Another Wiring Problem

[daggo]

Hi All,

I had a 7 pole installed(Professionally) on my Subaru Outback 2003, When I connected it to the Scamp the reverse lights were always on. even when the car was off with out the keys in. I took it back and they "fixed" it! Now the reverse lights don come on at all.

I opened the conector to have a look and it looks like they cut the wire to the center pin. meaning there is no connection to that pin at all

My question is, How can I fix this or have them fix this?

Thanks in Advance

Warren
2007 13' Scamp (new owner)

[Byron Kinnaman]

If it were me I'd find another place to have it looked at. My guess is that they didn't connect the center wire to right place in the Subaru.

[daggo]

Definitely not going back there.

[Thomas G.]

Cutting that wire wasn't professional. I'd tell them to fix it right, for free, or I'd take them to the state licensing board.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by daggo

I had a 7 pole installed(Professionally) on my Subaru Outback 2003, When I connected it to the Scamp the reverse lights were always on. even when the car was off with out the keys in. I took it back and they "fixed" it! Now the reverse lights don come on at all.

I opened the conector to have a look and it looks like they cut the wire to the center pin. meaning there is no connection to that pin at all

As you have a 7 pin connection the center wire is the blue one and it is for electric brakes - if you dont have brakes you dont need a wire.

The yellow wire is back up lights. You will find Scamp trailer and pin connection diagram in the documents center on this list in the manual for Scamps which you can download & take with you to have it corrected or better still take the car and trailer together.

I actually had some strange things going on with mine when first done and ended up taking the trailer and the car to the shop that did the wiring and with both there they were able to figure it out.

Turned out to be a faulty after market trailer wiring converter box that's located in the spare tire well area that the wiring harness plugged into.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Thomas G.

Cutting that wire wasn't professional. I'd tell them to fix it right, for free, or I'd take them to the state licensing board.

Sorry Thomas that will go know where as he has a 13' Scamp its a good bet there was no wire to cut - as the trailer doesnt have electric brakes which is what the 7 pin center wire is.

Edit: should have also mentioned that the Subaru harness also does not come with a blue brake wire connection - the brake wire & controller needed to be added - so nothing to cut on the tug side either.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Sorry Thomas that will go know where as he has a 13' Scamp its a good bet there was no wire to cut - as the trailer doesnt have electric brakes which is what the 7 pin center wire is.

My point was and is, they need to fix it and fix it right. First the back up light is always on, then never on? Doesn't sound like the work of a professional to me.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Thomas G.

My point was and is, they need to fix it and fix it right. First the back up light is always on, then never on? Doesn't sound like the work of a professional to me.

It could also be a ground issue with the back up lights on the trailer or the plug on the trailer side. As you know the guys doing the hitch install only use a light board based on standard trailer wiring. If the Scamp has a loose wire on its lights or connection plug or someone has messed with the trailer wiring over the years How many times has that been seen on older trailers? the guys doing the hitch install aren't going to know about it without the trailer being present.

I am just suggesting that it may not be prudent to blame the folks who wired the cars hitch without knowing the actual cause first.

[Terry G]

I agree with Carol. It's not necessarily the fault of the people who wired your car. There's a chart for the 7 pin connector at www.etrailer.com/faq-wiring.aspx

And all you need is a simple tester available from any auto store for about $7. Here it is at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/ToolShopUSA-El.../dp/B004QDO7SI

If you're going to pull an older trailer, you should probably get used to wiring issues.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Carol H

...............
I am just suggesting that it may not be prudent to blame the folks who wired the cars hitch without knowing the actual cause first.

Valid points, but they must have realized some mistake or they wouldn't have changed anything on the second try when they still didn't have the trailer to analyze.

I agree, though, that OP would do well to take the trailer in with the car so they can check out both.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Thomas G.

Valid points, but they must have realized some mistake or they wouldn't have changed anything on the second try when they still didn't have the trailer to analyze.

Thomas perhaps they made a mistake or perhaps not. The OP did not say what they corrected when he took it back so its hard to say. I could have been something as simple as an after market controller or harness that was suppose to work with certain types of cars but dont despite what the manufactures claims. May work well one minute but not the next - have had that happen twice now with my tug. So if the OP did not obtain his wire controller or harness which do not come as stock equipment from Subaru it may have been that simple of a problem.... happens more often than what you may think. ... so I guess without knowning what they actually fixed the first time I really cant say that the guys working on it dont know what they are doing or they installed it wrong in the first place. They may well know what they are doing but there are a lot of variables with wiring outside their control. Thats just MHO

[BCDave]

This just in from the department of "Wouldn't it be nice IF..."

I just discovered that the round 7 pole plugs that use "flat blade" poles are wired to a different pattern that the round 7 pole plugs that have round pins for each connection. Now wouldn't it be nice if someone had thought to standardize the pattern?

What's happening here is that the pattern from one round 7 pole connector was being wired into the other kind of round 7 pole connector

I got curious when Carol said the brakes are on the center pin - as I know that this NOT the case for the flat-blade connections in a Bargman 7 pole round plug. Since Carol does not typically make silly errors like that, I looked it up. And I never even knew that there was a 7-pole with round pins, never mind that the wiring pattern is so different!

[Carol H]

Thanks Dave for mentioning that. How strange I never realized that until you mentioned it! LOL

Here is a link to the various combos

[Tim Wood]

I didn't know of a 7way round either, I still don't understand why they aren't wired the same.

[Thomas G.]

I'm really hoping the trailer place was wrong so I can gloat.

[Carol H]

Here is the connection diagram from an older Scamp manual.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Thomas G.

I'm really hoping the trailer place was wrong so I can gloat.

Tom if they were/are wrong in their wiring I suspect what ever it is they did wrong we might all be able to learn something from it

[Raz]

Most cars today require an interface between the car light wiring and the trailer. That's those magic boxes that etrailer and others sell. They cover the running lights, stop lights, and blinkers, but don't mention the back up light circuit. It could very well be that adding the extra load of the trailer "confused" the car ECM although in that case I would expect to see the car reverse lights on aswell. On the other hand it could also be these guys are just lazy. A knowledgeable person could check where on the car they picked up the reverse light voltage. I guess it depends on how much money having reverse lights is worth to you. I don't have reverse lights on my trailer. Most of the time Maggie is back there making sure I don't hit anything big (including her) Keep us posted, Raz

[Carol H]

Yup and Subaru requires one as well - it goes between the wiring that was pre installed by Subaru (assuming the OP Subaru came with wiring) and the wiring harness. Its usually located in the spare tire wheel well section in the back of the car.

The problem is I bought one and took it to the place that installed the hitch and despite being assured by the place I purchased it from that it would work on my Subaru - it didnt - looked fine at the shop on the light board they tested it on but did strange things when hooked to the trailer -had to return it. The second one installed worked well for the first day - second day of towing it started doing strange things again - the third one (different make) was the lucky one - good for the past 4.5 years.

Edit: the wiring controller box that did the trick in the end came from u-haul and it was their own brand.