norwegianE61

Hi

I have installed the original tow hitch and wiring bought from BMW in Norway.

I then had the car in for coding, which they have done, but it still does not work. The indicator only works when indicating to the right, brake light is always on and PDC does not turn off at the rear.

I can not see any obvious wiring flaws. THe two wires are connected to the bus cables close to the PDC ECU, the brake light wire to the correspondingly coloured wire on in the harness and the ground at the pin where it should be. I have also added the two lives to the fuse box where they should be.

Any ideas?

NavarroOne

I got my car last week and tried to hook up to a trailer for the first time today; didn't work. The lights came on and the left turnsignal worked but not the brakelights or right turnsignal and inside, the car computer gave me several warnings. I tried the hookup on 3 different regular trailers which all gave me the same problem. Then thought it might be related to the converter from my 13-pin jaeger plug to the 7-pin trailer plug so rushed home and hooked up to my 13-pin caravan; here had the same trouble and foglights didnt work as well (forgot to test reverse). Going to the dealer on monday as I just had the software updated this week and think that screwed it all up. Hopefully he will find a solution and whatever I learn there may be of help to you too.

Wpg550

The other thing to watch out for is that the wiring diagrams out there for early LCI models are not up to date. When I was working on the paddle-shifters/sport-auto trans retrofit that was our biggest stumbling block, and even the local dealer's wiring diagrams were not correct. We only identified the problem through a US service bulletin for paddle-shifter problems which stated that the dealer-provided DVD and online wiring diagrams had not been updated for certain LCI changes. Fortunately, the SIB also indicated the correct wiring (a single signal wire from module to module, vs. two separate wires for up/down shift).

It looks as if at least one of you has a LCI model, so it might be worth checking if any of the areas you are connecting to is a module that was changed in the LCI update -- if so, you may need updated wiring info.

Good luck getting it all sorted out!
____________________________
2008 550i M-sport
2006 X3 2.5i
1998 528i (retired)

norwegianE61

update:

I have now traced an error in the wiring. I found that I had connected the black with yellow tracer wire to the wrong wire in the cars wiring harness. Corrected this and the brake light worked straight away on both sides, but everything else dead.

I tried to disconnect the battery for 1 hour to check if that helped. It did not. I then went to the dealer today to have it recoded. That made everything work except for driving light on left side and left side indicator. everything else now works.

I think it must be down to a faulty trailor harness module, which I have now ordered a replacement for.

Do you have an update NavarroOne?

NavarroOne

I should add that according to BMW, it was simply a blown fuse! There are two fusebox locations; one in the rear right quarter box accessed from the trunk; another is in the glovebox. The problem was with the fuse in the glovebox. I find it very hard to trace the exact fuse, despite the schematic over fuses that BMW have enclosed with the car; the recepticles for the fuses are not properly numbered and I'm certain I would have a hard time relocating the exact fuse again if the trouble would resurface but nevertheless, there is where you have to go if you find you have trouble with half the lights on the trailer and you get alarms on the bmw screen that the brake and turnlights on the trailer are all faulty at the same time.

bainesy1974

so did the fuse fix this problem please