On one of the Yeti forums there has been a report by one owner who had a spurious wiring system fitted by a third party, that has ended up with his "lighting control unit" burning out, and having to be replaced at over £200, plus a new rear loom.
Just been to caravan storage and plugged in electrics put it in reverse and all that happens is bleeeeeeppppp so obviously there's been no software upgrade everything else works fine (lights) so do I really need the software upgrade it don't need a picture of a trailer on my display to tell me I'm towing a caravan and I can cancel the beeping when I put it in reverse or is it me been a tight arse
Yes you do need to get the car reprogrammed correctly. Not having it done means that:
1/ the rear parking sensors are still working.
2/the rear fog light will still come on on the car, causing glare inside.
3/ the flasher rate will be wrong on both car and trailer.
4/ the bulb failure system has not been extended to the trailer and therefore you do not have the legally required notification that the trailer flashers aren't working.
5/ the alarm system has not been extended to the trailer.
6/ the cars stability control system will not know that a trailer is attached so could cause problems in some situations.
7/ the infotainment screen should show a trailer icon
4 is a legal requirement
6 is very important
Who fitted the electrics, dealer or external fitter?
The towbar was fitted by a well established firm ive had my last three towbars fitted with them will be calling to see them tomorrow see what there going to do about it if anything
I had the same problem. Took it back to the fitter who had programmed it when they fitted it but it seems that there may be more than one configurationd. They tried a second option on their tool an I checked the trailer display with their test board whilst there. Only a ten minute job.
Quote: Originally posted by tango55 on 07/1/2015
It's where the electrical towing socket is fitted that matters and not the actual towball itself as the rear parking sensors won't detect it so the towing socket needs to be fitted preferably somewhere under the rear bumper.
Untrue. Our factory fitted swan neck ball needs the cap placed vertically. Any crookedness alerts the sensors
Right really scratching my head big time after speaking to towbar fitters they said they fitted a bypass relay and it's fine as is but yes my head up display won't recognise there's a towbar fitted so then left and thought are they telling me what I want to hear so I gave skoda a ring and they seemed to not know what I was talking about and then made the decision that I should have the software updated but they couldn't give me a ball park figure so I phoned the towbar fitters up and he laughed not in a bad way and said that if I wanted to throw away my money to go ahead but again says system will work spot on without it
Quote: Originally posted by tango55 on 07/1/2015It's where the electrical towing socket is fitted that matters and not the actual towball itself as the rear parking sensors won't detect it so the towing socket needs to be fitted preferably somewhere under the rear bumper.
Untrue. Our factory fitted swan neck ball needs the cap placed vertically. Any crookedness alerts the sensors
Yes maybe so Stuart but that can be rather misleading as that is due to the cover cap not being fitted correctly not the the towball itself that was being detected.
Quote: towbar fitters they said they fitted a bypass relay and it's fine as is but yes my head up display won't recognise there's a towbar fitted
That sounds like they've used a generic car connection kit which just splices into various wires rather than the dedicated Skoda kit which hooks into the electrics properly. It's not a bodge as such, just a cheaper way of doing it.
I doubt that programming the car to tell it that there's a towbar will make any difference as everything has been bypassed (hence the name) and the signals and controls that would tell the display to show a trailer (amongst everything else mentioned previously) aren't present.
For info my Witter with dedicated Skoda kit (for a Superb) cost £600. My guess is that you paid a lot less than that; the difference is the dedicated wiring.
It was only £245 fitted and like I said I've used them on my last three towbars without any trouble not that I've had any trouble as of yet apart from the head unit not showing the trailer when hooked up they are well established firm and have never given me cause to doubt them in the past wish I'd never got rid of terrano now
I will re-post again regarding initially having experienced a split relay fitted to my Volvo because you may just regret it in the long run for not opting for the Skoda dedicated wiring relay. It ruined two of my holidays because of breaking down and trying to cut down on costs:
I initially had a by-pass relay fitted on my Volvo towbar wiring but had nothing but problems over several months and had the RAC out twice but they could not rectify the problem. Modern cars have a can-bus electronic system which relays messages throughout the vehicle in milli-seconds so if the alien towbar wiring is not compatible with the vehicle it causes all sorts of dashboard messages in the vehicle which in my case it caused brake failure so the vehicles electrics were non existent. I eventually had to take my car to a Volvo dealer and have the by-pass wiring harness removed and replaced with a 13 pin Volvo dedicated wiring harness. The problems were then eliminated and had no further issues but it cost me more in the long term than having the correct wiring harness fitted in the first place. The Skoda dealer has the appropriate equipment to install the correct codes once the dedicated harness has been fitted so the application basically is having the right tools for the job.
At the end of the day the choice is yours but you can't say you haven't been warned.
Quote: Originally posted by twintens on 12/1/2015
It was only £245 fitted and like I said I've used them on my last three towbars without any trouble not that I've had any trouble as of yet apart from the head unit not showing the trailer when hooked up they are well established firm and have never given me cause to doubt them in the past wish I'd never got rid of terrano now
As you now know, the bypass relay will not give you all the available options - but that's not such a big deal, with the possible exception of auto adjustment of the car stability control programme (and, in fact, a lot of dedicated kits don't change the stability controls anyway) People towed for a long time without all the bells & whistles afforded by a dedicated kit. Properly fitted, a bypass kit will be safe and effective, and is unlikely to cause any damage.
The one essential with a bypass kit, however, is some kind of warning to tell you that the flashers are working (or not)
typically, bypass wiring will incorporate a buzzer that sounds when the flashers are operating.
If you can hear 'beep, beep' when you indicate, then all is well.
If not, you must ensure that one is installed pronto as it's a legal requirement.
The sensors only work once you have selected reverse, but with any Skoda VW Group car, always fit a dedicated wiring loom, and get it properly programed, basically they plug the comp in and tick or un tick a few boxes
To be honest I think that, at that price, I would be concerned. I have never looked at the price of a towbar in my life. It is one of those things that just needs doing right, and it costs whatever it costs. I used to do my own, but now I always use the very expensive main dealer. They subcontract the actual fitting, but then they take care of the computer work afterwards. Never have a problem.
We all have our own way of looking at things, but that works for me.
Hi sorry I've not responded been away for a few days in the van very windy coming back today but the car handled brilliant didn't have any problems with the towbar or the electrics towed a dream I'm assuming that if I was going to have any problems it would have happened after towing two hours thanks for all your advice
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Topic: skoda octavia towbar
