Marker lights failed both sides
van on another tow car, same problem, so seems to eliminate tow car..Have booked in at Bailey agent next week but wonder if any one can help and possibly save expense and embarrassment if we have overlooked some thing.We find it strange that both sides have
failed.
Comments
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As mm says they should be fused separately, but they could be on the same earth connection. If so a break in this wire between the two could be something to look for.
can you get hold of a wiring diagram for the van from Bailey to check.
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Or the bulbs fell out!
Is it not just two (very long) screws to remove the cover and have a look for yourself? With the existing bulb out you can test if it has failed as well.
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When I say side lights I mean side lights at rear and marker lights along both sides, when we hook up the Volvo all the lights come on until we move along the road then fail, which would indicate to me a faulty earth but why both sides,as I also thought
they were independent. When we hook the other car up the fuse blows as soon as we switch the lights on without moving.0 -
Need a little more information to try and help you; as already said, the caravans' side lights are on two circuits (L & R) both having their own fuses, as so is the towcars' sidelights. Having said this, some modern towcars fuse the sidelights via a auto-reset
system controlled by the vehicles' ECU, but let's not get in to deep. Does one or both of the caravans sidelight fuses blow? Does one or both of the towcars sidelight fuses blow when this fault happens? I need to know these answers before I can move forward,
I may have the answer as to why both sides fail at the same time.Colin
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Many thanks for your spot on answers, I think the problem is as follows; there is a short somewhere on one side of your caravans' sidelight circuit, this is probably a bulb with a shorting filiment, due to the way many towbar modules function within modern towcars, it can cause the towcar to fuse before the caravan fuses, this fusing both sidelight outputs to the caravan, if you would like me to explain why the towcars module cuts off both sides, I will willingly explain.
Colin
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Well, the van has been with the dealer for a week now with no resolution apart from them saying there is a major fault which they can't trace. Baileys technical dept. are also involved and have offered several suggestions which have also drawn a blank. SO
now we wait for Baileys own electrician to come and investigate. When that will be is anyones guess !! Haven't got a date for that yet.!!!0 -
Should Baileys man fail to find the fault and you are drawing a blank, let me know and I will post detailed instructions on how to undertake a full caravan road lighting Wiring harness check which involves circuit condunority and condunority leak check between
the road lighting circuits. In theory, the dealers Electritions should of done this but I know they have not as they would of found the fault. Tools needed are an ohm meter with ohms x 1000 range on it. I will only post said instructions if you ask me to as
I have had my hand slapped by other members for posting long detailed electrical instructions in the past.Colin
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Why have you not bought a trailer lighting board (Halfords?) and gone on your holidays? You can even get an extension lead should your caravan be longer than the supplied wire.
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Thanks for your continued support Colin, will see what tomorrow brings.
And a big thank you for your "helpful" suggestion Navigteur.Apart from the fact that the van is at the dealer and we emptied it before hand, I do not wish to tow a £20,000+ ,12month old van with a lighting board hung on the back. That is asking for the police
to keep stopping us. It would also delay the repair as it would have to go back in when we returned, so we would be back to square one.0 -
Why would you be bothered about being stopped by the police if everything is legal?
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What is illegal about a trailer lighting board? Where in the UK are there police who are actually out on the roads, and would actually determine a trailer lighting board on the back of a caravan being towed by some retired people, in a Volvo, off on their
holidays is the tell tale sign of hardened criminals worthy of a pull?The price of your caravan has no bearing in this debate. Tell the dealer you are rejecting it as unfit for purpose and want your full monies back now. They have the caravan, have been unable to resolve your problems, youve missed holidays whilst giving them
plenty of ooprtunity to fix it and can't enough is enough.Perhaps if you aimed your obvious ire at the piss poor dealer and manufacturer instead of a poster on an internet chat group you might get a result you are happy with.
Adapt, improvise, ovecome as the militar guy knows.
