New Member And Rear Parking Sensors On A C4

[KingsleyB]

Hi all,

I'm new to this country and brand of car. I just relocated here from South Africa and had to buy a car. I found a rather nice 2010 C4 with 11,000 miles on it with the, new to me, gearbox. It's a 1,6 ltd. diesel. Also new to me, diesel, that is. So far I'm pretty impressed. Suspension may be a touch jarring but the gearbox and all the extras are rather nice. The economy is very impressive and the motor pulls well without making me think I'm in a truck or a tractor. The only after market thing that I'm going to install is a rear parking sensor system. A real must have, in my opinion. I did order from Navtec, the latest mapping SD card which arrived today and is installed. Now I need to go for a drive and see if I can see any difference on the satnav.

 

So, anything that I should be aware of of look at that is a weak point? Or any other advice in general, will be much appreciated.

[paul.h]

Welcome to the forum and the UK.

On the C4 Technical section there is a pinned post with common problems that I am gradually building up but our C4s have been reliable. On the 1.6 hdi engine it requires at least annual or 12500 miles oil and filter changes, whichever comes first, since it has had a reputation for turbo failures. Before stopping the engine, it should be left to idle for some time to give the turbo time to slow down, as for any turbo car, and the handbooks have a note on this.

[KingsleyB]

Hi,

Thanks for that. I have noted the turbo cooling advice and will stick to that. I have read about injectors that leak and the turbo problems although, in most cases, it appears that owners are happy and reliability sounds quite acceptable. So far it's a very acceptable ride and as I got a 12 month full Citroen warranty with it I am fairly confident that it will be fine. Time will tell, I guess.

[KingsleyB]

Hi all, well, I bought an after market rear sensor kit off Amazon. It has 4 colour coded rear sensors and a wireless indicator that has to be mounted and powered inside the car. It came with a hole saw as well. So, I cut the holes and mounted the sensors. I had to modify the system used to hold the sensors in place as they wouldn't sit flush. Having trimmed the soft rubber wedges a little I got a neat seating of the sensor but, then they wern't firmly held in place so I used a very little drop of clear glue and that seems to have done the trick. I suppose it may be a problem removing them again but I'm working on the pricipal that they are supposed to be a permanent fixture. Wiring was fed through a grommet that already has the wiring to the rear fog light and reverse light from the spare wheel well. I peeled off the insulation tape around the wiring loom and using a pin and a meter, found the power supply to the reverse light and tapped a power supply off that to the reverse sensor control box. The wire from each sensor also fed through the same grommet into the spare wheel well. Connected everything up, tested same and re-arranged connections from the sensors in order to get the correct indications on the indicator. I then found that mounting the indicator unit on top of the interior rear view mirror worked a treat and a power supply was taken off the interior light fitting close to the rear view mirror. No need to cut anything or make any holes either. And wiring tucks away very neatly. So now whn reversing, by looking in the rear view mirror you are also looking at the reversing indicator and you get indications in distance with a "beep" sound from about a meter away to a solid, constant "beeeep" at 0,5 meter distance. Also, you are given an indication of whether the obstruction is to the left or right or straight behind. The only negative is that the "beep" sound is very loud and is not adjustable. I stuck a bit of black rubber on top of the indicator and covered some small holes that I thought were outlets for the sound. I don't think it's made it any quieter though. So I'll just live with the loud "beep" when I reverse towards an object in the way.

So, A successful purchase and installation that was easy and quick to do. It took about 1 or 1,5 hours to do . And the colour match is not bad either. In my case, silver.

 

So if any member here wants any more info, just drop me a line.

[paul.h]

Useful info, I will pin this topic so easy to find. Which sensor kit did you fit ?

[KingsleyB]

I forget the brandname but I bought it off Ebay for £24 and some pence. It's advertised with a wireless LED indicator. The picture shows the 4 sensors, a control box and the wireless indicator.

[john h]

hopefully I too will be fitting an aftermarket reversing sensor system but am opting for the wired system, had a quick feel under the bumper of my 2008 c4 pic to see what room there is for the sensors, space is a bit tight but theres a chance they will just fit between the moulded bumper contours and a horizontal metal bar, its mucky under there, soot from the exhaust that ends behind the bumper. I doubt I will be fitting the light display but relying on mirrors and the tone of the buzzer

[john h]

Sun came out and I spent 5, yes 5, hours fitting the sensors, it was bad enough drilling the plastic bumper hoping to avoid the metal one behind, thought the hard bit was over then but I was wrong, damn Citroen for putting the reverse lights in the tailgate which is where I ended up picking the feed, couldn't figure out the harness to link in a more convenient place, trouble is now they are a bit too sensitive could do with some form of adjustment on the control box, are you listening Mr Chinaman

[Johndouglas]

damn Citroen for putting the reverse lights in the tailgate

Yes! Likewise on the C5 X7 Tourer with the reverse lights in the tailgate. Fortunately I was also wiring for a towbar so it was worth the fiddling. In my case, drilling the bumper and fitting the wiring was a doddle.

[john h]

After all that work not overwhelmed with the result, I have had better results in the past when I did a xsara pic, this unit wants to flash and beep like crazy as soon as reverse is selected, distance readout is up and down like a yoyo

[Johndouglas]

this unit wants to flash and beep like crazy as soon as reverse is selected, distance readout is up and down like a yoyo

My kit isn't quite so sophisticated. No distance readout - just a beep when selecting reverse, then an increasingly rapid beep as an obstruction is approached.

 

Mine is ebay item 251244495581

[john h]

Mine was dirt cheap off ebay so its no great loss to ditch it and put plugs in the bumper, I will go for the tried and tested Meta numberplate mounting type instead, I had this on my x/pic and it was very good. Beauty of this is that with the reverse lights being in the tailgate wiring will be absolutely minimal with both sensor and buzzer in the same location as the power