Touareg R Line - fitting tow bar - need help
Sorry to re-start this one, however a year ago to the day, I purchased my much loved Touareg R Line 63 plate, dealer at the time quoted £899 for Towbar to be fitted. As the deposit took most of available finance decided to do later, dealer “yep that’s fine”. For one reason or another caravan didn’t come back out, then COVID, but now that sites are re-opening we thought best get the bar fitted! So after call to same dealer, I am now quoted £3300!! Due to upgrade on cooling fan also required not mentioned originally! In shock really, any advice would be greatly received. This is far above our budget, and now worried any planned trips will now be put on hold. Thanks in advance
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Do you tow in extreme temps as if so extra cooling could be an advantage, but if not then don't bother and just go to an independant towbar fitter. There are lots of members on here said they have not got extra cooling and had no problems what so ever and even towed abroad.
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Another consideration is if you have any remaining warranty on the car. If you don't have the beefier (850W) cooling fans fitted and a problem occurs that could be attributed to you towing without the additional cooling, that problem would not be covered under the warranty.
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The problem is, an Independant towbar fitter may be more interested in fitting a towbar (££) than worrying about your auto box. How big is the caravan you have or want? I assume as you bought a Toureg you have or fancy something BIG.
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When I bought my Treg, new, in 2015 - because I was aware of the cooling fan issue, I got both my dealer and an independent (local) Bosch Service centre to check with VW UK exactly what was meant by the expression in the handbook "it is recommended, if towing, that the upgraded cooling fan is fitted".
Both came back with the same answer that, if a towing related issue arose and the upgraded fan hadn't been fitted, that issue wouldn't be covered by the warranty.
The dealer wanted another £850 on top of the quoted £1200 for the towbar, to fit the fan.
I hit the roof and threatened to pull out of the deal on the basis that nowhere in any of the literature - or advertising - did it say that the 3.5t towing limit was subject to the upgraded fan being fitted. VW relinquished and agreed to fund the cost of the upgraded fan.
The cost of a factory fitted towbar (and upgraded fan) was £750 at that time!
I don't know if this approach is much help bearing in mind you have already had the car for a year, but it's worth bearing in mind.
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We have a 66 plate Touareg, purchased as a pre reg in January 2017. We made it clear when we purchased that we would be towing a large caravan, but were not made aware of the recommendation that a bigger fan be fitted.
After taking delivery, we asked the dealer to fit a towbar, but they were not keen, and suggested it would be better to have it done by a towbar specialist, as they would have taken it to one anyway.
We had by then studied the handbook and read about the bigger fan, but none of our previous towcars, all Volvos with autobox, had ever needed anything, and we do not tow in hot places, so we have not bothered.
If we were still travelling extensively abroad, as we did for 10 years, we might have considered it, but even then, as we went away only March/June and September/November, and never any further south than the Spanish border, I think we would not have bothered. We have had one trip to Germany, in 2017, since purchasing the car.
These days we are pretty much confined to UK due to Grandparent duties, and Brexit and advancing years, of both me and the caravan, have to be considered too!
We tow a twin axle, 1900kg MTPLM, and have done over 8000 miles towing since buying the car, without any problems.
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Similar fright with my 65 plate R-Line bought last year so 1st thing to do is take a deep breath and think it through for your situation.
Theres quite a few towbar fitters will fit a bar and electrics for you. I used an outfit called Professional retrofits in Nuneaton and the bar, dedicated electrics, coding and fridge feed cost me £655 all in.
Next came the question of the fan; as I had a years VW warranty I did go ahead and get the fan uograded. Most expensive bit was the fan itself from VW which if I remember correctly was c£750 plus VAT. Fitting was carried out by my local garage for 1 hours labour. DO NOT get the bigger fan from eBay or the likes. A lot of people on there are selling the lower rated fans as the upgraded ones because they don't know what the difference is. Not only is the fan motor more powerful, but the fan blades are also wider giving more airflow. If you decide to upgrade get the OEM one from VW to be sure.
If I didn't have the VW warranty then I wouldn't have had the fan fitted. Many owners tow without an upgraded fan and haven't had any problems. If you intend to tow 3.5 tons across the sahuaros then you might need one but not towing a caravan around Europe IMHO.
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I am puzzled why such a powerful 4wd cannot tow a caravan without upgrading cooling fans etc. I have had 7 Landrover/Range Rovers going back 30 years and none have needed any modifications and I have never experienced any rise in temperature even when towing over Alpine passes.
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Which was exactly the argument I presented to VW via my dealer when I was threatening to pull out of the deal. The Treg was / is advertised as having a towing capacity of 3.5t and nowhere is there any mention of it being subject to a cooling fan upgrade. I didn't even have to push the argument very hard, they just rolled over and agreed to fit it for nothing.
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When producing the T3/T4 variant VW went through an exercise of cost cutting on just about every aspect of the car. This included downgrading the cooling fan to the 650W variant unless you bought the towbar option in which case they fitted the 800W fan as part of the option. They even changed the hub design by machining off the centring ring to 'save weight' and then need to produce a whole new wheel fitting procedure to make sure the wheels are centred properly when refitting them!!
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Well done with that one. My handbook states 'the cooling system may need to be upgraded' and unfortunately I had taken delivery of my car before I discovered just what that phrase really meant. I tried the same argument with my dealer after I found out and all I got was basically a 'tough, though you can swap it for another if you're not happy with it'.
I even uncovered a letter from VW customer service to another owner stating they did not need to upgrade the fan. I sent a copy of this to VW customer service who simply said I had to upgrade mine to retain the warranty.
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