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Thread: A4 Avant Towbar fitting - electrics problems

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  1. A4 Avant Towbar fitting - electrics problems 
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    Evening! I've had my 2015 (B8.5) A4 Avant for a year now, and recently fitted a towbar. I decided to do it myself, being an engineer and all - how hard can it be (!!!!)

    The mechanical installation went well - took a while but I was being careful.

    The electrical installation was a bit trickier - the Westfalia dedicated wiring kit I went for came with a manual that consisted only of diagrams that were quite vague in places.

    Anyhow, I followed them carefully, and am fairly sure I done it correctly (aside from the last step of splicing a wire onto a +15V wire going to the electronic parking brake - it only implied that it should be a black wire, so that's what I spliced it onto).

    After reconnecting the battery, and before doing any coding, I turned on the ignition and got fault warnings for the TPMS, ESP stability control and electronic parking brake.

    I'm a bit panicked by these! I'm not sure if I've done something wrong, or if the car has simply detected the towbar electrics are now connected and is waiting to be recoded, or if those alerts are normal after disconnecting the battery.

    I took the car for a short test spin, and everything seemed to work ok, although the parking brake and ESP warning lights stayed on, as did the TPMS warning.

    I tried to store the tyre pressures to see if that resolved the TPMS issue, but it said that it couldn't store the tyre pressures due to a malfunction.

    I was also unable to turn the ESP on while driving. The parking brake seemed to work ok though....

    I'd be really grateful for any advice/expertise anyone could offer here? I have an OBDEleven Pro that I've recently bought - I'm still very much an amateur with this stuff though. I wanted to do the install myself to learn something new, but now wondering if I've been too ambitious.
     
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  2. Re: A4 Avant Towbar fitting - electrics problems 
    #2
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    Feed a fused wire from battery to the towbar electrics

    You may need this for towing a caravan and charging the caravans battery or feeding a fridge etc if its not gas powered


    Looks like the car brakes are seeing a voltage drop and therefore reporting a fault. This happens also when the car battery has a dud cell(s) and is on its way out, after so long of the car starting it will see if there is enough juice to power the brakes........................................ older cars do it right away and don't allow the alternator to recharge the battery up

    I am lucky in having a factory fitted towbar & towing my horsebox is a dream, because when the car sees a trailer, it adjusts the braking off the car. Brilliant
    VW POLO 2002 1.2 12v , Audi A6 2006 2.0 TDi SE , Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDi

    All 3 cars in the current fleet
     
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  3. Re: A4 Avant Towbar fitting - electrics problems 
    #3
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    I fitted same on my car . The black wire you have to tap into has to go dead when ignition is switched off. It is a very thin (can bus) wire. Why not ring people you bought it from? When it's fitted there is no difference in any thing til you get it onto Audi's or like I did an independent Audi garage computer to tell ecu that you have tow bar fitted. Cost me £49. Good luck!
     
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