European style Westfalia hitch installation with pics
04-10-2012, 09:04 AM
#11
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towing capacity
I'm looking into this hitch as well.
I just want to know how realistic the max towing capacity is for the car. I have an 06' A4 S-Line 2.0T and the owners manual says it will tow 1700 kg's (3750 lbs).
I'm looking at towing a boat which weighs 2800 lbs and would like to know if you'd feel comfortable towing that weight with your Westfalia hitch.
I just want to know how realistic the max towing capacity is for the car. I have an 06' A4 S-Line 2.0T and the owners manual says it will tow 1700 kg's (3750 lbs).
I'm looking at towing a boat which weighs 2800 lbs and would like to know if you'd feel comfortable towing that weight with your Westfalia hitch.
05-14-2013, 11:21 PM
#12
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Erratic Trailer Light Behavior
Hello - Have installed this same kit on my 2008 Avant. On the trailer my running lights work, but the turn signals are erratic and no brake lights function. Does thi "Rest of World" setting change address this? Also, if so, where/how do I change that setting? Thanks, Mark
I finished installing a Westfalia detachable vertical trailer hitch on my 2010 A4. The reason why I didn't go with a traditional hitch was that I just wanted a hitch that you couldn't see when you weren't using it. With this hitch, nobody will ever even know that I have it unless they get their face on the ground to look under my car. I am extremely happy with how it turned out. Absolutely no part of this hitch hangs below the bottom of the bupber.
I also installed the Westfalia wiring kit which is really nice. It ties into the computer system and will tell you right on the dash if you ever have a blown out bulb. I ordered the European 7 pin electrical connector, but spliced it into a US style flat 4. Also the car knows when a trailer is hooked up and alters the ESP behavior and engine cooling for the trailer.
This kit is also really nice because you don't have to do any splicing on factory wiring.
A few specifics of what I had to do:
1) Immediately after wiring in the Westfalia electrical kit I started receiving ESP errors on my dash. To overcome this you need to alter the "Trailer Installed" bit with VagCom within the ABS area.
2) By default the Westfalia box outputs the brake signal on it's own wire rather than adding it to the left and right wires. Adapters that are meant to combine distinct turn and brake signals will not function with this kit because of the bulb detection that it is doing. What you have to do to get around this is alter the "Trailer" setting from "Rest of World" to "North America". Much thanks to another board member here for that pointer, sorry I can't remember who it was. Once you do that you can just splice on the flat 4 and it works perfectly with burned out bulb detection. A wiring diagram comes with the electrical kit.
3) I also activated the "Trailer Installed" bit within the Engine and Central Electrical areas.
4) The towbar has no hooks for chains. What I did was wrap a braided steel rope that was coated in plastic around the structural towbar. The loops on each end of this rope are just barely accessible from under the car. It is extremely strong, and the loops do not show at all.
5) You do have to trim the black portion of the bumper under the car, but it's just the part that faces down, rather than the part that faces towards the back. You absolutely cannot see this unless you get your face down by the ground. I cut a much smaller hole than the drawing said to and did not use the huge round trailer connector. I just ran the flat 4 connector out on its own.
I am extremely happy with how it turned out. The total cost (much of which was for shipping) was $550 USD. Yes that's a lot but I believe I have a much better setup than anything I could possibly buy over here. This thing is amazingly stout, and is inserted right into the body of the car rather than being bolted on from underneath. The ball size is 50mm, versus our 2" ball over here which is 50.8mm, this is a non issue.
Here are the pics:
I also installed the Westfalia wiring kit which is really nice. It ties into the computer system and will tell you right on the dash if you ever have a blown out bulb. I ordered the European 7 pin electrical connector, but spliced it into a US style flat 4. Also the car knows when a trailer is hooked up and alters the ESP behavior and engine cooling for the trailer.
This kit is also really nice because you don't have to do any splicing on factory wiring.
A few specifics of what I had to do:
1) Immediately after wiring in the Westfalia electrical kit I started receiving ESP errors on my dash. To overcome this you need to alter the "Trailer Installed" bit with VagCom within the ABS area.
