Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: J.S.B. on 18 January 2013, 19:25:59
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Hi Guys,
What are my towbar options for my saloon?
How easy are they to fit?
Is anyone breaking one?
Thanks in advance :y
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Hi Guys,
What are my towbar options for my saloon?
How easy are they to fit?
Is anyone breaking one?
Thanks in advance :y
Cheapest is 2 bolt flange ...... looks aren't their best quality
Next is swan neck type ...... look better than above
'best' is a detachable for obvious reasons
Easy enough to fit, all locations for bolts are dimpled in the boot
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By law your towbar must be "type approved" .. ie designed for your car .. no point in getting any old thing of ebay and bodging it to fit.
Tow bar security, fitting and, if fitted, 13 pin electrics are part of the MOT now.
:)
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I have two here in Spain with twin electrics available but collection or postage will be prohibitive.
Fitting is fairly easy but the electrical connections are a bit harder.
A New Witter towbar and someone to fit it might end up being more than your car is worth!
There will be someone on the forum with one who might also be able to help fit it.
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By law your towbar must be "type approved" .. ....
Depends how old the car is ;)
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As Andy said easy to fit. For a detachable one the bumper will have to come off. Electrics easy. Apparently there is a dedicated plug from vauxhall, you can see the socket and bolt hole locations in my pictures in maintenance section. I just used block connectors though as I imagine the plug will be expensive.
I've got a list of which wire corresponds to which light if ya want it. Might be tomorrow though, it'll save time faffing with a multimeter.
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By law your towbar must be "type approved" .. ....
Depends how old the car is ;)
Think it's 1998 onwards, obviously loads of classics have home made bars with a flange bolted on
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Hi Guys,
Thanks for the replies.
My car is T reg and I've got no issues with fitting it, but i will take you up on the wire details please.
Cheers
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By law your towbar must be "type approved" .. ....
Depends how old the car is ;)
Think it's 1998 onwards, obviously loads of classics have home made bars with a flange bolted on
Correct 1st August 1998 .... which covers most Omegas still on the road I expect ?? :)
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By law your towbar must be "type approved" .. ....
Depends how old the car is ;)
Think it's 1998 onwards, obviously loads of classics have home made bars with a flange bolted on
Correct 1st August 1998 .... which covers most Omegas still on the road I expect ?? :)
But not ones before 1998, I expect. :)
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I'll dig the list out and post up the colours.
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By law your towbar must be "type approved" .. ....
Depends how old the car is ;)
Think it's 1998 onwards, obviously loads of classics have home made bars with a flange bolted on
Correct 1st August 1998 .... which covers most Omegas still on the road I expect ?? :)
I found that, but could find out if that date was manufactured before or registered before :-\ :-\
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By law your towbar must be "type approved" .. ....
Depends how old the car is ;)
Think it's 1998 onwards, obviously loads of classics have home made bars with a flange bolted on
Correct 1st August 1998 .... which covers most Omegas still on the road I expect ?? :)
I found that, but could find out if that date was manufactured before or registered before :-\ :-\
Registered AFAIK
http://www.towbarsdirect.co.uk/typeapproval.htm
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IMHO the old bill were the only people to fit towbars to omega for there correct use, as rear end body protection (armoured). mainly met cars. :)
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As Andy said easy to fit. For a detachable one the bumper will have to come off. Electrics easy. Apparently there is a dedicated plug from vauxhall, you can see the socket and bolt hole locations in my pictures in maintenance section. I just used block connectors though as I imagine the plug will be expensive.
I've got a list of which wire corresponds to which light if ya want it. Might be tomorrow though, it'll save time faffing with a multimeter.
I spent ages trying to get a plug to fit the prewired socket, I even had AndyC trawling through the GM parts catalogue. I eventually bought a (genuine) loom from AndyC that plugs into the two rear light clusters.
I also bought a heavy duty indicator module (to replace the standard one) and fitted a bulb in the dash to give visual indication that the trailer indicators are working.
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Andy could you give a little more detail on the indicator module and how to wire up the dash bulb.Sounds a very good idea.
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Andy could you give a little more detail on the indicator module and how to wire up the dash bulb.Sounds a very good idea.
You just pull the 3 pin flasher from the fuse/relay box under the steering column & replace it with a 4 pin flasher. Remove dash & fit the bulb in the relevant position (it has a towball on the tell tale - hold it up to the light to see which it is) ...... wiring is already installed :y
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... I eventually bought a (genuine) loom from AndyC that plugs into the two rear light clusters.
I also bought a heavy duty indicator module (to replace the standard one) and fitted a bulb in the dash to give visual indication that the trailer indicators are working.
You shouldn't need a different relay if you used the complete GM loom :-\
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The vehicle is prewired for the trailer indication but it left the factory without the lamp in the instrument cluster and with a standard flasher relay.
