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I have a Nissan Murano 2009 (made in Japan for US market). I installed a trailer towing hitch and now I want to install a towing harness. Since I live in Europe I bought Brink Wiring Kit (732614) which is specific for Nissan Murano. This kit comes with a Jaeger AFC trailer module (52400006) which basically is used for wiring the car and the trailer together to power and synchronize their lighting systems.

BACKGROUND

The AFC module (aka trailer converter) has 10-pins like in the image below. It would be helpful to note here that the converter's terminals are supposed to have the following meanings:

  • 54T = the output brake signal to the Trailer
  • 54V = the input brake signal from the Vehicle
  • RT = the output Right turn signal to the Ttrailer
  • LT = the output Left turn signal to the Ttrailer
  • RV = the input Right turn signal from the Vehicle
  • LV = the input Lleft turn signal from the Vehicle
  • R = (*)
  • L = (*)
  • 31 = ground
  • 30 = 12V power supply

(*) by looking at the harness' connectors and respectively at the converter's connector it looks the R and the L terminals provide somehow the same function as the RV respectively LV. However, what's important is that they are also related to the turn signals.

The tail lights look like they bypass the converter entirely, they go directly to the trailer's plug.

The towing harness kit has connectors for both the left and the right rear tail lamps. The car's rear tail lamps harness has also connectors such that the towing kit connects the car harness just by plug&play. At least for the trailer main lighting functions such as turn signals, tail lights, brake lights.

Now I think you've got the big picture of the towing kit I want to install.

PROBLEM

The problem I have with this assembly is the following. The trailer tail lights and the brake lights are working normal, but the turn signal lights are blinking at the same time when they are supposed to blink only one at a time, unless I switch on the hazard light in which case it is normal that they blink in tandem.

In order to debug this problem I tried to eliminate as many variables as possible. So I took the wiring kit at home and prepared a test bench. I connected the harness wires to the 13-pins trailer plug as per manual (see Brink Wiring Kit above, pag. 7).

In order to power the harness I used a 12V power supply so I provided +12V to the terminal #30, a ground to terminal #31. Furthermore I provide a +12V to the terminal which normally is powered from the brake relay, +12V to the terminal which normally is powered by the tail relay and finally a prepared 2 wires to selectively power the left/right turn signals.

At this point the harness is powered like when you drive the car with the headlights ON (thus tail lights are ON) while pressing the brake pedal (brake lamps are ON).

In order to test the signals that the trailer's plug receives from the harness I have built a quick testing LED panel with 2 columns of LEDs for the brake signal (red),2 for tail (green) and 2 for turn signal (yellow). Each column is powered independently (parallel circuits).

Finally I plugged my testing LED panel to the trailer plug. So the LED panels have the red brake LEDs ON and the green tail LEDs ON. Nice!

When I touch any of the turn signal terminals with a +12V wire the both turn signal lights are lighted at the same time which is exactly the same symptom I notices while I tested the harness within the physical car (see the Problem above).

To simplify the test even more I eliminated completely the harness and the LED test panel. So right now I have only the converter and my 12V power supply source.

TESTS

  1. I provided a +12.08V to the LV terminal and then I've checked the voltage at the other terminals:
    • LT = 10.5V
    • RT = 10.8V (???)
    • RV = 0V
    • R = 0V
    • L = 12.08V
    • 54T = 10.8V
    • 54V = 3.5V
  2. The same test to the RV terminal with a 12.1V:
    • RT = 10.6V
    • LT = 10.8V (???)
    • LV = 0V
    • R = 12.1V
    • L = 0V
    • 54T = 10.9V
    • 54V = 3.6V
  3. The same test to the L terminal with a 12.1V:
    • RT = 10.9V
    • LT = 10.6V
    • RV = 0V
    • LV = 12.1V
    • R = 0V
    • 54T = 10.9V
    • 54V = 3.8V
  4. Finally the same test to the R terminal with a 12.1V:
    • RT = 10.6V
    • LT = 10.9V
    • RV = 12.1V
    • LV = 0V
    • R = 12.1V
    • 54T = 10.9V
    • 54V = 3.9V

Honestly these results are confusing. Firstly I expected when apply a voltage to left to get outputs only on left. The same for right. Secondly I wouldn't expect to get a brake signal at all (see 54V/T terminals).

Given the whole specter of tests I've made what do you think would be the cause the turn signals are blinking at the same time?

enter image description here

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  • 1
    It seems like the relay is duff - ask them to replace it.
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 4:13
  • The converter's PCB includes 4pcs SPDT relays (#895-1C-C). It seems that one of them doesn't switch at all, so yes, I guess you have right.
    – Eugen Mihailescu
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 10:05

2 Answers 2

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2

Ok, so as @solar-mike suggested it looks like the converter is is faulty. I did some additional tests so I thought it might be useful to document here what I've done, someone else might be interested in the future.

The converter is just a 50x40mm PCB that includes 4x 895-1C-C relays, 1 rectifier diode, 1uF capacitor and a bunch of SMD resistors & capacitors.

enter image description here

Three relays works normally, ie. if you supply either 5-9-12V to the relay's coil pins (the ones linked by the red lines) you will hear a click. The click confirms that the relay works. A non-working relay would not make any click.

A complete test can be made but it would involve some parts: a 9V battery, 2pcs 9V battery, a bunch of wires with alligator clips, 1 LED, a resistor and optionally a switch. Nonetheless a dozen of patience. I am not going through these details as it would be off the topic (YouTube is your friend).

The options I have in this case are multiple, from returning the product, buying a new one or just replacing the damn $1 faulty relay. Honestly, when I will have enough spare time I will build one myself. Probably the best spent $10 ever.

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  • For anyone having trouble with Jaeger module it would worth paying 1min to read Jaeger FAQ. If you are using a LED driven control lights device to test the trailer harness installation (harness+flash module+socket plug) then you should know that with LEDs the turn lights would light simultaneously. With 21W bulbs would not! What's more interesting, I have removed completely the 4th faulty relay and the controller still works (with 21W normally, with LEDs the turn signals would flash simultaneously).
    – Eugen Mihailescu
    Commented Apr 1, 2017 at 10:22
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Here is factory data:

Chamber left    Function
1       30      Continuous plus 
2       31      Ground 
3       L       Turn signal left (input, signal from car) 
4       R       Turn signal right (input, signal from car) 
5       LZ      Turn signal left to car (output) 
6       RZ      Turn signal right to car (Output) 
7       LH      turn signal left to trailer (output) 
8       RH      turn signal right to trailer (output) 
9       54Z     brake light (input, signal, from car) 
10      54H     brake light to trailer (output)
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  • Does your answer explain where the fault is?
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Nov 30, 2018 at 19:59

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