My towbar fitting experience

[Llanigraham]

Sorry but I've done from here to Poole, across to France then down to Southern Brittany with no power to the fridge, just a couple of ice packs in the freezer compartment and they have still been solid when we arrived. As long as the fridge is not opened on the journey then they should be good for 12 hours. And we are not able to pre-freeze our fridge because there is no power available at our storage site.

 

I gave up wiring in a fridge relay years ago simply because I found that it basically did very little. Funny how our European brothers can cope with journeys from Denmark to Southern France without the need for this extra wiring!

[eribaMotters]

I have obviously lived in the south for to long. I like my beer cold, very cold.

 

Colin

[Llanigraham]

Who the hell takes beer to France?    :no:  :no:  :no:  :no:

[Brijo]

Seems Colin does!

[Frenchtone]

Obviously a local brew officionado(?)

[eribaMotters]

Who the hell takes beer to France?    :no:  :no:  :no:  :no:

 

If a beer in the fridge is cold to drink, it's a fair bet everything in there has been kept at a nice low [safe?] temperature.In particular the boring stuff like milk.

A nice cold can of Old Speckled Hen is always good on arrival, although I must admit that does not need to be to cold.

 

Colin

[DonjSZ5]

Who would keep beer in a fridge anyway.

 

It is not 'real' beer if it is below 12/14c.

[weasley]

Update. I ordered the VAG genuine 13 pin wiring loom and module for fitment to a towbar prepped car. Having seen the car being dismantled once and having read Joel SHOEMARK's excellent guide here, I got stuck in today.

The main observations I have are these:

1. I didn't completely remove the left hand interior panel in the boot; I removed all of the fixings at the rear and popped off as many clips as I could and there was (just) enough space to work with the panel just levered away from the body. This negated having to remove the B pillar trim.

2. The VAG kit comes with excellent instructions and all clips and cable ties necessary to secure the loom inside and outside the car (there are two long ones for you to tie to the towbar)

3. The VAG towbar obviously includes threaded holes for mounting the 13 pin plug, since it comes with bolts but no nuts. My aftermarket towbar just had plain holes, so I used some locking nuts on the bolts (M5 size, if you need to know).

4. It is worth loose fitting the bumper after you have mounted the plug, to make sure it'll clear the hole and panel in the bumper, including allowing space for the weather cover to swing up. I had to have 2 goes at it to get it right.

5. I used a piece of old carpet to lay the bumper on; I disconnected one clip and one parking sensor from the parking sensor loom, but the bumper remained wired to the car (as it looked awkward to disconnect the bumper wiring without more rear trim removal).

All in all it went pretty much as expected and took around 3 hours, with tea and lunch breaks. Having wired it up but not yet had it coded I connected a trailer board (having also ordered the VAG 13-7 pin adaptor) and all lights worked perfectly, but of course the car did not 'detect' the trailer board.

All I need now is a friendly VCDSer!

[weasley]

Final update. It is all coded and working as expected. I contacted my nearest VCDSer who initially offered to help, but hadn't done it before. When I outlined what was needed he baulked and said he'd rather not attempt it. I booked it in with Ridgeway Skoda in Newbury who, when I booked it claimed to never have heard of 'towbar coding', but promised they would look into it and would be ready for it when I dropped it off.

I took it in at 10 this morning. I was warned that they would charge me for an hour's labour "whether it worked or not", as the master technician had said he couldn't promise it would work. Anyway, around 12:30 I went back and they claimed all was in order according to their computer, but they had no trailer board to test it on. They also cleaned it inside and out and performed a complimentary "vehicle health check", the results of which were shown to me at collection and also e-mailed to me by way of a link, which included a video of the technician going around the car and measuring the tread depths (all >6 mm). The car got a clean bill of health.

I got it home, plugged in my trailer board and there was the little trailer display on reversing, with cancelled reversing sensors. All lights (still) worked as they should and the alarm went off when I locked the car and unplugged the trailer board.

So ends a long and drawn-out towbar fitting saga. I towed a box trailer this afternoon and can report that it tows fine and everything works.

[eribaMotters]

I have just got mine back from main dealer after a second return visit. First one was to finish the wiring, second was to refit the area around dash fuse box area as I was not happy.

Mine now seems to all work fine, with two exceptions:-

No fog light on the caravan, and no bulb warning out, so I am guessing it is not wired up somewhere. To be honest I'm not bothered.

Feed to fridge is live when ignition is on, not when engine running as I've experienced in the past. I am assured that this is how the instructions show it should be wired.

Apart from these bits I like the look of the fitting. The bumper hatch cut and fit is neat, No loose trim or rattles etc.

 

Colin

[Llanigraham]

Colin,

Not having the "bulb failure" system extended to your trailer makes it illegal, because it is that system that shows that your indicators on the trailer aren't working, a legal requirement.

[eribaMotters]

Because I am not getting a bulb out warning light/message I think the fog light is not connected somewhere in the system,

I believe the coding has been done correctly as rear sensors are deactivated and I get an image that shows a trailer attached on the radio screen.

I have read somewhere else on the forum that if the cars rear fog lights remain on when tralier is attached this means the trailer does not have a fog light. Something for me to check tommorow.

 

On a footnote, I managed to successfully fit the 12v extra socket in the dashboard storage area for the satnav. Once I had realised the inboard fuse box is numbered upside down.

 

Colin

[Llanigraham]

Sorry Colin, I think I read your posting wrongly.

 

If it has been programmed correctly then the plugging in of the 13 pin socket is "sensed" by the car and that turns the car rear fogs off, whether the trailer has the relevant light or not. It is done that way to stop the glare of the car's light from the front of the trailer.

 

Well done on the power socket.

[adarajames]

one thing I've noticed is that my old car used to beep when indicator was on with trailer attached, yeti doesn't; is this a problem or just an acceptable difference?

[Llanigraham]

Not a problem.

The Law is that there must be a notification that the trailer indicators aren't working. In the old days that was done with a "bleeper". On the Yeti it is done through the Bulb Failure System; if they don't work you will get a yellow icon on the dash.