Front bumper sensors?

[Lakersfreak]

Not sure why Ford didn't include this, seems like a standard thing nowadays for any car over $30K. Considering adding aftermarket ones. Has anyone added them? I'm used to front bumper sensors for the last 10 years with all my other cars, and I'm afraid of running into things with my Mustang while parking.

Sponsored

 

[Supraman]

I'm thinking the same thing. Came to depend on the front sensors on my Jaguar so as not to bang the concrete wall in the parking garage as my old office. Camera would be ideal given the huge screen we've got, but there's not really a good place to mount one. Hate to wait for Steeda to come up with a front camera for the Sync 4 system. I contacted NAVIKS because they have a towing camera interface for the Ford trucks with SYNC 4 (you can put cameras all over your RV trailer) and they asked me if I would be their guinea pig but I'm thousands of miles away. Anyone near Brooklyn, NY?

I've ordered a universal "No Drill" system off Amazon. Didn't want to drill my bumper for a license plate bracket so even less enthusiastic about drilling for parking sensors. These don't look like little buttons, but rather are more expensive and look more like blind-spot sensors and mount behind the bumper cover. Have no idea if I can make it work, if I can find, or make room behind the bumper cover, but is says free returns if I can't. Will post back in a few weeks. I have an appointment to get my PPF installed and I want to figure out a solution first.

 

[Lakersfreak]

A local Ford dealership body shop will add it for me for about $1200. They will drill the bumper and color the sensors. It will only be sound (which is fine). I was told you won't be able to tell they're there and they will hide the speaker so nothing extra inside.

 

[Supraman]

Just a little update. I was able to "make room" last weekend by trimming the plastic impact absorber that sits between the bumper cover and the steel impact bar. As it sits now, I've run the wiring harness into the cabin through the left front fender and a provided extra boot/grommet on the firewall (nice of Ford to think of that). Will post pictures later if I can get it to work.

Next weekend will be trying to figure out how to connect it up so that it will function just like the system in my Jaguar where I can activate the front sensors by holding down a button for a second or two and they come on until I shift into park or exceed 8mph. I've got a momentary switch and a time delay relay for the button hold activation and timer function. Need to find a wiring diagram online to identify either a 12v+ or ground when the transmission is in D or any forward gear (would appreciate a reply if anyone has already figured that out for any other reason). I also figure to forgo the speed cancellation for simplicity (if I'm parking, it would be far more likely to cancel when I shift out of gear) and just have it time out after 20 seconds by default. Fingers crossed.

 

[Supraman]

Success! Now have stealth front parking sensors functioning. Unfortunately, it just kinda barely picks up a low curb and gives a couple of beeps about 3 feet out before its passed below the useful angle, but definitely picks up a wall or another car bumper in front of me and goes to a solid tone about 18 inches away. Critical components:

IBEAM - Universal Two Sensor No Drill Parking Sensor Kit (TE-2PSK)
HELLA - 996152131 12V Delay-On-Release Time Delay Relay
BUSSMAN - Circuit Fuse Tap HHTR ATR (@ Fuse Location #37 - Rear View Mirror)

You can choose your own momentary switch (bazzillions of styles). I put mine conveniently on the left side of the steering column housing. I also put the relay and buzzer inside the steering column housing as coindidentally there's lots of room in there. The supplied wiring harness run through the left fender well is just the right length to reach with the column fully extended (some slack with the column pushed in all the way).

There's other stuff on the wiring harness, but the only thing you have to figure out is a power wire and ground - easy. I set up the momentary switch and time delay relay so that I press and release the button and the sensors are powered for 20 seconds (or go off when I'm done parking and I hit the start/stop button.) I gave up looking for a signal from forward gear and just rely on the time delay or start/stop button to shut it off.

On the relay, run positive supply from fuse #37 in the passenger footwell to terminal 30. Terminal 31 is ground. Terminal 87 connects to the red power wire in the sensor harness and is powered for whatever length of time you set (15 to 20 seconds should be enough to park). To adjust the time delay, I wired up a light bulb on the bench and tinkered with the dip switches and little screw till I got it to about 20 seconds before installation (which also helped confirm the terminals). Terminal 87a is not used. For the momentary switch, run positive to one pole and the other pole connect to Terminal 15 on the relay, that's your activation.

I'll try to post photos and a hand-drawn wiring diagram in a couple of weeks. Internet has been down for a month at home (ostensibly due to copper thieves according to someone on Nextdoor.com who claimed they managed to get hold of a real person at AT&T - what are the odds) so not everything is working and I'm burning data on a borrowed hotspot right now.

 

[Lakersfreak]

nice, can you share some photos?

 

[Supraman]

Below shows the sensors themselves mocked up in position inside the front bumper cover with blue painters tape (measure thrice, cut once kinda thing). Also, I cut off two of the soft plastic nodules from the impact absorber thingamajig to make room as you see the scraps lying on the table.

Also, before reinstalling the impact absorber thingamajig (it sort of snaps into place with a half dozen or so little locking tabs), I put in a little piece of quarter inch foam insulating tape on the back of each sensor, which serves to help hold the sensor in position in case the small surface of double-sided tape that holds it to the inside of the bumper cover doesn't last forever. I couldn't really get a picture of the foam installed due to poor lighting, but shown below is where the sensor winds up positioned relative to the impact absorber and the foam approximately where it sits installed.

Under the left front fender there is a wiring loom boot/grommet that actually had space for two looms to pass through but stock only had one. I.e. cut off the little nipple and pass a second loom through. Possibly on a GT or Dark Horse, that second space already has another loom for additional features, I don't know. But it was available on this Ecoboost anyway. Ford saw fit to put heat shielding on the existing wiring loom in this position, so I followed their lead and put the same sort on my parking sensor loom. The provided ground wire reached just about that far so I found an unused hole in a nearby bracket to the upper right, scraped a tiny little bit of paint off around it and grounded it there.

Here is where I put the momentary switch for activation. Very convenient! I chose a plain black button, but one that kinda sticks up just a little so that it would be easy to locate just by feel. If you didn't know, you'd think Ford put it there. Just had to make sure that the wires didn't foul on the steering column locking lever, but as I said in the previous post, there's like a quarter of a cubic foot of room inside that steering column housing.

Ford if you are listening, you really should offer a factory option because 1) it would be a lot better if this thing were triggered off the forward gears such that it would stop beeping when put in park, 2) it really ought to override the stereo volume, 3) probably most importantly, it needs to be designed to alert to a 4" tall parking stop or curb and 4) if it was an extra $1,500 option, yes, I would have checked that box (having spent $200 on parts/supplies and two weekends on this project, that would have been a bargain). But this aftermarket setup is definitely better than nothing at all.

 

[Supraman]

And here's the wiring diagram. The dashed lines are just part of the harness. Find a place to put the buzzer and calibration switch and run the harness there, but you don't have to think about the wiring for those. The only things to figure out are the red + and black -, where you are going to pull keyed power from, your activation button and relay as I've diagrammed how I did it below.

Hope this helps someone protect your horse's nose and maybe someone else will figure out ways to improve on it like maybe another relay signal from the transmission state so it stops beeping immediately when put in park or shifted out of forward gear.

 

[smurfslayer]

Well done!
#Respect.

Sponsored