trailer wiring - miswire?

Hi, Can you clarify "nothing happens"? Are any lights in the trailer lighting up? Or are they lighting up for the wrong function--brake lights blinking when you're signalling?

One approach is to confirm which wires are for what in the Jetta. Get an inexpensive test light with probe from a hardware or auto shop. Or fashion your own. The retail tester has a 12 V light bulb in a handle.

Attach the clamp to a ground point. Turn on or activate (e.g., signal) the various lights on the Jetta. Go to where you're making the splices and use the probe to either touch a connector if accessible or poke into a wire. By process of elimination you'll figure out which wire in your Jetta is for which lights and you can splice accordingly.

The other possibility is the 3-2 converter is not designed for your vehicle, that the converter circuitry is assuming some other inputs for brake-signal lights. If all else fails, it could be the converetr unit is faulty. Just some possibilities.

Good luck.

-T> Hello,

This will almost never work. The wire colors are not standard, each car is different. What you should have done is figure out which wire goes to which light and splice accordingly. I have a Bentley repair manual and according to the wiring diagram the wires are color coded as follows: Right Turn Signal, black/green; Left Turn Signal, black/white; Left Tail Light, green/black; and Left Brake Light, red/black.

Let me know if this works.

PHRED

This should be ok.

My free time is almost non-existant; this is the first chance I've had to check back on my post since I posted it. I'll give it a try and let you know how it works out.

Thanks!

Just like everyone else. Sunday is when I also have the most free time. You need a multimeter to check your work or you could F*** up and you could blow your blinker relay, fuses or worse.

See you next Sunday. :)

After I posted I went to the local radio shack and purchased a multimeter. I'd been meaning to do it for a long time but now I was forced to get it. Of course after determining what was what, I found that I had two wires mis-spliced.

For reference, my 2005 Jetta Wagon tail light wiring is as follows:

Left light -Tail-light: Yellow/Black (Yellow was very light, almost looked white) -Left signal: Black/White -Brake: Red/Black

Right light -Right signal: Green/Black

I noticed that the right tail light had two Green/Black striped wires. wtf? Don't know, don't care. Because as of now I receive 12V on each pin on the trailer connector for each appropriate signal.

I'll follow up after I try it out on my friend's trailer.