On Jul 12, 10:07*am, Kevin Ricks wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
Of course the trailer lights stop working - I have to drag it 300
miles the day after tomorrow!
Specifically, what has stopped working is the driver's side blinker
and brake light, which are on *the same output of the flat-four plug
on the van. After chasing the problem in the trailer's harness for
longer than I shoud have, I finally figured out that the problem is in
the van, not the trailer.
First, let me make it clear that the blinkers and brake lights on the
van itself work fine. The problem exists somewhere in the wiring for
the flat-four plug.
The unloaded outputs at the flat-four sockets for the both trailer
lights and the passenger side blinker/brake read ~12 volts, loaded
they read ~11 volts. (I loaded it with a bare bulb, but I get the same
readings with the trailer attached)
However, the unloaded output at the flat-four for the driver's side
blinker/brake is ~7 volts, loaded it's zero. Once again, it was loaded
with a bare bulb, so the trailer has nothing to do with the issue.
So, I know the problem is in the van's harness or the perhaps
something with the pigtail, but I'm not sure what I should be looking
for. The 2 feet or so of the pigtail that is exposed looks fine. After
that it runs behind the trim into the bowels of the van. At first
light, I guess I'm going to have to start pulling panels off. I took a
quick look under the van (2004 Odessey) but it's late and dark, so
I'll start again in the morning.
What could cause the voltage at one output of the flat-four to be down
by half and what would cause it to drop to zero under the load of a
single trailer bulb?
Thanks for any suggestions.
I was helping a friend with similar issues. One light on the trailer did
not work. *I found the output voltage was half what it should be on the
brake light. Turned out to be that the car had an electronic trailer
wiring control module that was bad. *The module was ~2" square box
hidden under a panel in the rear trunk area. In my case there was also a
bad wiring job on the trailer that probably toasted the module.
The module was factory installed $tealer only item. There may be
afte-rmarket controllers that could be wired in?
Kevin- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
Kevin Wins!
Because my van has separate bulbs for the blinkers and brakes, the
shop that installed the hitch also installed a "3-wire to 2 wire
converter" - a ~2" square box hidden under a panel in the rear hatch
area. As soon as I pulled the panel from which the pigtail emerged,
there was the box. Even though it was an after-market install, the
hitch shop used a harness with a connector that plugged into an
existing connector in the van's harness.
The hitch shop was closed today so I called a Honda dealer to see if I
could get a replacement module/pigtail, but all they carried was some
type of "complete harness with brackets, modules, pigtails" etc. $170!
That's about what I paid for the entire hitch and wiring, installed, a
few years ago.
U-haul carries a compatible module/pigtail but with bare wires for
$18, so I bought one, cut the module off of my old harness and used a
Europa terminal strip so I could use the original connector and plug
it directly into the van's harness.
http://dnn.hylecapl.com/Portals/3/Ri...nts/Europe.jpg
aem mentioned the "vampire clips". I hate them! The U-haul unit came
with those types of clips and the guy behind the counter said "Make
sure you don't lose the clips. You'll need 'em to connect the module
to your harness." I told him I was going to throw them away as soon as
I opened the package. Vampire clip is a great name for them because
they *suck*!
All lights are working now and I'm off on my 600 round trip at 6AM.
Thanks for all the suggestions on where to look.