Hello all

 

I have a MK3 Superb TSi on a 2018 plate and I have fitted an ortis factory tow bar, which I bought from the amazing Sasha Grace as a new old stock unit. I bought an OEM wiring harness for it and a used module from a breakers (previously on a Tiguan).

 

I had a an auto-electrician/ coding service guy fit the wiring harness and wire it in as per the instructions. Before coding, the ACC and blind spot monitoring threw codes. He has now coded the module using an SVM code from Skoda and a ‘retrofit’ code supplied. The process downloaded updates over the air and coded all the modules.

 

There are now no fault codes at all. But the tow bar will not deploy. The LED is green. But remains green. Wehn you pull the handle, it does not go red and release the bar. He has tried long coding to cycle between the 3 ‘button options’ but none of these release the bar.

 

Any help or advice greatly appreciated

The tow bar release is entirely mechanical so no coding would ever fix that.

 

youll need to check if the cable that goes from the handle is moving the small gearbox then the next cable to the actual tow bar.

 

the led colour is just a micro switch to tell you green means it’s locked either stowed or securely out.

and red means it’s not secure in either of these positions

Yes it just falls by gravity when the lock is released by pulling the handle. Quite prone to slightly sticking due to dirt or corrosion, you just need to reach underneath and encourage it (assuming the cable is moving the release OK).

Edited 15 October, 20241 yr by nicknorman

Hi both

 

Thanks so much for the advice. I whipped the lights out and bumper off for the 4th time and removed the smaller gearbox. 
 

As you can see, the cable had slipped off the cam and so whilst it was pulling up it wasn’t actuating the other cable. 
 

Unit was a bit of a pig to separate. The red bit that had snapped off appeared to be some kind of stopper to stop the cam rotating too far back and may have caused the cable to come off?

 

No visible damage to the cam pulley itself so refuted the cable and all now works! 👍

 

Posting as much for any future visitors as to say thanks. 

On 16/10/2024 at 21:05, Eltax91 said:

I whipped the lights out and bumper off for the 4th time and removed the smaller gearbox. 
....
Unit was a bit of a pig to separate.

... 

...refuted the cable and all now works! 👍

 

Posting as much for any future visitors as to say thanks. 

Hi Eltax

thanks for this post.

Just over a week in with my 2019 superb — came with a stuck towbar, but I took the hit for all the other toys it’s packing.

How hard is it actually to whip the bumper off, and then remove and crack open the small gearbox?

Thanks in advance,

cheers

Sasha

29 minutes ago, Sasha_G said:

Hi Eltax

thanks for this post.

Just over a week in with my 2019 superb — came with a stuck towbar, but I took the hit for all the other toys it’s packing.

How hard is it actually to whip the bumper off, and then remove and crack open the small gearbox?

Thanks in advance,

cheers

Sasha

If you’re mechanically minded you’ll be ok. Rear lights are designed for easy removal for bulb changes.

Then there’s some bolts behind them and a couple in each wheel arch.

The Bowden cable housing has just one bolt holding it to the bar. Prising it open wasn’t easy. You need to be careful you don’t break it. Go slowly and you’ll be ok. 👍

Thanks Eltax for your quick reply.

From your pic it appears the bowden cable housing lid needs to be twisted to unlock - is that about right?

Cheers

Yes and no. It definitely needs a twist to unlock, but i'd say it was made with "inteference fit" / "one time fit" in mind.

You need to be very careful to loosen clips and try to slowly slide them back, then leaver them out. It took my father in law (time served engineer) a good 30 minutes to separate it without breaking it.

Thanks, that's really good to know.

Cheers