2003 VW Odometer Disable for Towing


bobjan

New Member
I have a 2003 VW Beetle and need to know how to disable the odometer while I tow it behind my RV, 4 wheels down. Can anyone tell me how to do this?
 

4play

New Member
2003 VW Odometer Disable for Towing

I don't think that's legal/ethical, but you did make me wonder about the electronic speedometer/odometers. Do they read mileage with the car turned off?
BTW my daily driver is a 98 TDI NB
 

retlveit

New Member
2003 VW Odometer Disable for Towing

Welcome to the forum bobjan and 4play! Bobjan, check w/a VW dealer before towing w/4 wheels down! This might save you a whole lot of grief. When I had our motorhome I wanted to tow my 924 Porsche, checked with the dealer (a number of them in fact as a few had no idea) Three dealers told me no way Jose! I was told a transaxle equipped vehicle has to have the engine on while moving to provide lubrication to the transaxle. A few miles probably won't hurt anything, a few hundred probably will.

I was seriously considering purchasing a trailor and decided the heck w/it, no place to park it at home. So I bit the bullet and outfitted our Jeep Cherokee with a tow bar and towed that many hundreds of miles. Thing to remember is to make double **** sure the key is "on", not "off" or locked. If locked the front tires won't turn on curves, as I found out twice! To tow ours all I needed to do was put the transmission in "park", the transfer case in "neutral" and leave the key "on". An interesting side note on that is no miles accumulated on the odometer while being towed.

Again welcome! I hope you find this forum as interesting and as helpful as I have.
 

4play

New Member
2003 VW Odometer Disable for Towing

retlveit, thanks for the welcome. I'm picking up our trailer in the morning! We sold our motor home about 7 months ago & have been missing our weekend outings. On the bugs, you can turn the key off, but not all the way to the lock position.

bobjan, I did a little experiment on the way home. I turned off the car at 70 & coasted about 3/10's of a mile & the odometer did not register any of the mileage.
So if it's Ok to flat tow, it won't chock up any miles with the key off.
 
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