Parking sensors or lack of and Towbars?

[Richard93Vogue]

Hi,

Should my 2007 si6 SE spec freelander have the parking sensors or were these an option for this model? There is no over-ride botton on the dash so I can only assume there is none.

I am also trying to find a tow bar for it. Will the lack of said sensors make it easier to wire up? Best price so far is $705 delivered diy fit up. Comes with ecu from Towbars Australia at Nambour (although their website is down tonight for some reason). Anyone had any better price than that?

Richard.

[RIN03]

No parking sensors is a good thing when it comes to towbars. I paid $750 installed but for the parking sensor people you need the landrover wiring kit unless you are good with wires and wit a switch.

[Richard93Vogue]

thanks Jimbo.

So being as I dont have the sensors, do I need any special electrickery or just a plain tow bar and tailer plug? Do you know what the trailer ecu does?

[woko]

The trailer ECU is to control the trailer lights and switches off the reverse sensors. You can not just tap into the wiring for the tail lights as the light module will shut that system down due to the extra current on that circuit due, to the extra lights of the trailer.

My 2007 TD4 SE has parking sensors but no override button. It does have a genuine tow bar so the trailer ECU shuts down the park sensors.

[Richard93Vogue]

Ahhh, so perhaps mine does have the sensors.....only had it a week and its only done about 30km in our possesion so I might not have gotten close enough to anything to excite the sensors enough to make them squeal?:D

What you say about the ecu makes sense about the extra load on the curcuits. Thanks for the info.

[RIN03]

I did have my towbar installed by tapping into the lhs tail light and everything worked fine except my reverse sensors did not cut out so i cant see it being a problem if you do not have the sensors. You should be able to notice them on bumper if you have them and when you put it in reverse you will hear a beep. I have however installed the landrover ecu since. Apparantly it does also change the auto gearing I have the manual though

[Richard93Vogue]

I managed to find a supplier for the Hayman Reece tow bar assembly which came with the wiring loom and computer for just over $600. I fitted it myself and am proud to say that I am very well versed in FL2 rear bumper removal and reinstallation having done it TWICE:mad: owing to following the instructions blindly and not reading the entire document first like they told me too.....who does that anyway??? Like the fake test they gave you at school stressing that you must read all the way to the end first and not bothering, then finding out that the last question tells you to simply write your name on the page and that is it.......;)

anyway, turns out I have park sensors but someone has disconnected them perhaps when the aftermarket stero was put in?

[Meken]

The "ecu" that comes from Hayman Reece is only to protect the car circuits from over voltage etc. the oem trailer wiring kit from landrover is the one that has the ecu to tell the car ecu that there is a trailer attached and do things like turn off the rear sensors and alter auto gear changes and activate the trailer sway stabilisation in the stability programmes. - it's wiring at the sockets is a bit tricky and doesn't come with wiring diagramme (it is downloaded from LR parts website after subscribing).
The landrover wiring retail is $798 + install. Rover spares in Adelaide will sell you used bar & wiring but then you need to find someone to install & landrover still have to do the programming to tell the car that the trailer wiring ecu has been installed!
Apparently the trailer wiring ecu is very picky and doesn't like having the ebc red wire tapped to it (for brake signal) and LR go to the trouble of putting in a relay onto the cold side of brake light switch to draw ebc signal.
The brake lights wiring comes from fets which apparently don't like having extra current drawn from them too. Then there's the pulse width modulation which will possibly make your led trailer lights blink mildly