Yesterday I installed the wiring harness from MiniatureTrailers. All went well, except that when I tested it, I had forgot to replace the plugs that go into the tail lights. Obviously, my MINI's rear brake and turn signal lights did not work.

Briefly, I saw the lights flash on my trailer, then the MINI's internal systems figured out that my tail lights were not plugged in and my turn signal started flashing "double time".

Eventually I figured out my mistake, replaced the plugs to the tail lights, and the MINI's brake and turn signal lights work fine again.

However, I can't get any lights to flash on my trailer.

I've confirmed that the trailer lights and wiring work by applying MINI battery power directly to the trailer's wiring harness (with a common ground through the MiniatureTrailer wiring harness ground).

I've put a multimeter on the output of the MiniatureTrailer wiring harness. I *seem* to have some kind of signal on the turn signal outputs.

I've contacted Brent @ MiniatureTrailers for help, but it's the weekend, and I haven't heard back yet.

I'm at a loss. Can anyone help me with debugging this?

 

#1 check for dlslodged connectors when you re-plugged everything.

#2 check grounding - without grounding the circuits might have routed through multiple bulbs to get a voltage path, but with the original lights reconnected that might not work any more

 

I have not used Brents kit, so this is a guess.

You mention a common ground....

The ground of the module, needs to be connected directly to a frame ground point, as it is handling the return (ground) side of the lights on your trailer.

The ground at the MINI tail light connector is not adequate to handle the extra bulbs. So you might get a signal with a meter, but when connecting the trailer, the signal would be masked by the ground current.

See this photo... http://user.mc.net/~jdewey/MINI/Trai...on_adapter.jpg

The white wire on the bolt is the ground for my adapter. and it works fine with both of my trailers, one uses LED tail lights and the other uses traditional incadescent lights.


I never did use "squeeze taps" on my wires, I just wrapped the module wires around the terminal and put it back in the plastic housing.

http://user.mc.net/~jdewey/MINI/Trai...MINI_wires.jpg

Good Luck

John

 

Many thanks to GBMINI and John, it's working now.

It turns out that the screw holding the ground wire to the trailer was loose! So it was a problem with the trailer all along. The ground screw on the underside of the trailer somehow came loose along the way. Well, during manufacture it was probably never tightened, as I only just bought the trailer and the screw was lodged in there pretty good, just not tightened down. So I got an intermittent ground, and things worked only sometimes.

As soon as I tightened the trailer ground screw, everything worked as advertised.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP, GBMINI AND JOHN!

GBMINI, I have one of your first 50 auto-up window circuits. Still working like a champ. :-)

 

Glad you sorted the problem