A3 8V Park Assist Front & Rear Retrofit?

asmetana

asmetana

Registered User
Joined
Dec 29, 2015
Messages
75
Reaction score
31
Points
18
Location
Northern California
Wondering if anyone has documented the park assist retrofit? I bought the full kit with color matched sensors and the instructions are a lacking in detail, namely in the electrical connections. I'm hoping that someone else has been through it and might be able to provide some insight, namely in the connections going into the BCM. I have a 2015 US-spec sedan 2.0 Quattro, Premium Plus with the 'high' electronics BCM. Already punched out the bumpers, mounted the sensors (front & rear) pulled cable, now ready for the connections and coding but before I start soldering, I thought I'd check with the collective wisdom.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fatyin and DJAlix
I don't have the answer but would love to do this too. Where did you source the parts? Was the install fairly elaborate. ..minus the pins going to the bcm module?
 
I found a couple of sources, Kufatec has it as does k-electronic-shop.de. I'm pretty sure k-electronic-shop.de re-sells the Kufatec kit (the part numbers on the harnesses are the same as Kufatec's) but k-electronic offered the kit with paint-matched sensors and they look great. K-electronic also offers the perfect punch for cutting the bumper, I didn't want to just run a drill through the bumper and this looks factory. Based on my past experience, however, Kufatec includes pretty good instructions whereas the k-electronic instructions are in German (not a big deal these days) but aren't exactly detailed nor clear.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rcnacura
Last edited:
rcnacura said:
I don't have the answer but would love to do this too. Where did you source the parts? Was the install fairly elaborate. ..minus the pins going to the bcm module?
Click to expand...
I didn't answer all of your question. The installation was not terribly difficult, but time consuming. Lots of bolts to come out as both the front and rear bumpers have to come off and have old but clean blankets lying around to set them on lest you scratch them up easily when they're off the car. I have a small Milwaukee Tools M12 impact driver that was the absolute perfect tool for the job with a handful of Torx bits and a couple of magnetic trays to hold all the bolts. Rear wheels don't need to come off but you have to lift the front and take the wheels off so a jack and stands are necessary. I'd say to plan on 2 - 3 hours per bumper and there are lots of documented procedures on removing the bumpers already. My car doesn't have headlight washers so it was unnecessary for me to disconnect the washer pump hose on the front. Running the interior cabling was the usual affair of pulling out the side plastic trim--first time is scary but after that it's a no-brainer. There is a small speaker for the rear that, from what I can tell, is supposed to go inside what the manual calls the right 'D-pillar' and I may just tuck it somewhere else in the back because I'm not excited about pulling that trim out. The speaker for the front, if I understand it, is supposed to tuck into the drivers footwell (and keep in mind this is an LHD car, so RHD may be different). The control module looks like it's supposed to attach to a bracket on the back side of the BCM but my car doesn't have it so I'll discretely zip tie it up there if I can't source the bracket.

Right now I've got the drivers' interior trim apart while I try to map things out a bit more. Gratefully the weather is nice and I'm mostly on my motorcycle so I can take my time on getting the car project sorted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rcnacura
One mod I'm still a little uneasy about just because cutting holes in the bumper. Looking forward to hearing how you get it all figured out. Few kits I've been looking at (I want this so I could have auto parallel parking for crowded SF) but was never sure if they came with instructions.

Hopefully someone can provide you with screen shots of what pin numbers the wires go into.
 
rcnacura said:
One mod I'm still a little uneasy about just because cutting holes in the bumper.
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, with the special punch, it was really easy to cut the holes. They're marked on the backside of the bumper with crosshairs. With the punch I got, you drill out a hole (in the middle of the crosshairs) about 1mm larger than the bolt on the punch, put the bolt through and the front side of the punch goes on the outside of the bumper and tighten it up. It slightly depresses the edges of the hole so it looks very finished. Not exactly the same punch but pretty close, in the video from 0 - 45 seconds; you don't need the second tool for pressing since the Audi kit has adhesive tape to attach the mount to the backside:

Sounds like you're in the Bay Area, I'm North Bay so if you decide to tackle it on your own, you're more than welcome to borrow my punch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rcnacura
Oh I had no idea that it was that easy! That actually makes it a breeze especially with the holes marked out. If you need help with the vcd coding let me know as I have an obdeleven which can get it all working.

