West falia tow bar.

[martin11]

Hi for the first time since I have owned my x5 I needed to hitch the tow bar up. It had never been used and was like brand new with the keys still in the bag.

I watched a video on you tube and seemed fairly simple to attach.

Put the key in and pull and twist the handle on the side, it locks in place and the balls in the top go loose and the clip on the back goes solid.

I push the tow bar in the receiver and it clicks and locks in however the handle on the side doest pull back in correctly and the red marker is still just on the green indicator not allowing you to take the key out. 

I have wd40 everything and put it in and out over 20 times but still hope something will free up also have checked in the receiver and all greesed and like new.

Any ideas please. It's doing my head in because it's actually clicking in place but the wheel doesn't turn back enough to release the key so not safe enough on my opinion even though you can jump up and down on it. It's like the little ball bearing s arnt clicking out enough to release the wheel and key

HELP

[X5Sport]

Can you manually turn it fully home?

On mine the wheel needs a slight manual turn to get it to fully latch.  I'm assuming you are 'priming' the lock by pulling the lock wheel outwards whilst turning it?  It sounds like you are because the release goes when you place it in the receiver.

FYI, WD40 not a good idea, it should be LM grease or similar.

Richard

[martin11]

Ok I ll try grease. Thanks. Yeah it primes ok and latches in but doesn't return home. You can try and give it some slight manual encouragement but doesn't quite return have tried giving some force side to side up and down whilst trying to get it to return home but nothing

[ChrisLux]

I've had this problem on an E39 after a long time of not using it. It could be a number of things.

a) Make sure the ball bearings on the towbar contract all the way and that there isn't any small pieces of
grit anywhere round them. Then give them a good GREASE, NOT WD40. You can use WD40 to 'wash' it
clean, but to use it it HAS to be grease.

b) Check for any surface rust on the shaft of the towbar, doesn't matter how little there appears to be, a
minuscule amount can affect it, so if there is anything whatsoever, use fine wet & dry to go round the shaft
to clean it off.

c) Where the shaft goes into the receiver, there is an angles face, again rust collects on here and it can be
just enough to make the difference between the towball locating and it being an millimetre out.

d) The last thing that can bugger it is the circular groove in the receiver that accepts the ball bearing on
the towbar shaft. If there's any little bit of crap in there, the balls don't move out enought for everything
to locate properly.

When I had the problem it took me a good 2-3 hrs cleaning and checking then re-trying before it fitted.

Good luck.

Oh, and by the way, the Westfalia is by far the best tow kit for the BMW, better than Brink, PF Jones, Witter

[martin11]

Hi Chris thanks a lot for all your advice. I have a feeling where the tow bar has been sat under the boot floor dirt and bits have clung to the grease so I think a good clean with wd then greased well. I let you know how I get on !