I agree entirely.... I double checked with the service manager this morning that the ECU remapping would take place. They have the car for 2 days so I can only hope that its a really thorough job!

Have you asked them why they need the car for 2 days? When I had a swan neck towbar with twin 7 pin electrics and ECU reprogramming done to my Octavia at a specialist I was in and out in less than 2 hours!! Admittedly there were 3 or 4 techies on it, but still 2 days!!!

Ian

Have you asked them why they need the car for 2 days? When I had a swan neck towbar with twin 7 pin electrics and ECU reprogramming done to my Octavia at a specialist I was in and out in less than 2 hours!! Admittedly there were 3 or 4 techies on it, but still 2 days!!!

Ian

They did it in one in the end - I think that was possibly them thinking that they had to add wiring to ECU and do cutout possibly?

Have you asked them why they need the car for 2 days? When I had a swan neck towbar with twin 7 pin electrics and ECU reprogramming done to my Octavia at a specialist I was in and out in less than 2 hours!! Admittedly there were 3 or 4 techies on it, but still 2 days!!!

Ian

The resin for the cut out needs 24 hours to set. Plus five hours labour fir the test. That all equals two days. So it can only be less if you've had te factory towbar prep which installs the hatch at the factory.

The resin for the cut out needs 24 hours to set. Plus five hours labour fir the test. That all equals two days. So it can only be less if you've had te factory towbar prep which installs the hatch at the factory.

I wish. The dealer had mine for 3 days and I have factory preparation.....

I bought my first Skoda (Octavia Vrs Tdi Estate) from them which was serviced over 3 years. They are really professional and thorough and would have no hesitation using them again.

I bought my Fabia Vrs Tsi and the Yeti 4x4 from Claybank who gave me the best deal on two cars; I had had a bad experience with a new salesman at Colne who has now "moved on" otherwise I may have bought from them.

Simpsons are 25 miles in the wrong direction for me, however their service was a over-riding factor. I'm up there on Monday possibly paying slightly more than other members for their towbars to be fitted but fully confident in their ability to do the best job. We've become used to towing the caravan with a 3 litre landcruiser so I didnt want to skimp on safety.

How did you get on, on Monday?

How did you get on, on Monday?

Hi all went well - car was washed and hoovered they confirmed that the ECU was reprogrammed and tested on a towhitch and all worked.

The tow hitch looks great (Westfalia) nice bit of kit and looking forward to running the car in soon so I can hit the road with the caravan!

I also bought carpet mats and boot liner which wee all fitted ready for me

Usual exemplary service from them

John

Hi all went well - car was washed and hoovered they confirmed that the ECU was reprogrammed and tested on a towhitch and all worked.

The tow hitch looks great (Westfalia) nice bit of kit and looking forward to running the car in soon so I can hit the road with the caravan!

I also bought carpet mats and boot liner which wee all fitted ready for me

Usual exemplary service from them

John

Hi John

Thanks for the info glad all seems to have gone according to plan. Did you get it done for the price you were originally quoted (£600)?

If so I might be making an enquiry myself.

Phil

Hi John

Thanks for the info glad all seems to have gone according to plan. Did you get it done for the price you were originally quoted (£600)?

If so I might be making an enquiry myself.

Phil

I think it was a shade over approx £609 - make sure you specify the correct towball - we needed one for an Alko caravan hitch

John

I think it was a shade over approx £609 - make sure you specify the correct towball - we needed one for an Alko caravan hitch

John

The Westfalia removable hitch is OK for Al-Ko hitches. You'll only need to specify a different towball if you have the fixed towbar and the Al-Ko hitch is the stabilised one.

