Our new Mitsubishi ASX has arrived. I had asked the dealer to supply a Mitsubishi wiring loom as I intended to fit my own towbar as always.
However, they had had the wiring for the towbar fitted prior to me collecting the car. All well and good, a job saved.....so I thought.
However, on closer examination the wiring kit was not the standard Mitsubishi system which plugs into the wiring loom on the car, but a very cleap alternate kit which almost certainly would not meet Mitsubishi warranty.
Far worse though, the standard of wiring is very poor and almost certainly dangerous. The proper Mitsubishi wiring kit comes with 3 fuses to power the rear lights, the fridge and the battery. The fuses are easily accessible in the wiring bay. In total 50amps. This wiring came with just one 16amp fuse for all 3, with the fuse hidden behind the dashboard. (It took some finding!)
Not only just a 16amp fuse, but the feed for this taken from the back of the fuse panel, which in itself is fed from a number of quite small fuses. The wiring leading to the back of the car will only carry 16 amps so a higher fuse rating is not the answer.
The end result was that with all the lights on, including the side repeater lights, and the fridge, it is likely the fuse will blow and leave the caravan without any lights.
Even more dangerous, is the fact that the fitted ATC to the caravan would blow the fuse the first time it activated.
My garage is very concerned about the quality and has ordered the proper kit for me. They have asked if I would do a written report, as I suspect they might have a long conversation with the towbar fitter they use. Mine would not have been the only car wired this way.
The moral, penny wise pound foolish. Pay more and have the manufacturer's wiring kit fitted.
Do you know where the fuses for your towbar wiring and know what rating they are? Especially if you have ATC, do check.
Always do use the manufacturers plug in wiring kits and tow bars regardless of cost , would not entertain any cheapskate wiring or backstreet bodge towbar fitters , been caught out before with a so called independent tow bar specialist who totally cocked up the wiring on brand new VW Passat back in 2005 which resulted in me having to get a VW dealership abroad to fix the problem .
You only get what you pay for , penny pinch and it will cost you in the long run
If you always use genuine tow bar and electrics there is then no way any warranty claims can be turned down .A few extra pounds now could save many times more in future.
At least your dealer is looking into it. The same thing happened to me at a Citroen dealer (I asked for OEM wiring and the fitter put in a cheap bypass system) and the dealers didn't even understand what the problem was.
I agree, we had a back street version on the Touran and had nothing but trouble including 3 new batteries, eventually took the towbar wiring out no problems!
I find this thread misguided and almost insulting.
As a mechanic of many years, I would not take any car to a dealership that wasn't requiring it due to warranty issues.
I have to agree that an OEM wiring kit is preferable, but with modern CANBUS systems it should be a plug 'n' play loom with firmware upgrade in the body control. Please don't fall into the trap of "pay more, get more" as it simply doesn't work that way.
If nothing else it proves that when you pay your dealer £100+ per hour you often do not get what you paid for. In this instance the dealer has had a thrid party come in and do a bodge job and taken a nice big cut off the top from you for the privilege. I have seen way too many horrors from cars that have supposedly been serviced and repaired at dealerships to ever trust one.
I do my own repairs most of the time (obviously), but when it's a job I don't want to do at home- a clutch for example- I use a trusted independent. An independent does not have the dealership status to hide behind and is only as good as his last job. Whilst I appreciate you have been stung this time, in my experience you will get better service, more talented mechanics and also save yourself a lot of money using an independent. Please do not use banner statements that tar everyone with the same brush- it's almost as bad as the "Speed Kills" nonsense.
------------- Life is not a practice run- live it!
We have always had factory towbars on all of our new vans, ordered with the vehicle. A friend's company bought new vans and had towbars retro-fitted, they were a mess, towbars loose and endless wiring issues.
But that's down to using a bad installer (just like the OP's dealership did), not some mystical dealership magic. A towbar installation is simply nuts and bolts,a dedicated loom that plugs straight in and either the plugging in of a module or the pressing of a button on a laptop to enable towing in the body control module. Their is nothing difficult or magical about it, unlike auto gearboxes, but that's a story for another day- they really do work with black magic!
The reason that most OEM tow electrics set ups are better is because they are designed to be plug and play. I remember fitting them to Montegos in the early 90s. Easy doesn't begin to describe it. I suspect your company looked for cheap when they had retro-fitted towbars rather than reputation.
------------- Life is not a practice run- live it!
Quote: Originally posted by GeeBee R3 on 26/6/2014
I find this thread misguided and almost insulting.
As a mechanic of many years, I would not take any car to a dealership that wasn't requiring it due to warranty issues.
I have to agree that an OEM wiring kit is preferable, but with modern CANBUS systems it should be a plug 'n' play loom with firmware upgrade in the body control. Please don't fall into the trap of "pay more, get more" as it simply doesn't work that way.