It strikes me as a first year caravan owner, the died in the wool, long term caravanners have got the quality of caravans and associted things they deserve by not being forthright with poor dealers and manufacturers, that us newbies won't stand for.
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How do the police know we are retired ?( Neither of us are 60 yet !!) How do they know we are off on our holidays? If you lived in the Norfolk/Canbridgeshire/Lincolnshire area you would know what I was refering to, without having to spell it out. We have
been treated very well by the dealer and Baileys, they have both been more than helpful, I did not start this debate, rather I answered a post as to why I did not want to use a trailer board. Also jumping up and down shouting is not always the way to go, give
people the chance to do their best first.NOTE TO SNOWY1. Problem now sorted by Baileys man, in fact 2 problems, 1 masking the other. Thanks for your help.
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Should Baileys man fail to find the fault and you are drawing a blank, let me know and I will post detailed instructions on how to undertake a full caravan road lighting Wiring harness check which involves circuit condunority and condunority leak check between the road lighting circuits. In theory, the dealers Electritions should of done this but I know they have not as they would of found the fault. Tools needed are an ohm meter with ohms x 1000 range on it. I will only post said instructions if you ask me to as I have had my hand slapped by other members for posting long detailed electrical instructions in the past.
Colin
Snowy. I am assuming that you meant to write "continuity" checks rather than "condunority"?
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Should Baileys man fail to find the fault and you are drawing a blank, let me know and I will post detailed instructions on how to undertake a full caravan road lighting Wiring harness check which involves circuit condunority and condunority leak check between
the road lighting circuits. In theory, the dealers Electritions should of done this but I know they have not as they would of found the fault. Tools needed are an ohm meter with ohms x 1000 range on it. I will only post said instructions if you ask me to as
I have had my hand slapped by other members for posting long detailed electrical instructions in the past.Colin
Snowy. I am assuming that you meant to write "continuity" checks rather than "condunority"?
Yes, your correct, many thanks for pointing it out, as you know, I'm not the best speller in the world, but hopefully, what I lose in ability to spell I would like to think I gain in other areas. Unfortunately it is something I can not hide, lucky for me,
there are a lot of kind and understanding people on here such as yourself.Colin
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JeffR,
glad it is all sorted, wish you happy times caravanning, all the best for now, snowy1 (Colin)
I had a problem with caravan lights when we got it 9 months ago 2nd hand ... towed it to where it is stored and checked the lights ,the caravan lights where out on the right hand side . classic fuse problem ,or so i thought . took the easiest bulb out .looked
ok ,fuse ok my test light hasnt got a long enough lead ( It has now ) so powered the 13pin socket up with a small 12v 7ah battery and went through the two side lights ,they were all on, not the caravan fortunatly , tested the new Ebay special twin 7 pin to
13 pin adapter and no right hand circuit , took the black plug apart and re connected the wire . did a continuity check on all the other wires ,all fine repluged the two together , Still didnt work . stuck my test light in the car ( Its my sons VW transporter
van left with us while he went on holiday ) Lo and behold no RH tail light feed . So two faults and 1/2 hour later faults found . apart from the van . Which i actually fixed for him before he got home . Its what dads do .One last thing we have a 2015 Vw tiguan tow car , when a bulb goes out on the van (Front repeater side light blew,which i could see in the mirror anyway ) the Dash bulb fail light came . So it works on the van as well . They might have some emission issues
but they do work well . Regards Martin0 -
One last thing we have a 2015 Vw tiguan tow car , when a bulb goes out on the van (Front repeater side light blew,which i could see in the mirror anyway ) the Dash bulb fail light came . So it works on the van as well . They might have some emission issues but they do work well . Regards Martin
These genuine manufactures' towbar modules are getting quite complexed electronically these days (many function in conjunction with the towcars' ECU) and as you have mentioned, many types can now compensate automatically for extra bulbs when a trailer is connected in order to allow bulb failure warnning lights to function correctly upon the trailer too. Some can also self program on trailer connect-up if there is an imbalance on lighting circuits. Example; if a trailer was to have four lights on one sidelight circuit (front & rear sidelights and two sidemarker lights) and five on the other sidelight circuit (front & rear sidelights, two sidemarker lights, plus a licence plate light) it would automatically log the imbalance current ratings on connect-up of the trailer. Also, many are designed to protect the towcars ECU if a trailer without it's own built in fuses (such as 500kg motor discount store type trailer) was to develop a major electrical fault. Similarly, as mentioned earlier upon this discussion, there appeared to be a major fault on a caravans' sidelight circuit, neather of the caravans' sidelight fuses were blowing, the towcar was blowing out first and under certain conditions I understand some modules are designed to shut down both sides to protect the towcars ECU, which was why both sidelight circuits were not functioning i.e. in theory, one should not lose both sides at the same time, this could be the explanation why it did.
