Australian trailer wiring

[frozenwaffles]

Hi, I need some help people with trailer wiring...
I bought the BMW hitch kit from ECS tuning and as I have mentioned it is awesome and so are ECS.
my problem is this:
How do I get the combined turn and brake light pins to work with our Australian standard wiring on trailers where there is separate pins for the turn signals and the brake signals.

[JDM-20L]

Not sure.. I can take a shot of my wiring if it helps? I got a hayman reese + E53.. are you E53 or E70?

[frozenwaffles]

E53

[JDM-20L]

Originally Posted by frozenwaffles

E53

I'm fairly certain my harness is hard wired in... I'll have a look for you later.

[frozenwaffles]

ok, its the X609 connector in the boot right in the middle next to the wheel where the hitch wiring harness joines... this is where i can change it all.
does anyone know the pinouts for the X609 connector?

[jdd]

Somewhere on this site there is a PDF of the trailer hitch installation for the E53 (I downloaded it some time ago).
On the last page of this document it is has a wiring diagram.
Although this document is written in English for the most part, the wiring diagram itself is in German which isn’t a big problem as you can translate certain words but it contains what appear to be abbreviations that I have not been able to translate.
What I have determined is that pins 9, 10, 11, 12 & 14 on the X609 connector appear to be the outputs for the trailer. I believe pin 9 is for the tail lights by process of elimination as it is the only one that doesn’t have a left and right.
You will need to experiment to find the others from the remaining pins mentioned above.
One issue you may come across is that the stop/brake light will probably have two outputs as the US and Euro trailer connectors have two pins for this (left/right).
You may find using one of these will be sufficient to drive the trailer brake lights although I don’t know about the current capabilities of one output from the module supplying all the power for the brake lights.
This method may also flag a bulb failure in which case you will need to connect the two brake light outputs from the X609 together via diodes. This would mean connecting the anode of 2 suitable diodes to each of the two brake light outputs, then connecting the two cathodes together and using this to connect to the brake light circuit on the trailer.

I’m rather keen to know how this goes as I’m about to undertake fitting a towbar to my own E53. Now… I wonder if ECS have any of those kits left….

[jdd]

Actually, ignore what I said above.
After some more research I believe the trailer wiring is meant to plug into a connector called X393S which is an 18 pin connector located in the loom in the RH rear fuse compartment. The trailer module plugs into the X609 connector in the spare wheel compartment.
Looking at the X393S wiring, pins 3 & 12 are ground, pin 9 is some sort of auxiliary 12v feed, and pins 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 are for the trailer lights. No idea which is which out of those pins but it wouldn’t be hard to work it out with a test light.

[terryo]

i bought a (supposedly) complete E53 tow hitch from an australian wrecker.the trailer plug harness (australian standard 7 pin round) goes to a capped 12 wire connector (only 10 plugs in it) that was clipped to the boot floor panel, just to the rear of the spare tyre. that connector has a single live wire with key on, but nothing else works, so there must be something missing. can anyone enlighten me what it is and where it fits??

[frozenwaffles]

probably the trailer module...
BMW E53 X5 M62 4.4L > Exterior > Trailer > ES#169157 Trailer Towing Module - 61356955253

[terryo]

thanks for the prompt reply. where does this fit??. i cant find any un-used plugs with that many terminals??

on a similar matter, does anyone happen to know what these un-used wiring plugs are for in my E53
front right corner of spare tyre well, down near earthing point.. white 12 socket plug
rear fuse box compartment, blue 5 socket plug