Electrical mystery
Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place. However, I have a bit of a mystery with the caravan road lights.
I had a towbar and 13 pin socket fitted by an independent fitter using a dedicated wiring kit to my 2015 Ford Kuga. The test rig used by the guy who fitted it shows that all lights are working. When hitched, I have no reversing lights or fog lights on the van. The fog lights on the car do not come on when hitched, as I would expect.
A friend brought his car round and tried it. All lights on the van worked.
The problem seems to be with the car, but I am mystified as to what it could be as the test rig confirmed that the socket was working correctly.
Any thoughts would be gratefully recieved
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Have you tried them with the engine running?
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Have you contacted the fitter to sort it out?
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Yes, have tried with engine running. Contacting the fitter will be on my to do list for tomorrow. I called him when I first noticed the problem. He came to my place of work and tested the socket on the car. I was with him and saw that all was (apparently) working as it should. My friend came today to try his car on my caravan, so I have only now been able to eliminate the caravan as being the problem.
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I agree with TW. Many fitters do not get it done properly. I had a similar problem,- and my tow bar had been fitted by a Merc dealer !
In the end I went to a specialist towbar fitting Co, And they corrected it in 10 minutes. They explained that it happens frequently in their experience and they knew what to look for. Apparently it all stems back to the change from the earlier UK twin socket system to the newer Continental 13 pin system. We in the UK, use our caravans slightly differently to our continental neighbours. We have fridges etc, and on board battery chargers, whereas most continental vans do not. As a result many tow bars, especially those intended to be fitted to none British cars, come with wiring diagrams set up for the more frequently used continental applications.
All that was required to correct the problem was the swapping of a couple of positions on the 13 pin plug.
So just get the wiring checked by a professional Tow bar fitter. I'll bet that they correct it very quickly!
TF
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Tigerfish,
this reminds me when a couple of years ago when I had a Vauxhall and had my tow bar fitted by a tow bar specialist and also had trouble with my fog lights. I went to the Vauxhall dealer only to be asked "did your towbar specialist think to contact the computer in your car and tell it that a towbar had been fitted?" My response I am sorry was "yes he phoned it up but the line was engaged, so he left a message !!!" Being a female I did wonder what was going on here.
It seemed that the computer had not recognised a towbar was fitted and could not formulate the lighting set up....
An update on one of the computers corrected the problem....Easy when you now how ....SG2.
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Sir Bruin, I'm assuming that the electronics in your Kuga will be fairly similar to those in my 2015 Mondeo. When I had my towbar fitted I had to have the car's computer recoded. This was done by the towbar fitter using his computer but some of the quotes that I had didn't include this aspect of the job and I was told that I would need to take it back to a Ford workshop after the actual bar and electrics had been fitted. Has this recoding been done? This is different to putting a test rig on it.
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John M, recoding wasn't mentioned and this might be the problem. I have to admit that anything electrical is tantamount to witchcraft to me. I think it is reasonable to assume that your Mondeo will be similar. When I engage reverse, the park pilot display indicates that a trailer is fitted and does not activate the rear parking sensors. However, although the reversing lights come on on the car, they don't on the caravan. Equally, with the caravan plugged in to the car, the fog lights are disabled on the car but don't work on the caravan. Is it possible that some recoding has occured, but another fix is required?
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Does it actually refer to Recoding on either your quotation or invoice? It is quite an expensive job to do. Although it was included by my fitter it was itemised on the invoice at £70.00 + VAT. The total price for me was £531.00 for a swan neck tow bar, 13 pin dedicated wiring kit, a 3 wire dedicated extension kit to take some wires to the engine compartment, fitting everything and then recoding.
I'm no electrical whizz kid but a guess it might be that some things will work straight away whilst other bits need the recoding.
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My 2012 Kuga did not need recoding but I know for a fact your 2015 MK2 will definitely need to be recoded for the car to recognize that a "trailer" has been connected and act accordingly. (this seems to have been done?)
If this has been done, then as said, the problem is else where.
Not knowing the full story (new car/old caravan, new car/new caravan etc) do you by any chance have a Swift brand caravan and does it have LED lights?
If so then you may need a ELM4 box fitted to the caravan as I did.
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Sorry can't offer anything else other than call the suppling fitter back out.
His test rig should be able to simulate your caravan
i.e. he plugs in his test board, your fog lights should go out and the "fog light" on his test board should come on, likewise with the reversing lights.
Hope you get it fixed!
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Update. My caravan has twin reverse lights and twin fog lights. If I take one of the bulbs out, the other then works. Apparently, the module in the dedicated loom is only intended to run one bulb. I'm wondering if led replacements would solve the problem?
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Could well do as they would be drawing less current than the said standard twin reverse/fog lights. However, the twin LED's may not draw enough current and may cause the same problem again (but the other way around) if you know what I mean, in this case you may have to fit LED resistors in parallel on each circuit. Standard LED resistors are available from many motor factors. You must also note, you way have to fit them to the indicators too in order to flash correctly and also to allow the trailer indicator warning lamp to function correctly.
Colin
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PS, if all fails, one other option springs to mind, fit two relays in the rear of the towcar, trigged by the tow module, relays then operate each set of twin bulbs i.e. 2 x 12v 21w bulbs without overloading said module.
There is always a way in my book, no such thing as can-not be done!
Hope this helps
Colin
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It's easy, all you need is love. da da dada daah
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Sir Bruin,
In my opinion the above method is by far the easiest and less cost way of sorting the problem i.e. not having to fork-out for LED rear light units & possibly shunt resistors too, also saving a lot of hassle. The first thing you would need to do is check that the coil of a standard type automotive relay draws enough current from the tow module in order that it will function correctly on said reverse & fog module outputs if you know what I mean.
To check this you must check with the caravan connected to the towcar & with the towcars ignition switched on, if you don’t, the module may not function correctly as it may think the caravan is not connected, therefore not give a module output to said circuits.
Colin
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This is turning into an epic. Beginning to wish that I'd gone for a generic wiring kit instead. I understand that LEDs may not draw enough current. However, as the issue is only with the twin fof lights and twin reversing lights (all other lights work correctly), would replacing one bulb with LED be a viable solution?
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Hi Sir Bruin,
Glad you’ve sorted the problem, as MM said; the most simple and cheapest way to say the least. I must say, I’m quite surprised that a LED replacement bulb actually fitted into the lamp as more often than not, as the LED bulbs are fatter and do not tapper off sufficient at the base, they tend to bottom out against the lamp reflector preventing the bulb fully engaging into the bulb holder. In theory, a Professional Auto Electrician should not solve the problem in such manner, such person to be professional, would have to adapt the towcar in such a manner that any trailer could be connected, possibly with the said dual relay method just to mention one.
I would like to thank you for your feed-back as many on club together ask for help/opinions with problems, members give possible answers, and the OP does not come back to let us know if and how they have sorted such problem!
Kind regards
Colin
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Hi, Sir Bruin. I also have this problem with my dedicated Ford electrics on my Kuga. If I switch these lights on and off 3 times they work perfectly. Could you please let me know what LED bulb you bought as the one I tried listed at 21w is only half as bright as the original bulb.
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