, and there are lots of pictures there for comparison with what you've received. I'd think about dropping it back at the dealer you bought it from for remedial work. There will be lots of others there you can look at for reference to argue your case. They definitely don't sound right to me...

 

[monopoly]

There's a thread on here by another member who has used the cobra kit to fit them himself. The result is as good as factory models. You should find the thread easily enough, and there are lots of pictures there for comparison with what you've received. I'd think about dropping it back at the dealer you bought it from for remedial work. There will be lots of others there you can look at for reference to argue your case. They definitely don't sound right to me...

Probably referring to my recent thread here. Hard to say what this ridge is about about without seeing a picture? I know some sensors come with a tapered collar that you can use to make them sit absolutely plumb if the bumper isn't...although as you can see from my photos, that hasn't been necessary as the Leon's bumper is quite straight (vertically).

I don't think I've ever heard of a dealer retro-fitting the OEM kit - they always seem go for the Cobra ones (sprayed to match) and my personal experience is that they they're very good, although obviously forfeiting full head unit integration etc.

 

[monopoly]

..and regarding the number plate lights, they've probably just forgotten to re-connect them as they need to be disconnected to get the bumper off. I know this because I did exactly the same thing and had to unscrew the bumper again to sort it out.

 

[dw911]

From my experience with them they normally fit cobra ones, but the old style ones, not the better neater ones that monopoly fitted ( which incidentally are the same sensors that are fitted at the factory and supplied to vag from cobra iirc )
Wasn't a good start that the installer fitted the speaker where he did, sounds like it went down hill from there.
Normally if you order a new seat but you don't option the parking sensors then decide later on you want then, they will retro fit them for you (get an installer in) for £300 and fit the old style cobra kit.
I suspect in this case as you have bought the car second hand and got them to agree to fit parking to the rear, they have just asked the installer to do it as cheap as possible or the installer has decided to save a few quid by fitting cheaper sensors and hope you don't notice, as although I've not seen the sensors you speak of they sound like the ones you can get or used to be able to get from aliexpress for around a tenner, they had that little raised bit on them.

If it was me I'd be back to the dealer and say your not happy and I'd be tempted to remove the boot trim and find the sensor control box and see if it is an unbranded piece of Chinese junk. If it's cobra system, which seems unlikely it will be printed on it along with the code number which I think is 0168

 

[Boris77]

I'm hoping they have fitted the correct unit. The speaker looks the same as the one in an image I found of the seat official add on part. No idea why they fitted it where they did, manual says put behind the trim. I'd pull the trim off and fix the lights but without elsawin to show clips and screw positions I'm wary of breaking it.

Garage were supposed to call, but didn't - more ammo. I'll be calling them tomorrow to see what they are playing at.

 

[monopoly]

If you don't have any luck with the dealer and you want to remove the bumper yourself, let me know. You don't need to remove any internal trim and it's really quite easy (much more so than I was expecting). It's covered briefly in the thread I linked to above but I can post more detail if you need it.


....I would be pushing the dealer, though. Maybe you'll end up in a debate over the sensors but disabling the lights is a straight MOT failure and they need to put that right. Good luck.

 

[dw911]

I'm hoping they have fitted the correct unit. The speaker looks the same as the one in an image I found of the seat official add on part. No idea why they fitted it where they did, manual says put behind the trim. I'd pull the trim off and fix the lights but without elsawin to show clips and screw positions I'm wary of breaking it.

Garage were supposed to call, but didn't - more ammo. I'll be calling them tomorrow to see what they are playing at.

If you don't have any luck with the dealer and you want to remove the bumper yourself, let me know. You don't need to remove any internal trim and it's really quite easy (much more so than I was expecting). It's covered briefly in the thread I linked to above but I can post more detail if you need it.


....I would be pushing the dealer, though. Maybe you'll end up in a debate over the sensors but disabling the lights is a straight MOT failure and they need to put that right. Good luck.

I'd be pushing the dealer to put it right as monopoly said, but if you do need to reconnect the number plate lights yourself, you should not need to remove any trim or the bumper, just pop the number plate lights out, they have a little tab you push in to remove them, it's pretty easy to see how they come out once you take a look at them, then poke your fingers up inside the hole and you should be able to pull the cables/connector out through the hole and plug the number plate lights back in

 

[Boris77]

Thanks for the info. I popped the lights out the other day but all is connected. From what I could see of the wiring they have been messing with it as where it exits the boot (nearside) you can see they have added insulation tape. I suspect they tried to put sensor wires through the grommet but failed and messed up the number plate wiring in the process.

Still waiting for garage to call me back having chased them today. Surprise surprise now they have the cash they are being slow.

 

[Boris77]

Thanks for the info. I popped the lights out the other day but all is connected. From what I could see of the wiring they have been messing with it as where it exits the boot (nearside) you can see they have added insulation tape. I suspect they tried to put sensor wires through the grommet but failed and messed up the number plate wiring in the process.

Still waiting for garage to call me back having chased them today. Surprise surprise now they have the cash they are being slow.