Grrrr....Fiat Bravo 1.8 - split flexi hose on driver's side rear. Got the replacement hose and came to fit it today but a combination of rain and awkward access to the underside of the car meant I couldn't sort it. Rang the AA and got them to tow it to Tyresales up the road, bloke said he would bung a new hose on for me. Couple of hours later he rings me and says the flexi has seized onto the rigid hose and no amount of lube, heat, hammering, etc will free it. Ideally would like to get the car home to have a play in the comfort of my own drive, but need some way of towing it home - I recall being towed in the past by an AA guy using a towpole (big bar with a spring on which hooked onto a towing eye), where he expressly told me not to use the brakes but to steer and keep the bar as straight as possible, could I get a mate to tow me using one of these even though my brakes are shagged? Do you need a towball on the towing car or can you just hook it from towing eye-to towing eye?CheersHellraiser..............>

I don't know personally. I'd assume that the towing eye is designed to be pulled though. Under braking from the towing car, his towing eye would be pushed by a tonne and a half of Fiat. It'd *probably* be strong enough but you're putting a force on it that it may not have been designed for. Given that, the AA do the same on the front towing eye using it to brake your car so it may be that the rear eye is similarly re-inforced. I'd try it if there were no big hills involved and no high speed sections where you can't keep the speed down without restricting other traffic too much. You'd also need to heavily trust the experience of the tow-er. He's not going to get an even braking experience with your car pushing at an angle from the back when he tries to stop.It'd only be worth trying if you can test it a little somewhere safe and off the road for a while to build up knowledge of what will happen and how it will behave

How to tow a car with faulty brakes?

Aug 05, 2006 22 Replies

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Steve 19 years ago

Carefully, very carefully

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DervMan 19 years ago

Nah I'd want one of those funky cradle things...

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John Kenyon 19 years ago

A car with good brakes is useless if it's pulling on one half of a snapped towrope...

/john

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