"Check Trailer Lights" fault on dash

[wpoll]

Originally Posted by Tomdownunder

I fixed the problem of flickering lights by installing small incandescent side lights in parallel with the led lights. All the lights work fine, but when I hook up the trailer I still get a "Check Trailer Lights" error on the instrument cluster.

Tom, in your case, the "Check Trailer Lights" issue is easy to fix - you need to add a couple of diodes to the trailer connector to connect the reverse light circuit of the car to the tail light circuit of the trailer. The problem is the car is expecting to "see" reverse lamps and in Australia and NZ we rarely fit reverse lamps to trailers, so the car detects the lack of reverse lamps as lamp failure.

Just buy two heavy duty diodes (a couple of 1N5408 diodes from Jaycar will do nicely) and connect each of the anodes (the end without the stripe) to each of the tail lamp and reverse lamp circuits in the trailer connector) then twist both cathodes together (the end WITH the stripe) and solder or crimp to the wire leading to the tail lamps. Job done.