Trailer brakes not working?

 Hi all,

 

i have recently had a brake controller - tekonsha P2, fitted to my vehicle however the electric brakes on the trailer only seem to work/ engage when the vehicle is in reverse.

 

it is a 200 series Landcruiser and I think it's a brake rite electric/ hydraulic disc brake setup on the trailer.

 

controller was fitted by Toyota and they are blaming the trailer wiring!? As it is working whilst in reverse, I am thinking that it must be the wire on the trailer plug that matches the vehicle 'reverse' pin on that is powering the brakes only.

 

toyota say that they actually wire up the pin to cater for service brakes so is it just a case of matching the 'service brake wire' pin with the trailer wire that is currently matched to the reverse pin.

or does this email not make any sense at all??

 

thanks for any help or hints

cheers


Faulkner Family's picture

Posts: 18059

Date Joined: 11/03/08

 i would be checking all the

Thu, 2013-04-11 20:41

 i would be checking all the other wires are connected correctly on the trailor ,ie brakes, indicators etc. make sure they are working 

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Vinesh87's picture

Posts: 2751

Date Joined: 02/04/11

Just a informed guess as i

Thu, 2013-04-11 20:52

Just a informed guess as i have not seen the wiring.

The problem is that your car is actually wired with a reverse signal.

Who ever installed the trailer brakes has used the reverse pin connector which is the +12v Power supply for the actuator( not the blue remote signal from the controller, this is a seperate feed) This is quite common practice on 7 pin connectors due to needing all 7 and not many people have reverse lights on the trailer.

Basically upgrade your connectors to 12pin or get rid of the reverse cable and install a direct (with correct breaker) 6mm cable to the car plug from the battery.

 

Give me a call if you need more info.

 

Vin

kempy's picture

Posts: 810

Date Joined: 28/05/09

Because it has hydraulic brakes

Thu, 2013-04-11 21:08

Because it has hydraulic brakes they need to have the hot wire to keep them primed up and if toyota fitted the controller they would have forgot to do this. So what you need is a hot wire from the battery through a fuse to pin 2 on your trailer plug and remove the existing black wire in it.

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Dinkum Auto Electrical A/C & Mechanical Unit 10/16 Kent way Malaga 0438755754 Also Mobile

Open 7 days except when we are fishn For all your auto electrical needs

Posts: 276

Date Joined: 14/05/12

Thanks gents

Thu, 2013-04-11 21:59

 Thanks for the info gents,

i may even give you a call Kempy and book it in for you guys to do it- at least then it will be done right.

any idea how long running the Hotwire would take?

cheers

 

brett

kempy's picture

Posts: 810

Date Joined: 28/05/09

Just over an hour.

Fri, 2013-04-12 06:42

Just over an hour.

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Dinkum Auto Electrical A/C & Mechanical Unit 10/16 Kent way Malaga 0438755754 Also Mobile

Open 7 days except when we are fishn For all your auto electrical needs

Brucesta's picture

Posts: 1721

Date Joined: 29/05/09

 Mine is doing the exact same

Thu, 2013-04-11 22:17

 Mine is doing the exact same thing, brand new 200 series with a red arc controller fitted and I lock up going in reverse, some fault finding to come

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Las Vegas - Rolling the dice and trying your luck. 1M+ Barra summer target. 100kg Black Marlin winter target

mrwinta's picture

Posts: 457

Date Joined: 14/01/10

Tekonsha P2

Fri, 2013-04-12 04:45

I have the Tekonsha P2 in my Navara and it does some wierd stuff at times... never a problem with the reverse but it pulses every 10-15 seconds while everything is powered off and on other occasions it intermitantly must cause a short somewhere as the car shows fault and goes to 1/4 power and will only limp along.... One day I was fearing the worst about the ute untill I reached down and unpluged the controller and the car just came back to life and didn't do it again untill I plugged the controller in again and after 2 days it happened again......

I only have the 7 pin connector but after reading the previous posts by Kempy I will also hook up an anderson plug (I was going to do that anyway for the Camprite) that will act as the hot wire to the trailer batery..

just another thought for you.... That controller has to be mounted a certain way as it has an auto brake function that won't operate unless it has been mounted in such a way... see the installation guide for a better explanation......

 

Cheers....

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 NEVER PUSH YOUR GRANNY WHEN SHE'S SHAVING

scottnofish's picture

Posts: 1621

Date Joined: 28/08/07

My bro had his wired by Toyota

Fri, 2013-04-12 06:49

 And they did the same thing ,$400 dollar instal for f all had to rewire it myself , they hadn't put in the live supply they had connected it to the reverse light