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Hi folks

Thought I'd ask here as the experts will know...

Just back from a week away, towing the trailer all lights work spot on, the relay (?) that beeps when the trailer is hooked up beeps just fine when testing the lights - when the engine is off but ignition on.  As soon as the engine is fired up the beeper works once on first activating the indicators then is silent.  On checking the trailer lights are still happily blinking away with the cars.  I actually noticed this the morning that we left for our hols, but since the lights worked fine on visual inspection, and the fact that the car is much wider than the trailer (hence the car lights are always visible anyway) I "risked" it.

I did pop off the rear light cluster and checked my wiring - I installed the towbar and electrics 4 years ago myself, its an old car so spliced in wiring - and all looked fine.  I last used the trailer a couple of months back to take rubble to the tip and all was fine then.  I squirted a bit of WD40 into the plug and socket but that made zero difference. Both plug and socket have always been a "joy" to use also, no fiddling to get them to connect or whatever. The trailer is an Erde type, with the little wiring plugs that connect up the trailer wiring harness to the lamp clusters, I checked them too and they were fine.

Maybe I worry too much! But when I had a traffic cop behind me today on the M18 and had to overtake a lorry (therefore indicating) and the beeper wasn't beeping I had in the back of my mind that the trailer lights were not working (though said traffic cop didn't pull me over so all must've been well).

Probably a duff beeper relay/unit/thingy?  Its strange that it works fine until the engine is running though. Any ideas welcomed

I'll change the relay anyway as they are so cheap.  They're not LEDs just normal bulbs - I had thought of changing them though as there always seems to be a bulb gone when I use the thing (which isn't very often however) I just thought it odd that it used to work fine all the time and its just this time round it did the one beep then off thing.

Took the trailer back to the garage today where I store it, car and trailer both unladen and it beeped away as normal... Strange.  Thankyou for your responses.