The Germans do however have a history of not having the knowhow to fully wire their 13pin sockets, so I would check that your caravan fridge is working & leisure battery is being charged while you tow.
Quote: Originally posted by Arpajon on 18/6/2014
The Germans do however have a history of not having the knowhow to fully wire their 13pin sockets, so I would check that your caravan fridge is working & leisure battery is being charged while you tow.
Thanks for heads up. I didn't think about this.
Is there an easy way to check what's wired up on the electrics?
------------- I'm still trying to think of a witty comment!
The complaint with BMW dealer fitted towbar wiring usually is that as standard only 7pins of the the 13pin socket are wired so you are ok to tow caravan with road lights working but you will have no power for fridge & leisure battery.
There is a separate dealer supplied loom to be fitted to get all 13pins working at extra cost of course & the complaint has been in the past that salesmen are unaware of this, towbar is priced on a 7pin basis & then it is discovered by car owner that several £100s more are required by BMW garage to activate all 13pins.
To test them either tow caravan a few miles & then check if pipes in freezer bit of fridge feel cold or use multimeter. - to pin11 + to pin10 should have power at fast tickover. - to pin13 + to pin9 should have power continuously if 13pin is fully wired.
VW & Ford dealer fitted towbars can be thus also. Its just lack of understanding. Customers expect 13pin to be fully wired as a matter of course & car salesmen know nothing about towbar wiring. The 13pin plug/socket push/twist configuration will eventually become standard for trailers as well & the 7pin plug/socket in both 12n & 12s will be no more.
It is important to specify you want full working caravan wiring (not just trailer wiring) if specifying a towbar and then they should do it, or at least you will have come back if it hasn't been done within the price
The electric fold away bars are great pieces of kit
I had the BMW electic towbar on a 2011 5 series tourer and as said above, it did not come with all pins wired. There is a dealer fit additional wiring loom which can be fitted which will cost approx £300. A word of warning though, BMW technicians are not that experienced at fitting them as they don't do many. It took them 2days and even then it was returned as they hadn't wired correctly. There is not an option to get this done in build at the factory, I have just ordered an X5 and they will only do this at the dealer, in fact the additional loom has only just become available despite the new model being built since September 2013.
One word of warning though, you will need to have some clutch & brake cleaner and a cloth to clean the towbar each time to use it. It gets dirty under the car. Some fine emery cloth to sand after long periods of no use is also handy as you will get a little rust build up. If you don't, you will contaminate the stabiliser pads on you hitch, assuming you have dry rather than greased hitch.
That said, as long as you are aware of the above it is a great piece of kit.
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Topic: BMW electric towbar
