[Chill59]

I'm thinking of fitting a towbar to my F33.
Is there likely to be any issues/problems with wiring up the electrics?
Does the car's wiring loom have a dedicated socket or are the towbar electrics wired into the back lights 'old school style'. If the latter, will it upset the car's electronics requiring re-coding etc.?

[AlwynMike]

You have 2 options.
The old skool type cheapo 7 way relay with unreliable Scotchlok connectors. No coding needed. Maybe an anti chatter diode although most modern relays cope with that.
Much more expensive Dedicated electronics interface. Often this will extend the bulb failure to the trailer. Not familiar with the F30 but E9x had a socket under the boot to plug into although you needed to used the aforementioned unreliable Scotchloks to connect to the CAN bus. On F series you often need to disable the rear park sensors with the switch when reversing. Usually no coding needed, but if there is a towing ECU map available with the factory bar, I've not been able to tell in mine!
I prefer the Dedicated one but if you're only using the towbar for a bike rack then cheap is good.
If you have LED trailer lights, the dedicated setup may not detect them so your indicators (what are they? ?) may do funny things. Standard setup has a physical switch in the socket so it will run LED''s no problem.

[Chill59]

Thanks. It'll just be for a bike rack and occasional tip runs with a small trailer so I think I'll go down the simple route.

[muffking]

I'm going through this at the moment. I scotch locked some short leads to the the loom on the N/S/R for the trailer socket. I knew that the car might need a relay and this was confirmed when my car threw a hissy fit when I plugged my trailer in. The end result is that I need to fit a 5-way (or larger) relay inline with my towbar socket.

[DougMcL]

I fitted one to my 440i convertible. Buy the dedicated loom. PFJones. It all just plugs in with a couple of wire splices under the RHS of the boot carpet. Westfalia towbar I think I used. Really easy to fit!

[jackstrath]

Originally Posted by DougMcL

I fitted one to my 440i convertible. Buy the dedicated loom. PFJones. It all just plugs in with a couple of wire splices under the RHS of the boot carpet. Westfalia towbar I think I used. Really easy to fit!

Does your parking sensors turn off when you have a trailer hooked up ?

I had Westfalia dedicated electrics on my e91 and it turned off the rear parking sensors but when spec'ing the F31 (which tbh i thought was the same electrics pack) i see PFjones says the westfalia doesnt turn off the rear parking sensors but the PF jones kit does ?

[DougMcL]

No it doesn't turn off the sensor. There is some coding available in Bimmercode. I don't have the bar on very often... so it doesn't cause me any probs. I have put a kit on using bypass relays before the dedicated wiring kit is bettter than the relay. Far easier to wire up.

[simes205]

Hi,
I've just fitted a universal kit 7 pin wiring from PF Jones, it's really easy.
I'm only using the electrics for a bike rack.
I've fitted the 'relay' next to the battery and scotch locked into the loom.
The only pain was tracing the wires back from the RH light cluster, if you're handy with a meter it's straight forward.
I took pictures and wrote down the colours you need (to make a guide) but don't have it to hand.
I only connected up the Rh and Lh indicators, both sides and brake light.
PDC don't disable but that doesn't bother me.
I installed a similar set up in my E91 and had no issues.