Reverse parking sensors and towing trailer

[DriveMeBananas]

I recently replaced my fabia vRS with a Fabia 3 1.9TDI in order to teach towing legally.

The car comes with reverse parking sensors which I don't need but they are on the car anyway.

Is there any way of disabling the reverse sensors when towing a trailer, I spend a lot of time teaching reversing and the constant tone from the sensors is off puting.

[richwarwicker]

on most cars if the trailer electrics are plugged in it disables the parking sensors not sure about the fabia though,

are the parking sensors on there own circuit or shared with something else, i.e. could you remove the fuse if there on a circuit by themselves, although i believe they are connected to the reversing light circuit so wouldnt work doing that

why couldnt you teach towing legally in the vrs? i have no knowledge on the subject but am curious?

[benwiddowson]

I seem to remember a thread in the Mk1 forum where it was discussed that towing with the vrs was illegal.

[DriveMeBananas]

why couldnt you teach towing legally in the vrs? i have no knowledge on the subject but am curious?

The towing capacity of the mark 1 fabia vrs is 0KG, if you hitch a trailer onto it you immediately exceed the towing capacity, for some reason the vrs was never type rated for towing. There is no reason why it couldnt tow 1200KG like my new car is it is the same chassis and engine.

I have seen a few vrs with tow bars, the owners are either ignorant of the law or don't care about being prosecuted.

[mrgf]

The sensors get over-ridden when the electrics are hooked up, if they are all genuine parts.

Not too sure whey the Vrs has a towing restriction, though... The power to weight ratio should be better, making towing safer!

It is usually the driver who is restricted. Take a driving test after around 1997 and you need a towing test to tow anything more than a small trailer.

In addition, when towing, remember, national speed limits are reduced by 10mph. on a motorway/dual carriageway, you will only be legal at 60, not 70mph and on a single lane national speed limit road, you will only be allowed to go 50, not 60mph. this relates to car class of vehicle.

As for the Vrs, i can't see why it cannot be used for towing, even motorcycles can tow, albeit a smaller trailer, suitable for the task.

Edited 12 March, 2010 by mrgf

[Paul Skoda]

You could always turn it off completely using the DANCE radio setting. PDC off, or reduce the volume with PDC volume.

[mrgf]

You could always turn it off completely using the DANCE radio setting. PDC off, or reduce the volume with PDC volume.

..........Or turn the radio up full!

[DriveMeBananas]

I sent the car back and they changed the electrics, they fitted a 13 pin socket without telling me (thanks for that) I only found out when I tried to attach the trailer which still has a 7 pin plug on it!

Anyway the parking sensor is still going mental with the trailer attached. Didn't make any difference at all.

There has got to be a solution to this problem?

[mrgf]

Stick small mirrors on the trailer, opposite the parking sensors.... it will make them think the trailer is twice as far from the car!!!

[rich17865]

Stick small mirrors on the trailer, opposite the parking sensors.... it will make them think the trailer is twice as far from the car!!!

Sort of still on subject, I watched a comet salesman sell a tv to an old couple by telling them that the surround sound worked if you put mirrors at angles in the opposite corners of the room to the tv. They believed him and stumped up the cash! It wasn't you was it?

Go to the dealer and tell them to sort it out, i am pretty sure that if it is all genuine parts fitted properly that the sensors switch off for reversing, plus if you have an alarm fitted (standard on the 3 trim level) if the trailer elcetrics plug is removed with the alarm armed (someone trying to nick the trailer) it sets the alarm off.

[DriveMeBananas]

Dealer were unable or unwilling to resolve this problem properly, so the car doesnt actually do what I expected it to do.

However they have fitted a switch (onto the cover of the fuse box :wonder: which is going to make accessing the fuse box and connecting the fault code reader interesting) which turns off the parking sensors altogether, so I can simply turn them off.

So Skoda get 1 out of 10 from me for customer satisfaction.

[mrgf]

Sort of still on subject, I watched a comet salesman sell a tv to an old couple by telling them that the surround sound worked if you put mirrors at angles in the opposite corners of the room to the tv. They believed him and stumped up the cash! It wasn't you was it?

No but that was as close to April 1st i could get!!

mind, some thigs CAN actually be fooled like this!

[mrgf]

on a serious note, I think it states i the manual that orig equipment SHOULD work in tandem with regards to trailer couplings and parking sensors. If they bodged, get them to rectify or if it is not orig fittings, you have no real arguement, aside from the fact that they sold you the car with them fitted. Did they fit the towbar/elecs too? Minefield if they didn't!

In addition, have you thought of just removing the reverse sensor system or the fuse to it? won't matter if they are not working as not an mot issue.

Edited 13 April, 2010 by mrgf

[Highway_61]

You should be able to disable the parking sensors by disconnecting the power going to the sensor module. Not sure where it's located on the Fabia. You need to have the ignition switched off when you remove it though and it should be easy enough to replace when they're needed again. Not sure if this is helpful in any way? :no: