B6 Passat towbar'ed

**PranK** · 06-05-2014, 02:51 PM

Hey Guys,

Just thought I'd do a little write up here on my towbar fitting.

Originally, I could find nobody to supply a towbar to me but then old genius over here realised the build date of our Passat was 07 and not 06.

*sigh*

So, once I got the dates right, I was able to start getting an idea on cost. Worst supply and fit was VW Australia with $1490. Best supply and fit was $990 from some dude who came to me.

I ended up getting a DIY kit from Towbars Australia. Read my review of the process here.

I thought I'd add a bit more info here about the process.

The instructions that came with the towbar and wiring were good but not great. Considering it is a 3rd party ECU and wiring patch (as opposed to an OEM plug-in module) there was a little bit of extra work involved and because I didn't go the OEM route, I don't get the trailer stability program that is in the Passat. I will consider upgrading later but funds didnt permit this time.

The manual suggested that the tail lights would swing out from the car, trying to swing them out resulted in both having snapped clips.

To take them out properly, first take the rear trim out and you can access the clips behind the lights. "Fixed" them using bumper adhesive.

Removing the rear bumper is pretty easy, just take your time because some clips are like pins (above the rear wheels) that can be a bugger to remove but are crucial in keeping the bumper in the right place. Also, careful putting it down as we scratched the paint off the corners when we accidentally scraped it on the ground.

The manual also said I *may* need a right angled drill. Well, that was very much a necessity. The exhaust was able to be moved a bit, but not enough to fit a drill between it and the chassis. So, we ended up getting a right angle bit holder and a step drill bit which worked brilliantly. Thank you to the bloke at North Shore towbars for helping over the phone with this. Once I saw the exhaust location I almost gave up. Simply getting it off the mounts, cramming a lever into it and putting your back into it, you can move it a fair bit.

Once the holes were drilled and the bar put into position, it was as easy as doing up the high tensile bolts and making sure it was straight.

The manual said to drill a 30mm hole to run the wiring (and supplied grommet) through but I found an unused grommet on the passenger side and modified it to suit. I am reluctant to drill holes willy nilly. (In the below pic you can see the reverse sensors coming through the matching grommet on the drivers side.)

Cutting the slot out of the bumper was a bastard and I definitely need to revisit this to clean it up. I used a dremel and cutting disc, but we measured the centre from between the two bolt holes on the bottom of the bumper... It's now evident that these two holes are not centred and shouldn't be included in the measurements.

We also put the ball and tongue on upside down so it was SUPER low.. I kept dragging it on the ground, but we eventually flipped it over and all was well.

The wiring was ok, pulling the trim out is a bit of a bastard and the manual had the wrong wire colours. Not a really big deal, if you can't use a multimeter then you probably shouldn't be attempting this wiring anyway. Once the wires were found, the included taps were easy to fit, ecu stickied to the back of a panel with included tape and I routed the power lead down the drivers side to the fuse box where a double-fuse holder replaced the existing 20A fuse.

I also used a trailer plug tester from Supercheap Auto throughout the wiring to ensure that all was well as we didnt have a trailer and I'd be damned if I was going to put that rear trim back in (bastard to put it back, more so than taking it out) if there was some problem somewhere. $15 well spent.

In all, a job well done.

Tools used;