Hi - I’ve just hooked my van up to the car and the towing lights have gone crazy! The near side lights come on as they are supposed to but when you turn the indicator on they go dim each time the indicator flashes. The off side lights don’t work at all but the indicator works fine. Both the caravan and the tow car are new to us so I’ve never plugged the van into another car. My problem is that I don’t know whether it’s an issue with the cars wiring or the caravan. If any one has any ideas where to start with this one I would really appreciate it!
Thanks
you can buy plug in wiring checkers off ebay quite cheaply.. its worth picking one up it will save you a lot of time.. it will check both the trailer and the car..
Yes, get a tester and keep it in the car. Its an essential tool to determine which vehicle has the problem.
Causes could be:
Poor earths as mentioned
Corroded caravan plug (or water in it)
Corroded car socket (or water again)
Van wiring control module located in the boot either faulty or yet again water ingress.
Had all of these at one time or another!
As an aside, if you are on 13 pin, get the little green cap tool that resets the caravan plug alignment.
I’d bet on the socket or plug. There’s a very good and cheap tool that cleans the connectors. A squirt of WD40 might help too. If that fails my next check would be the wiring behind both.
Good luck
I think it’s the socket. I’ve bought a new one but the screws are rusted so I’m struggling to get the old one off at the moment. The saga continues lol!
If water has got into the socket, it will have reached the wiring terminals, where it tracks back up the wires via a capillary action. If the ends of the wires are corroded, then even if you cut off a section, they will be just as corroded further back.
In that case, it is better to replace the whole cable I'm afraid. On re-assembly, after testing, apply Waxoyl liberally to the terminals and the socket mounting screws (or at the very least, WD40)
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Topic: Towing lights
via mobile 28/3/2019 at 9:47pm
