I'd also like to know

 

BMWNA doesn't want us to have towbars. You're supposed to buy an X5 or the stupid new X6.

 

Can you get the Euro towbar kit sent to the US?

 

Westfalia makes the hitch that BMW uses. I could not find anyone that would ship it to the US. I found one on the German Ebay, and during a trip to Germany I picked it up and brought it back in lugage. If you are just a little bit brave, the installation is very straight forward. I think www.realoem.com can get it for you but the price is quite high. There are two trim pieces that should be ordered to get the nicest final appearance. Also, it is a 50mm ball which is 1.96 inches. This is plenty close to 2.00 inches, but it scares some folks.
Getting the lights to work is a whole another matter.
Aside from that, it works great and looks super.

 

There's meant to be a can-bus plug-in wiring loom for the retro-fit bar from towsure (www.towsure.co.uk then look for the E61 stuff) that makes electrics a piece of cake - not tried it yet myself though. Bought a tow bar, but can't see how it fits without cutting away too much bumper.....

 

Geoff,

Which towbar did you buy??
If its the genuine BMW or Westfalia (same thing), then you have to cut out a big hole in the bumper, and you can buy an infill panel.
I understand that there is a complete bumper panel, with the hole pre-cut and infill panel available from Mr. BMW, for the Sport bumper, but I'm not sure of the SE bumper.

The Witter, Bosal etc drop down below the bumper, so you have the socket visible, rather than the infill panel. I went down this route (helped by the fact that I got a towbar very cheap from eBay!!). Mine is a Witter, and you have to cut the plastic panel that is UNDERNEATH the car behind the bumper - it runs parallel to the ground so you can't see the cut if you do remove the towbar when you sell the car.

As far as the wiring goes;
I have used both methods on various cars, both the 7-way relay and the dedicated route.
Even though the time taken to do both is about the same, the 7 way relay method is much fiddlier, it is much, much cheaper and does work if you can stand the squeaking indicator repeater in the boot (probably can't hear it in a saloon - all my fittings of this have been in Tourings).
However, the dedicated wiring route is much more elegant, is easier to fit and works far, far better because your cars' bulb failure device will extend to your caravan/trailer and if there is a problem, will tell you just what bulb is out.
If I was a professional fitter, I would recommend to fit the specific one every time - notwithstanding what I said earlier, with practice the specific kit will take less time to fit and will be more reliable, as its use of IDC (Scotchlok) type connectors is less.

The only real downside to the specific wiring kits are if you have a high-end caravan with multiple high level brake lights. This fools the cars' failure system to throw up a fault on the iDrive - my mate has a Bailey caravan with this problem. It is a problem that BMW is aware of, but doesn't seem to want to rectify. My mate solved it by fitting LED brake lights in the high level lights on his 'van. He does notice the LED's flash occasionally, only noticeable at night, when the bulb failure device does its checks. I tow a Swift caravan which has only one high level brake light and it is faultless.

Depending if you've done something like this before or not, budget an hour to fit the towbar and sockets, another hour to wire the car.

Mike

 

Thanks Mike - I'm back at base camp on this one. Bought a used E61 bar off 'the bay' only to find out it won't go on the Sport so it's no big loss! Towsure tells me it'll fit the saloon and touring SE only, as cutting the Sport bumper makes it unstable - only wanted a bar for using a trailer while doing up the house, so it looks like I'll have to put one on my woman's Mk IV Golf........

If you've got any pix though, I'd like to see how you did yours?

Cheers

Geoff

 

Geoff,

I take it that the towbar you bought was a Towsure one with a fixed flange (or detachable adaptor). Witter also do one which is unsuitable for the Sport (BM19A). Other models by Witter and others are suitable for the Sport, but with the bumper cut or panel replacement.
A glimpse at the fitting instructions on the Witter website shows a picture of the undertray cut, and a drawing of the Sport bumper cut. Mine's an SE, so I don't have any bumper cuts thankfully.

I fitted a fixed flange one to my E46 SE Touring, which involved a bumper cut (although it didn't say that in the destructions!). It took me quite a while to do as I was fitting and refitting the bumper/towbar to get the smallest cut possible - ended up with the bar looking as if it was growing out of the bumper! A pain in the neck to do, but it did look neat (OK as neat as a fixed towbar can get anyway!).

Neatest fitting I did was on my mate's Rover 75 - used a genuine Rover bar, and when the ball is detached, it is completely invisible - all the sockets etc are tucked up behind the bumper underneath. the downside is that he has to grovel on his knees to hitch up the bar and electrics - often in a wet field!!

Mike