If I was wiring a towbar socket, would I need wires going to both indicators and both tail lights? ie. pick up the wiring from both sides of the car. This is pre canbus etc. on a Mondeo MK2 with real wiring. Ta for any hints
Wiring for a trailer
Apr 01, 2009
13 Replies
the wiring will generally come to the back of the car in one bunch to one side of the rear lights and then continues over to the other, before it splits off would generally be the point to open it up and access the wiring to both sides at the same time. It will make no real difference if you run left and right side lights of the trailer from either the left or right side light circuit of the car.
Eh? You should wire them individually or else you would get both lamps go off in the event of a breakdown which is far from ideal.
Not really a problem with a trailer; it already has a single point of failure in the earth wire.
Chris
"Mrcheerful" wrote in news:OPPAl.7149$ snipped-for-privacy@text.news.virginmedia.com:
That's a damn good point. Will the wiring colours be different for say the left and right indicators?
They do tend to blow fuses more often than they break earth wires though.
yes, they definitely will be different. generally I would just use a test lamp to identify which wire I want, but if you have a manual and a magnifying glass you can look up the right colours, you can even do the left and right sidelight split if you want to, after all it can't hurt and may help.
The brake lights are likely fed from only the one circuit. Tail lights might be split due to a parking light system. Indicators obviously so. Doesn't it have a pickup point for this purpose? If it has a bulb failure warning system just wiring it in any old how will effect the working of this.
[...]
Biggest problem I find is corrosion of the cheap "Hong-Kong torch" style contacts within the light units, followed by trailers or sockets not wired to standard.
Chris
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...and on VAG and may be others will require a trip to the dealers to program in "trailer" mode.
Chris
Chris Whelan wrote in news:C_ZAl.82175 $ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe04.ams:
It's a MK2 Mondeo, I don't think it has any modern style wiring or warning lamp.
I'm sure that the last few cars I have any experience of fitting a towbar to had a socket in the loom around one of the light clusters for plugging the towbar electrics into. Worth investigating?
I'm fairly certain you can get those for a MK2, is there a towing light on the dash or does it just add a beeper to the boot?
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