150 Kakadu Issues with Headlight washers & sensors after TJM steel bar installation

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

Hi everyone,

Looking to get some advice on how to resolve the following issues

2 months ago, I had a T3 TJM steel bar installed on my Kakadu. At the time, I asked the workshop whether they can cut the bumper rather than using “eyebrows” / infills, as I had read about quality issues with the eyebrows. Two issues have come up since the installation:

1) The parking sensors are set off inconsistently, i.e. sometimes they work pretty much as they should, but more often than not the front right and sometimes one of the middle sensors plays up and gives an alarm when it shouldn’t. Two attempts by the workshop to fix this (by turning the angle of the sensors, I was told) have not been successful. Any ideas?

2) After 2 days of off-road driving, the right headlight washer began to protrude, their casing has some contact with the bar. Also, the edge of the bumper cut is pushing against the back of the rubber buffer positioned at the base of the alloy tube, which may have an effect on the washers too?

Any opinions and suggestions on how best to resolve this?

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

[RanJ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close RanJ]

Hey man, I install sensors on a pretty regular basis, one of the things that happen quite a bit with bullbars and steel bumpers is that there is no give in bar. This translates to the sensor being too tight in the hole (puns abound on this statement) I personally take to the holes with a round file and just keep filing each one until it stops giving false positives.

Best way to confirm if this is the issue is to remove the sensor (it just prises out or push from behind) and let it rest on the edge of the hole. It should work perfectly now. Put it back in the hole... and off she goes!

I come across this problem perhaps 1 out of 10 bull/steel bar. It's common.

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Is the inner guard hard up against the washers when they are retracted? The guard gets cut and pulled towards the bar so perhaps you need to give it some clearance. Another thought is the infill or panel cut is very floppy because it is only supported at the top in a few places, if the extra bits hanging off mean they bounce around you might want to try wedging some foam in between the bar and panel and see if that helps. I don't have washers but have the T3 and panel cut and the panel is very floppy. Doesn't cause me any issues though.

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Looks as though when the body is flexing and jumping around a bit the washer body coming in contact with the top of the bullbar pushing up against the base of the washer ?? The bar looks awfully close to the washer in the picture ?? Also why is there no clip on the drivers side (on one side of the washer) compared to the passengers side where you have two black clips ?? The sensors wouldn't have a clue lol.... Cheers Steve

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

Looking again at the pics did they have to move the washers up a bit (eg cut plastic bar and reposition washers ??) Also either way I reckon they have broken the clip, probably had to remove the plastic bar to cut and shape which would have ment they had to remove washer jets ???...... Cheers Steve

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

Hey man, I install sensors on a pretty regular basis, one of the things that happen quite a bit with bullbars and steel bumpers is that there is no give in bar. This translates to the sensor being too tight in the hole (puns abound on this statement) I personally take to the holes with a round file and just keep filing each one until it stops giving false positives.

Best way to confirm if this is the issue is to remove the sensor (it just prises out or push from behind) and let it rest on the edge of the hole. It should work perfectly now. Put it back in the hole... and off she goes!

I come across this problem perhaps 1 out of 10 bull/steel bar. It's common.

Thanks for that one. This explanation actually makes a lot of sense, can't wait to test it out. Will report when checked

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

Is the inner guard hard up against the washers when they are retracted? The guard gets cut and pulled towards the bar so perhaps you need to give it some clearance. Another thought is the infill or panel cut is very floppy because it is only supported at the top in a few places, if the extra bits hanging off mean they bounce around you might want to try wedging some foam in between the bar and panel and see if that helps. I don't have washers but have the T3 and panel cut and the panel is very floppy. Doesn't cause me any issues though.

I reckon, that grinding 5 mm off the rear of the bar for more clearance will help. At this point I want to stay clear of the infills as long a possible.
I had a look at your bumper cut, looks great.

[fido666 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close fido666]

Looking again at the pics did they have to move the washers up a bit (eg cut plastic bar and reposition washers ??)

I seem to recall this being the case Steve as the washer jets normally live in the part of the bar that gets cut off. Here's a pic of mine that uses the infills as a comparison :-



It's a T13 bar rather than a T3 but I'm pretty sure the main channel design and positioning is the same. My washer jets don't contact any part of the bar. Also note the positioning of the parking sensors, mine don't sit below the indicators.

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

Looks as though when the body is flexing and jumping around a bit the washer body coming in contact with the top of the bullbar pushing up against the base of the washer ?? The bar looks awfully close to the washer in the picture ?? Also why is there no clip on the drivers side (on one side of the washer) compared to the passengers side where you have two black clips ?? The sensors wouldn't have a clue lol.... Cheers Steve

Steve, yes the bar is extremely close to the base of the washer, when the body moves against the bar I think that's what's puts an extra strain on the washers.

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

I seem to recall this being the case Steve as the washer jets normally live in the part of the bar that gets cut off. Here's a pic of mine that uses the infills as a comparison :-



It's a T13 bar rather than a T3 but I'm pretty sure the main channel design and positioning is the same. My washer jets don't contact any part of the bar. Also note the positioning of the parking sensors, mine don't sit below the indicators.

The position of the sensors in your bar are definitely better in terms of protection against the elements, as mine sit under the square cut-outs ready for the rain to come in. I'm not sure though if it's important not to be directly exposed to rain. I hope that applying RamJ advice will help fix the issue.

Thanks for the hint that the washers move higher when infills are used. Like myself, the workshop was not aware of that either and just did the bumper cut, now it's time to work it out.

[Sydneydude Member Find all posts View Profile Close Sydneydude]

The position of the sensors in your bar are definitely better in terms of protection against the elements, as mine sit under the square cut-outs ready for the rain to come in. I'm not sure though if it's important not to be directly exposed to rain. I hope that applying RamJ advice will help fix the issue.

Thanks for the hint that the washers move higher when infills are used. Like myself, the workshop was not aware of that either and just did the bumper cut, now it's time to work it out.

Had a look again at the position of the washers in several pictures today, not sure whether the washers sit higher in the infills compared to the bumper. Still figuring what makes the difference for the washers. I'm inclined to believe that with infills the bar sticks out a bit more with the infill being completely behind the bar unlike the cut bumper?Can someone comment if the bar has slotted holes for minor adjustments?