Fred

Finally got to drag the caravan round with the yeti... apart from speed humps transferring to the car with a jiggle, the Yeti pulled really well, drove as if unladen, was so much more manoevrable than the Landcruiser she replaces... oh and over the short run was showing high 30's mpg too!! very happy all round

Finally got to drag the caravan round with the yeti... apart from speed humps transferring to the car with a jiggle, the Yeti pulled really well, drove as if unladen, was so much more manoevrable than the Landcruiser she replaces... oh and over the short run was showing high 30's mpg too!! very happy all round

obviously no hills then..... My remapped DSG which maintained 60mph ish up the fairly steep hills of the A303 & A34 only achieved 25mpg....(accurate - maxidot altered)

obviously no hills then..... My remapped DSG which maintained 60mph ish up the fairly steep hills of the A303 & A34 only achieved 25mpg....(accurate - maxidot altered)

My recent trip to Dorset returned 36MPG, not many hills 70% motorway. It compared favourably to the Roomster which averaged 37MPG towing.

Fred

I am a little confused over adding a towbar to a Yeti. We are in the process of thinking of buying a new Yeti. To quote post 122 above.

Considering that I have towing package (factory fit) I've been quoted for parts £157.00 for towing electrics' date=' then either £120 for a fixed bracket or £235 for detachable.

Fitted prices were £420 fixed / £535 detachable which is an improvement on my previous quote, again from a Skoda dealer.[/quote']

I understand the towbar costs of around £120 for a fixed bracket. But why the £157 for towing electrics? Surely the electrics are minimal if you already have factory fit electrics. Isn't it just a case of plugging into the back end? A 13 pin socket only cost around £10, so where does the other £147 come into it?

If we were to buy the dedicated wiring kit for the Yeti and the towbar and fit it ourselves,(total costs £265) what other costs would we need to think about? Other than the dealer setting up the coding.

Edited 3 September, 201114 yr by Chris O

My experience (and others on here) who've had dealer fitted towbars - both with and without Factory Tow Bar Prep have found that the necessary ECU coding wasn't carried out. It's not something that happens automatically just because a 'Skoda Kit' is used you know!

Hopefully yours will be OK and I hope you won't have to go back to get the coding sorted after taking delivery

Well I'm here with the results of the towbar coding.

Yes I know it's taken me a while, my apologies.

As with so many a Škoda customer our SM couldn't tell if it ever had a trailer attached or not, other than it going a little slower .

All the lights worked but the fog light stayed on (on the car), the reversing sensors went mental and I didn't get my little pic of me and my trailer on the back.

We don't own our own trailer yet and borrow a friends, but to double check we used a second one. Still the same.

In just under six months we've covered 10000 miles and its just been in for its first service. Knowing that they had to look at the towbar coding and replace five Škoda badges because of corrosion and whiteworm on top of the service, I was told at least three hours for the work. Fine, I'll wait.

The good news is that Carrs do actually know what they are doing and have checked and corrected an issue with the coding (something about 1's and 0's in the wrong order) so that it now all works properly, little pic of trailer and so on. On top of that they actually replaced all six Škoda badges, washed our well used Monster and only took 1hr 50 mins .

All in all we are very happy with the Yeti and Carrs at Indian Queens (bar the initial hiccup with the coding) and would highly recommend them to any one on here.

Happy Monstering one and all. Dom.

I am a little confused over adding a towbar to a Yeti. We are in the process of thinking of buying a new Yeti. To quote post 122 above.

I understand the towbar costs of around £120 for a fixed bracket. But why the £157 for towing electrics? Surely the electrics are minimal if you already have factory fit electrics. Isn't it just a case of plugging into the back end? A 13 pin socket only cost around £10, so where does the other £147 come into it?

If we were to buy the dedicated wiring kit for the Yeti and the towbar and fit it ourselves,(total costs £265) what other costs would we need to think about? Other than the dealer setting up the coding.

Chris,

Tow Bar prep from the factory is not just the extra wiring, but also includes things like additional fans.

Dealer fitting costs are based on dealer hourly charges. There is a bit more to it than just "plugging it in". Bits, mostly internal trim, have to be taken apart and then put back, plus the recoding has to be done. I'm sure a competant home mechanic could do it themselves, but the recoding needs someone with VCDS to do that, PLUS by doing it yourself you have no warranty if something goes wrong.

