Yearofthegoat

Looks like I need new rear parts. Chassis is G15 according to the codes. Unladen stationary height from wheel centre to wheel arch is approx 360mm both rear sides, 380 front left and 385 front right. So it seems the fronts are within 10mm of the 390.8 book value but the rears are around 34mm lower than the 394.1 rear book value. It has a towbar fitted which will affect the height, so that suggests I need tow-bar-rated springs in the rear. But what about the dampers? Car is 10 years old but only done around 54K, so I think I'll start with the springs and see how it goes once they're fitted.

Thanks to all for the posts in here. Am going to check the ride height on my '61 plate, as I think it's running lower than it should. My bike rack scrapes quite low bumps in the road which is what's made me think of it. Could of course be fine but in that case I'll consider some stiffer suspension anyway.

When it's driven on petrol only, and the car's fully loaded, is it crap to drive? It's a big car and 1.4 seems too small? Am worried I'd miss the 2.0/4x4 in my current Superb. Otherwise seems like a great car.

Sorry for the necropost but it saves adding (yet) another tow bar coding thread (and it might help others). I've added a tow bar to my Superb (MY2012/61 plate) and have done everything okay so far using OBDEleven following the Trailer Hitch Retrofitting 1K guide: - Lights all work - Fog lights on the car stay unlit but the bike carrier ones come on instead - Dashboard ESP light stays on a bit longer than the ABS light (I believe I have MK60EC1) - Trailer picture appears on the Columbus display - Rear parking sensors don't go berserk any more What doesn't work is: - Alarm doesn't go off if I disconnect the bike carrier electrics. And I haven't checked bulb failure indication just yet. So far so good, but the one part of the VCDS guide that I haven't touched yet is 'Update the Engine Control Module (J623/#01)'. There's an entry under Long Coding for 'Trailer Recognition', which is currently 'Not Installed'. It's Byte 05, Bit 04. Before I change it to 1 instead of 0, I just wanted to check that that is actually what needs to be done. I'm guessing this deals with the engine management detecting (say) a heavy caravan and not going into limp mode? The tow bar electrics module is a Brink / Jaeger module which is supposed to be car-specific. Lastly, are there other parts of the J623/#01 ECM Coding that need to be changed as well? Cheers

Recently fitted a tow bar to my Superb and it was the same with LV - no admin cost to add the modification and no increase in the premium.

^^^ Same here. They're pretty much unnoticeable (I have the 'through' version). Think they're called Yakima these days.

Very useful thread - thanks all. Seeing as a van driver decided to plough into my dearly-loved Superb (to which I had just self-fitted a tow bar ) on the M25, my search for a Kodiaq has had to be accelerated. Was previously looking at the 190 diesels but they're no longer available. Nor is the Edition, so it seems the L&K works out cheaper than the SE L, by the time I've added the options I had in my Superb. As usual, it's probably worth waiting a little yet to see what happens with prices, but yes diesel seems to be dead.

I'm pretty sure you do still have the right to change your mind and pay it all off. We did exactly that when we bought my wife's Kia a couple of years ago. Had to ring up Kia Finance and ask for a settlement figure, then just paid it off. We were up front about it with the salesman, he asked if we could wait three weeks so he could get the commission. He'd been great during the purchase so we did that, there was only a few pounds difference to us. IIRC you can pay it off entirely within 14 days - a 'change of mind' thing - but then the dealer could have the right to withdraw the finance contribution.

Just a quick post about number plates. I needed a number plate making up to go on a trailer or bike carrier and I first thought of Halfords as they're local (£16 bog standard amber rear plate) but they're not doing them at the moment. So I sent an email to APJ UK who are in Church Crookham, near Fleet in Hampshire (GU52 6EU). They called me back and you can just turn up for plates, no appointment needed. Very nice folk (and dog!), paperwork checked and plate done in no more than 10 minutes. £12 a standard plate, but they do all sorts of other ones too. Hope that helps someone.

Thanks. I tested it with a bike carrier this morning , got bloody soaked but the lights all work fine and the car displays don't show any unusual errors. Am waiting for it to dry up a bit and I'll get the trim back on and call it job done. Many thanks for all the tips - def couldn't have done it myself without the help from you and others on here. 👍

Yep, it's a permanent live, thanks again. Car seems fine - no errors in the Maxidot at least. In the morning I'll test it as far as I can (I can't code for towing just yet as the new 'nextgen' OBDEleven device was DOA, and has to be sent back to Lithuania).

Righto. Yeah, it'll need a permanent live for the alarm going off if some scrote nicks the trailer etc. I'll fish out the multimeter.

