Towbar wiring coding

[M666LFF]

Happy new year first off
Anyone any idea how much it would likely cost to have towbar wiring system coded to the car at a dealer.
And is the dedicated wiring worth the extra cost ie does it change the way the car drives , my understanding is that the dedicated wiring tells the car the caravan is connected and adjusts
car settings to allow for this .
The caravan has ATC so does it's own thing which seems to work well

 

[Merc220cls]

I can’t say what a dealer will charge but I can recommend you fit a dedicated wiring harness.
I’ve fitted many tow bars in my days with an Austin Rover Main Dealer but cars are more complex nowadays with CanBus systems etc.
Having said all that I fitted the tow bar and dedicated electrics to my own CLS Shooting Brake and can honestly say it was by far the easiest fitting including the electrics that I have ever fitted.
Also there was no need to get my car “coded” by a Main Dealer.
I can recommend P.F. Jones for tow bar and wiring kit.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Happy new year first off
Anyone any idea how much it would likely cost to have towbar wiring system coded to the car at a dealer.
And is the dedicated wiring worth the extra cost ie does it change the way the car drives , my understanding is that the dedicated wiring tells the car the caravan is connected and adjusts
car settings to allow for this .
The caravan has ATC so does it's own thing which seems to work well

My main dealer coded the towing electrics for free but I do use them a lot, and bought all the parts from them, so the answer regarding cost is that “it will depend”. If they charge then I guess it will be 30 minutes labour, so maybe £75 +/- £25.

After coding the car knows when there is a caravan or trailer connected and makes allowances. It adjusts it’s ESP responses, it pulls away in first gear, it disables reverse parking sensors when reversing whilst hooked up, and if you need to use the fog lights then they will be disabled on the car but work on the caravan. There will be other things too.

 

[M666LFF]

Thanks guys I fitted the towbar myself and the universal wiring myself So have no problem doing this.
I just did not time or money to fit the dedicated kit at the time and now want to .
Pfjones want £435 to supply fit and code the dedicated wiring kit so is it worth the money , the kit is about £140 so the rest is fitting and coding

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Thanks guys I fitted the towbar myself and the universal wiring myself So have no problem doing this.
I just did not time or money to fit the dedicated kit at the time and now want to .
Pfjones want £435 to supply fit and code the dedicated wiring kit so is it worth the money , the kit is about £140 so the rest is fitting and coding

£435 seems a lot! Fitting the dedicated wiring ought to be straightforward of you were sufficiently skilled to do the original install and wiring. Call your dealer and ask how much they would charge you for coding only. You could also ask the parts department how much the Mercedes dedicated wiring is (used to be a Westfalia part, possibly still is).

Whether the benefits of dedicated wiring are worth the cost, then I guess that depends upon how often you tow and whether the benefits are mentioned earlier will be of any use. I’ve never used the fog light thing except for testing. I use the automatically disabled reversing sensors every time I tow. I have no idea whether the adjusted ESP makes a difference, but for me it was worth the additional cost.

 

[M666LFF]

Hello sorry to keep dragging this up , I have a local mb independent specialist with Star who have said they could code the car wiring but only if it has genuine wiring kit .
Could some one correct me if I am wrong but reading posts on here etc MB dont supply a kit and have towbars fitted .
The kit I was going to get is the Pfjones 13pin dedicated one .
Promise this is the last question on this

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Hello sorry to keep dragging this up , I have a local mb independent specialist with Star who have said they could code the car wiring but only if it has genuine wiring kit .
Could some one correct me if I am wrong but reading posts on here etc MB dont supply a kit and have towbars fitted .
The kit I was going to get is the Pfjones 13pin dedicated one .
Promise this is the last question on this

Keep the questions coming until sorted.

Mercedes do indeed sell dedicated wiring and tow bars for retrofitting, and whilst it comes with a Mercedes part number it has the Westfalia part numbers on it too. Mercedes dealers tend not to fit them though, they use a tow bar specialist and charge a margin!

