Correct procedure for towing on 4 Wheels

Advice sought please from the experienced members

My water pump gave out yesterday afternoon and after a 9 hour wait for recovery (long story) a van turned up to tow me home with a towing bar. The driver insisted that by placing a fuse greater than 5 amps in fuse box at drivers seat he would be able to tow as long as speed was about 30 MPH. I did not have my handbook in the car for reference but from memory I recall that a message came up transfer neutral was displayed on the message center. That I have since confirmed to be the case. My location of breakdown was remote and sat with the vehicle with side lights on and radio for company sat navigation and dash cam all on awaiting recovery from the AA. My battery was almost dead when the recovery arrived he placed a fuse in the correct space but no message was displayed to confirm this. The tow home about 30 miles was daunting trying to steer and a freezing screen . Obviously cannot drive car to check all is well until water pump is fixed. Any concerns that I should be aware of most welcome
TIA

Placing the fuse, forces the transfer box into neutral...essentially removing both props from the gearbox.

Process is to switch ignition off, place fuse in position 11 (I think) turn ignition on to position 2, Transfer Motor selects neutral and message displays, then select Neutral on main gearbox, ignition off, than back to position 1...you can then be towed.

If the battery was almost dead did any dash lights come on at all when you turned the ignition to position 2??

if not, there may not have been enough juice to make the neutral selection.

Hmmmm.....towing without selecting TB neutral and with the engine not running could potentially damage the gearbox (as the gearbox oil pump is not running to keep the box lubed up).

If you have no battery power, the process is to attach a donor battery as if to jump start....then proceed to place fuse in the space...this allows the motor to turn and select neutral....

First thing is to confirm that transfer nautral was actually selected....but without the dash message, I would think not....

Don't you have to select neutral first, then insert fuse to allow t/box motor to select neutral ? I would power up the car and see what message is showing and hope it has been is neutral

As long as there was a fuse in position 11 under seat and you got transfer neutral message all should be good. When you get battery charged take fuse out. Transfer box should return to engaged.

wammers said:

As long as there was a fuse in position 11 under seat and you got transfer neutral message all should be good. When you get battery charged take fuse out. Transfer box should return to engaged.

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What the OP is saying is, battery was goosed and no message came up!!

Wondering if he:
a) Turned ignition on to allow the motor to select neutral
or
b) He did, but no message came up due to either
i) Battery flat
or
ii) Fault in Transfer Motor Drive!

Saint.V8 said:

What the OP is saying is, battery was goosed and no message came up!!

Wondering if he:
a) Turned ignition on to allow the motor to select neutral
or
b) He did, but no message came up due to either
i) Battery flat
or
ii) Fault in Transfer Motor Drive!

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Read it again Ant, he says a message did come up. His battery died en route.

Thanks for comments guys. I can confirm that battery was dead and no confirmation of message on dash ! . I did raise concern with the recovery agent of the AA before we set off that I thought a message should be displayed but he replied not on these I don't think. On arrival home he removed the fuse and replaced in the spare fuse holder. And jump started car with a booster box to drive the car into the parking bay.

Theroadlesstravelled said:

Advice sought please from the experienced members

My water pump gave out yesterday afternoon and after a 9 hour wait for recovery (long story) a van turned up to tow me home with a towing bar. The driver insisted that by placing a fuse greater than 5 amps in fuse box at drivers seat he would be able to tow as long as speed was about 30 MPH. I did not have my handbook in the car for reference but from memory I recall that a message came up transfer neutral was displayed on the message center. That I have since confirmed to be the case. My location of breakdown was remote and sat with the vehicle with side lights on and radio for company sat navigation and dash cam all on awaiting recovery from the AA. My battery was almost dead when the recovery arrived he placed a fuse in the correct space but no message was displayed to confirm this. The tow home about 30 miles was daunting trying to steer and a freezing screen . Obviously cannot drive car to check all is well until water pump is fixed. Any concerns that I should be aware of most welcome
TIA

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wammers said:

Read it again Ant, he says a message did come up. His battery died en route.

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Think you need glasses Tony

EDIT: and confirmed from reply above

Saint.V8 said:

Think you need glasses Tony

EDIT: and confirmed from reply above

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Ok Ant only clocked the first bit where he describes what should happen took that as what did happen. Maybe he has problems then. It will be down to AA to repair if he didn't check for neutral.

wammers said:

Read it again Ant, he says a message did come up. His battery died en route.

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You read it again, he said no message at the time of recovery as the battery was goosed. He had seen the message previously when he tried it, but not when he was recovered.

wammers said:

Ok Ant only clocked the first bit where he describes what should happen took that as what did happen. Maybe he has problems then. It will be down to AA to repair if he didn't check for neutral.

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You should have listened to your Mum and only risked one eye like me.

Datatek said:

You read it again, he said no message at the time of recovery as the battery was goosed. He had seen the message previously when he tried it, but not when he was recovered.

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I did and answered over an hour before you wrote the above to acknowledge my error.

tomcat59alan said:

You should have listened to your Mum and only risked one eye like me.

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Only thing she ever told me was to use both hands then it didn't flop around so much.

Only thing she ever told me was to use both hands then it didn't flop around so much.

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Talking of which..... a mate of mine told me a story once.. when he was living at home still, he woke with the ubiquitous dawn horn.... and so decided to oblige.... pulled the duvet over his head and proceeded to knock one out.


After finishing, he threw the duvet off his head..... to find a mug of steaming tea by his bed.

Yes. his mum is pretty laid back.

wammers said:

I did and answered over an hour before you wrote the above to acknowledge my error.

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Maybe I need glasses too

wammers said:

I did and answered over an hour before you wrote the above to acknowledge my error.

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Some of us have a life, and I was knocking one out with the nurse

wammers said:

Only thing she ever told me was to use both hands then it didn't flop around so much.

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Tiny hands?

tomcat59alan said:

Tiny hands?

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No very big hands as it happens.

wammers said:

No very big hands as it happens.

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Tweezers? ha ha.

ukadamwest said:

Talking of which..... a mate of mine told me a story once.. when he was living at home still, he woke with the ubiquitous dawn horn.... and so decided to oblige.... pulled the duvet over his head and proceeded to knock one out.


After finishing, he threw the duvet off his head..... to find a mug of steaming tea by his bed.

Yes. his mum is pretty laid back.

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Here's hopefully a funny (but true) story.

One of my wifes clients was a woman barber and one day she's cutting this blokes hair and she notices something funny going on underneath the gown they always wrap round you.

Well, she was a bit no nonsense and been in the trade for a good few years, so she smartly cuffed said punter round the head and whipped the gown away to find said geezer polishing his glasses........