Passat B5 towing electrics

[haydnw]

Help please.

Anyone wired twin towing electrics to a B5 passat estate ??

I bought a Witter bar along with pre-wired twin electric sockets and Alko ball for £116.46 from PF Jones in Manchester today.

They reckon you don't need a bypass relay but I'd be more comfortable if someone who's already fitted one could confirm that this is the case.

Anybody ??



Haydn

[Hex69]

Hi,

I fitted a towbar to a B5 saloon in a morning. I just went for the single electrics, as I'll only be pulling a trailer. It was straightforward and just spliced into the tail lamp supply quite easily. I just had to run a seperate wire from the nearside to the offside for the LHS indicator.

BTW, there's a grommet on the offside just in front of the air extraction vent that's handy for threading the cable through.

Hex

[adamss24]

Help please.

Anyone wired twin towing electrics to a B5 passat estate ??

I bought a Witter bar along with pre-wired twin electric sockets and Alko ball for £116.46 from PF Jones in Manchester today.

They reckon you don't need a bypass relay but I'd be more comfortable if someone who's already fitted one could confirm that this is the case.

Anybody ??



Haydn

If your car has the Driver Info System, then i suggest you fit a bypass relay and get one from westfalia or bosal (both OEM suppliers!) as you will fry up the circuits. I had a twin electrics towbar fitted to my 98 a4 and i used a £25 bypass relay from Halfords. It worked ok for a couple of weeks, then the DIS started to play funny, showing blown brake/side lights bulbs wich- uppon checking- were found ok, i then looked inside the ECU box where i fitted the relay and noticed that the relay was melting, shorting the istruments. New replacement instruments costed me 200 quid...If you dont wanna risk setting your car in fire,i suggest you fit a genuine one!

[haydnw]

Thanks for the info so far - Mine doesn't appear to have a bulb failure warning (I assume that it would display on the multifunction screen in the middle of the instrument panel) I have taken all the tail light bulbs and the indicator bulb out of one side and nothing shows on there.
Can anyone tell me specifically what relays I need for both the 12N & 12S sockets and point me to a supplier (PF Jones sold me the twin electric kit but don't include a split charge relay with it).
I wouldn't object to a vehicle specific kit as long as that doesn't involve routing the wiring through the car and into the fusebox.

[Motorway]

i fitted a detachable westfalia towbar to my last B5 estate, the fit was easy and the electrics were not that hrd either. i bought the bar and electrics from Towequip of Nuneaton the also supplied me with the relay for the 12n and 12s sockets for just under £175.00 three years ago. i also recomend running a fused live feed to the relays direct from the battery. if i remember it took about three hours for bar and electrics.

recently purchased a B6 estate and got the same kit for the new one fom Towequip for £180ish. this one took a little longer due to accessability of wiring.

just google towequip and have a look at what relays they can supply, i phoned them about relays and they were very helpful, you can also collect from them if you are close to nuneaton. hope this helps.

[haydnw]

Thanks for replies so far.

Made a start this evening and got the tow bar bolted on and the rear bumper re-fitted.

I was going to start on the wiring but was defeated by the stainless ? steel strip which runs across the load space just above the bumper - how the hell does it come off ? Hayne's manual doesn't refer to a method to remove it.

HELP PLEASE !! - I guess that when someone tells me how it's done I'll be kicking myself for not working it out.


Haydn

[MrToad]

Haydn,
Did you work out how to remove the stainless strip on the boot sill, as I've just hit the same problem?
regards
Stewart

[haydnw]

I didn't, and as you can see from the lack of responses on the forum it seems that no one else has either - I finished up just easing it away as far as I could and feeding the cable under it the best I could.
Good luck with it !
Haydn

[PFJones]

HI all

this car does not need a bypass as is stated on site , This car does not have canbus wiring, If you use the dedicated wiring kit this is has no canbus relay in the dedicated wiring kit,

We have looked through the last months sales and can not seem to find your order. We advertise a FREE FITTING HELPLINE ,should be having any problems please feel free to contact us.

Beware we have had many callers telling us towbar companies/main dealers saying that they need this and that,This is called upselling.

If we give out wrong advice then we will happily fix the problem. We are confident our team of towbar experts, can easily guide you through any issues you may be facing.

Regarding this issue we have spoken direct to VW and they have confirmed you dont need a bypass I hope this reassures you, however should you still have any doubts feel free to call us, on our freephone fitting helpline.

[martin1810]

I didn't, and as you can see from the lack of responses on the forum it seems that no one else has either - I finished up just easing it away as far as I could and feeding the cable under it the best I could.
Good luck with it !
Haydn

Doesn't this car already have at least one ready made hole for the wires to go out so why would you want to feed cable under the plate. I can help with the wireing if you get a problem.