Back Up Sensor Install How To

My Install guide for the CrimeStopper Back Up Sensors; I bought these rather than a camera because I always turn around to backup and don’t hook up to a trailer, so a camera isn’t a good option for me. This was $30 at Walmart, and can be found easily on the rest of the internet. Anyway, this install is really not that hard, you just have to get past the fact that you have to drill your bumper, and because you cant undo that.

Here’s the unboxed kit:




The included instructions are useless, in the electrical hookup portion is just says “do it correctly…”, really… I planned to do it wrong.






So for some tools you will likely need:
High Speed Corded Drill
Tape & Marker
Silicon
Conduit ~10’
Zip Ties
Electrical Tape
Wire Tap
Dremel
¾” Hole Saw or 21mm Hole Saw (quality one)
Center Punch & Hammer

I started by taping off the area that I would drill into, this allowed me to mark all 4 sensor locations, and then you can check out the placement.



Start Drilling after you use the center punch to start you off:


The finished hole, I cleaned it up with my dremel, and test fitted the sensor:


** Before you get out the silicon, tape the front of the sensors off, apparently if you get anything (water/paint/silicon/etc) in the grove between the sensor and the bezel you can mess up the sensors. ** I did not do this and had to go back and clean out some silicon from the grove, because the silicon gets everywhere… :/

**** I talked to the manufacturer, they recommend against using any glue,silicon, they claim that messes up the sensors. Not sure how else to protect the bumper from rusting... ****

They are also claiming that any pressure on the sensors causes them to miss read distance.


See the sensor and the backing plate here:


Use the silicon to coat the hole and sensor to prevent rust:


Install the sensor and the backing plate to secure the sensor, and repeat 3 more times:


Installed:


So the cheapo hole saw that came with the kit lasted for one hole, so I went from the 21mm hole saw that came with the kit to a ¾” hole saw from Lowes, it required additional dremel sanding to open the holes up, but the fit was much better, and it took me a hour to get the first hole with the supplied hole saw, and the other 3 holes took me an hour total with the quality hole saw.



Burnt up!


I did not see any meaning for the “A-B-C-D” labels on the wires, the sensors where not labeled, and there was no instructions on connecting the wires in a certain order.

Now it is time for the conduit, this isn’t required, but makes things cleaner:

Endless wire, almost 16’ of wire, and you need it!





Now to snake it from the bumper to the cab, I started by running it next to the brake/reverse light wires, on the drivers side. I then went over the wheel well, came back down and ran up along the underside of the cab, and to the boot that goes into the cab for the other wires.

Looking aft, from where the boot is to go into the cab:


Snaking the cables through the boot, I removed the boot from the body, and snaked the cables through one at a time, it is a really tight fit, and you have to remove the factory electrical tape. Then run the wires into the cab, they come up underneath the drivers seat, and finally replace the boot:



Next, I ran the wires towards the center console, under the shifter panel there is a lot of space for the control module, getting the wires there took some time. I mounted the control module to the inside of the center console out of sight, and started to run the power cable back to the drivers side door sill and up to the reverse light cable shown here. I also ended up taking the drivers seat out, this made things so much easier, but I did not unplug the cables from the seat, I just shifted the drivers seat back a foot so I could work:

I would not recommend putting the control unit in the center console, too much work.





Splice into the reverse power cable and find a place to ground it to:
(this image it not of my truck, I forgot to grab a picture from my actual install, but the wire that I tapped into for reverse light power is the same one pointed out in this picture, only difference was my wire was red with a white stripe)


I tapped the wire in the wire bundle under the seat, and was all set.


Time to run the supplied speaker someplace, I went behind my second row of seats, the speaker is rather loud even on the “low” setting, so I hid it under the driver side rear seat, seatbelt cover panel.

Time to Test: This has and is turning into a nightmare, I was at first getting a constant beep, as if the system thought I was 0-1 ft from something, I disconnected all the sensors, and connected them one by one trying each on out to locate the issue, I also started rotating the sensor to “aim” them, which you should NOT need to do since they are round… I finally got the entire system to get quiet while I was reversing around nothing and then it would beep as it is supposed to around objects as I backed up towards them. All good right… Nope, now I am getting a intermittent beep when I start backing up and there is nothing around, the sensors are picking up something, not sure what, maybe a bad sensor in the bunch, because I have isolated the issue down to one sensor, I think… For now it is installed and I will fiddle with it later. I plan to call the manufacturer and talk to them, the install guide basically says if something doesn’t work, then the entire system is defective and should be returned… I am not ripping out all of the wiring at this point, and if I do I would put in a different system.

Not sure if I would recommend this system, it is nice, it looks like it is quality made, but these little headaches are ruining if for me at the moment. My wife has the Honda sonar system and I love it, but it is $360, well I found it and it looks to be rather universal, just sold by Honda.

I will update this if I come across anything that resolves the issues that I am having.

Oh, go back and zip tie all the cables under the truck out of the way, I mostly just zip tied it to the existing wire bundle that was under there.

Final look from the back:

 

I also consider doing them. Can you post a picture of what your truck looks like from behind with the sensors?

 

Great job!!! I will be doing mine next.

 

Yep, tomorrow when there is daylight. I like how they look, just wish they worked better.

 

Update:

I drove to work today, and as soon as I put it in reverse it had a constant beep. I tried it a few times, same thing.

I called the manufacturer, and we talked for awhile, told me to remove the silicon, and turn the sensors and unplug each sensor and test the system again and make sure the sensors are not too tight in the holes... All of this I did already and told him that. Only thing he said that I haven't done is to move the control unit, said it might be picking up interference from something. I will try this tomorrow and post an update. At the moment the entire system is unplugged, until I can test a few things, it is 20 degrees out right now, and dark.

Last thing the tech said was I may need to return it to were I bought it, or call them and ask for a RMA.

 

I have a backup system installed. I bought it from ebay. Take the control box apart, it is two pieces. There should be an adjuster screw on each of the inputs right on top of the circuit board. You can adjust the sensitivity. Be careful, it is fragile.

 

This is going to void the crap out of the warranty, not that it isn't worth trying. If it comes to that then I will take some pictures.

I have been reading some reviews on other systems, AudioVox seems to have a quality system the PSB100,

Audiovox PSB100 Basic Front/Rear Sensor System

http://www.amazon.com/Audiovox-PSB100-Basic-Sensor-System/dp/B003XM6KWE, depending on how this pans out this week, I may be ordering this system.

 

Ok, so I tried a few other things, and decided to rip open the control box as you said, and here are some pictures:





I was careful and the warranty sticker is intact! YES!

Anyway, took it back out to try and "tune" it, using a small flathead I adjusted the 4 black circular knobs with the red sealant on them, one sensor at a time, the first three sensors showed promise that this would work, and then the last sensor failed to be tunable, so I left it unplugged and tried the other 3 out. Well, I wish I had good news. once I set the control unit down, on my lap it started the constant beeping again. I narrowed down the issues to two things, first one of the sensors is shit, and second and this is much more of an issue, the connectors between the sensor wires and control unit are extremely loose, and if you move the wires even slightly then the constant beep comes back.


So time to sleep on it and think about taking it out and back to Walmart, then give the AudioVox system.

 

That is the exact circuit board that I have. I did have a problem with the first one and had them send me a new control box only. I still had to adjust the sensitivity but mine works fine now.

 

Any progress on the install and did you have better luck with a different manufacture?