MG4 towbar warranty

[Andrew]

Having bought a MG4 trophy and need a towbar fitted, on phoning around my local MG dealers all say they don't fit towbars and should go to a specialist towbar installer. After speaking to an installer they said the towbar would be a witter and an universal wiring kit (including bypass) because MG don't make a dedicated wiring pack and to check with MG if fitting a non dedicated manufacture kit would void your warranty. MG say they don't recommend fitting a towbar to MG4 and will not comment on voiding the warranty.

How can a car be advertised as having a towing capacity (ok only 500kg) but then say it's not recommended, does anyone now how to get around this? I live in Kent. Do I need to sell my recently bought car because I need a towbar for my bike rack?

 

[stevegus]

There are other types of bike rack. Which will be cheaper that the loss you will make on selling your car.

 

[VAG]

I am waiting for my towbar to come to my official MG dealer. I have ordered it at the same time with the car. It is one set that is "accepted" by MG over here, so the dealer told me that this doesn't affect the warranty.

I think that this is an internal arrangement between MG and the dealer, which means that solutions exist for that.

 

[Tight Git]

It's not really different to any 'modification' you do to a car. If fitting one creates a subsequent problem then the warranty will not cover it, but if the warranty issue is completely unrelated then it will not have any bearing.

Previously some dealers would send the car out to a third party for a towbar fitting, but in this case the dealer would still be responsible if an issue arose, so many now won't do this (or can't be bothered) so will just leave it to the customer to take any risk.

 

[Jeroen]

I had an “official” towbar installed by the MG dealer in the Netherlands here on my MG4. I have the first series trophy model without rear wiper in August last year.

A tad costly for a towbar, due to the labour hours required to install the wiring.

They did ask specifically if I had the first series as the wiring kit for the newer model wasn’t available yet.

 

[derooke]

I am getting mine installed (Lux 23) in March by dealership . 1.200 euro (I find it expensive). It's official Wiring etc.

 

[highsider]

I had mine installed when purchasing - Gen 1 Trophy. It wasn't that expensive considering the work involved. Still yet to use it, but will do soon with house renovations.

 

[sminchnz]

I was meant to get a towbar fitted by the MG dealer to my MG4 LR 77kWh a few weeks back but it turned out that the towbar that fits the other, shorter range models doesn’t fit the 77. Apparently this was a surprise to them, and they don’t know when one that does fit will be available.

Does anyone know more about this, or know when the issue may be resolved? Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[Rolfe]

Hi and welcome, @sminchnz.

I've moved your post into a currently-open thread about towbars to avoid having too many threads discussing more or less the same thing.

Hopefully someone reading this will be able to help you.

 

[siteguru]

Maybe the ER battery (which is bigger) impinges on some space that the tow bar setup needs. OR, the system available at the moment is designed for the Phase 1 cars, whereas the ER is a Phase 2 car.

 

[Rolfe]

Someone did say above that their dealer checked that their car was a phase 1, because the kit for the phase 2 wasn't out yet.

 

[DerekH]

I have the genuine MG4 one supplied by MG and they fitted it to my 77kw. Use for bike rack. No issues with and doesn't affect warranty. There is a specific towing option in the MG assist which you can enable to stop reverse alarms as it detects the tow ball.

 

[Stagger70]

Having bought a MG4 trophy and need a towbar fitted, on phoning around my local MG dealers all say they don't fit towbars and should go to a specialist towbar installer. After speaking to an installer they said the towbar would be a witter and an universal wiring kit (including bypass) because MG don't make a dedicated wiring pack and to check with MG if fitting a non dedicated manufacture kit would void your warranty. MG say they don't recommend fitting a towbar to MG4 and will not comment on voiding the warranty.

How can a car be advertised as having a towing capacity (ok only 500kg) but then say it's not recommended, does anyone now how to get around this? I live in Kent. Do I need to sell my recently bought car because I need a towbar for my bike rack?

Having mine fitted on Thursday. Witter do a vehicle specific electrics kit for the MG4 which I am having fitted with the Witter MG4 tow bar. Same reason as you , for a bike rack. Have been assured that using a vehicle specific wiring kit means warranty is fine.

 

[Felafel]

There are other types of bike rack. Which will be cheaper that the loss you will make on selling your car.

Have you got experience of other types of rack on the MG4?

 

[geoffb]

Having mine fitted on Thursday. Witter do a vehicle specific electrics kit for the MG4 which I am having fitted with the Witter MG4 tow bar. Same reason as you , for a bike rack. Have been assured that using a vehicle specific wiring kit means warranty is fine.

Have you had it done yet?
I am also looking at a Witter removable bar for my MG4. However I am told when the bar is removed the electrical socket is fixed. (Ie will not swing up out of sight). Can you confirm which bar you got and if this is the case please. A picture would help too as Witter say they can't provide one and id like to know how obtrusive it is.
Thanks

 

[NLMGSAN]

I have the genuine MG4 one supplied by MG and they fitted it to my 77kw. Use for bike rack. No issues with and doesn't affect warranty. There is a specific towing option in the MG assist which you can enable to stop reverse alarms as it detects the tow ball.

If you use that the rear sensors will not function and I thought lane assist also does not work. Is that your experience too?

 

[Tig170]

Your warrantly is unaffected : Also have a look at the thread : Tow bar : Many options available

 

[Stagger70]

Have you had it done yet?
I am also looking at a Witter removable bar for my MG4. However I am told when the bar is removed the electrical socket is fixed. (Ie will not swing up out of sight). Can you confirm which bar you got and if this is the case please. A picture would help too as Witter say they can't provide one and id like to know how obtrusive it is.
Thanks

Hi, yes I had it done a few months ago. Great job done by Kits n Bits in South Wales. Genuine Witter MG4 tow bar and electrics. The electrics connector slides up and away when not in use, and the detachable swan neck towbar holds my bike rack perfectly. There is a small cut on underside of bumper to allow fitting, but it is out of sight unless you bend right down to look underneath. I've attached the PDF of the towbar that was fitted.

 

[flyingsparki]

How and where did you connect to electrics for the towbar wiring?
There is a plug on left hand side behind charge port for a towbar.
But I suspect a canbus adaptor is required as there's only four wires that could be used (circled in pic (3) and the yellow wire) and there they don't switch 12v on/off like the stop wire (white/red) see pics. They have a control voltage on them.
Is it possible to get the connector socket pins easy?
Any help would be awesome.
Doing the wiring for a mates MG4 now.

 

[DerekH]

If you use that the rear sensors will not function and I thought lane assist also does not work. Is that your experience too?

Collision detection is disabled and i think LKA also disabled. To be honest I don't bother enabling towing mode and put up with the alarm sounding whilst reversing and display showing the warning on the screen. As soon as you put in D the alarms stop and car is as usual for LKA and collision detection.