Colin
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Makes you think that sometimes we are getting too clever for our own good. KISS every time.
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PS, on connect-up, it would log any imbalance of the circuits by bulb filament resistance, in other words, the lights would not have to be switched on to log current ratings if you know what I mean.
Another intresting one for me .... Something tells me you will be intersted too. After towing the van to its storage place and rectifing faults on the E-bay plug and sons van . We finaly took delivery of our brand new tiguan , some time later plugged it
in to the van and as we were new to all this ,s**t myself when IDC did its testing and cycling , Anyway swicthed all the lights on ... fine switched the indicators on and thought there was a bulb out (Flashing at twice speed) .... No bulbs out so drove it
home switched ignition off . and got the path cleared to get the van on . started it back up again and indicator flashed correctly , I suspected some sought of learning had gone on . Vw dont fit a trailer indicator warning light but as the car system bulb
fail works with the van I guess thats how they get round legislation .0 -
Hi Martin,
Don't know for sure without checking but as you have said; Vw will know that it's a legal requirement to have a tell-tail warning light or buzzer to monitor trailer indicator failure. As the fault cleared upon cycling the towcars ignition switch (which would of allowed re-calibration) they must be using one or the other of said warning lights to identify trailer indicator failure. Jokingly, we have come along way from the old Trans-flash warning light method of the good old days, the days when men were men and women were glad of them lol.
Colin
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Hi Martin,
Don't know for sure without checking but as you have said; Vw will know that it's a legal requirement to have a tell-tail warning light or buzzer to monitor trailer indicator failure. ....
My R Class Mercedes gives a double flash of the tell tale to warn of a trailer indicator failure ...... you don't have to have a separate tell tale for your trailer indictaors.
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Hi Martin,
Don't know for sure without checking but as you have said; Vw will know that it's a legal requirement to have a tell-tail warning light or buzzer to monitor trailer indicator failure. ....
My R Class Mercedes gives a double flash of the tell tale to warn of a trailer indicator failure ...... you don't have to have a separate tell tale for your trailer indictaors.
Many thanks for your info, I was not aware about the double flash method. While upon a similar subject, am I Correct in thinking your Mercedes controls the fridge supply to your caravans' fridge directly via the cars ECU not needing the use of a VSR or other means?
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Hi Martin,
Don't know for sure without checking but as you have said; Vw will know that it's a legal requirement to have a tell-tail warning light or buzzer to monitor trailer indicator failure. ....
My R Class Mercedes gives a double flash of the tell tale to warn of a trailer indicator failure ...... you don't have to have a separate tell tale for your trailer indictaors.
Many thanks for your info, I was not aware about the double flash method. While upon a similar subject, am I Correct in thinking your Mercedes controls the fridge supply to your caravans' fridge directly via the cars ECU not needing the use of a VSR or other
means?I have to confess that I lazily paid for the fridge/charging side of my electrics to be fitted. For whatever reason, the towbar when I bought the car just had a single 12N socket. I think though that the 'fitter' (that drilled my car to fit his earth) has
fitted a VSR0
