In the last installment, I put a Curt trailer hitch on my Subaru. To finish that up I would need to add a wiring harness to operate the trailer lights.
These things are pretty simple to install, as it’s all laid out on the box itself as to which wires go where. In Impreza wagons, all the wires we need to access are hidden behind these two covers inside the rear hatch area:
Those covers come off easily by pressing the tab, sliding the whole thing down, and pulling the cover off. Underneath you will have access to the wires and bulbs of the tail light assemblies.
We can get four out of the five wires we need from the left hand side of the car. The one we can’t get is the right hand turn signal. For that, the converter comes with one long wire which will need to be strung to the right side of the car. I like to hide wires whenever possible, so this means stringing the wire under the plastic trim pieces. A little trick for stringing wire in hard-to-reach areas is to attach it to a piece of stiffer wire and using that to feed the wire through. This picture shows the green wire going through the access hole in the top and out the bottom with the attached stiff wire:
Having that wire strung across the trunk won’t do us any good until we know where to attach it. For this, a multimeter or a test light is needed (or a Subaru wiring diagram). With all other lights off (gearbox not in reverse, headlights/taillights off, no brake lights on), turn on the four-way flashers. Using the black wire as a ground (or another bare-metal ground), the only wire that should be hot will be the turn signals (a multimeter will get an erratic reading due to the pulses). When you find that wire, splice in the turn signal wire.
On the other side, use a similar procedure to isolate the left turn signal, brake light, and tail lights. The ground will (in most cars) be the black wire. Splice everything in, make sure to leave no exposed wire (solder then heat shrink is my preferred method), and attach the trailer harness box to the car. I hid mine inside the tail light cover to keep everything nicely tucked out of the way when I’m not towing.
Once installed, have a helper go through the various functions (brake lights, turn signals, tail lights) and check the trailer connector with your multimeter or test light to verify everything is working correctly.
All done!
I should mention that these cheap trailer converters will not work with 4-way flashers unless the brake pedal is also applied. To have 100% functional lights you need a powered converter which is more difficult to install and much more expensive.
Cost breakdown:
$7 - trailer light converter harness (Princess Auto, sale price)
Incidental supplies:
solder
heat shrink tubing
electrical tape
These things are pretty simple to install, as it’s all laid out on the box itself as to which wires go where. In Impreza wagons, all the wires we need to access are hidden behind these two covers inside the rear hatch area:
Those covers come off easily by pressing the tab, sliding the whole thing down, and pulling the cover off. Underneath you will have access to the wires and bulbs of the tail light assemblies.
We can get four out of the five wires we need from the left hand side of the car. The one we can’t get is the right hand turn signal. For that, the converter comes with one long wire which will need to be strung to the right side of the car. I like to hide wires whenever possible, so this means stringing the wire under the plastic trim pieces. A little trick for stringing wire in hard-to-reach areas is to attach it to a piece of stiffer wire and using that to feed the wire through. This picture shows the green wire going through the access hole in the top and out the bottom with the attached stiff wire:
Having that wire strung across the trunk won’t do us any good until we know where to attach it. For this, a multimeter or a test light is needed (or a Subaru wiring diagram). With all other lights off (gearbox not in reverse, headlights/taillights off, no brake lights on), turn on the four-way flashers. Using the black wire as a ground (or another bare-metal ground), the only wire that should be hot will be the turn signals (a multimeter will get an erratic reading due to the pulses). When you find that wire, splice in the turn signal wire.
On the other side, use a similar procedure to isolate the left turn signal, brake light, and tail lights. The ground will (in most cars) be the black wire. Splice everything in, make sure to leave no exposed wire (solder then heat shrink is my preferred method), and attach the trailer harness box to the car. I hid mine inside the tail light cover to keep everything nicely tucked out of the way when I’m not towing.
Once installed, have a helper go through the various functions (brake lights, turn signals, tail lights) and check the trailer connector with your multimeter or test light to verify everything is working correctly.
All done!
I should mention that these cheap trailer converters will not work with 4-way flashers unless the brake pedal is also applied. To have 100% functional lights you need a powered converter which is more difficult to install and much more expensive.
Cost breakdown:
$7 - trailer light converter harness (Princess Auto, sale price)
Incidental supplies:
solder
heat shrink tubing
electrical tape
No comments:
Post a Comment