Audi Q7 with trailer assist

Hi Rich,

Thanks for your reply, we are picking our "New" 2nd hand 68 Q7 on Saturday, I made the decision to take the risk based on if it was as bad as some people had said surely Audi / AL-KO would have issues some sort of safety warning by now. Thanks for your reply it is reassuring that we haven’t made a bad choice!

Any more experiences of this plastic ring on the Audi towball?

Just bought a 3.0 A4 Allroad and was horrified when popped factory fit electric towbar down, removed cover and found this plastic ring thingy. 
Caravan is a 2019 Switt with the usual AL-KO stability assist.

Drove straight to towbar fitters who fit for all the dealers behind the scenes in our area … “that will never work!!”.

Absolutely distraught that I changed from my fab 3.0 X3 towcar to something that seems fundamentally unable to work.

Went to Audi dealer who assured me that although I have the sensor in the towball, I do Not have trailer assist installed. Worst of all worlds? Also to,d me this would be fine with my caravan.

Went away somewhat reassured but now on googling this it wou,d seem to be very inconclusive and at best even if safe, will work it’s way quickly through friction pads.

Am very worried .. love my new (to me) Audi, bought privately though so no returning of car. But have I got myself into a dangerous towing configuration … I am very experienced tower, dont even wanttrailer assist?

Towbar fitters not interested in putting in a replacement hitch saying could get all sorts of electronics errors if they ‘fiddle’…..

 Really worried and wonder if there is an Official Caravan Club position on this?

Our Tiguan has Trailer assist and no bother at all. No problem with electric to the fridge either.13.1V at the fuse box. But it's a VW.

Hi. Does your Tiguan have the plastic ring on the towball, and AL-KO stabiliser?

Be good to here you have these and still tow fine with no friction pad issues?

Thanks .. John

 Hi,

I have been looking for reports of issues like this thread related to Mercedes and have come up blank. The front friction pads on my Alko 3004 are breaking and its often hard to close the hitch. It also gets easily stuck and a to and fro movement is needed to try and release, often the car is lifted when raising the jockey. We do avoid reversing with the ATC hitch down and use the mover to recompress the brake rod.

Notably we have the Tow Asist (2021 version) on our GLE so I was wondering if the snagging of the ring of the towball and the lower part of the front friction pad was the cause. Has anyone seen an ongoing report of these issues on of Tow Assist fitted cars and Alko hitches as there seems to be little of late, and Mercedes nor Audi publish any disclaimers.

If not, what is the likely cause of the breakages - assuming I have cleaned the tow ball as prescribed!

Mercedes clearly state in their documentation that the tow hitch should not be used on trailers with stabiliser hitches (most caravans). I had not found this information before I bought the car and the dealer failed to mention that my 2021 GLE (American built rubbish by the way) was not suitable for towing caravans.

My dealer recommends that I use the hitch without engaging the stabiliser lever because the car trailer assist electronics is a better system. What they fail to grasp is that the hitch stabiliser is a preventative measure and the car (and ATC) electronics are there to help solve a problem that has already occurred.

There is no way that I would open the can of insurance worms and drive with the stabiliser lever up and I have, so far, not had any problems with damaged friction pads.

The ring on the tow ball is, apparently, easily replaced and therefore easily removeable, so I have the option to run without the ring if I ever have problems.

I have had a Q7 with trailer assist since March 2017, one of the first in the country. After a lot of confusion with Alko, and Audi about compatibility, it was confirmed it was approved to use with a modern Alko hitch. I have towed almost every year to the South of France, since. I replace the sensor ring on the tow ball this year as it was showing signs of wear, I also replaced the clutch discs in my caravan hitch. I have not had any issues with it, but don’t use the assist feature for parking, just my mirrors. As regards power to the fridge, VW , and Audi tow bars were not fully wired for a 13 pin plug initially and both my earlier Touaregs had to be re wired for the fridge to work.. Not a problem since 2017 .