# Trailer Wiring Harness Troubles



## boatek (May 13, 2005)

Hi all,

I've spend several hours tonight attempting to wire a trailer harness to the X-Trail. I've got the tail light converter, and figured that it can't be that hard to splice in 5 wires. 

So, I started by removing the left taillight lens cover and checking the wire colours for the turn, running and brake lights. Worked the tape off the main harness running down the left side of the spare tire and started splicing there. Upon checking my work, I noticed that I wasn't getting 12V from the splices. After trouble shooting for a while I verified that there was 12V at the harness that was in the lens cover. There was. So, I thought that I'd splice there instead. I couldn't get a wire from the lens cover back into the spare tire area. So, I'm at a loss. This can't be that difficult!

Those of you with trailer hitch wiring harnesses, can you have a look and let me know, or better yet, pass along some pictures.

Thanks,

Ken


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## aussietrail (Sep 24, 2004)

Hi Ken,

I can confirm that all splicing is done near the spare tyre. I have fitted a nissan towbar, but it didn't come with the wiring harness, the boys that for the bar for me, spliced through the existing wiring there, but I didn't have a trailer to test it at the time.

3 months later, I got a trailer, hooked it up to the wiring harness on the towbar and whenever I pressed the brakes, my rear wipe would move. hehehe 

Took it to another electrician who said the grounding wire wasn't done properly, but he re-wired the whole thing from scratch just to be safe. He only worked in that area and never removed the tail-lights to get the 12 volt.

I would have taken photos of the wiring, but it's taped-up about a 100 times and I don't feel like messing around with the wiring (now that it's working)

Sorry that I can't be of any help, but at least I can tell you that you're on the right track and no need to run any wires from the tail-lights.


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## ValBoo (May 19, 2003)

I am not sure about how the trailer lights should be connected *or if the use of relays is necessary*.

But I am sure about the following information & perhaps you can make use of it:

The body harness running inside the car, in the spare wheel area, and tucked close to the rear bumper has all the wires you should need:

wire color codes are as follows:

day lights = solid red wire
brake lights = solid pink wire
turn signal left = green wire with black stripe
turn signal right = green wire with yellow stripe

grounds (any) = solid black wire


good luck,
Marc.





boatek said:


> Hi all,
> 
> I've spend several hours tonight attempting to wire a trailer harness to the X-Trail. I've got the tail light converter, and figured that it can't be that hard to splice in 5 wires.
> 
> ...


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## damon (May 12, 2005)

Does any one know what the other wires in the harness control?
Is there any not being used? Need to activate rear fog light without running a wire
hope to tap into one not used in the harness
Thanks for your help


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## ValBoo (May 19, 2003)

Not sure there are any spare wires in our Canadian version unfortunately (there is none for the fog light)...

But why don't you hook it up like Stephen & I did ?

click here


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## damon (May 12, 2005)

prefer to have the rear fog light switched so I can turn it off when not required.
Trying to avoid running a wire from front it back if I do not have to.


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## boatek (May 13, 2005)

*Thanks...*

Thanks for the help... got it working, temporally. I needed a module that is powered separately from the tail light signals. I have yet to run the wire under the X and up to the battery. I just used the DC power outlet in the rear to test the power. Looking at it, this shouldn't be too hard. There are three plugs in the spare tire area that I can poke a hole in and get to the underside, and then the brake lines look to have a spare hanger to run the wire up to the engine. I'll just have to remember to get some caulking to seal the hole up again.

Cheers,

Ken


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## ecrase2500 (Dec 31, 2004)

boatek said:


> Thanks for the help... got it working, temporally. I needed a module that is powered separately from the tail light signals. I have yet to run the wire under the X and up to the battery. I just used the DC power outlet in the rear to test the power. Looking at it, this shouldn't be too hard. There are three plugs in the spare tire area that I can poke a hole in and get to the underside, and then the brake lines look to have a spare hanger to run the wire up to the engine. I'll just have to remember to get some caulking to seal the hole up again.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Ken



My dealer installed my trailer wiring for me, and used one of those relay modules that power the trailer lights from the battery, but use a small amount of current from the X-Trail's taillight wiring to activate the appropriate light.

If it's of interest to anyone, I can take some pictures of how they wired it. They drilled a hole in the firewall and ran the main power wire along the doorsills to under the cargo area.


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## aussietrail (Sep 24, 2004)

ecrase2500 said:


> They drilled a hole in the firewall and ran the main power wire along the doorsills to under the cargo area.


Hmmm, why would they drill a hole in the firewall when there 2 existing holes there that would take plenty of cables? strange.

I just fitted a CB UHF Radio and I used an existing hole behind the glovebox to pass the coax through to the aerial which mounted on the nudge bar.


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