Westfalia Towbars - VW fitting problem, dispute

[VWlover]

Hello all,
I am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to me with supplying a Westfalia towbar to be fitted by a Volkswagen dealer. I purchased a Westfalia towbar and wiring module from Towbar’s Australia which was sold to me as an OEM towbar for my Volkswagen. My local Volkswagen dealer, agreed to fit the towbar and wiring module at a fixed price. I booked the car in expecting it to be no less than a day and after four working days, with me ringing every day and not getting a reply, I was told that the wiring module has caused a fault on the car and the car was not starting.

A few more days later the Volkswagen dealer then tells me that the wiring module is the cause of the problems with the car and the car still was not running correctly. They did however give me a courtesy car to use and then I did not hear from them for another week when they said they wanted me to purchase another wiring module from them at almost twice the price I had bought it from the Westfalia distributor. Their argument was that I had bought a non-Volkswagen genuine part even though parts are identical. Both a Westfalia fitter and Westfalia themselves claimed that the wiring module was not installed correctly and as a consequence it blew (and possibly cause damage to elsewhere in the vehicle). There is a lot more detail to this but I tend to side with what Westfalia is saying because by the way the story has panned out it appears the Volkswagen dealer is covering their tracks.


They just now today have given me the option of either returning my car with ½ fitted towbar yet they’re still going to charge me the full labour or I purchase another wiring module and they fit it. They will not release my car until either of these options. They have also changed their story and say now my car is running fine, so it appears that in the last week they fixed whatever they did to my car.


It appears that they are putting an unfair lien against my car, I have now been without it for three weeks whilst they have tried to rectify the error. One part of me is just prepared to pay the extra amount just to get my car back but I have now paid for the equivalent of three wiring modules, been without my car for three weeks (which is a work car and the courtesy car could not carry my equipment around), and it has caused me a great deal of stress and lost time try to sort all this out.


I also still may have residual damage that I am unaware of.


Any advice appreciated.

[Sunny43.5]

A few years back I swapped the VW fitted Towbar from our 2004 T5 Van onto our new 2012 T5.1 , I swapped out the bar which was the easy part , I also swapped over the VW wiring loom but thats when the S***T hit the fan . The loom was not compatible with the new can bus system VW fitted to the later models , we lost all lighting and indicators for a while . After VW told me it was going to cost over $600 for the newer loom I started looking for an alternative , while driving past a Speedy Tow bar place I stopped and told the guy what had happened mid conversation he plonked a small device onthe counter and said it was the answer. Now in the time before that i had removed the old harness and reset the can bus by discconecting the battery so no faults , I was toying with using relays to get the trailer lights to work as they would not interfere with the can bus , the device the guy sold me for $120 was in fact a small box with six relays built in with all the wires listed to connect . So an hour or so later it was all hooked up and works perfectly , no need for VW to recode the sytem and i can run LED lights on the trailer . Now six years later my $120 box is still working perfectly and no issues with VW systems , sometimes you have to think outside the box to get a good result . I think the problem is that VW dont want you to add anything to their cars unless its VW approved and VW fitted , well screw them and their technology .

[Transporter]

Yeah, simple fix indeed, but it’s possible now that your ESP doesn’t know that there is a trailer attached, so the relay box is fine as long you don’t get into some slippery situation where the ESP needs to intervene to keep your van on the road, you’ll be fine. Otherwise you may regret that you didn’t spend a bit more and get the real thing.

[Umai Naa!!]

Not worth running the risk to save a few bucks on these anymore. We've come a VERY long way from splicing into the tail light wiring with scotchlocks.

Pay the man; have the dealership fit a genuine wiring kit.

[Sunny43.5]

The only time I have ever experienced ESP is when we were towing a fully loaded trailer along a muddy dirt road driving into a short gully with a hill on the other side meant the van lost traction on the front wheels ESP worked to reduce power and alternate power to each front wheel resulting in being able to get up the hill where conventional cars could not . Only other time was where the ESP kicked in on a very wet highway when the cruise control was on , it disconnected the cruise control quickly , both times with trailer so not much to worry about as far as I am concerned . PS no Scotchlocks were hurt during the connectiong of the wires I SOLDERED them !

[syncro]

Hello all,
I am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to me with supplying a Westfalia towbar to be fitted by a Volkswagen dealer. I purchased a Westfalia towbar and wiring module from Towbar’s Australia which was sold to me as an OEM towbar for my Volkswagen.

How did this end?

The problem is that VW Australia do not sell VW towbars. Westfalia is the genuine VW towbar.

[Dan_3MPS]

How did this end?

The problem is that VW Australia do not sell VW towbars. Westfalia is the genuine VW towbar.

The physical towbar itself is not the problem.

Issue would possibly be that the Westfalia electrics he/she was sold were possibly incompatible with their specific car.

The correct VW OEM trailer control module electrics are the way to go, irrespective of the actual towbar used. Expensive though, between $500-600 to purchase in Australia.