That's great thanks, I think I've found it - there's a spare tab and behind it a thick wide bar/rail with a thick red wire coming off it. (Sorry for the crap tablet photo): Is that the one? Yes, there's no pin 10 power in the kit - it's wired for an optional extra kit but has no feed. Thanks again for the help.

Cheers. I've managed to get the wiring up and into the dash, all okay so far. Like you @rover220 I managed to fish the wire through from the wheel arch to the dash. Didn't need to remove the B pillar trim other than a little at the bottom of the rear OS passenger door. The last piece of the puzzle is the fuse wiring. The instructions show this: I got the pink secondary lock slid over okay, and the correct wires are in 43, 44 and 45. They've clicked in, feel sound. However, judging by the diagram, it seems that the other end of the 3-wire connector plugs into the bottom half of the aircon fuse location (unless I've mis-read the diagram). There is no tab sticking up from that location and of course there is already a wire in there - for the aircon I presume. This is probably a laughably simple thing for someone who's done this before, but where can I connect that "B+/30" end? (B+/30 means positve buss 30A?) Do I shove it in with the aircon connector? Thanks again. Nearly there now... He says hopefully.

Thanks. Reliability is what concerns me - the connection is behind the upper trim in the boot; accessible, but not easily, so I don't want to have to repair it. I think crimping it will work fine. It won't be moving about much.

On reflection, I have a crimper and some crimps - might use those instead of the scotchloks in the kit to splice into the R/B wire. Any suggestions re the CAN-Bus wires? I guess I could crimp, would just need to check the size of the wires. The other connectors go into the fuse panel and have proper terminated wires for that.

The Brink kit was the only dedicated one available that I could find. It's quite poorly manufactured, tbh. It came with a Jaeger module. Are they okay at least?! I had 3 suppliers take orders for an ECS kit only to cancel and refund because they didn't have stock. The Brink kit also includes scotchlocks (at least they operate like scotchlocks) for connecting to the twisted CAN-Bus wires. Anyway, thanks for the advice, will go with the RB wire in the brown block. Hopefully no more issues.

Tow bar fitting is going reasonably okay so far. The crash bar is off, the tow bar is on, socket etc in place but have hit a bit of a problem which I'd appreciate some help with. The Brink wiring kit needs to be scotchlocked into the high brake light feed - a Black/Red wire - and the instructions show this: BR apparently stand for 'Brown'. So far so good but I have three blocks at that location - these are the rearward sides (presumably outputs): Now the middle one seems to be Brown. It has 5 pins but only has 4 wires. The black one at the back also has a Red/Black wire. Which has made me question what I was about to do (i.e. connect to the middle R/B wire). Being super-cautious I want to make totally sure I attach the kit to the correct one. Any help gratefully received. Once that's in I can take the wiring across the boot and up to the fusebox - a bit more trim will need to come off but that's okay and the wiring from there looks to be straightforward. Cheers.

Am putting a tow bar on my Superb and was just going to post a 'what bolt is this' question, but you've answered it for me - cheers! (Bought some Waxoyl spray too. 👍) (And sorry for the necropost but I wanted to say thanks)

Might be even slower - Benbudet has emailed to say they took my money when they didn't have stock to sell. So no wiring loom. 😞 Discount Towing Supplies to the rescue. It's a slightly different kit (a Brink).

Thanks. Yeah first thing will be to get familiar with OBD11 with something simple (power tailgate beeps or something) but before that will be making a scan and a backup. I'm not going to use any of the 'apps' - maybe later if they're known working ones. But there's not that much I want to do to the Superb. It came with needle sweep, reversing mirror dip. And it doesn't have a toy engine sound maker. There's no real hurry so I can take my time and get it right. Slowly slowly catchee monkey, as they say.

Ordered all the parts, after being messed around by sellers taking my money with no stock (that's you, PFJones). Should all be here by Friday, then the fun can start. Astonishingly the first parcel to arrive will be the OBDEleven from Lithuania - tomorrow (Weds 12th) having been ordered on Monday afternoon. Just hope I don't feck up the car with it! Thanks to all for the help - including @rover220, @DEZMONDE , @Lutz and @3T51704x4 👍

FWIW I think you're right - you can 'reject' the car. I don't have any direct experience of this but I'm sure someone who has will be along soon. Hope it gets sorted out.

Yeah, 2000/80 in the manual. Plenty really as we're only going to be using a trailer or bike rack - although some of those come in at >20kg. Hope this weather holds.

Thanks for that. I've got a TowTrust detachable swan in the cart, to get 2000/100 weights. Plus ECS SK017D1U - says it comes with active pins 9&10 and the instructions show a separate link wire. £320 altogether leaves budget for OBDEleven or VCDS 3-VIN. Will take a look at that Westfalia though.