Deano K.

Latest update: Well... it turns out I made a "wrong turn" during the Westfalia wiring harness instructions. There was a decision point where one selects between a vehicle wiring configuration which already has trailer logic wiring installed and one that doesn't based on a small round pigtail connector being present in the right rear of the cargo bay behind the panel. I mistook the loom that I had unhooked from the 12 volt outlet on the panel to be what I was looking for. THAT IS NOT THE CASE. One needs to see a separate multi-wire plug wrapped in protective foam and tucked away for later use. It doesn't look like USA bound cars have this. If you are going to order a car I would argue long and hard to have them option it onto your vehicle.

After wiring it in properly I now get some recognition that there is a trailering mode HOWEVER that recognition also comes with several errors that the dealer cannot code to remove. I get a Electronic Stability Control error along with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System error. In addition it shows turn signal and brake light bulb errors. I've seen these written up on the internet somewhere and will be chasing down what it takes to clear them and get the car's existing computers talking correctly with the new ones just installed.

So... as of now I have trailer tail lights that work and nothing else.

More news as it occurs.

If anyone has a link to these specific issues please let me know.

Thanks!

Deano K.

Here is the writeup so far. Will add pictures at some point, but descriptions are pretty self explanatory.

Installation instructions for Westfalia vertical
receiver hitch and 7 wire harness
on 2013/14 Audi allroad
Overview:
Westfalia offers what I feel is the most elegant solution to adding a trailering hitch to the 2013 & 2014 Audi allroad for the USA / Canadian market. The more commonly advertised horizontal receiver hitches hang down, creating an unsightly, always visible hitch that has day to day clearance issues and just plain look bad.
By contrast, the Westaflia hitch is completely hidden beneath the rear facia and lower valance when not in use and even when in use has a lot more ground clearance.
Westalia part numbers for this install are:
Hitch – 305 425 600 001
Wiring harness – 305 214 300 107
If you are running a flat 4 trailer you can purchase the required round 7 to flat 4 adapter from eurohitch.com
I purchased the hitch and harness from PFJones.com in the UK and had it shipped over at substantial savings from stateside sources.
Standard disclaimer – this worked for me. Don’t blame ME if YOU screw something up!


Disassembly:
Tools required: 25 Torx, 30 Torx, 10mm deep socket, 16 & 17mm sockets, drift pin, flat blade screw driver.

1. With the rear hatch open, remove the trim panels from each side. Unhook the power plug harness from the right hand panel and let it dangle. Remove the spare tire well cover and spare tire. Carefully remove the sound deadening pads from the panels behind each taillight. They are held on by re-useable adhesive strips near the top.

2. Using a small drift pin, insert in the black plastic elongated screw end which hold each taillamp unit in place and loosen. Hand unscrew once they have been broken loose.
Each taillight pulls straight out from the rear, held in place by 2 additional press fit female rubber sockets on the outboard edges of the body. Unplug the wiring loom plug and remove the taillights.

3. With the taillights removed on each side you will see a white plastic tapered pin which holds the rear bumper bracketry in place. Remove these using a flat blade screw driver as you would a home door hinge pin and stow for safekeeping.

4. Back inside the car, below the hole for the taillight elongated screw on each side you will see a black rubber body plug. Remove it for safekeeping and access the 10mm nut holding the rear bumper skin. Carefully unscrew the nut paying particular attention to not dropping it down into the body as it comes free.

5. Under the rear of the car undo the 3 torx screws (25) holding the metal lower valance panel to the floor pan.

6. At each rear wheel well undo 3 torx screws (25) holding the inner wheel well skirt to the bumper. There is also a vertically mounted push pin spreader type fastener up under the allroad wheel arch trim piece. Push the pin through with something small and pointed (like an ice pick) and capture both pieces for reuse.

7. Now you are ready to pull the rear bumper facia from the vehicle. Note: If your car has Park Assist/Driver Assist there will be wired sensors in the rear bumper! Not a big deal, but you won’t be able to completely remove the bumper from the area, as the wiring harness will only let you move it so far and it is a ROYAL PITA to try to remove the loom from the car. Solution is to have something to rest the bumper on as you take it off the car so that it doesn’t stress the wiring harness.

