Hi Folks,

My first post so here goes.

I’m looking to fit a tow bar to my Karoq. Been quoted around £690 for a Brink detachable with 13-Pin electrics fully fitted (need to confirm that this includes the switched power to pin 10 for the caravan fridge, sometimes this is optional).

The fitting of the bar looks simple and as I have a background in the Aviation electrical trade, I can manage the electrics (downloaded the dedicated wiring instructions from the web).

I have three questions you folks may be able to answer:

1. How do you remover the interior trim panels in the boot?

2. How do you remove the rear bumper?

3. If I did the wiring what is the best option for getting the car ‘Coded’ afterwards (Dealer / Towbar company or would they tell me to 'get lost' as fitted myself)?

Breaking down the quote I have received, the company quote roughly £200+ for fitting and about £70 for coding and say no more than three hours to do the job. I will need to way- up my options (Three hours isn't a long time for a good job!).

Now I know people mostly trust this work to third party companies these days due to the complex nature of today’s cars but I’ve heard some horror stories about poor wiring and damaged trim.

I’m going to try and check the Fusebox this weekend to see if any wiring and fuses have been fitted (Towbar Preparation) and if possible check behind the right hand boot trim to check for any connections pre-fitted (Mines an ex Skoda management car, in the past I understand some management cars were fitted with Tow Bar Prep along with other options. Mine is an SEL and has a number of options fitted).

I appreciate this isn't a common DIY job these days but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

Chris

I'd imagine the Karoq is not that dissimilar to the Kodiaq.

 

I aren't allowed to link competitor forums, so have copied most of it over from another source...

 

"So due to unwillingness to pay skoda £850 for a towbar and the lack of local towbar providers who will fit to the Kodiaq yet, I decided to buy a kit off ebay for £280 (user transportsysteme24_com) and fit myself. The kit is well made in Germany, it’s the real deal - totally bespoke to the car and there’s no cutting wires or anything like that – everything fits perfectly with proper fittings. Unfortunately, while the Instructions are clear for the kit itself, and they tell you exactly which trim pieces you need to remove, they helpfully don’t offer give you any idea of how to actually remove them! There lies the hard bit – the whole process was A LOT trickier than I thought to be honest and it took me and a friend (neither with any meaningful experience whatsoever mind you) an entire afternoon. This isn’t a guide really but I hope it might just help someone. Of course, doing this is totally at your own risk!

Starts easy. Black plastic bits have a screw at the bottom on both sides, then just pull off.

 

 

Lights come out easily enough, just the one white plastic screw on the back from inside...

 

 

The screws holding the bumper on are easy enough to find all round the edge and underneath, a couple under the plastic back lip which just pulls off. Then just give it a tug to release the clippy bits (mind to disconnect the parking sensors)...

 

 

Remove the crash bar with the 6 easy bolts, then the towbar fits into the chassis bars. We found it quite tricky to locate the 4 bolt holes as they are covered with sealant of some kind and not visible from the outside, stabbing it with a screwdriver did the trick to locate them!

 

 

On the right hand side we did have to release one bolt to drop down what I assume is the Ad-Blue tank just half an inch just to make one of the holes accessible.

 

 

The socket for the removable hook is easy enough to bolt in place (we didn’t do this, but I recommend fitting the electric socket to it at this stage as it’s quite fiddly to do later)...

 

 

Instructions tell you where to cut but in fact the inside of the bumper is already marked for the hole so we just cut that out.
Close enough, remember this can’t be seen really anyway...

 

 

Remove the boot floor paraphernalia which mostly lifts out, then for the 7 seater you need to remove the rear 2 seats. We made this difficult for ourselves by unbolting them from the floor. In fact it turns out this isn’t necessary, as you can just disconnect the little struts by pulling them sideways, only found this out when reinstalling!

 

 

To be honest it might be possible to get this panel off without removing the seats completely, but we took them right out – for the front 2 bolts you need an annoying size ‘M’ Spline socket – or, since we didn’t have one, a large Torx socket seemed to do the trick by fitting in every other tooth, sorry I forgot to take pics of the next couple of stages

Removing the huge side panel was the trickiest part, which required a lot of guessing and tugging. There’s a few screws to undo, one behind the luggage hook, 2 low down and 2 underneath the 3rd row seat drinks holder (the cover for which pulls off leaving the drinks holder itself in place, this had us stumped for ages. You also need to release the two light-colour panel pieces on the C and boot Pillars, these just pull out but it’s a bit scary as you think you’re going to break them. In reality I think it’s just the clips you risk breaking not the piece itself, we did break one from another trim piece - I think by not pulling it out straight.