I bought the Mercedes tow bar and electrics kits from the Mercedes main dealer, and then provided the Westfalia part numbers to Westfalia UK - they confirmed that the Westfalia part numbers aren’t specific to parts supplied to MB, they’re the same part numbers as you and I would order from Westfalia direct or from a specialist fitter.

You might think that’s an odd thing to do, but even Westfalia weren’t sure whether there were differences between the kits they supply to MB and the kit they then sell. Similarly Mercedes weren’t sure whether Westfalia supply a different kit to them versus retail!

So I bought one so we could all find out! It was important as we were fitting it to an ML63 AMG and Westfalia themselves believed it not to be possible to fit a Westfalia kit for a standard ML. It was possible, and was the same and Westfalia updated all their technical records to reflect!

When I bought another ML63 AMG (later model) we used the Westfalia kit as it worked out a lot cheaper. It was still fitted by the same Westfalia specialist as the main dealer uses though, again because of it being an ML63 AMG and you guessed it, Westfalia thought it might not fit...

 

[easyonthegas]

You may already have the instructions for coding, but most are available on line

Installing the wiringkit yourself - Read more about what it involves
or use search on "brink 727644 + code" and this gives you the pdf brochure - too big to attach on this site

 

[M666LFF]

I have decided to get the dedicated kit from Pfjones supplied fitted and coded at £435 it is a lot of money but it will be done correctly .
I chickened out doing it myself and then there was the hassle of getting it coded locally.
Thank you for all your help with this

 

[easyonthegas]

Update on the coding cost - £168 at dealer which is one hour of their time. Just had mind completed and fully agree with previous comments that dedicated electrics is the only solution, otherwise your car control system will not properly function.

 

[Justintyme]

Update on the coding cost - £168 at dealer which is one hour of their time. Just had mind completed and fully agree with previous comments that dedicated electrics is the only solution, otherwise your car control system will not properly function.

So the dealer supplied, fitted and coded the kit for you for £168.00? That's good value.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

So the dealer supplied, fitted and coded the kit for you for £168.00? That's good value.

I suspect that it cost £168 in labour for the main dealer to do the coding.

Depending upon where in the country, that sounds sounds like a 1 hour labour charge - other dealerships will have a different hourly rate, and some may charge for more or less time - however I suspect that most would charge for 30 minutes or 1 hour regardless of how long it takes.

Some fitters can do the coding, others send the customer to the dealership. If you can find a towbar specialist who subcontracts for a main dealer, then you can deal with them directly, and pay less than asking the main dealer to do it.

 

[Rpp999]

Polar automotive at Tonbridge charge £99 for coding.

 

[easyonthegas]

Booby Dazzler is correct - the £168 was only for the dealer to code the dedicated electrics. I has already fitted the electrics.
I was quoted £80 by the tow bar company who fitted the bar to code, but I am never sure if they have the latest software.

Once coded the blind spot alert is disabled (otherwise it would think my caravan is overtaking me - which is not a good thing!), and the rear view camera will operate in trailer mode. Suspect other changes to the car controls as well that I have not spotted.

 

[Johngould]

I can’t say what a dealer will charge but I can recommend you fit a dedicated wiring harness.
I’ve fitted many tow bars in my days with an Austin Rover Main Dealer but cars are more complex nowadays with CanBus systems etc.
Having said all that I fitted the tow bar and dedicated electrics to my own CLS Shooting Brake and can honestly say it was by far the easiest fitting including the electrics that I have ever fitted.
Also there was no need to get my car “coded” by a Main Dealer.
I can recommend P.F. Jones for tow bar and wiring kit.

What year was yours? Does anything else come up on screen when trailer connected without coding and do you know if the trailer assist is activated without coding? Cheers, john

 

[Merc220cls]

Hi John
My CLS is a 2017 220 d model, nothing shows up on the screen when the caravan is coupled up. My caravan is a 2007 coachman 520/4 ViP and has no trailer assist fitted so I can’t answer that question.
IMO the CLS tows better than our previous 3.0 Jaguar XF. I like the fact that you can view oil temperature on screen (useful on a long uphill pull) as well as water temperature, non of which was available on the XF.
Sadly we weren’t been able to use the caravan last year and even this year is in doubt due to Covid.