8. Inside the car, along the rear outer corners of the spare tire well are 4 screws (Torx 25) which hold the big plastic U shaped surround which the tire well lid rests on. They are recessed in 4 square shaped extensions which serve to keep the piece in place. Remove them and lift out the piece which is also held by 2 tabs on the forward edge.

9. Inside the car, remove the chrome luggage hold-downs from each rear side (torx 25). Remove the 2 outboard floor trim pieces. This now allows you to remove the metal bright trim piece across the rear of the cargo area. Just pull up on it and it will release.

10. Remove the 2 screws holding the brackets which the luggage hold downs mounted to. (torx 30) and remove. (keep them separated side to side to avoid confusion down the road.)

11. This exposes the second of 2 16mm bolts holding the inner bumper unit to the car on each side. Undo the 4 bolts and remove the stock inner bumper. Careful – it has some weight to it. You will no longer need this so wrap it up and sell it or hoard it.

12. At this point I highly recommend that you assemble the plastic pivoting wire harness attachment arm to the hitch unit BEFORE installing it on the car. No need to feed the actual wires but the plastic arm pivot point hardware and spring are A LOT EASIER to assemble off the car than on. (Ask me how I know this…)

13. Slide the Westfalia hitch up into the box tubes of the vehicle. The rearmost holes of the tube which were under the luggage hold down brackets will be reused for the hitch arms. The others will not. Drop the Westfalia provided 17mm bolts into place in these rear holes and align side to side. You’ll note 2 pieces of square tape, 1 on either side, father forward on the top side of the frame box rails. Undo these to expose 2 additional factory placed holes.

14. At this point the Westfalia directions want you to get under the car and rivet the 2 flanged nuts onto the sheet metal. This involves dropping the exhaust system and removing some heat shield material, which I was not all that interested in doing. You can easily fit your hand up above each muffler and find where the bolt will come down from above. So, with a helper acting above, drop the 2 remaining bolts down through the hitch bracket. You can then start the nut on the bolt, with the flat side up. I put thread locker on these and had my wife tighten from above until they were nice and tight.

15. So now the hitch is attached to the car. Check for security and make sure things are lined up the way you want them. Not a lot of slot is available anyway, but just a check at this point.

16. Next step is starting with the electric harness. For my needs I selected the round 7 pin connector. A round 13 pin is also available. Just to the left of the centerline on the rear of the tire well is a big rubber plug. Remove it and feed the exterior portion of the harness through the hole to the outside of the car. In order to do this you will have to get behind the liner of the tire well, which is just a stiff gray fuzz material.

17. Align the rubber harness boot so that it is between the 3 and 4 o’clock position on the exterior of the car and work it into place. This will put the interior wiring headed the wrong way to the left but don’t worry, there is plenty of length and you can merely loop in back to the right. I used zip ties here to snug it up to existing wires headed to the right rear of the car where a bunch of electronics reside. Snip them off so they don’t make the liner stick out.

18. Now, starting with the 2 bigger multiple wire connectors, fish the wires through the small gap in the right upper rear of the tire well where you can see factory wires already routed. Continue until all wires are up in what I will call the electronics bay in the right rear of the body.

19. Follow the Westfalia wiring harness insrtructions. I had to read them about 10 times and go over all the symbols to figure out what toi do. You will be following the LONG path for a vehicle that has NO prewiring for the hitch wiring and module.

20. To be continued

Deano K.

A forum friend came over with his laptop and VCDS program tonight and set a whole bunch of 0's to 1's (simplistically speaking) so the car computers are now playing nice with the Westfalia box and know there is a trailer hitch installed. This is a 4 in line North American trailer set up. I do get trailer running lights (tail lights) and all the TPMS and Traction control faults are cleared. The trailer module is set to North American yet I still get trailer bulb errors for brake lights and turn signals and they do not work.
If anyone can point me to a solution or a thread discussing this in further detail I'd appreciate it.
The 7 to 4 adapter connector was purchased from California at Eurohitch(es?).com for around $60. I will do some wire tracing but feel it's some bit that isn't set right although he checked everything that looked plausible. North American setting should have separated the signals out to allow for the dual filament bulbs.

