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Topic: Faulty towing lights

Sarah1510

29/5/2017 at 10:51am
Location: None Entered
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I have an old van - a 1983 Sprite Muskateer and the towing lights have never worked properly - they have been "fixed" twice by a caravan engineer who tested them on a light board but they have never worked properly hooked up to my car (which has a brand new towbar and electrics). The first time they were fixed I had part of the system working, the second time nothing is working again. The caravan lights didn't work when hooked up to a different car when I first bought it so I can't help but think it MUST be the caravan - not my car. So what do I do???! Any ideas what it could be? Caravan and car not compatible?!

Colin21

29/5/2017 at 2:49pm
Location: East Herts
Outfit: 1992 Elddis Wisp 450CT + X Trail

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If the wiring of the towbar, and the wiring of the caravan's plug are both to the normal standard, they cannot be incompatible. There are only two standard plugs, 7 pin and 13 pin, and one will not fit the other.

If the lights aren't working correctly, the first thing I would check is that the connections inside the caravan plug are ok. Corrosion here can cause all sorts of problems. If the plug is ok, the next thing I would check is the earth connection (it's the white wire in the plug). A faulty earth can cause weird problems, such as the rear lights flashing in time with the indicators, or similar.

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Best Regards,
Colin

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Grampian91

29/5/2017 at 3:55pm
Location: Midlands
Outfit: Mondeo Avondale Gram

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You can buy or make a plug in tester. Plug into the car it shows if all the lights are working correctly.

Then plug it into the caravan and it does the same.

If they are dodgy sometimes its just easier to replace them. 7 core cable is not that expensive.

Nothing to do with car/caravan being compatible. If you have the correct socket correctly wired then it will work.

Sarah1510

30/5/2017 at 12:29pm
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Thanks both - the second time of fixing my caravan guy removed all the corrosion from the caravans plug points. And they are def both 7 point plug and socket. Just don't understand how the car and the caravan lights both work individually off a light board but when put together - nothing! Or an intermittent connection. He's coming to have another look when my car is there too so will hopefully get to the bottom of it but it's driving me crazy! Thanks for your advice will mention it to him about the earth wire and the core cable

chrisn7

30/5/2017 at 1:49pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Outfit: Bessacarr Cameo 625 2011

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Sarah its not just a question of removing corrosion from the plug pins - there shouldn't have been much anyway, since these are brass on 7 pin systems. You might need to spread the pins with a split in just a little as these close up in use.

If the plug is as old as the van, it would be worth opening the plug to check where the individual wires are held by small screws - its quite possible to have significant corrosion of the copper wires if water has got in. If so, as suggested above, change the wiring and plug and spray the terminals with WD40 on final assembly

G#Winger

31/5/2017 at 9:37pm
Location: south yorkshire
Outfit: coachman Amara 450

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don't understand what you mean by "caravan lights work off a light board"
a light board (as in a trailer board) would only test the car electrics.
so have you had the lights on the back of the caravan working at all
stu

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I predict a riot !!

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