Hi guys. I'm getting a detachable tow bar fitted to a ford kuga and wondered what the advantages are (if any) of getting dedicated wiring done instead of just joining into the loom. The car does have a years warranty so I think it may void that unless I get dedicated? It is about £200 more expensive though. Thoughts please😐
Warranty will only be void inasmuch as any electrical probs caused by towbar fitter he cannot sort himself & requiring main dealer attention will be at your or fitter's expense & not covered under car manufacturer warranty. If it's a fairly new car & you intend to keep it for a few yrs I would go for dedicated loom as it's plug in so should cause not cause problems for life of vehicle.
It's your choice though. If it's an established towbar fitting company then they should be prepared to fully warranty their own work for a year or more.
I am not certain but I thought dedicated was preferred only if you have reverse sensors fitted, our fitter came to the house and done ours he didn't use dedicated we have no problems but we don't have the sensors either
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Some manufacturers such as VAG have dedicated towbar wiring which informs the central computer system so that it knows it is towing and adjusts stability etc. But for other cars there shouldn't be any difference except where it may affect warranty. Even though a fault might not be down to the connection to the loom, the main dealers might try to claim that any electrical might be down to interfering with the canbus.
First car I had a tow bar fitted was a VW and was advised to have dedicated wiring because I was told if a fault developed which affected the ECU ( is this correct?) on a VW it would be expensive so I bit the bullet.
July 2016 had a tow bar fitted to a 3 year old Peugeot Partner, the fitter asked me if the car was in warranty when I said no he advised me not to bother with a dedicated system.
For my own part if I had warranty on the car I would go for the dedicated wiring system on the basis that if somebody could wriggle out of a warranty claim they would and then you face the hassle of entering into a protracted argument with them.
As already stated if you intend keeping the car for a long period, £200 over that period is not that much although £200 out of your wallet at day 1 hurts!
I noticed when reading my nissan qashqai handbook that the electronics would recognise a trailer was being pulled if dedicated wire loom was used. This, in turn, would kick in power for the lighting, turn signalling and automatically adjust the headlight angle. As ive just got the car i will get a dedicated loom, probably easier to fit anyway. Normally i would have just connected myself.
Have you thought about trying to download the dedicated loom instructions from the manufacturer? Might be you could connect yourself in all the right places and not bypass any "special" fitments if you know waht i mean?
Thanks for the advice everyone. I have got s years warranty left so think I will pay the extra. I'll be keeping the car for a least five years so I suppose I should! The bloody car has been back to the garage twice already under warranty so I don't want to void it!
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Have you thought about trying to download the dedicated loom instructions from the manufacturer? Might be you could connect yourself in all the right places and not bypass any "special" fitments if you know waht i mean?
I thought about that with my car but the plugs used don't seem to be available elsewhere - not even at the dealers. If they had used an available one like molex then I would have connected up little sections with feeds to the universal wiring kit I have.
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Topic: Dedicated tow bar wiring?