Did it myself, took a little time to de-panel the boot space, bar fitting straight forward once all the clips etc had been located, wiring a bit of a pain, i used a simple 7 pin system clipped to the rear loom, whilst at it amended the n/s rear fog light ie added a wire to the light system which was then 't'd off the trailer relay, so when the rear fog lit it trips the relay and illuminates the n/s one, works for me here in France as it is the o/s here!

Didn't get the system reprog'd as I tow a 1 ton trailer and can put with the whinning when reversing the unit - I could silence it via the mfd but cannot be a*sed to sort it!

How often and for how long does one need to reverse a trailer? - my experience, 1% of its use!

I used a power feed under the glove box for the relay feed, this is fused, I now realise a simpler solution exists - use a fuse feed in the fuse box(item covered earlier in the week in another thread, haven't time to link it now - sorry)

tony

Tony,

whilst it seems to have worked for you, there have been reports elsewhere of not using the proper kit causing problems with the CanBus system.

Doesn't coding the towbar also tell the stability control to change settings when a trailer is connected?

I take your point Graham however i did speak at length with P F Jones Techie section at the Chester Rd branch in M/cr - the relay unit is a 6 single pole job which takes minimal power off the canbus system when the trailer is plugged in, this then trips the 15/20amp power feed into circuit - basically its a small power transistor switch to close the power relay - ie 6 of these to power the various trailer lamps.

Also, not had the predicted scotchlok probs, however I did use some waxoyl on the loks once made - I live within 1/2 mile of the western approaches here in Finistere so there is lots of saltspray about which should have caused probs - no so!

The bar etc was fitted last May and the trailer has been regularly used over the last 10(?) months, several long hauls back and forth to Nth Worcs - it is an Ifor williams trailer and the lighting system on it is particularly robust, not like some on cheaper trailers!

salut

Tony

Doesn't coding the towbar also tell the stability control to change settings when a trailer is connected?

It does indeed, Rich.

Tony,

I know the type of relay you've used. Personally I'd only go down the full wiring and recoding way, mainly because I like the extras it provides, such as my point to Rich above.

According to my dealer Skoda are now including part of the towbar loom in all Yeti's as standard. This came about due to installs using non Skoda wiring causing problems. This is not the 'towbar prep' option but does mean that when fitting a towbar, the dealer has less work to do regarding wiring. To that end I have been quoted €395 (approx. £330) for a detachable towbar install including coding etc.

If you have had tow bar prep done on your build does anyone know the exact skoda parts i need to fit it DIY by myself

Edited 7 March, 201214 yr by Yetigreenline2

If you have had tow bar prep done on your build does anyone know the exact skoda parts i need to fit it DIY by myself

Check this out.

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/206879-diy-towbar-install/page__p__2446320#entry2446320

My new Yeti was fitted with a Witter removable bar by a local specialist prior to collection. I has asked for a fixed bracket, so will keep it attached, I expect my dealer was billed for more but they didn't pass this on to me. There is no bumper cut like there is with the Skoda bar, so is, in my opinion, neater.

Only took delivery of the car last Thursday so haven't towed with it yet (though will this weekend). I have plugged the caravan in to the 13 pin socket. Lights all working, Alko ATC fires up etc. The same guys fitted the brackets to my previous Skodas, none of which gave any problems, so know I can trust their work.

Hi All, as usual I don't need a response to this first bit - it's just an update. For those of you that read about my demise, the surgeon said because of my age surgery should avoided, I'm 57 in a few days!! Plaster for me for AT LEAST. 9 weeks - why didn't I get a sodding automatic!

SWMBO is softening the blow by telling me to get a tow bar and electrics (I have tow bar prep). Can any one tell me if the following is good quote by the Dealer please:

Skoda Detachable Towbar & Single Electrics for a Yeti with Towbar Prep would

cost: £333.75 + VAT = £400.50

If you want to reply by post please don't be too bashful about replying on a £10 note :-)