Tailight problems

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Tailight problems

Postby Aaron Coffee » Sun Jul 03, 2016 11:00 pm

Wired a trailer with just taillights for now. The taillights are led and they are on dimly when hooked up to the car with no car lights on. Brake lights, turn signal and taillights all function properly. Tow vehicle is 2011 Subaru Outback. Hooked up to first teardrop with model A taillights with led conversion and incadescant marker lights on frame to function as second set of taillights, and the lights didn't come on with no car lights on. Guess I could hook to the Dakota and see what happens there. Any suggestions, ideas?
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Re: Tailight problems

Postby Dale M. » Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:59 am

What is wiring harness on Subaru, factory or after market, or home grown?...

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Re: Tailight problems

Postby mustangcats » Mon Jul 04, 2016 10:04 am

Make sure you have a good ground to the frame of the trailer. Every time I've had light problems it turned out to be a poor ground. A bad or weak ground will cause trailer lights to do all kinds of goofy things.
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Re: Tailight problems

Postby Shadow Catcher » Mon Jul 04, 2016 1:52 pm

There is a factory harness on all of the Subaru Outbacks, Yours like mine is the left hand side. https://www.etrailer.com/tv-install-trailer-wiring-2011-subaru-outback-wagon-118467.aspx and you need the T connector harness.
There were some things grounded to the frame of our trailer and we had problems, there is now nothing grounded to the frame, all to a wired ground and when I redid the wiring on our small utility trailer I ran grounds.
One investment is to get the tow vehicle tester to check the in our case seven prong plug. As much as anything it tells you if the problem is the TV or trailer wiring
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Re: Tailight problems

Postby noseoil » Fri Jul 08, 2016 3:20 pm

One thing to add. Use di-electric grease, a small dab, in each hole. We had a wiring problem on this trip which turned out to be a connection & contact intermittent plug at the hitch...
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