If you remove the instrument cluster and hold it up to the light you will find that one of the unpopulated spaces has an orange symbol that looks a bit like a swan neck towbar (if you squint). Fit indicator lamp in this space.
The indicator relay is in the fuse box under the steering column. The quickest way to find it is to turn the indicators on and follow the clicking noise.......... It took me a little while to find a suitable replacement, (I should have bought the reassuringly expensive genuine relay that AndyC tracked down for me but I knew that I could get a cheap one from a motor factors ::)).
The heavy duty relay has an extra pin which connects to the lamp in the dashboard, it works by sensing the current to the indicators. Normally there are two 21w bulbs (plus one 5w side repeater). When you connect the trailer that adds another 21w bulb. The first relay I tried was too sensitive & lit the indicator without the trailer plugged in (I don't think it was expecting the side repeater) but the motor factor had another rumage and found one that worked correctly.
(http://images.omegaowners.com/images/guides/instrument_panel_pics/Rearofinstrumentpanel.jpg)
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... I eventually bought a (genuine) loom from AndyC that plugs into the two rear light clusters.
I also bought a heavy duty indicator module (to replace the standard one) and fitted a bulb in the dash to give visual indication that the trailer indicators are working.
You shouldn't need a different relay if you used the complete GM loom :-\
My 'heavy duty' flasher relay is the 4 pin flasher relay you put in instead of the standard / 3 pin relay
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... I eventually bought a (genuine) loom from AndyC that plugs into the two rear light clusters.
I also bought a heavy duty indicator module (to replace the standard one) and fitted a bulb in the dash to give visual indication that the trailer indicators are working.
You shouldn't need a different relay if you used the complete GM loom :-\
My 'heavy duty' flasher relay is the 4 pin flasher relay you put in instead of the standard / 3 pin relay
I know ;) ....... but as said, the big blue/grey relay that came withh the GM loom shoud do that
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... I eventually bought a (genuine) loom from AndyC that plugs into the two rear light clusters.
I also bought a heavy duty indicator module (to replace the standard one) and fitted a bulb in the dash to give visual indication that the trailer indicators are working.
You shouldn't need a different relay if you used the complete GM loom :-\
My 'heavy duty' flasher relay is the 4 pin flasher relay you put in instead of the standard / 3 pin relay
I know ;) ....... but as said, the big blue/grey relay that came withh the GM loom shoud do that
Hmmm. I had a few bits left over but have just checked the box it came in and there are some cable ties, some random plug bodies and various pins that could be added to the plug bodies. No relay (big/blue/grey or otherwise). There are some pretty useless pictorial instructions that do show a relay but don't seem to bear any relation to an Omega :(
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... I eventually bought a (genuine) loom from AndyC that plugs into the two rear light clusters.
I also bought a heavy duty indicator module (to replace the standard one) and fitted a bulb in the dash to give visual indication that the trailer indicators are working.
You shouldn't need a different relay if you used the complete GM loom :-\
My 'heavy duty' flasher relay is the 4 pin flasher relay you put in instead of the standard / 3 pin relay
I know ;) ....... but as said, the big blue/grey relay that came withh the GM loom shoud do that
Hmmm. I had a few bits left over but have just checked the box it came in and there are some cable ties, some random plug bodies and various pins that could be added to the plug bodies. No relay (big/blue/grey or otherwise). There are some pretty useless pictorial instructions that do show a relay but don't seem to bear any relation to an Omega :(
Must be different from mine then :-\ .... mine was a 13 pin socket :-\
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Must be different from mine then :-\ .... mine was a 13 pin socket :-\
My guess is that GM's focus is now on CANBus for everything. If you want a towbar on a pre-CANBus vehicle that is no longer in production then they will sell you a generic loom that ignores the vehicle specific wiring and goes straight to the light clusters.
If I were to fit a towbar tomorrow I would:
- put a bulb in the dash (behind the green towball symbol)
- fit a 4 pin flasher relay
- cut off the pre-wired plug (hiding under the trim below the boot latch) and wire directly from there to the trailer socket. (I really wanted to get a genuine plug to fit the socket when I did mine but I couldn't find one :()
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... (I really wanted to get a genuine plug to fit the socket when I did mine but I couldn't find one :()
I had a GM 12N socket with the micro switch in the side to turn the car's rear fogs of when plugged into the trailer. The square-ish socket the the pre facelift boot I made a plug for using pins from various Omegas' original foglight bridging plug. (Since discovered that the same plug & socket can be found in the wiring loom in the back of an Astra G) ie I made my own loom originally. But then bought the GM 13 pin socket loom from Andy C with the connections to/from the rear lights like yours. :y