Thought it may be helpful to others in the future looking to fit a towbar to their A4 if I post a few pics of the one I have just fitted to my own B5 Avant.....
I had investigated Brink, Bosal and Westfalia detachable towbars for my car, but having discovered via the www.rs246.com forums that the Genuine factory item was made by Westfalia decided to go down this route....
I purchased mine via my local dealer, it came described as a Votex accessory with Part Number 8D5 092 155B.
I had initially tried to get a few towbar fitting centres to fit my towbar and wire it all up for me, but they didn't seem to want to know, one place even saying towbar fitting on the Avant was a 'nightmare'.....so in the end I was forced to fit it myself.......
Having done it now have to say it was really straightforward!
First job was to remove the rear luggage area trim/carpet and undo the 4 bolts that held the bumper irons to the car.......bumper easily slid off rearwards.
Next job was to clearance the back of the bumper where the alloy strengthening beam is , luckily it is marked in the alloy where to cut!
Similarly on the plastic lower apron there were also factory markings (dotted line) where to cut , although the semicircular dotted line to my eyes looked too much...I chose to cut straight across as I feared the apron cut would be visible from behind the car if I followed the factory markings exactly!!
I should say that in the pics above the original bumper brackets have already been removed from the bumpers as they are not re-used, the side arms of the towbar now fulfilling this function......
Next up was to bolt the towbar up to the alloy beam of the bumper (not tightly, its adjusted later) and offer the whole towbar/bumper assembly up to the car.....
It was slightly awkward getting the bumper end pieces to clip back into the brackets on the wings, but the rest all went back in easily......
This is how it looked when finished, note though the bumper is a little wonky as I was in a hurry to finish, it will be adjusted soon though!!!
With towhitch removed;
From start to finish the job took me just over 3 hrs, going very slowly!
This morning I took the car to an auto-electrician who installed the twin electrics , along with an ISO standard 13 pin socket;on this model of towbar the electrics swivel up out of harms way when they are not being used;
Overall I am delighted with the way things have worked out, with hitch removed you would never guess the car had a towbar at all; things were complicated by my insistence on getting a Genuine Votex/Westfalia item, but doing it this way has worked out £50 cheaper than getting a Brink or a Bosal fitted!
Lastly, here is a shot of the towhitch and its storage bag.....
I had investigated Brink, Bosal and Westfalia detachable towbars for my car, but having discovered via the www.rs246.com forums that the Genuine factory item was made by Westfalia decided to go down this route....
I purchased mine via my local dealer, it came described as a Votex accessory with Part Number 8D5 092 155B.
I had initially tried to get a few towbar fitting centres to fit my towbar and wire it all up for me, but they didn't seem to want to know, one place even saying towbar fitting on the Avant was a 'nightmare'.....so in the end I was forced to fit it myself.......
Having done it now have to say it was really straightforward!
First job was to remove the rear luggage area trim/carpet and undo the 4 bolts that held the bumper irons to the car.......bumper easily slid off rearwards.
Next job was to clearance the back of the bumper where the alloy strengthening beam is , luckily it is marked in the alloy where to cut!
Similarly on the plastic lower apron there were also factory markings (dotted line) where to cut , although the semicircular dotted line to my eyes looked too much...I chose to cut straight across as I feared the apron cut would be visible from behind the car if I followed the factory markings exactly!!
I should say that in the pics above the original bumper brackets have already been removed from the bumpers as they are not re-used, the side arms of the towbar now fulfilling this function......
Next up was to bolt the towbar up to the alloy beam of the bumper (not tightly, its adjusted later) and offer the whole towbar/bumper assembly up to the car.....
It was slightly awkward getting the bumper end pieces to clip back into the brackets on the wings, but the rest all went back in easily......
This is how it looked when finished, note though the bumper is a little wonky as I was in a hurry to finish, it will be adjusted soon though!!!
With towhitch removed;
From start to finish the job took me just over 3 hrs, going very slowly!
This morning I took the car to an auto-electrician who installed the twin electrics , along with an ISO standard 13 pin socket;on this model of towbar the electrics swivel up out of harms way when they are not being used;
Overall I am delighted with the way things have worked out, with hitch removed you would never guess the car had a towbar at all; things were complicated by my insistence on getting a Genuine Votex/Westfalia item, but doing it this way has worked out £50 cheaper than getting a Brink or a Bosal fitted!
Lastly, here is a shot of the towhitch and its storage bag.....
