Trailer light issues

[moleman]

Had a Westfalia detachable tow bar fitted with a 13pin plug and coded to my T6 have no issues with standard lights on a trailer but used a mates brand new trailer with led lights and had some real issues!
The bulb failure light came one, when indicating right, on the dash the indicator was flashing double time, but all the lights on the van + trailer were all flashing at the correct speed. Then lost side lights, interior lights and auto window up/down. Unplugged the trailer and still had the issue with the no side lights etc.....turned the van on and off issues sorted themselves on the van after a few hours and a few stop/starts.
Plugged the trailer back in same problem, have also tried a different trailer had the same effect.
Are Led trailer lights not compatible with these electrics?

 

[rover220]

Westfalia / oe trailer module don't tend to like led lights no. I've not heard of such extreme reactions though, normally you get bulb warning and that's it. Who fitted the electrics?

 

[JOG]

Had a Westfalia detachable tow bar fitted with a 13pin plug and coded to my T6 have no issues with standard lights on a trailer but used a mates brand new trailer with led lights and had some real issues!
The bulb failure light came one, when indicating right, on the dash the indicator was flashing double time, but all the lights on the van + trailer were all flashing at the correct speed. Then lost side lights, interior lights and auto window up/down. Unplugged the trailer and still had the issue with the no side lights etc.....turned the van on and off issues sorted themselves on the van after a few hours and a few stop/starts.
Plugged the trailer back in same problem, have also tried a different trailer had the same effect.
Are Led trailer lights not compatible with these electrics?

Any chance that moisture got into the 13-pin socket or trailer plug?

 

[moleman]

Westfalia / oe trailer module don't tend to like led lights no. I've not heard of such extreme reactions though, normally you get bulb warning and that's it. Who fitted the electrics?

Top2tow

Any chance that moisture got into the 13-pin socket or trailer plug?

Possible but I dont think so........looked ok

 

[rover220]

Water ingress won't be the issue. Do you have vcds? Do the odd issues only occur on a trailer won't led?

 

[moleman]

Water ingress won't be the issue. Do you have vcds? Do the odd issues only occur on a trailer won't led?

Dont have vcds, issues only occur when a trailer with LED lights is plugged in, then when removed takes a little while for the van to sort itself out again. Side lights will sometimes come back on when switched off from auto

 

[Deaky]

Not sure what is causing your other issues but the Westfalia trailer module is definitely not compatible with LED trailer boards. This will cause the hyper flash and the bulb failure light you are seeing.

 

[DaveD]

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[Tsixty]

All the vehicles I have owned in the last 10 years have had 'proper' integrated trailer wiring i.e. a module integrated into the vehicles systems rather than simply cutting into existing lighting wiring. None of them have worked properly with trailers/caravans with LED lights (they were a Volvo, 2 Fords, 3 LRs and now a VW), without some sort of resistor pack sitting between the car and the trailer. You usually get bulb failure warnings, hyperflash, flickering of trailer indicators and a whole host of other issues; so I don't think that it is anything particularly at issue with your van or it's trailer electrics.

The main reason for this is that modern trailer wiring systems with their own module need to know when the trailer is connected. Whilst the way of doing this varies between manufacturers, the principle is usually the same, to send a short pulse to one (or multiple) of the trailer lights to determine the resistance and hence if those light(s) are 'present'. This short pulse is too short to light a filament bulb so it cannot be seen by the human eye. It can however make the light(s) in question flicker if they are LED. Secondly the LED lights themselves often do not have sufficient resistance for the module to detect the trailers presence so the module doesn't actually think that they are there at all (and they will then work with a variety of different results/problems depending on the exact kit/manufacturer).

In essence most integrated trailer wiring won't work well with LED trailer lights (but it varies depending on the manufacturer of the vehicle and the manufacturer of the wiring kit).

 

[rover220]

It's the one time shonky bypass electrics are better than dedicated.