If nothing else it proves that when you pay your dealer £100+ per hour you often do not get what you paid for. In this instance the dealer has had a thrid party come in and do a bodge job and taken a nice big cut off the top from you for the privilege. I have seen way too many horrors from cars that have supposedly been serviced and repaired at dealerships to ever trust one.
I do my own repairs most of the time (obviously), but when it's a job I don't want to do at home- a clutch for example- I use a trusted independent. An independent does not have the dealership status to hide behind and is only as good as his last job. Whilst I appreciate you have been stung this time, in my experience you will get better service, more talented mechanics and also save yourself a lot of money using an independent. Please do not use banner statements that tar everyone with the same brush- it's almost as bad as the "Speed Kills" nonsense.
Frankly, I find your response misguided and certainly insulting. Clearly you did not read my OP properly before launching into your response.
I asked for the dealer to supply the factory wiring loom kit as I always fit them myself after the last bodge. They went off and had the towbar wiring fitted.
I haven't been "stung", so forget all the dealer independent claptrap. Indeed it was an independent that fitted the dreadful bodge job.
Almost all dealer-fit towbars these days are contracted out to independent fitters. I am well aware that there are some very good fitters out there. Indeed when I went to one to collect the actual towbar itself, he pointed out that the bodge wiring job I had had done was very common.
The point of my post was to get caravanners to at least think and have a quick check of their towbar wiring. I could have been out in the evening and find that all the caravan lights go dead, or end up in a mess at the side of the motorway because the ATC on the caravan failed due to the bodged wiring.
Even if it saves one caravanner having a problem it was worth posting.
FWIW, we recently had a fixed flange towbar (our particular choice) and a dedicated 13 pin 'Jaeger' wiring kit fitted to our 2014 Tiguan, with additional wiring for the fridge, charger and ATC, by PTC in Sheffield for £340 all in, done & dusted - including recoding, done using their Autologic system.
Very cheap (perhaps their mistake, but they said nothing, and that's all I paid them)
The Jaeger kit is my first experience with 'specific' and it's much better than the 'bypass' kits I've always had in the past.
The Tiguan knows when a trailer is connected (displays a graphic when reversing) and monitors the lights for bulb failure, in addition to cutting out the reverse sensors, car fog lights, etc.
It's also supposed to alter the vehicle ESC - but I can't say whether it does or not.
Re. your ATC - surely that has its own dedicated permanently live wiring with it's own 20 amp fuse?
Post last edited on 26/06/2014 20:46:18
------------- I glanced in the mirror, and it was love at first sight...
Quote: Originally posted by Watt Tyler on 26/6/2014
Re. your ATC - surely that has its own dedicated permanently live wiring with it's own 20 amp fuse?
Post last edited on 26/06/2014 20:46:18
That was exactly the problem. No.
The ATC is wired to pin 9 on a 13 pin plug at the caravan end. However the bodged towbar wiring that was fitted had just one 15 amp supply cable for pin 9, for the fridge, and for powering the caravan running lights instead of 3 separately fused lives, 2 at 15amps each and one 20amp supply.
We all know dealers charge the earth for doing nothing.Do what i did,find good reputable people to do the job.Its not about price,its about getting a job done,My towbar is great and a decent price with lifetime warranty.In my view dealers are a waste of time and money.They have no brains,they go by computers.Please yourself
Exactly. I've seen many an occasion where a dealer has supposedly just serviced a car and I've found that it hasn't even had the wheels off, or even been virtually out of oil.
------------- Life is not a practice run- live it!
Quote: Originally posted by glittering-prize on 29/6/2014
We all know dealers charge the earth for doing nothing.Do what i did,find good reputable people to do the job.Its not about price,its about getting a job done,My towbar is great and a decent price with lifetime warranty.In my view dealers are a waste of time and money.They have no brains,they go by computers.Please yourself
How many times do I have to say it? THIS IS NOT ABOUT DEALERS OR WHAT THEY DO OR CHARGE. It is about the way some towbar wiring is carried out.
I wonder if you have ever checked the way yours is wired up? Yours might work fine until you get a caravan with ATC.
Quote: Originally posted by freeatlast on 30/6/2014
Quote: Originally posted by glittering-prize on 29/6/2014We all know dealers charge the earth for doing nothing.Do what i did,find good reputable people to do the job.Its not about price,its about getting a job done,My towbar is great and a decent price with lifetime warranty.In my view dealers are a waste of time and money.They have no brains,they go by computers.Please yourself
How many times do I have to say it? THIS IS NOT ABOUT DEALERS OR WHAT THEY DO OR CHARGE. It is about the way some towbar wiring is carried out.
I wonder if you have ever checked the way yours is wired up? Yours might work fine until you get a caravan with ATC.
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Topic: Towbar Wiring - A warning