2) By default the Westfalia box outputs the brake signal on it's own wire rather than adding it to the left and right wires. Adapters that are meant to combine distinct turn and brake signals will not function with this kit because of the bulb detection that it is doing. What you have to do to get around this is alter the "Trailer" setting from "Rest of World" to "North America". Much thanks to another board member here for that pointer, sorry I can't remember who it was. Once you do that you can just splice on the flat 4 and it works perfectly with burned out bulb detection. A wiring diagram comes with the electrical kit.
3) I also activated the "Trailer Installed" bit within the Engine and Central Electrical areas.
4) The towbar has no hooks for chains. What I did was wrap a braided steel rope that was coated in plastic around the structural towbar. The loops on each end of this rope are just barely accessible from under the car. It is extremely strong, and the loops do not show at all.
5) You do have to trim the black portion of the bumper under the car, but it's just the part that faces down, rather than the part that faces towards the back. You absolutely cannot see this unless you get your face down by the ground. I cut a much smaller hole than the drawing said to and did not use the huge round trailer connector. I just ran the flat 4 connector out on its own.
I am extremely happy with how it turned out. The total cost (much of which was for shipping) was $550 USD. Yes that's a lot but I believe I have a much better setup than anything I could possibly buy over here. This thing is amazingly stout, and is inserted right into the body of the car rather than being bolted on from underneath. The ball size is 50mm, versus our 2" ball over here which is 50.8mm, this is a non issue.
Here are the pics:
07-18-2014, 08:39 PM
#13
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bump for an old thread...I cannot get my brake light and turn signals working. I've changed the bit to North America from ROW and no dice. I get all kinds of trailer light errors on the dash and only get running lights on the trailer.
Grr lol
Grr lol
08-15-2014, 09:50 AM
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Does anybody have any images for this install. I have a 2009 Audi A4 Saloon (8K). I am definitely looking into the euro hitch for my car. But I want to make sure it works with no errors. Thx
02-23-2015, 07:43 AM
#15
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wiring harness trouble
I used the Curt hitch for my 2010 Audi S5 Cab and its worked great for carrying bikes. Now I want to pull a stand up jetski and need the wiring harness. I bought the one from etrailer and took to a local stereo shop who had the same issues as mentioned above - brake lights not working, etc.. they took it off and gave it back to me...so I'm back at square one. Anyone get that part of it working properly?
02-23-2015, 02:56 PM
#16
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I used the Curt hitch for my 2010 Audi S5 Cab and its worked great for carrying bikes. Now I want to pull a stand up jetski and need the wiring harness. I bought the one from etrailer and took to a local stereo shop who had the same issues as mentioned above - brake lights not working, etc.. they took it off and gave it back to me...so I'm back at square one. Anyone get that part of it working properly?
CURT Manufacturing - CURT Tail Light Converter #56201
12-21-2016, 09:13 AM
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This thread is old, but it closely approximates the problems I am having getting the Westfalia trailer wiring kit working for North American 4-pin trailer wiring harnesses. Hopefully someone can shed some light.
I purchased and installed a Westfalia hitch system for my 2009 A5 (8T) from PF Jones in the UK (a couple of years ago). This is the Audi OEM trailer package for euro models. My main reason for going with the Westfalia is that it's hard-mounted to the car's frame and completely hidden from view when not in use (no big square receiver, everything is under and within the bumper). Until now, I've used it exclusively for carrying bikes and never needed to hook up the electrics (also Westfalia).
Now I need to rent a UHaul and move some things, and connected the Westfalia wiring, which adds a trailer controller. ECS errors are reported upon starting the car, which are expected until the car is coded for the trailer. Except for the running lights, the trailer lights operate. This seems to be related to the North American convention of mapping turn signals and running lights into the same lamp. From various forums including this one, I gathered coding configuration for trailer retrofits (most of which are checkboxes in VCDS). My mechanic was reluctant to use VCDS to code the changes I requested. However, he did offer to let me do so.
I ran into some problems, and I'm hoping a VCDS guru can help.
