Info on factory fit & reto fit parking sensors

Mine were a dealer fit, so the answer must be yes.  I'm guessing they must be available in kit form.  Mine also match the body colour, so they must be available off the shelf.

Let me know how you get on.

 

 

First of all obtain the sensor kit from the e-bay link earlier in this thread.

 

Next visit you Ford dealer to obtain a paint/lacquer Aerosol kit to match the colour of your Kuga (they had to order mine, 2 day’s delivery).

 

The two sensors (B and C, the sensors are identified to marry up with the control unit) for the bumper were prepared by rubbing the original paint finish off with wire wool and cleaned with methylated spirit before preparing to paint. I gave three coats of paint and three coats of lacquer, be sure to leave plenty time between coats for drying.

 

Once the sensors have been painted your now ready to fit, it took me approximately 1 hour, make sure you have plenty daylight time if you can’t reverse into a garage.

 

Unfortunately I didn’t take any photographs at Installation and have no intention of pulling the trim out for this purpose, If anyone is going to tackle the job feel free to take your own photograph’s to enhance these instructions.

 

The sensors have been fitted for approximately three weeks and work fine even when the car is dirty and wet.

Ok, let’s get started, remove the boot liner, spare wheel and polystyrene tool storage compartments. Remove the trim shown below around the hatch lock stay, (it comes off pulling in the direction of the rear seat) you can prise this off with your fingers. Then remove the trim running up the near side quarter panel also removed with your fingers, now remove the trim that surrounds the courtesy light, once removed you have access to the Siemens cable junction box.  

 

Next I located the sensors on the bumper, I visited the local Ford showroom to take a few measurements and photo’s (you can Imagine the reception I got from the salesman!). I ran a strip of masking tape on the bumper area and started to mark the location with measurements from the top of the bumper using my spirit level and from the indentations on the spoiler beneath.

 

The location of the bumper sensors on the car in the showroom were actually placed a little lower to where I’ve located mine, they use a tapered washer to achieve this position, I moved mine about 2 centimetres up where the surface is flat, the bottom edge of the sensor just about touching where the bumper starts to curve. In the scheme of things I don’t think it makes much difference, tapered washers are supplied with the kit if you wish to use them.

 

Next it was squeaky bum time, once marked off I used my cordless drill on a low speed/torque setting to drill the holes,(using a small pilot drill before offering up the hole saw) it didn’t take much effort so go carefully.

The hole saw provided with the kit did an excellent job.

Next I marked the rear vinyl panels where the fog lights are located, I checked underneath the car for existing cables etc. none were present on mine, but better safe than sorry, take a look first.

 

Once all the holes were drilled I fed the sensors through the holes in the correct sequence A to D. Underneath the car you will see some box section steel running to the back of the vehicle which is part of the impact protection, I ran the cables across the top of the box section and then towards the rubber grommet that carries the cable from the fog light into the rear nearside quarter panel. I removed the grommet and put a small incision with a Stanley knife to allow me to feed the cables through. Once the cables were fed through I tidied up the cables underneath using cable ties, there are various points underneath to tie too.

 

Now It’s time to get the power supply, the cable for the reversing lights on my car is colour coded green and black, It’s easy to test this is the correct cable if you have a multi-meter. Put the positive probe in the back of the connecter block where the cable is located and the Earth probe to the point in the rear quarter panel where all of the black cable’s run to (Earth Point), put the car into reverse gear with the ignition on (not the engine) and you should see a reading of around 11 volts if you’ve identified the correct cable, take the gear out of reverse, if the reading goes back to 0 you have the correct cable. Once the correct cable was identified I joined the cable from the control unit using a scotchlock clip (as seen in photo).

Next you need to hook up the Earth cable, I did this with a hook splade connector and loosened the nut on the Earthing point to make my connection.

 

Next I located the reversing buzzer in the rear section with the sticky pad provided, I then made the appropriate sensor connections to the main unit.

Then I tested the sensors by putting the car into reverse (Ignition, no Engine!) and used a sheet of cardboard to approach the car and tested each sensor to get the appropriate response. 

When I was satisfied all was working well I Located the control box on top of the Siemens junction box with the sticky pad provided.  (Buzzer pictured in background.

 

It was now time to reverse fit everything back to its original location, starting with the rear fog light cable grommet, (I did a little tidy up of the reverse sensor cables with ties at this point).

 

Replace the trim that surrounds the courtesy light (make sure all the trim your about to replace goes underneath the appropriate rubber seal’s), next replace the polystyrene tool compartments and spare wheel. Replace the trim running up the near side quarter panel, replace the trim around the hatch lock stay pulling it towards the rear of the car.

 

Finally replace your boot liner, you should now be the proud owner of reversing sensors (and also saved around £160 in the process!).

many thanks

                     the bear