BMW Electrics
I have recently acquired An X1 X Drive with a factory fitted tow bar and electrics, on using the car on our first outing I discovered that the refrigerator was not working whilst driving. It appears that the wiring does not support this facilities. I ha discussed this situation with the dealership who are intimating that there is no facility to rectify the situation. HELP
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Seems to be the case with German cars. My 2012 X5 was the same, and my current Porsche Cayenne is also the same. It is a result of the "smart" alternator electrics - all part of the drive to lower emissions.
In some cases (my Porsche) German cars only come wired for 7 pin, but even when this is rectified (which the dealer did no mine FOC) you will not get the fridge to work. My X5 was factory wired for 13 pin, but fridge never worked.
Some have said on here that running with the headlights on solves this, but having tried that on both the above cars, it doesn't solve it.
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Back in February I took my BMW X5 to a specialist towbar installation garage to have the auxiliary wiring loom fitted so the 12v supply would be there for the ATC system, battery charging and fridge whilst towing. The towbar and electrics were a factory fitted option from BMW and as as most people know, German car manufactures dont deem it necessary to install the auxiliary wiring and talking to the dealer about it when ordering the car was like talking to a 2 year old about nuclear physics!
The main reason for having it done was the new caravan I have on order has the ATC system which my present caravan doesn't. Anyway it seems BMW had fitted all the required wiring but for some unknown reason the auxiliary supplies dont activate for a least 5 minuets after the car is started. The engineer, who fits towbars for the two local BMW dealerships, said it was the first BMW he'd seen with all the wiring installed by the factory.
The good news was he only charged me a few pounds for carrying out the checks so saved me over £100.
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Never had a problem with ATC. The battery charges (had it tested), ATC works as do all electrics other than fridge. Also, I have never heard of "waiting five minutes" - ATC on mine goes green immediately on connecting to car but the fridge doesn't work when hitched up, although doesn't show an error so it is receiving some power, just not enough to keep the freezer frozen. Its not really a problem when only travelling in UK but if going abroad, the freezer starts to defrost over a 5/6 hour ferry crossing plus the full day drive at the other side.
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I believe it is a long going and well documented issue that many cars from the continent, not just those made in Germany, do not have the capability to run the fridge or charge the caravans battery. The majority of continental vans do not have a battery as standard, so the car manufacturers do not see why the cars should be wired to power something that is not there.
This logic was totally lost on me when I ordered a Touran in 2004 and a Yeti in 2014. As the car was not headed for the continent, but the UK, it should meet the requirements of this country. That's what I thought but was put in my place by the dealer and hence after market fits.
In late 2018 when I ordered my Audi A3 it would appear the situation had been cracked and "full functionality" had finally been sorted on the production line build if you ordered a tow-bar and electrics. I asked and I was told all was good. Well it had not been sorted which I found out on my first tow.
The car went into Audi Liverpool to be corrected. It took them 48 hours to accept the car was not working correctly as there test board said it was OK. Another 24 hrs and I had a car that did what it was supposed to.
Why this situation persists is still beyond me.
Colin
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We have 2016 VW Touareg with a towbar fitted by our local specialist. Everything receives power, but the so called "smart alernator" did not fully charge the van battery, nor did the fridge seem as cold as previously.
I have cured the problem by fitting a "battery to battery" charger in the van. We now have a fully charged battery for the mover, and the frozen food stays very frozen en route.
This sort of thing......
https://sterling-power.com/collections/battery-to-battery-chargers
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Sadly I feel I might be something of an expert on this topic!
I had a 2015 X3 with exactly the same issue - no power to fridge when driving.
When I looked at the socket on the car there was not even a pin (or pin socket) at terminals 10 or 11, and the wiring loom didn't have the wires either. This is common on many German cars because they don't have fridges that operate when driving, so I am told. The standard electrics (back then) just covered the road lights.
Now I have a 5 Series Estate again with the electric towbar, and BMW seem to have changed things, because mine is fully wired and has a pin socket at each point! All good so far.
Unfortunately someone went into the back of my car on the A34 causing minor bumper cover damage, but the repairing company on discovering the towbar insisted that it should be changed as it is a safety critical component. I said Ok, but DON't TOUCH THE ELECTRICS! They fitted a complete new towbar including new electrics, and low and behold, I had no power to the fridge once again. Took it back to them, but they just didn't have a clue. Eventually I took it to BMW who re-coded the car and got me the power back to pin 10 without changing anything!
One other point, if you measure the socket with a multimeter and the car running, you might assume that you would see power to pin 10, but this is not so. The socket has a small microswitch inside that gets activated when you plug the caravan plug in, and once this switch is activated the car will put power to pin 10, otherwise the car will protect itself and not give power!
So, after all that, check if your socket has all the metal pin sockets fitted because if not you will need to change the wiring loom. Then it might be a re-code at BMW!
Hope this helps.
Mark
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