Did you glue or staple the parking sensor brackets?
 
rcnacura said:
Oh I had no idea that it was that easy! That actually makes it a breeze especially with the holes marked out. If you need help with the vcd coding let me know as I have an obdeleven which can get it all working.

Did you glue or staple the parking sensor brackets?
Click to expand...
They come with some heavy-duty double sided tape, all pre-cut. Project is still in progress, I have to check the wires to the sensors. The harness comes without the pins inserted into the plugs at the front and back and there is printing on the cable to identify which pin goes where but it's really hard to read. I may have to stick my kids with their younger eyes in the trunk to be able to read them! After that, I'll take a stab at coding with my VCDS, I may still be in touch though!
 
  • Like
Reactions: rcnacura
Finally got it mostly wrapped up today. The toughest parts, and this will sound silly, were locating the CAN gateway module, and then correctly identifying the pins that insert into the plug that completes the front sensors and the same for the rears. I actually had to bring my two kids out with their young eyes to help me read the numbers printed on the cables. In VCDS it was easy to enable the module, though I haven't been able to determine how to make the settings/adjustments show up in the MMI. Right now, I have correct beeps for front and rear and in reverse, the corresponding sensors light up on the silhouette.

To clarify, this is just the front and rear parking sensors, it's not the semi-auto parking, though I just got the email that that kit is now available from k-electronic. I don't believe that option is available in the US spec cars though. Audi's nomenclature leaves something to be desired in this area.

So, the outstanding bits are this:

1. How to get the settings to show up in the MMI?
2. I have the $170 Chinese backup camera from eBay which is well-documented on this site. Visually when in reverse, the MMI screen shows the backup camera view and the car outline/silhouette and the sensors light up on it when near an object but it doesn't switch to the graphic when I push the corresponding MMI button, nor does the visual show up on the screen when I push the parking button. I don't know that the camera kit I have will permit it but I'd like at least for the visual to show up in forward drive when I want. Any guidance here would be appreciated.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fatyin
In case anyone is interested, an MMI reset got the front visual working following the VCDS programming, though I still don't have the option to select the visual when backing up via the eBay backup camera but it's not a big deal to me. Turns out the PLA (German for the semi-automatic parking) requires different bumpers than what the US cars come with due to the cutout for the sensors. Still looking into that more though...
 
  • Like
Reactions: rcnacura
hey asmetana, seems like you did a good job, i hope this thread is still alive, wanted to ask, if you completed the front parking sensor installation and got ir all working? im planning on installing on my a3, and would like to know which front parking sensors did you buy and where from? appreciate your answer
 
  • Like
Reactions: rcnacura
Antanas, yup, all is good with it and if you have the tools and patience, it's not too difficult a project, though time-consuming. I got the full kit from K-electronic and ordered it with pre-painted sensors. Instructions were in German and were so-so even translated. Long ship times and not the greatest technical support but with other forum members help, it turned out well. It's definitely a factory look and function.
 
They still don't put parking sensors as standard in these little A3's?

And here's me thinking autonomous driving/parking is going to be the theme of 2017.
 
i have rear sensors on mine, but not front, my plan is to retrofit sline, already have rear and front bumpers, and front bumper has the parking sensor holes in it, so it would make sense for me to retro fit it at the same time, just trying to figure out how complicated and expensive that is
 
since i have rear parking already, i dont really need to buy it again :) thats one very good question, i was looking all over for information about wiring but cant really find it :/ i think unfortunately you have to root the wires around
 
  • Like
Reactions: rcnacura
Hi everyone, im getting this kit, not sure if the main module would be able to support park assist (automatic) as well (Ive read in kufatec, that you must replace the typical main module for the rear/front sensors with a newer one)
But looks like it comes with all the required hardware except the cable for the rear one, and the 4 side sensors... can anyone confirm? Thanks folks!
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/For-...32779914269.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.0.tiM55C
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
A3 8V PARK ASSIST NOT PARK SENSORS
Replies
23
Views
11K
m rol
m rol
asmetana
Park Assist (PLA) Coding
Replies
94
Views
29K
Rcord
R
J
Perpendicular Park assist?
Replies
3
Views
2K
cemerson
C
T
Rear and Front Park Sensors Retrofit
Replies
17
Views
8K
martinlop
martinlop
CK87
Side assist retrofit
Replies
10
Views
4K
CK87
CK87
Top
Back