[BemaBen]

I'd like to fit a tow bar to my 2004 316ti Compact. Has anyone any experience of doing this ? I can simply pay a company to do it but if its a fairly straight forward job then I'm happy to give it a go.

Ben.

 

[94chas]

Hi have got a westfalia tow bar with detatchable hitch very easy to fit bolts on using existing fittings no holes to drill,had to buy a detachable cover and frame for the rear valance from BMW this envolves cutting a section from the valance, think it was about £40 all in.You will need a sensing relay for the trailer electrics to fool the bulb fail warning system.Took me all morning to fit it the electrics took the longest total cost was under £300 (not a lot).
http://www.towequipe.co.uk/itemlist.html
Regards Chas

 

[Bigbenstrikes]

A 316 with an N42 engine.. towing... are you mad? You not noticed the lack of torque?

 

[baderlfc]

You ain't towing much with that car mate.. take it from a previous 316ti owner!

As Ben said its got no torque..

You'll end up killing the car towing too much mind, take it easy :thumbsup

 

[nick316ti]

christ a towbar are you taking the piss mine struggles with a boot of shopping from asda mate

 

[phileas fogg]

I towed my pals E36 M3 evo in my E36 318ti Sport Compact. Seemed to manage quite well

 

[baderlfc]

I towed my pals E36 M3 evo in my E36 318ti Sport Compact. Seemed to manage quite well

Your car's got 133 ft/lb of torque, even if it seemed to managed well towing a 1.5 ton car it would have been screaming for you to stop!

These small 4 cylinder engines are not meant for towing..

 

[Trixxz]

Gotta agree its a bad idea to tow with it, don't forget to look at your weight plates and you will then see hoe little you can actually tow.

 

[Brian Collison]

Re Towing with a 316 compact

I too would like a tow bar for my 316i compact mainly to tow a trailer to the tip or builders yard, but do not want to cut the rear spoiler. I would say however that in my experience of other cars it should be able to tow light loads. The website uktow.com states that a 316 or 318 can tow 1400kg or 3086lbs so that's way over a ton! nearer a ton and a half.
As an aside I once towed a sailing dinghy to Devon from Manchester with a 1275cc MG MIdget with no problems with a measly 72ft lbs torque and about 56BHP. Coming back the boat contained about 6 gallons of scrumpy cider. Well ther's no where else to carry so much in an MG Midget!
I've also towed my speedboat (not sure of weight but probably way over 1/2 ton) in the days of waterskiing on Windermere with many cars from an MGB-GT 62 ft lbs and 88 BHP, to a Chevrolet Camaro Z28 5.7 litre V8 325 ft lbs and 285 BHP. Now that was a great tow car and she didn't seem to notice the boat was there! 0-60 spec' is 5.8 seconds so probably sub 8 seconds with the boat! Not that we did that of course. :hihi