Took my two rear tires/rims off and dropped them off at the local ship to get two fresh tires since my old ones were borderline bald again. Decided to keep the Continental Extreme Contact DWS06 tires. I was very happy with how quiet the last pair were up until the point to where there was not any tread left.
While the tires were off, I decided to take the rear bumper off and install a blind spot and a backup system. I always end up parking with too much room in the back when I switch to the crossfire because I am used to having to leave more room in my Ford Ranger and Audi S4. Pictures below of how it turned out
Do you see the sensors in the picture above? No? Good
I wanted to keep the outside as clean looking as possible so I found two under the bumper systems that use radar instead of the laser/ultrasonic ones that you have to drill into the bumper for.
The two sensors you see in the middle of this picture are for backing up only. They work through the plastic bumper and the system has an audio beep for how close you get. There is an led strip as well but I left it disconnected as the audio was more than loud enough over my music. All I had to do for mounting for these two is cut out two rectangles in the foam behind the bumper. They slid into their new homes and were held in place perfectly by the back plastic piece that goes over the foam to hold it in.
The above picture is one of two sensor that is mounted at a 30 degree angle on the inside of the bumper. This is for the blind pot system and also aids in reverse. As a car is pulling up and enters the blind spot, there is a LED on the pillar that lights up. If I turn my blinker on while there is a car in that blind spot, the LED flashes and the systems beeps. If I am reversing and an object starts to move towards the back end of the car (like if im pulling out of a parking spot and a car is driving by where I cannot see it), the proper LED for the side the car is approaching on will flash and the system will beep.
I did not bother showing pictures of the LED's on the pillars because I do not like the way they look and they are temporary until I make something that looks better.
The wiring was very easy. I was able to connect most of the wiring to the rear reverse lights and turn signals. The only wires I had to run to the front of the car were for the LED's and for the accessory. I connected the accessory wire to my relay board I have so i can integrate it into the touch screen in a future software update. This will be in case I want to disable it for any reason. I try to build everything into software that I can so I do not have any aftermarket buttons around the car. What I do need buttons for, I have had success with adding capactive sensors as you have probably seen in one of my previous posts so they are invisible.