stu21t

any1 bought or used any of the parking sensors off ebay?
any that i should avoid? or that are better than the rest?

they need to be fairly accurate or the missus will hit things lol

these any good?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Reversing-...item4ce9d32a23


or these? wireless ones
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Car-Wirele...item5d31aa8820

zippyobrien

iTrader: (2)

None and learn to drive ???
No I'm joking lol.

Iain Mac

It's a mystery to me how some of us managed to learn to drive, back in the good old days. I can remember when you only needed one mirror on the outside and yet I still managed to avoid reversing into things!

My next door neighbour fitted reversing sensors to his wife's car but she still relies on a couple of bricks on the driveway to stop the wheels when she reaches them - the sensors aren't so great at seeing the towball on their caravan!

stu21t

my missus is actually a good driver, but shes got an estate with tinted windows and a dog guard in the boot so not very easy to see out the rear window/rear view mirror

for the sake of Ł20 i thought id buy some sensors as it makes it easier lol, hardly makes her a bad driver lol

Oranoco

Only problem with all these aids is it removes the element of skill from driving.

snoopaloopa

iTrader: (3)

Rubbish, it only removes the element of hitting things!
They are an aid, you still need to look befre you start driving like mater
I'm looking at getting some for the mrs as well and she is a good driver, i have trouble reverse parking her car and I have been driving large vans for donkeys years, the trouble is all the bloody curves on cars make it difficult to judge distances in the mirrors lol

botters

iTrader: (2)

machine mart near me do a great kit for Ł25 it has 4 sensors and a screen that shows how close you are to things, i dont know if its just my machine mart or all of them that sell them

botters

iTrader: (2)

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/pr...TC=SRC-parking sensors

here ya go

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

i still say learn to drive part of learning to drive is judging distances and knowing that vehicle or in fact any you drive.

She had to learn to do it to pass her test so why cant she for her new car??? its not like shes going from a fiesta to a bus.....

snoopaloopa

iTrader: (3)

She has gone from a 106 to a c8 so wind your neck in
Just because you think you can park like Mr Swift lol

Oranoco

How can you say it's rubbish? If you have the skill/ability to know where the back of the vehicle is (which you need to display an ability to do so you can pass your test in the first place) you won't go bouncing off things.

All these driver aids that are added to make things easier for a driver just end up being relied upon. Number of people for instance that don't have a clue how to stop a car without ABS

I've never had parking sensors and have driven stuff from Rover Metro's through big estate cars and Transit vans to 7.5t horse boxes and have never hit anything reversing.

You could try removing the tints if they are impeeding her visibilty? Although the dog guard may still inhibit rearward visibilty but there's not a lot you can do there.

Not trying to be a funny fooker BTW

cossiejay

in answer to your question yes they are ok for the money i have fitted some to the father in laws zafira and he loves them ,my galaxy has factory fitted ones i i still managed to hit a concrete post yesterday ,because i am shit at going backwards

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

parking like mr swift has nothing to do with it.

its simple basic judgement of what is quite small distances. She had to learn it to pass her test, she can learn it again for a bigger car. It really isnt difficult. Like it or not she just needs to practice rather than taking the lazy/easy parking options.

Danster76

iTrader: (2)

Euro car parts does a cheap kit for about Ł20. Fitted one to a 2008 fiesta a couple of weeks ago and it worked well. Delivered to me within the hour as well!

snoopaloopa

iTrader: (3)

Oh dont get me wrong, i agree, i have never had parking sensors and have never hit anything going backwards in various vehicles varying from fiestas to 10 tonners but i'd rather spend Ł30 on sensors than replace expensive bumpers/tailgates while she gets the hang of it

I suppose i could take the power steering and other aids aids off it as well because you dont really "need" them, they just make it too easy for the lazy people.
Anyway back to the op's original question, do you know of any parking sensor kits that are any good?

stu21t

Fuck me i only wanted to know if they are any good, not to be told i/she cant drive cos ive got Ł20 sensors lol.
I drive a sprinter van or l200 all day everyday and i have sensors in both just cos it makes life easier when parking them as its hard to see exactly how close you are. Doesnt mean i cant drive and when you park 10 times a day its just easier!


