I had front parking sensors fitted to my new Venga today. This is a report on how the job was done.
Ready-steady-go the car bonnet up and paint protectors in place.
The first task is to remove the front Bumper assembly.
There are 4 screws along the top as can be seen in the above photo, One screw above the wheel arch each side and 3 screws under the bottom of the bumper each side. The bumper is then carefully pulled away from the spigots around its periphery where it meets the side bodywork.
This is a shot of the front of the car looking rather naked.
If you ever need to access the washer bottle water pump or horn – they are on the offside of the car behind the front bumper.
The next stage is to place the bumper on foam protected stands and remove the energy absorber. This is held in place by a metal clip at each end which grip a spigot projecting from the bumper moulding.
Here is a shot with the energy absorber removed making the bumper ready for the sensor positions to be carefully marked out. A 2 mm pilot hole was then drilled at the position of each sensor followed by an 8 mm drill to enable a Cobra tool to be used to create the sensor holes.
Before the holes are punched the inner face of the bumper is thoroughly cleaned with spirit then given a coating of a cleaning primer fluid supplied with the Cobra kit. It is done at this stage because it keeps the primer away from the front of the bumper – where it would damage the paint.
This is a shot of the half of the Cobra punch tool that sits on the outside of the bumper. An 8mm bolt passes through this punch and then through a die in the inner face of the bumper surmounted by a nut. Tightening the nut pulls the punch through the bumper and creates a dead sized hole with a nice rounded edge on the outer face. Using a hole saw is not recommended.
This is a shot of the hole it creates. It’s difficult to photograph but there is a rounded edge to the front of hole which still retains original paint.
The Cobra sensors are in two pieces – an outer sensor mounting collar and the sensor itself which fits inside the collar at an adjustable depth to suit the thickness of the bumper.
The collar is attached to the inside face of the bumper with a double backed adhesive ring supplied with the kit. You must ensure that the sensor connectors are pointing vertically down
The wiring loom can then be connected to the sensors. The wires come marked with the sensor numbers which go 1 to 4 from left to right. After plugging in the wires to the sensors the weatherproof rubber boots are clipped in place and the wires run across the bumper toward the nearside of the car. The bumper has some convenient loops moulded into its inner surface which provides ideal points to use cable ties to hold the wires in place
Once the wires are run across the bumper they are wrapped together using fabric wrapping tape for their full length where they are already terminated with small plugs that go into sockets on the sensor control box (which is yet to be mounted in the car).
The energy absorber is then replaced on the inside of the bumper and retained with the metal gripper clips.
The bumper can now be reinstalled on the car at the same time routing the cable harness to the inside of the engine compartment, round the top suspension strut mount then down to where there is a cable run through a large grommet in the bulkhead.
This grommet is not easy to reach – it pays to be slim, fit and dextrous which might rule out a DIY job for a few of our members.
Once the sensor wires have been passed through the grommet the assembly is rendered secure and weatherproof with appropriate tape.
Before mounting the ECU control box to the bulkhead behind the glove box, it was connected to a laptop computer and programmed using Cobra software. The technician can set the sensitivity and range of each sensor to suit the installation. In my case it was set to first detect at 100 cms, then start multi beeping at 70 cms followed by the continuous warning at 35 cms.
The sensor controller has to be wired to an ignition controlled source and the one chosen was the wiring to the power socket in the central binnacle. It was necessary to remove the side panels in the footwells and the panel surrounding the gear lever to do this.
The standard Cobra front sensor installation is activated when you select reverse gear and remains active as long as reverse gear is selected. This is to ensure the front sensors are on when you reverse out from between two vehicles and give you a warning if you swing the front of the car round prematurely. After activation, if the front system does not detect an obstacle within 10 or 60s it deactivates. Time out can be set to 10s or 60s.
The system will reactivate by either, engaging reverse gear, pressing the switch or turning the ignition/engine off and back on.
I didn’t want this mode of operation – I went for the provision of an on-off switch mounted on the side of the central binnacle that switched the sensors on or off at will. My previous i30’s and Venga had the sensors wired like this and enabled me to leave them active permanently. Thus neither I, nor my wife, had to remember to switch them on when parking (or de-parking)
After the system was tested the ECU was mounted behind the glove box, the beeper mounted in the base of the central binnacle and all the trim replaced.
The whole job took 3.5 hours.
Here is the end result – you can see the 4 front sensors in the bumper but they are not obvious and look as sleek as a factory installation
Here is a close-up of a sensor. It is dead flush with the bumper surface.
Finally a word about the installer.
I located Professional Retrofits Ltd by Googling for “Cobra Parking Sensor Installers”.
Their website can be found here :-
OE Style Flush Mount Cobra Parkmaster R0394 and F0394Their workshop is located near Nuneaton in the Midlands – but they provide at extra cost a mobile fitting service at your home if further afield.
Because Nuneaton is not too far from my home, I elected to have the work carried out at their workshop, which is located in a small industrial estate. I took the car there this morning and as soon as the owner Paul Ostrowski opened the roller shutter door for me to drive in, I knew from my 60 years experience in engineering, that I was in safe hands. His workshop is immaculate with everything in its place and Paul oozes experience and confidence.
We first discussed what type of installation I wanted before Paul got to work. He was kind enough to let me watch and photograph the work as it progressed and I was impressed with his methodical and tidy approach throughout. He is a true professional. This was the first KIA Venga he had worked on so he proceeded with due caution – being on a learning curve the anticipated time to do the work took about 30 minutes longer than expected. No big deal – time is something I am not short of.
My message is – if you are based in the UK and want to have parking sensors, aftermarket cruise control, Bluetooth or other gadgets fitted to your car – I can thoroughly recommend Professional Retrofits – they live up to their name.
Another tip - there are plenty of cheap sensor kits advertised on the web and Ebay, and some of them may well work OK. However - one of my friends bought a cheap kit off the internet for his SEAT and decided to do the installation himself. After three days of struggle he could not get it working properly, the supplier was unhelpful and he eventually gave up. Having seen an experienced professional do the installation using the proper tools - I guess that only a very brave and/or experienced person could do the work satisfactorily. To fit flush sensors properly you really need to buy a leading brand - and in the UK none are better than Cobra who supply Hyundai, KIA and other leading cars manufacturers for OEM factory fitting. You also need to factor in the purchase of a proper punch to cut the holes - this costs £40 and then you have to calibrate the installation which is a long and frustrating manual job without the Cobra software which is provided only to their registered installers.
