Exterior Light problem

[bikerga]

Hi. I was hoping somewhere out there in the fiberglass RV world could give me some advice. I hooked up my Tow Vehicle today and the right (passenger) tail light came on as if braking. When the brakes were applied, both tail lights came on and wouldn't come on. When the TV lights were turned on we got the capability of turn signals on the driver side and nothing for the passenger side.

Any suggestions on a repair? Thanks

Shannon

[likeair2me]

I am assuming you towed the trailer with this vehicle before. Check all connections to make sure they are still good. If this is the first time, your wiring might not be correct. Vehicle wiring and trailer wiring are different.

[The Minimalist]

Originally Posted by bikerga

When the brakes were applied, both tail lights came on and wouldn't come on. When the TV lights were turned on we got the capability of turn signals on the driver side and nothing for the passenger side.
Shannon

Please clarify.

[bikerga]

I have towed this trailer once before and all of the wiring was fine. The lights once on wouldn't turn off. Like permanently braking. No other signals worked after that. Hazards do not work. Could it be a fuse?

[likeair2me]

I am not sure what is going wrong, unless you have a connection grounding out somewhere. It could be shorting the signal. Take a look at where your 4-pin wiring attaches to your vehicle and see if anything has gotten disconnected. And double check the ground to the body.

[bikerga]

Thanks. Will get that checked out. I was Karen no of thinking the same thing.

[The Minimalist]

The first thing I would check is the main ground connection on the trailer. Bad grounds can cause all kinds of problems.

[Dave Fish]

If your bulbs are dual element, one element in the offending bulb may be burned out. This can cause a cross connection and cause problems in the tail lights, brake lights, and turn signals. I can't remember having this happen on my trailers but I've had it on cars.

[bikerga]

Thanks for all the great ideas. Looks like I have a lot of work tomorrow.

[mary and bob]

Originally Posted by Dave Fish

If your bulbs are dual element, one element in the offending bulb may be burned out. This can cause a cross connection and cause problems in the tail lights, brake lights, and turn signals. I can't remember having this happen on my trailers but I've had it on cars.

I had it happen on a trailer. It's one of those odd things you probably wouldn't think to look for. In my case it caused a fuse to blow in the tow vehicle taking out the fuel gauge and turn lights.

[Terry in Fowler]

I've had to repair similar problem on several tailer, both for myself and at work (before I retired last year). If the tv and tt are wired the same the vast majority of the time it was the ground as other have indicated. Easy to verify with a long jumper wire with alagator clips. While the vehicles wiring harness are connected jump from a good ground on the tv to a good on the tt. You may want to test it with out having the hitch on the ball since most trailer have a ground going to the trailer frame and if you get a good connection through the ball it will appear that the wiring is fine until you hit the road and your lights start fickery. I speak from experience. I was ready to leave on a trip and decided to grease the ball. My light stopped working correctly until I replaced a corroded grounding screw. To wordy. Try a jumper for a quick test.

[stevebaz]

Disconnect from the car. Now test the car for all functions. Once you see the car is function properly. hook up the trailer now test the car again does it still function properly with the trailer hooked up. If the car is functioning properly now check the trailer. If the trailer is not functioning properly start the car with the trailer hooked up and test for proper trailer functioning again.

By the time you run these tests you will have ruled out the car causing the issue. A brake controller causing the issue and have hopefully isolated it to the trailer.

If your trailer has electric brakes do you have a breakaway disconnect switch. If you do pull the safety pin and re-seat it back in.

If you still have the lights staying on unplug the trailer from the tug. Once the trailer is unplugged does the light go out. that will tell you whether you getting power from your trailer battery or from the tug.

When i first set up my trailer with my RF brake controller the lights don't work properly unless the truck was started and sending power to the controller.

[bikerga]

Well, I took the TV to the hitch wiring shop and they found that the Curt C56265 4 pole converter went out causing the in and out power on the right side tail light to go out. Seems that 2014 Kia Sorento's have a problem with the C56265. So they put in a more hardy 4 pole converter. I am going to contact Curt to see if I can be reimbursed for the one that went out.

[stevebaz]

Glad you got it fixed. When i had my pathfinder i had a defective converter. I ruled out the problem in my directions above. But it was very frustrating until I found it.