Towbar fitted
 

I fitted a Brink tow bar at the weekend, which went swimingly. Easier than I expected despite being a bit fiddly in the area of the rear silencer. It's supposed to be removed but I managed to work around it.

Wiring ordered from FRF today so another small job for the weekend. FRF discount is good too. Local dealer quoted about £80 to do the VIDA business which I don't think is too bad.

What impressed me most was the quality of the build of the car, very apparent when the bumper was removed. Registered in May 2009, there was virtually no rust or deterioration on the rear end, the area that probably suffers the most. The car millage is low at 66k but nonetheless it's very impressive. I only spotted one miniscule area on an edge hut not even worth looking at. Easy to see why they last. Out of interest does anyone know what will happen if I fit and connect the harness and module without coding? Will anything work?

Thanks for posting. I’ll be watching for responses.

The same as you, I installed at the weekend. Bosal dedicated 033 - 278 wiring kit. According to Bosal site and PF Jones tech who I bought from, no coding necessary. However, despite Bosal and PF both station it deactivates PDC (Park Assis), this function is not working nor is it showing the <1> symbol on the instrument panel as it should when a trailer is connected. Given that everything works, that the car is not recognising the trailer is connected.

I have gone back to PF Jones again to challenge their info, but if anyone knows for definite that it does require coding, then I would be grateful for the info and to know how to prove it. I will be a bit miffed if I end up having to change the harness or pay to get it coded as I bought this one specifically for the ‘dedicated’ functionality.

Car is an 08 plate V70 Mk3.

Thanks.

I don't know the ins and outs of the coding and what it does other than tell the"car" a trailer module is attached, but it does require coding so I don't know what magic system Bosal are using if they think it doesn't. I'm a bit anal about trailers and towing kits and such like and wanted to keep to all Volvo parts in the electronics.

Thanks for info, how much was the genuine electrics kit please? I suspect I may need one!

At least Volvo's own system requires a software download to the car. It will provide you with a number of features, since it senses if there's a trailer attached:

• Turn off the rear park assist.
• Turn off guide lines in the reverse camera image.
• Activate TSA (Trailer Stability Assist).
• Prevent the rear fog light on the car from illuminating the front of the trailer.
• Activate surveillance of turn and brake lights on the trailer, even when they aren't used.
• Remove automatic engine stop at standstill (if the car has auto stop).
• Control the switched +12 V supply in the socket.

If this knowledge of the trailer being present also changes anything in how AWD operates I don't know. Even if it's possible, of course.

On my MY 2016 xc70 absolutely nothing happened, not even sidelights, until the TCM software was installed.

The software only costs about 20euro so they are charging you about £60 just to spend about 5 to 10mins at the computer terminal and plugging in the OBD port for the software to download itself into the car. Sounds a lot to me.
mine was done in Belgium at same time as a RTTI upgrade for my Nav (so I get traffic updates via my mobile phone in real time instead of just via TMC when it feels like it) and both sets of software and installation cost 76 euro all in.

Towbar module should be just under £50. If you need it, the cable harness is around the same price or slightly cheaper.

Main harness section, a small supplementary section and the trailer module were £99 and a few pence.

Appreciate what you're saying but I'm at the mercy, so to speak, of the dealer on this one. I'll nag them on the day about the price.

Do you know what year TSA was introduced? I seem to think its a recent thing?