Hi,

Am due to pick up my new vrs estate next weekend and am wondering if anyone has had a towbar fitted on a car with rear parking sensors? Does the towbar {mine will be a Q/D type] interfere with the operation of the sensors when its fitted? I was advised by the dealers not to waste money having the factory towbar prep if this makes any difference.

Hi,

Am due to pick up my new vrs estate next weekend and am wondering if anyone has had a towbar fitted on a car with rear parking sensors? Does the towbar {mine will be a Q/D type] interfere with the operation of the sensors when its fitted? I was advised by the dealers not to waste money having the factory towbar prep if this makes any difference.

Just picked up my 4x4 estate this week with towbar pre fitted. Dealer also said not to have the factory prep done and had the towbar fitted at a local towbar specialist. They said I would have to have a removable towbar fitted to work with the parking sensors. I guess that means that the parking sensors will not work properly with the towbar attached, but haven't tried it yet. They fitted a Westfalia detachable unit which seems very neat and quick to attach. No idea how you would get a non fixed towbar to work with parking sensors, and never been able to get a clear idea of the purpose of the factory prep.

Lee

Hi, got my 2010 scout booked in next thursday for a wsetfalia detatchable towbar to be fitted. The people who are fitting it are the same ones that are used by my local Skoda dealer. When fitted the swan neck, when attatched will be picked up by the PDC's, but will be detatched most of the time. If you want to have a fixed towbar fitted you will need the wiring loom from Skoda that fits into the ECU, i believe, which retail about £180 and have to be programed into the cars ECU. IMHO a fixed towbar spoils the looks of the car.

Hope this helps

uscouter

ps when we ordered the car I had a look at the price of it being factory fitted with the pre wiring but it seemed very expensive compared to the aftermarket ones. I believe the OE ones are either witter or westfalia

forgot to say, have a word with your dealer, they will use a company to fit towbars and may pass the contact number onto you

uscouter

Hi,

Am due to pick up my new vrs estate next weekend and am wondering if anyone has had a towbar fitted on a car with rear parking sensors? Does the towbar {mine will be a Q/D type] interfere with the operation of the sensors when its fitted? I was advised by the dealers not to waste money having the factory towbar prep if this makes any difference.

When I bought my 2006 1.9 PD Octavia Elegance two years ago the local Skoda dealer supplied a Witter fixed tow bar and official Skoda wiring kit as part of the deal ( I fitted these myself). I had sought advice beforehand from several sources including Witter and was reassured that it should be ok with reversing sensors. I quote :-

“Unfortunately we cannot guarantee that your towbar will not set the parking sensors off all the time, however, our findings and reports from the industry have shown that this is unlikely, in the event that it does the SK18 is upgradeable to the detachable version SK18Q using the ZQ3002 upgrade kit.â€

By very careful positioning of the towball on the bracket this was true but whenever the towball cover was fitted the sensors were activated every time reverse was selected . Even without the cover fitted the system was unstable and quite often was activated when there was no obstacle behind the car. I solved the problem by removing the towball and only bolting it on when required. Doesn’t look too good though. On reflection I should have held out for a detachable swan neck type.

I find the Octavia an excellent towcar - plenty of power to pull my 4 berth Swift Corniche and it returned 30 mpg when towing from Aberdeen across to Skye and back compared to overall 48mpg in normal use ( total mileage over two years divided by total fuel used )– mixture of local 10 / 20 mile journeys and the occasional 400 mile motorway trip.

Edited 10 May, 201016 yr by donmcknz

My Scout had a tow bar fitted by local specialist the day after delivery.

No problems. Not a lot of good detecting when the caravan hitch head lines up with ball, though. Still have to get out and look.

No problems. Not a lot of good detecting when the caravan hitch head lines up with ball, though. Still have to get out and look.

With my Disco I just use a webcam with a usb extension cable to a netbook on the passenger seat. Of course with an old Disco, there are plenty of gaps to hold the cam, and a bit of gaffer tape adds to the vibe. With the Octy, I only tow stuff I can wheel to the car.

My understanding is that the dedicated electrics will only stop a towball being detected when electrics are plugged into the towing socket. (Lightboard, Trailer, etc) as this disables the PDC system full stop.

From reading on here I also understand that the towing prep means that the dedicated electrics can all be fitted in the boot area of the car. Without towbar prep the dedicated wiring has to be led from the boot up to the fuse box and the ECU behind the steering column.

I have a Witter detachable fitted with dedicated electrics, probably as expensive a setup as there is (bar fitting a Westfalia instead). But it easily works the best. Nice and tidy clean lines when the towball is in it's bag under the VBF and full use of the PDC. Blessed silence when reversing with the ball mounted bike rack on the back.

Old and bold Towbar fitters will try and steer you away from dedicated electrics (because they don't like the extra work required/are scared of computing/don't have the skills to code it all) but if you plan to keep the car for a good length of time it's probably worth it in the long run.

TBH one of cheapest ways to do it would be to physically fit the bar yourself (it's just undoing and redoing bolts and screws) and fit the dedicated electrics at the towball socket and through the gromet into the boot area. Then drive to local independent auto electrician and get him to do the fitting of the wiring to the ECU/fusebox and do the coding if you're not comfortable messing with the electrics.

Niall

So i have ordered my Scout with detachable towbar with adaptor, so should the PDC be working ok with the hook on its place? unless i'm towing and electrics are connected right? Cheers.

So i have ordered my Scout with detachable towbar with adaptor, so should the PDC be working ok with the hook on its place? unless i'm towing and electrics are connected right? Cheers.

Thanks for the help guys, As my tow bar will be detachable it shouldnt cause me a problem except maybe reversing when the swan neck is fitted. The towbar will only be fitted on the few occasions [ less than 6 a year] when i need to tow so even if it does set off the pdc prematurely it wont be a problem, I tend to steer clear of reversing with my trailer if possible :no:

Thanks for the help guys, As my tow bar will be detachable it shouldnt cause me a problem except maybe reversing when the swan neck is fitted. The towbar will only be fitted on the few occasions [ less than 6 a year] when i need to tow so even if it does set off the pdc prematurely it wont be a problem, I tend to steer clear of reversing with my trailer if possible :no:

Tried the new Westfalia detachable towbar for the first time at the weekend to see what effect it had on the pdc. To my supprise no problem! Didnt set the pdc off and it all still worked normally when reversing towards other objects. Looking at the position of the sensors, they are either side of the towbar and my guess is that the swan neck is just to far in and out side the observation angle of the sensors. Wasn't expecting that but quite handy!

Lee