Wish i never asked now lol.

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

this is passionford, what did you expect?

and to be fair it is usually some dozey bint that damages our cars in a car park, regardless of parking aids, purely because they werent paying attention.

stevieturbo

Clearly everyone here drives a vehicle with no blind spots whatsoever !!! Fuck, they're all that good, why even bother with rear view mirrors ?...they're just a driving aid too.

( although tinting all the windows almost does make the mirrors useless for some )

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

the point of judgeing distance is for exactly that reason - blind spots If you can see it, youve got no excuse to hit it. After all that is what you are made to do on your driving test so why should it be any different once youve got your license?? driving test is supposed to be the MINIMUM standard to drive on the road.

stevieturbo

Guess you drive so little that you've never had animals or children run into those blind spots when manoeuvring. You're relying on assumption that the blind spot is clear. Real life isn't always as easy as that. Knowing for a fact it is clear makes it much safer.

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

and youd rely on a parking sensor to pick up a fast moving animal or child? they often dont pick up a concrete post so what makes you think they will pick up a child? (small animals i couldnt give a shit about).

Even reversing cameras usually dont solve the problem entirely.

You just do what everyone else does, maintain a good lookout and reverse with caution.

If kids being run over by reversing cars when the driver was paying full attention was such a big risk then reversing aids would be compulsory...........

Reversing aids do NOT replace alertness and good driving and IMO on your average car just make things easier rather than replace anything you can achieve without them.

stevieturbo

What nonsense. Years ago rear view mirrors weren't compulsory....that changed.

Tyre pressure monitors aren't compulsory....yet. but plenty of people drive around on flat tyres without realising.

ABS isn't compulsory...yet it bloody should be.

So its a very stupid argument that because something isn't compulsory it isn't worth having.

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

tyre pressure monitors are not necessary at all as anyone who follows the guidelines for basic maintenance and checks wont get caught out. They rarely stop a blowout as by the time the pressure rapidly changes its too late anyway.

Funnily enough when doing your driving test you are required to look in the direction you are travelling so at least 2 of the 3 mirrors you cant see....

ABS again isnt necessary if you know how to drive. Reliance on ABS is actually dangerous as im sure youll have seen plenty of times on icy or snowy roads as well as very water logged roads.

IMO most accidents are caused by poor driving and have very little to do with driver aids. Most of the problems you encounter on the roads are again caused by poor driving.

Driver aids cannot compensate for a poor level of driver skill in the first place. In fact with modern lazy humans, i suspect driver aids are more inclined to make the average driver lazier or complacent or less alert.

Rogeyboy

iTrader: (2)

Im inclined to agree with warren here...
Take satnav for example, how many people rely on satnav to get from a-b now, and i bet less than half of them people can't read a map or learn to recognise landmarks/points of interest etc, coz theyve never had too! I know people that make the same journey every week and still use a satnav to get there.
Its an aid, correct but we as a race are lazy and we will become reliant on these "aids" one day!

Back to topic, i'd quite like to know if the cheap Ł20-25 sensor kits are as good as the more expensive or OE kits?

Nath

Wow, ask a simple question

Carlos-Titx

I have tyre pressure monitors












In the form of a foot.
Don't need monitors for tyre pressures, they only ever go flat at the bottom.

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

exactly carlos.

Then theres those daft bints who get towed to a garage having the engine siezed and you find out the oil light had been on for weeks and they had never checked the oil, the ones who cant cope with changing a simple bulb, cant change a tyre etc etc etc

Shouldnt have a fucking license IMO as if you cant do the basic to look after a car then youre just as dangerous as someone who cant do the basics to drive a car....

Scary thing was in a car park a while back some woman was changing a wheel and struggling with a shit brace so i lent her the decent one i carry. all this while her faggot emo mincy brother didnt want to get his hands dirty.

So we are breeding "men" as bad as dozey woman at the wheel now?? what the fuck happened to us??

Carlos-Titx

Off topic but if you can change a wheel you shouldn't drive. Annoys me seeing so many cars on the hard shoulder and a recovery mechanic changing the spare.

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

The RAC, AA etc should have a Ł50 call out charge for dumbfuck breakdowns like running out of fuel and flat tyres when you have a spare but are too dumbfuck to change it yourself.

Would make a few people think more. Ive got a mate whos run out of fuel several times as he normally drives round on the fuel light as he hates putting loads of fuel in he has a fuel can, rarely carries it in the car and never has it with fuel in.

I also know women who have had on thier first long journeys ring the boyfriend to find out how to fill it with fuel/open the fuel filler as normally for commuting the boyfriend fills it up for them at the weekend :

stevieturbo

Only a complete fool will think they can perform an emergency stop in a real life situation better and safer on their own with no ABS. And who said anything about reliance ? It is a safety aid and a bloody good one. Anyone who will crash on ice because of ABS, will crash on ice without ABS ! But IMO ABS and ESP etc should be compulsory on all cars. There may be the option to turn them off, but anything that can make cars safer for dummy drivers can only be a good thing....who knows, one of those drivers might even be you.
You cannot liken road driving and emergencies to track use with very predictable levels of grip, and predictable braking requirements in which case ABS will not be preferred or even needed.

And actually, when I did my test many years ago, using your mirrors was a very important part of the test and rightly so. If your tester or instructor told you to ignore your mirrors and only look straight ahead, then they shouldnt have licenses either !

And you seem to suggest that having more information available about your surroundings is a bad thing....quite a baffling train of thought. Maybe we should drive with blinkers on too ? So we dont get distracted ?

While there is some merit in that argument....so what about cars with no spare wheel ? Are those people ok....no point knowing how to change if if there isnt one to change ?

Have you ever come across a car where some dipshit in a garage hasnt performed proper maintenance with wheel bolts/nuts to actually make it possible to remove them with the shitty wheel brace provided with cars ?
Or should all owners now train as mechanics too ?....given people who claim to be mechanics cant even do their job properly which may then leave car owners in a shitty situation.

You pair must live in a master driver utopia....I rather suspect you both arent as shit hot drivers as you think you are.

Oranoco

I think you're getting a bit carried away. Nobody is saying ABS or other aids should be removed only that the driver should have the ability to drive without them. Performing an emergency stop without skidding is part of the test is it not. Far too many people stamp on the middle pedal and just let the electronics do the stopping. imho as soon as ABS kicks in you have failed in your task of controlling the vehicle.

With regards to training as mechanics nobody is suggesting that but some common basic knowledge should be a must. Number of times I've dealt with some soppy woman who has run their car out of oil and or water.

stevieturbo

Except the emergency stop in the driving test is totally unrealistic, and in a very controlled set of circumstances. The farthest thing from a real emergency as you could find. Even more predictable than on a race track.

And correct use of ABS IS to stand hard on the pedal and let it do it's job.


Back to parking sensors.

Ive bought from www.rearparkingsensors.co.uk a few years ago and have no complaints with them
I'd imagine most cheap kits are all the same anyway. Some might just carry higher price tags because they can.

Weird....website doesnt work anymore lol

GARETH T

I fucking love parking sensors.
I know someone who ran over there own daughter and killed her, I bet if they had parking sensors it wouldn't of happened

stevieturbo

That was just recently ? Might have only squashed half of her if they had sensors ?

cossiejay

love all the comments from the super drivers,i never had a accident in my life drivers,at the end of the day the question was are they any good ,yes they are mate

dojj

iTrader: (3)

i have parking sensors on my van, it's called a safe t bar

GARETH T

About a year ago. Terrible

1.9 xr2 on 40's

+1
they are great, i have them in my tranny factory fit and had a few cars with them, park as normal but if its tight you just know you can go that extra foot

we have a better liability thing with our insurance too as we are less likely to reverse into people lol
altho i did reverse into out fire escape when my van was about a week old lol, you couldnt notice but now the bumper is starting to show tension around the fixings lol

zack44

Am i right in saying that if you have a towbar fitted they could give an incorrect reading/bleeps?

stu21t

No.
Ive got autowatch digital sensors on the truck with a towbar and the work fine.