Here are the changes I intended to make (and the result of my changes (flagged with >>):
[01 - Engine]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 4, Bits 0-3 Changed from 0011 to 0100
>> Did not attempt
[01 - Engine]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 5, Bit 4 Changed from 0 to 1
(via check box "Trailer Installed" in VCDS)
>> Checked the trailer bit in Byte 6, bit 3, VCDS returned error "Request of of range"
[03 - ABS Brakes][Security Access - 16] (Enter code presented by program)
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 1, Bit 7 Changed from 0 to 1
(via check box "Trailer Hitch Installed" in VCDS)
>> Did not have a security code, so system would not accept the change. Where is the code "presented by the program"?
[09 - Central Elec]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 18, Bit 5 Changed from 0 to 1
(via check box "Trailer Hitch Installed" in VCDS)
>> Successfully changed
[10 - Park / Steer Assist]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 0, Bits 0-3 Changed from 0000 to 0001
[Trailer Hitch Not Installed to Trailer Hitch Installed (Manually Removable) via pull-down list in VCDS]
>> Did not attempt to change
[5F - Information Elec]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 10, Bit 5 Changed from 0 to 1
>> Error "No response from controller"
[19 - CAN Gateway]->[Installation List]->Tick 69 - Trailer
The trailer coding is 0100000000000000.
>> Successful in changing to 0100000000000000, but VCDS allowed checking a box for "North America", which is supposed to allow 4-wire trailer wire adapters to work (0200000000000000). That change resulted in Error 22: "Conditions not correct", or "Request sequence error". Left the tick mark on the trailer setting, but in euro mode.
I purchased and installed a Westfalia hitch system for my 2009 A5 (8T) from PF Jones in the UK (a couple of years ago). This is the Audi OEM trailer package for euro models. My main reason for going with the Westfalia is that it's hard-mounted to the car's frame and completely hidden from view when not in use (no big square receiver, everything is under and within the bumper). Until now, I've used it exclusively for carrying bikes and never needed to hook up the electrics (also Westfalia).
Now I need to rent a UHaul and move some things, and connected the Westfalia wiring, which adds a trailer controller. ECS errors are reported upon starting the car, which are expected until the car is coded for the trailer. Except for the running lights, the trailer lights operate. This seems to be related to the North American convention of mapping turn signals and running lights into the same lamp. From various forums including this one, I gathered coding configuration for trailer retrofits (most of which are checkboxes in VCDS). My mechanic was reluctant to use VCDS to code the changes I requested. However, he did offer to let me do so.
I ran into some problems, and I'm hoping a VCDS guru can help.
Here are the changes I intended to make (and the result of my changes (flagged with >>):
[01 - Engine]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 4, Bits 0-3 Changed from 0011 to 0100
>> Did not attempt
[01 - Engine]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 5, Bit 4 Changed from 0 to 1
(via check box "Trailer Installed" in VCDS)
>> Checked the trailer bit in Byte 6, bit 3, VCDS returned error "Request of of range"
[03 - ABS Brakes][Security Access - 16] (Enter code presented by program)
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 1, Bit 7 Changed from 0 to 1
(via check box "Trailer Hitch Installed" in VCDS)
>> Did not have a security code, so system would not accept the change. Where is the code "presented by the program"?
[09 - Central Elec]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 18, Bit 5 Changed from 0 to 1
(via check box "Trailer Hitch Installed" in VCDS)
>> Successfully changed
[10 - Park / Steer Assist]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 0, Bits 0-3 Changed from 0000 to 0001
[Trailer Hitch Not Installed to Trailer Hitch Installed (Manually Removable) via pull-down list in VCDS]
>> Did not attempt to change
[5F - Information Elec]
[Coding - 07]->[Long Coding Helper]->Byte 10, Bit 5 Changed from 0 to 1
>> Error "No response from controller"
[19 - CAN Gateway]->[Installation List]->Tick 69 - Trailer
The trailer coding is 0100000000000000.
>> Successful in changing to 0100000000000000, but VCDS allowed checking a box for "North America", which is supposed to allow 4-wire trailer wire adapters to work (0200000000000000). That change resulted in Error 22: "Conditions not correct", or "Request sequence error". Left the tick mark on the trailer setting, but in euro mode.
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