Rear Parking Assist _ Circuit 2/7 (optional component)

<< Forward parking sensors                     Mount Headlights and Turn signals >>

Major System Category: Electronics
Task: Run cables for rear parking assist sensors
Parts: Optional part (parking assist sensors)
Power Cell: 2
Circuit: 7 - BLUE
Master cell: TAN/RED
Prerequisite Tasks: Mount the body
Additional Costs: $50
Time Requirement: 1 hour
Date Started: September 1, 2012
Date Completed: September 1, 2012
The GTM rear window is about as wide as a mail box slot. In terms of being useful for parking maneuvers, I am not planning to count on it. As the body is a major part of the build, I would like to avoid hitting things (like curbs and walls). Earlier this year (as part of the planning phase), I purchased parking assist sensors.

The parking sensor cables are enclosed in the wire loom running along the lip of the body shell. I  simply extract the  cable at the necessary point and taped it (temporarily to the body shell). Orientation: facing rear of car from inside the engine compartment.

I don't plan to rely solely on the parking assist sensors and my good luck. I also plan to install forward and rear cameras to assist moving the car about in tight environments. I ran the wiring for the parking sensors, wrapped it in wire loom. When I did this, I fully anticipated that I would be ordering the ISIS system by the end of the month. However, one of the things I promised not to do was compromise safety. I ended up redirecting my funds to aluminum fuel tanks and foregoing the fuel tank modification outlined in the build manual.

I have the control box taped to the inside of the body shell. Orientation: Taken from inside the engine compartment.

I bundled the four sensors into a wiring harness, and labelled the four sensors as follows:

• Left
• Left Center
• Right Center
• Right

These designations correspond to the control box. The sensors themselves adhere to the inside of the rear body shell using 3M automotive adhesive tape. I may have to augment this with Car Goop. The interesting thing about having the shell mount is that I can see how much room I have to play with. There is actually more room than implied by the chassis.

Speaker cable running along the rear roll bar member routed up from the passenger side. There is a enough slack in the cable to run this to the driver's side. The roll bar is behind the firewall and rear cockpit glass, so I will have to route the speaker cable over that for final installation. Orientation: Passenger side roll bar taken from the engine compartment.

I located the rear box on the passenger above the splash panels. I plan to attach the control box to the inside of the body shell. For now it is held there with Gorilla tape and a clamp. I connected the power leads. These sensors get their power from a patch to the reverse lights. I always figured I would run the speaker cables into the tunnel and punch through the tunnel wall into the cockpit. I discovered I can run the speaker cable up to the roll bar and secure the speaker inside cockpit on the roof. It will be covered by the headliner. This is a much more elegant solution than my original concept..

Acrylic mounting plate. Orientation: From inside the engine bay facing the passenger side. You can see the  rear passenger coil over on the right of the photo.

Update: I got around to finding a permanent home for this module.I cut a 5 x 5 inch acrylic square (I have been working with acrylic to mold some pieces for a center console compartment.) I mounted the sensor module on the acrylic using 3M double sided tape, then I mounted the acrylic inside the splash guards on the passenger side. This is slightly aft and below the ECU mount on the passenger side. I cannot finish mounting the sensors to the back body shell until I'm done taking it off and on (or until late 2014).

Same place with the sensor module mounted. If anyone has any doubts about labeling  cables, rest assured that all I had to do was read my labels and reconnect them to the correct ports on the sensor module. This is a whole lot easier than tracing the cables back to the other end.