Haynes' World is a regular feature that takes a look at what the staff at Haynes are doing with their vehicles. This time, Euan's been repairing a rear parking sensor after a car park ding.
The dreaded car park bump. Had to happen. Does so to everyone sooner or later if they’re a car owner. And last month, it happened to me and my Skoda Yeti.
I parked my car in my local supermarket car park and wandered off to get the usuals. However, when I returned to the Yeti and got ready to open the boot, I noticed that something wasn’t quite right with the rear bumper. It appears that someone had hit the rear bumper, and had dislodged one of the rear parking sensors slightly. It was, in effect, ‘looking’ at the inside of the bumper, so was screaming at me that something was RIGHT BEHIND ME. Wrong, and annoying.
The good news is that my car is an entry-level S model (mainly because I didn’t want any of that dangerous touchscreen nonsense in my car), so has a black plastic rear bumper, with no paint to get scratched. So, there was no other blemish on the bumper, aside from the sensor itself being pushed inwards. Annoying but fixable. And was there a note left on the windscreen? Of course not.
So, once the shopping had been put away, I began preparations. Tools were dug out of the shed, my Bluetooth speaker was set and a playlist selected (a calming one, since the day had already proved frustrating), and the kettle was placed on DEFCON 2.
Bumper removal
The bumper removal procedure begins with removing the rear lights, which is simply a case of undoing a couple of screws and unplugging them.
After that, I had to prise away a couple of plastic panels at either side of the tailgate to expose the rear bumper mountings. I undid the nuts either side, then unscrewed the screws holding the bumper to each rear wheelarch and liner, and pulled out a couple of clips. Finally, it was a case of removing three clips along the bottom edge of the bumper, and the bumper has clearly been off at some point in the past because these had been replaced by three cable ties. Anyway, I then prised the bumper from place.
Once I’d unplugged each sensor, I placed the bumper on a tarpaulin to protect it. Easy peasy. Brew and a biscuit beckoned.
Parking sensors fitted
Then it was simply a case of re-glueing the parking sensor mount back in place, and once the glue had dried completely, pressing the sensor back into the mount so that it clipped back into place.
Thereafter, I held the bumper up to the back of the car, and plugged in each sensor before sliding it into place, and beginning the process of re-attaching all the clips, screws and nuts (and in my case, cable ties).
Once everything was back in place, I put the car in reverse, walked behind it, and every sensor worked exactly as it should. Job done. Until the next clumsy oaf barges into it in a car park, obviously.