 

 

I realise it looks really bad here but although a pain to release, it's actually really easy to reinstall afterwards. Running the electric cable behind the panel is easy enough, secure the earth there and the little control box. The kit is provided with a rubber bung to run through an obvious hole in the floor (under the side panel) out to the back.

At this point I would seriously suggest you consider ignoring the instructions and manually tying the various wires into the rear brake light cluster (ie the old-fashioned way). Honestly, this is what I’d do if I had to do it again. All the coloured wires are marked up in the manual with what they are, and you could bypass the control box altogether, cut the wires and just splice them inline. However, instead we pressed on to connect it properly to the CAN system as it’s designed, and this means running it all the way to the front.

Again sorry there’s no photos but all the trim pieces along the floor front to back just clip out, albeit this is far from easy you think you’re going to break them but with much swearing and skinned knuckles they do come out eventually. Then remove the airbag switch panel (again just pulls out with a good tug - don't make the rookie mistake of forgetting it disconnect the battery first

Last step but you need a good sense of humour for this one. The instructions show a left hand drive car – but for RHD the bits you need to get to appear to be much harder to get to.

Despite it being in the skoda handbook how to remove the glovebox, we found this very hard! The skoda instructions are rubbish. Release the dampener on the right (it pushes away from you first then up) then BOTH sides have a stopper that you need to release (the manual says it’s only one side) we used fingers and swearing but a ruler would probably be the best tool to release the stops.

Once that’s out of the way the live wire is easy to hook up via the piggy back fuse into the empty socket. Then the fun really starts - In the manual there are 3 plugs of which you need to replace a wire in plug 1 and plug 3. It took me nearly half an hour (yes really) to find the plugs at all, as I expected them inside the fusebox somewhere but that’s not where they are...

 

 

Instead, they are located through the side panel facing outwards from the glovebox – you can just see the white plug 3 if you use a torch and the other 2 plugs are ridiculously inaccessible behind it. The wiring itself is an absolute cinch – the instructions are fairly clear, once the plug is out take the block out of it and there’s no cutting, everything clicks into place and clicks back in after. HOWEVER, getting the plugs out requires someone with hands about a quarter of the size of mine and a lot of patience. I also found the wires leading to the plugs unhelpfully wound round each other and required a lot of pushing and shoving and loss of skin and bleeding, yes really. Perhaps there’s a better way of doing it, but I didn’t find one. The wiring part itself is easy, then it’s back to the swearing to get the plugs back in again.

 

Finally, it’s all done! Getting the trim back together is A LOT easier than taking it apart thankfully. Once finished it looks great, as if it never happened! as you can see totally invisible unless you get on your hands and knees under the car, and the electrics just fold down too. Certainty a feeling of accomplishment, even if to be honest it’s probably just worth paying an expert for.

 

The instructions also tell you what codes you have to ask the dealer to change for you, presumably to turn off the rear parking sensors and maybe something about traction control – I haven’t bothered yet. Even without doing that, because it’s correctly wired into the CAN system, you do get an extra flashing light on the dash when you indicate; to remind you the trailer’s there. Just as well probably because my trailer is small enough that with the kodiaq I can’t see it in the mirrors, which makes reversing with it quite hard. Anyway I hope this helps someone, if you're inexperienced like me this is a project for the brave only, good luck and let me know if I can help, I’m a total amateur but if there’s any questions I can answer I will."

 

 

 

Glad to hear you have tow bar prep, it saves you worrying about cooling issues as the appropriate fan/grill will have been fitted when the car was built.

 

For those without tow bar prep who might be reading this thread, the pros and cons of having the cooling mods done have been extensively discussed in another thread 'Towbar prep. What is done when built?' The thread was resurrected in January and will help you make a more informed decision as to whether you think the expense is justified,

 

On the subject of how to remove interior rear trim panels etc (as well as doing lots of other things), look in 'Skoda Karoq Guides' where @Arkaig has - very helpfully - posted some Karoq Workshop Manuals.

 

(Sorry, I can't work out how to post the links directly).