Spare wheel foam removal - towbar fitting

[LakIM]

Anyone interested in Towbar retro fitting DIY? I am snapping photos as I go and can publish here if anyone is interested.

[Steve Q]

I'd say yes please! It'll help fellow members for years to come 🙂

[LakIM]

Getting the foam out of the spare wheel well is the biggest challenge.

Remember that most things go together or come apart surprisingly easily, if you are tempted to lever things with a screwdriver or a hammer you are doing it wrong! There a little tabs locks, whene released things come apart sweetly.

First the boot floor comes out. It just lifts out. The two rails left and right of the floor need to be removed to lift out the foam liner. First thing to do is remove the left side rear wheel cover panel. Remove the rear passenger side seatbelt cover. It just pops off. Then you need to pop off the left rear wheel interior panel. To do this, lift off the rear door sealer rubber. Remove the left rear fuse access panel. Then the liner pulls out. Careful as the seat release cable and ambient lighting need disconnecting before the panel comes away completely. The rear bottom of the panel needs to be gently persuaded past a metal bracket on the chassis.

 

Remove the boot bottom rear protective panel silver panel across the rear of the boot. Easily done, insert your fingers into the hinged panel over the latch and give it a sharp pull straight upwards.

Disconnect and lift out the sub woofer. ( a little red tab pulls out a few mm and then the release tab can be depressed and the connector pulled out )

You should be about here now.

to get that foam liner out the two rails laft and right need to come out. They are held on place by the load tiedown eyes.

Lift the eye and the plastic bolt cover can be flipped up.

A torqs driver removes the bolt. 2 each side. The rail is then loose and can be lifted straight up with a prise upward. Remember it will come apart, if its hard you have missed something!

Remove left and right rails and then you can work the liner out to the left by tilting it upward on that side. 

The wiring to the trailer connector is going down through the hole in the bottom left of the photo above. It will need to go into a recessin the heat shield directly below the hole and then backward to the rear of the back heatshield. If you run between the heatshield and the rear silencer the cable will soon be destroyed! The ECS kit I used came with the harness all preasswmbled with grommets in place to take the place of the one you push out of the hole. The inner end of the harness can follow the route of the sub woofer wires ( along the back of the rear tub and into the left rear quarter above the fuses) in the left rear corner.

Ill add a few more pics and text later.

[Steve Q]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:47 PM, LakIM said:

Getting the foam out of the spare wheel well is the biggest challenge.

Remember that most things go together or come apart surprisingly easily, if you are tempted to lever things with a screwdriver or a hammer you are doing it wrong! There a little tabs locks, whene released things come apart sweetly.

First the boot floor comes out. It just lifts out. The two rails left and right of the floor need to be removed to lift out the foam liner. First thing to do is remove the left side rear wheel cover panel. Remove the rear passenger side seatbelt cover. It just pops off. Then you need to pop off the left rear wheel interior panel. To do this, lift off the rear door sealer rubber. Remove the left rear fuse access panel. Then the liner pulls out. Careful as the seat release cable and ambient lighting need disconnecting before the panel comes away completely. The rear bottom of the panel needs to be gently persuaded past a metal bracket on the chassis.

 

Remove the boot bottom rear protective panel silver panel across the rear of the boot. Easily done, insert your fingers into the hinged panel over the latch and give it a sharp pull straight upwards.

Disconnect and lift out the sub woofer. ( a little red tab pulls out a few mm and then the release tab can be depressed and the connector pulled out )

You should be about here now.

to get that foam liner out the two rails laft and right need to come out. They are held on place by the load tiedown eyes.

Lift the eye and the plastic bolt cover can be flipped up.

A torqs driver removes the bolt. 2 each side. The rail is then loose and can be lifted straight up with a prise upward. Remember it will come apart, if its hard you have missed something!

Remove left and right rails and then you can work the liner out to the left by tilting it upward on that side. 

The wiring to the trailer connector is going down through the hole in the bottom left of the photo above. It will need to go into a recessin the heat shield directly below the hole and then backward to the rear of the back heatshield. If you run between the heatshield and the rear silencer the cable will soon be destroyed! The ECS kit I used came with the harness all preasswmbled with grommets in place to take the place of the one you push out of the hole. The inner end of the harness can follow the route of the sub woofer wires ( along the back of the rear tub and into the left rear quarter above the fuses) in the left rear corner.

Ill add a few more pics and text later.

Fantastic walkthrough so far 🙂

[j3trooper]

Thanks for a very informative post. My issue is not relating to installing a towbar but to remove the chrome steel boot trim in order to get access to the boot switch.

I am in the process of trying to remove the boot moulding which is as you say challenging. It looks like this is necessary to remove the chrome boot trim. Is that the case?

The issue I have on my 2018 Audi Q5 3.0tdi is that the boot is not fully closing into the locked position. I can make it lock fully by pressing down firmly on the boot as it comes to close.

If I leave it to close automatically it just closes on the initial safely lock and is not pulled in tightly closed.

I am hoping that it is just a connector come apart but need to access the lock to see what the issue is. Have you had any experience with this issue?

Regards

j3trooper

[j3trooper]

Sorted it now. After removing the foam moulding I found there were no securing screws for the steel trim as it appears to be the case in earlier models. You simply have to pull back the rubber boot seal along the length of the trim. Then inserting your fingers into flap in the trim you forcefully lift up the trim to release it from the two securing points.

The issue for me was resolved by using a screwdriver to operate the boot catch with the boot open. That then locked the locking mechanism. I then unlocked the boot with the drivers door switch. This seemed to reset the locking mechanism. The boot then closed and locked fully.