Deano K.

Update 9/30 /2104

A word of warning to USA allroad Prestige owners or those with Adaptive Cruise Control - The wiring harness provided by Westfalia will NOT work on these cars. When the module is hooked up it triggers all sorts of errors as the cars system sees it and reacts unfavorably. I've been able, with assistance, to go in using VCDS and make most of the trouble go away. Issues solvable are TPS and ESC. The one that remains unsolved is ACC.

I just received my car back from it's 5000 mile service where the dealer tried for over a day to try to find a good code to enable the trailer module to play nice with the car and vice versa. The 050200 code listed in the Westfalia harness install instructions for activating the module DOES NOT WORK on my car. I could have left it alone and had trailer taillights only but no ACC. They reset the system back to bone stock and my ACC now works again.

To be fair, my other allroad friend who helped program mine installed the identical hitch and harness along with the Westy bike carrier. His allroad does not have ACC and he has no issues. His bike rack has lights fed through a 7 pin round connector. ALL of his lights work fine.

So, the dealer disconnected my harness and I am back to square one.

Audi of NA is aware of the issue and has no solution. The dealer suggested installing a Q5 trailer module to see if that works. Because it is an electrical part there is no return. I'm not up for a $500 gamble unless someopne here knows for a fact that it would cross to an allroad and solve my problems.
Westfalia has been contacted but has not replied.

Great car - crappy support on what should be a simple thing.

Deano K.

An unacceptable answer from Audi NA:

Dear Mr. Koehler,



Thank you for your patience while research was done in regard to your 2014 Audi allroad. I am following up with you on behalf of my associate Axxxxxx, who is out of the office today. Please accept this written response on her behalf.



AXXXXX has been in contact with the Service Manager at Audi Wilsonville, Chris Axxxx. He has engaged some internal resources and found that it is not possible to install a trailer hitch to your vehicle because there is no software program available to communicate with the trailer hitch module. Audi Wilsonville is unable to install the Q5 trailer hitch to your vehicle for liability reasons. I do apologize, Mr. Koehler, as I know this was not the outcome for which you were hoping.



We appreciate having had an opportunity to respond to your concerns. If you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reply to this e-mail or contact Axxxxx through the Audi Customer Experience Center at +1 877 615 2834, extension 43551. If Amanda or I are unavailable at the time of your call, please provide the reference number I have inserted at the top of the page and any one of our associates would be glad to assist you. We are here for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.



Kind regards,

So - in short - if your 2013/14 Audi allroad has the driver assist package Audi cannot help you sort out your westfalia wiring harness issues and will not tell you if a Q5 module would work on your A4 for "liability reasons" This, in spite of pages 201 through 203 in your manual which tell you how to tow a trailer with your A4/allroad!

I'm not a happy camper! This forum has been less than helpful as well. Good luck.

cjv-baires

Hi Deano K,

Sorry to hear about the disappointing outcome. I can only speak on my behalf but I would never chime in on something I have very little knowledge of and simply result in inaccurate information.

The A4 allroad is a relatively new model in North America making it perhaps more difficult to get information on this forum and others like it. You may have even been one of the first to tackle such a project.

Hopefully Westfalia can react quicker than Audi with a positive resolution. Upwards and onwards.

dap1974

Hi, on the UK car you get an trailer light on the dash that flashes when you indicate, in addition to the points you have already mentioned. I've had one for a while and it also shows bulbs out on the trailer which is a nice feature.
I also bought mine from PF Jones and they were brilliant, highly recommended.
If you need any help with coding let me know.

dap1974

Oh and mine is ACC equipped, I needed to recode the ACC to work properly, but it will work fine if coded correctly.

avepresidio

I was at my dealer the other day (I just purchased a brand new 2014 Allroad) and the Parts Department said that a hitch for the Allroad was in development. I was getting a cargo mat when I asked them if there was a hitch for the vehicle. He said let me check the computer and came back with the above answer.

Has anyone heard this?

cjv-baires

I have never asked but just by the way they handled the lower valance whole tells me they have not worked through the idea very well. Let alone the electrical implementation. Audi should release a comprehensive kit including valance, tow bar with electrical.