Gadget Review: Dolphin Parking Sensors

A few weeks ago my wife passed her driving test and began to drive my Vauxhall Zafira. Being a new driver, the Zafira being a little large and being a sucker for gadgets I thought it a good plan to fit some parking sensors. My reasoning being the cost to remedy any reserving mishaps my wife may make, would far out way the cost of fitting parking sensors.

After reading the old review in AutoExpress comparing numerous brands, I choose the review winner, the Dolphin Parking System. Considering they could be ordered pre-coloured to match my car and were supplied with cutting tools, they were a no brainer. The specific model I went for was the DPS450, which is four rear sensors and a dash mounted display/buzzer unit. This version with the display, was only £!0 more than the base system, seemed like a good deal to me.

Installation

Fitting the sensors was reasonably straight forward on my Vauxhall Zafira (old shape). I found a good guide to installation on the Astra Owners Club forums here, showing fitting on a Zafira GSI, which is very similar to a normal Zafira. The first step was removing the rear bumper, which was just a series of screws, some in the rear wheel arches, some along the bottom underneath. I had my towbar in situ, which made it a little tricky, freeing the bumper over the top of it.

Tip: Wrap a cloth bag over the towbar, prior to removing the bumper, so that you don’t scuff/scratch the paintwork on it.

The next step was drilling holes in the bumper, which entailed lots of careful measurements. I also wanted the centre two to be spaced a little further out, so as to avoid my towbar. Some school boy trigonometry was in order to calculate this distance required to prevent the 60 degrees of the sensor coverage overlapping with the towbar (and plug). The lower half of my bumper was angled too much, to allow the sensors to work accurately (ideally they need to point perfectly horizontally). The upper bit of my bumper was just about OK, however the kit is supplied with angled (colour coded) washer to adjust the sensors angle slightly.

Tip: Measure twice, cut once! Put masking tape on paintwork, for a cleaner cut. Drill a guide hole first.

The kits was supplied with a 21mm drill bit, which went though the ABS bumper fine. However directly behind my ABS bumper, there is a sold steel crash bar which left no room for the sensors (they extend back about 2.5cm). To overcome this I had to drill further holes in this crash bar to accommodate the sensors. The supplied drill bit was useful on this steel. I had to purchase a special bit for the job (£20 in Homebase!), I opted for a 25mm one, just to give me some lateral leeway. These two sets of holes made replacing the bumper tricky, as the sensors could only be pushed in all their way, once the bumper was in place and perfectly lined up with the crash bar.

The next step was laying cables; I fed the sensors wires through the left hand grommet in the boot, which already had my towbar electrics cable through it. Laying the cable to the dash display was a little more involved. The display I mounted just in front of my rev/speedo dials, feeding the cable down the side of the dials, through into fuse box area, then down to floor, then tucked under the rubber trim/carpet down the side of the car, right back to the boot. Then it crossed to the other side of car in the boot storage area into the passenger side cubby compartment. Its here that I mounted the control box, on top of the rear wheel arch. This may have been easier if the display unit could have been unplugged from the long cable. At least the sensor cables could be unplugged from the sensors (and control box).
The control is then wired to the rear light cluster, merely power and ground, power coming from the reverse light signal. This is simple enough with some crimps or Scotchlok’s.

In use
Once everything was connected, the Dolphin Parking System, worked exactly as expected. When reverse is engaged, the control unit is powered up. The system beep initially to indicate its active, then will only beep as you approach an obstacle.

‘m glad I paid the extra £10 for the dash display unit, it has many benefits that aren’t obvious. Firstly you have a switch on top of it to turn the beeper on/off. Secondly it gives you an accurate distance (in metres) away from the obstacle behind, handy as the beeping remains a constant tone once below 0.3m, to show which side is closest and also to allow yourself exactly enough room to open the boot.

Build quality
The sensors themselves were coloured nicely and were a good match to my car (Vauxhall flame red). They are made from red plastic, rather than just painted, so shouldn’t chip. Ditto the angled spacers are colour coded to match. Each sensors has a short cable (approx 10cm long) with a screw locking plug to attach to the main cable.
The display is of sound quality, with nice bright lights. As mentioned earlier, it may have been easier to route the cable if it could have been detached from it.
The control unit a basic black box, however I found the cable connections on it awkward. A little tight and tricky to remove once in. I also managed to push one plug in a bit far and was a little afraid it would break from the board inside.
A couple of weeks after fitting, one sensors died on me; it would cause the unit to report a constant beep all the time. After some swapping of cables/sensors I narrowed it down to a single sensor. On emailing the company, they popped a replacement in the post same day, no questions, no need to return the old one. Top service, can’t get better than that. Being able to unplug the sensors from their wire helped out a lot here, no need to remove bumper again, just slackened off wire a bit and unplugged them in situ.

Conclusion
Overall, I’ve been very pleased with these sensors. They were a little involved to fit, but it was only one afternoon. Dolphin do offer a fitting service at your home (£80 mind), in case you aren’t so confident. Either way, certainly worth while. My wife has found is very useful with manoeuvres. In hers words, she finds as she gained more confidence, she uses it less – surely a good thing. At the end of the day, for an experienced drivers its certainly not essential, just handy for the odd awkward bit of parking. For those less experienced its a valuable aid, to give reassurance and help build up confidence.