Trailer Light Problems - Won't work with van lights on

I have a 4x8 trailer hooked to my Honda Odyssey. They are connected to
each other using a 4 pin connector. The problem I'm having is when the
van lights are "on" then the trailer lights will not work at all.
However, when the van lights are "off" the trailer lights will work.
If I put the hazards on, with the van lights off, all the trailer
lights work, so I know the bulbs and connections work. The turn
signals and brake lights also work if the van lights are off.

I've read lots of places that say double check the ground so to test I
disconnected the ground and the lights still worked when the van
lights were off. I tried wrapping another ground to the van connector
ground and connected it to the trailer hitch but just couldn't get the
trailer lights to come on when the van lights were on. I even bought a
new connector and light and tested with those with no luck. Any ideas
or suggestions are appreciated.
Mark

 

[PeterD]

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:43:02 -0800, mark@byu.net wrote:

I have a 4x8 trailer hooked to my Honda Odyssey. They are connected to
each other using a 4 pin connector. The problem I'm having is when the
van lights are "on" then the trailer lights will not work at all.
However, when the van lights are "off" the trailer lights will work.
If I put the hazards on, with the van lights off, all the trailer
lights work, so I know the bulbs and connections work. The turn
signals and brake lights also work if the van lights are off.

I've read lots of places that say double check the ground so to test I
disconnected the ground and the lights still worked when the van
lights were off. I tried wrapping another ground to the van connector
ground and connected it to the trailer hitch but just couldn't get the
trailer lights to come on when the van lights were on. I even bought a
new connector and light and tested with those with no luck. Any ideas
or suggestions are appreciated.
Mark

bad ground, 100%.

 

[Tim Perry]

<mark@byu.net> wrote in message
news:1195022582.202471.179620@i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

I have a 4x8 trailer hooked to my Honda Odyssey. They are connected to
each other using a 4 pin connector. The problem I'm having is when the
van lights are "on" then the trailer lights will not work at all.
However, when the van lights are "off" the trailer lights will work.
If I put the hazards on, with the van lights off, all the trailer
lights work, so I know the bulbs and connections work. The turn
signals and brake lights also work if the van lights are off.

I've read lots of places that say double check the ground so to test I
disconnected the ground and the lights still worked when the van
lights were off. I tried wrapping another ground to the van connector
ground and connected it to the trailer hitch but just couldn't get the
trailer lights to come on when the van lights were on. I even bought a
new connector and light and tested with those with no luck. Any ideas
or suggestions are appreciated.
Mark

Somewhere in you Honda is a 5 wire to 4 wire converter module. This allows a
single trailer bulb to be both brake light and turn signal.

Check to see if this is wired correctly and rewire or replace as needed.

Some handy troubleshooting tips are here:
http://www.trailerboats.com/images/elements/1075501_trailerlights.pdf

 

[cadman]

Its either bad ground or you have the wires swapped around somewhere.


The classic ground fault usually shows up as tail ight or brake light
flashing at same time as indicators.
The light is being grounded back through the brake light and/or tail
light cct.

I would go back to basics and use a multimeter to find which wire does
which on the van.
Then power up the trailer lights from a PSU and determine which wire
is which on the trailer.

You then need to check the grounds.