Wiring Up Towing Electrics

[myfirstgalaxy]

Hi, Do I have to buy the ford specific wiring kit for the tow bar I've just fitted or can I wire straight into the existing wiring? If I can wire straight in, where is best to do this? I've searched this site (and others) but cannot find a step by step guide anywhere, I'd have thought one would be listed somewhere as I imagine it's a fairly common issue. My old astra had a plug on the vehicle wiring loom in the boot specifically for towing electrics, so it was more or less straight forward to cut that off and wire a universal kit straight to that wiring. It would appear the galaxy is not that simple. I suppose what I'm really wanting is an 'idiots guide' to wiring the electrics. This wire goes into that wire sort of thing. Removing trim panels and fitting the bar is easy, I'm a competent spanner man, but electrics is not my strongest quality. HELP (please).

[MadBaz]

You can scotchlok or use block connectors straight into the existing loom (specific kit & bypass relays are not required), tracing the relevant wires is fairly straight forward working back from the plug that goes into the back of the rear clusters. The fog light circuit is in the o/s compartment, i can't remember the wire colour but if you post year of car I'll look it up. Keep the o/s & n/s sidelight circuits separate (some peeps join them together).

 

If you have parking sensors then a specific kit may disable the rear sensors (and fog lights) when trailer is connected (this is for those that are too lazy to press the p/s buttonhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif). I had to run a wire from the Westfalia wiring kit to the parking sensor module and dismantle a multi-plug to get mine to make this workhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/angry.gif, also there is no indicator tell-tale (dash or buzzer) with the Westfalia kit, however it does make the cars indicators flash faster when a trailer indicator bulb is out.

[myfirstgalaxy]

Thankyou! I have a year 2000 MkII galaxy, 2.3 manual. I'd traced the wires for the O/S lights as they're virtually next to where I've routed the cables to but help with the other side and especially the fog light would be very much appreciated. Any clues on how to wire the other socket up too? I'm fast thinking that I'd be better off just not bothering with it. Reading some of the threads on here about routing wires to the engine bay sounds like a lot of hassle. Thanks again, Karl.

[MadBaz]

I've neber wired up a 12s socket so I don't know about what is required, I guess you need a fused battery live and a d+, to get them from the engine bay can be done under the car or inside the car, I've routed cables through a handy grommet behind the coolant bottle which leads to the passenger footwell (just pull back the carpet) to get to the rear just tuck under the trims that run down the side and tuck under the nsr stowage compartment.

 

The fog light feed should be a grey wire in the o/s compartment, 3 choices here,

1, you can run the blue wire from the feed straight to pin 2 on the socket. This will activate fogs on car AND trailer and isn't recommended firstly because of the glare, especially with a wobble box, and secondly the car wiring isn't really up to the job especially with 2 fogs on the trailer (7 amps).

2. split the wire, you'll need 8 core cablehttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/blink.gif, from the switch side of the wire run the blue wire to the pin 2 on the socket, and from the fog light side you need to run the black/red to pin 8 on the socket. The only problem is that the socket, especially the fog cut-off contact, is prone to corrosion and in time you may find your cars fogs won't work, usually on a foggy dayhttp://www.fordgalaxy.org.uk/ford/public/style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif.

 

3 Use a relay, there are various options available.

 

Then there is a fourth option, you could get a local friendly auto electrician to do it all of it for you, for a fee of course and it'll give you peace of mind.

Edited May 5, 2012 by MadBaz