This isn't really a Ford specific issue, but my friend has 1994 Toyota Camry wagon and he recently had an issue with the wiring. One of the strangest problem I've heard of in my recent experience. The owner of the camry doesn't do car stuff, but a couple of my other friends installed a trailer hitch for him and then they moved on to the wiring.... good story ends. It makes sense that if you do the wiring wrong it could blow some fuses or just not work all together, but instead when they plugged in a trailer there was no taillights on the car! The lights on the license plate still work, and so do the brake lights (same bulbs that should be the taillights), but nothing. So now even without a trailer plugged in he has no taillights on the back of his car. Is there any reason that someone can think of why the taillights wouldn't work while everything else does? It's not the fuses, they are all fine. Could it be a short that might go away if we remove the new wiring and patch everything back up? That's my thinking, but I don't want to **** off my friend that did the faulty job until I know for a fact what to do to fix it. Thanks for your courtesy to the silly japanese wagon.....

 

My first thought that it is a wire shorting out. Let me recap and you say if they work or not. I am a little unclear what is working and what is not.

Parking lights work? This must be yes, since you say the plate light works. If not, then it could be a short in the trailer.
Brake lights?
Left turn, right turn?

Most vehicles/trailers lights use the same circuit for the turn and brake.

 

I would check the bulbs. Since you say the taillights/brake lights should be the same, it might have blown out the filament for the tail lights. (double filament bulb, 1157, 2357, etc.)

Just my 2 cents
Mike

 

'if the tail lights work on the trailer' it sounds like the tail lights on the car did not get spliced back together when they connected the trailer wiring.

 

Start with checking the fuses for the parking lamps.

The Stop / Turn / Tail combo on the Toy, isn't that 3 different circuits ?
Parking lamps
Turn signals ( as in yellow inset into the rear lense ? )
Brake lamps.

Thought the Toy's has yellow turn signals on them, so they have a different circuit then the stop lamps. If this is the case, they should have used a 5 wire to 3 wire converter going from the car to the trailer ( unless they have seperate yelow turn signals on the trailer as well which would make it a 6 pin flat, or 8 pin double stack flat, with a few not used ).

Don't **** in the ear of the guy that that tried to help out the common friend, but the trouble shooting process will point to making a mistake, which did happen, else the car's wiring woudl still be working.

How did they install the trailer tow adapter ? ( Hoppy kit, or a DIY job )

 

Ok, some clarification. There are no taillights whatsoever. The rear end of the car has separate yellow turn signals. The brakelights and taillights are all on the same set of 5 bulbs (two each side, one in the window). My wiring knowledge is limited, but I know there is a minor and a major to a double filament bulb. What would cause just the minor side to go out if the bulbs aren't burned out (which they aren't, that has been checked) I don't know exact details of the install, but I'm pretty sure neither of the guys who did it had done it before.

I'm pretty sure they used just a 3 wire adapter, it's the standard 3 female/1 male type trailer connection.

So to conclude, the current set up when the parking lights and head lights are on:
Taillights: Not working
License plate lights: Working
Yellow turn signals (separate) : Working
Brake lights: Working
Same goes for the trailer, no taillights

Any more suggestions?

 

How about parking lights on the front of the car? Sounds to me like they either blew the lamps, cut a ground or there is another fuse blown that you have missed. Check the owners manual for fuse location and description and verify the responsible fuse is good by using a DVM. I've seen more than one blown fuse that "looked" good!

Another thing is to go get yourself a trailer plug tester. I bought one recently at WallyWorld for a whole $2. It plugs into the connector and has LED's that light up when the circuit is activated so you can verify if you are getting power to the plug. No power = blown fuse, bad ground or a short.

 

Yeah, the parking lights EVERYWHERE else on the car work. That's the confusing part.

 

I have not seen where you said you used one, so let's start at the beginning. You need a trailer wiring converter. The Toyota has separate wires for the turn signals and the brake lights, and this converter will give you the ability to run "American" trailer lighting off the "Import" wiring if the Toyota.

Best bet is to start over, put everything back to stock, then make sure everything works the way it is supposed to. Then follow the wiring converter instructions, and I'd bet your problem goes away...

 

I'll second that. This is why I asked about the turn signals. If they did a DIY trailer hook up, they might not have taken this into account.

As was already posted, time to take out what was installed, and start over. Someone might have gotten a bit happy with a pair of cutters.

 

i want to know what he is going to pull with a camry i hope it is a v6. You may want to call somewere yto see how much thay would charge to hook them up

 

He's only planning on towing band equipment. A 4' X 7" U haul trailer normally. He found an electrician that is going to take a look at it. Apparently he does car electronics too. We'll see.

 

good luck

 

Indeed, it needs a converter, and it needs to be fed from its own power source, generally direct from the battery.

The clowns that spliced into the OEM wiring obviously blew it (the job). They clearly didn't know what they were doing. That's all.

-Joe

 

Drive that jap into a lake and buy a USA vehicle!!!!!