I did a bunch of searches but nothing was posted specifically about the wiring. For those of you that would post don't put a hitch on the TL, read the owners manual, blah blah please don't post.

For those of you that have wired your 05-07 TL for trailer lights please help me out. I have everything coming in this week and I need to be able to tow it all by next Friday. Thanks in advance.

 

First of all, like you said, the TL is not designed to tow anything. Secondly in terms of wiring

Your best bet is going to be pulling wires from the Trunk

Off the top of my head wires are

Parking Light - Red/Black
Brake Light - White/Black

(same on both sides)

Left turn signal - Red/Blue
Right turn signal - White

 

on gen2 they provided a place for you to plug in to.
Located driver side of trunk by taillight housing

Gen3- got to use a 3m tap to add a wire to the lines- that might be a good place to look for access- left taillight

 

People said the same thing about the Z06 and I towed with that for years...


Thanks.

 

I saw that Gen2 plug, that would have been easy.

Thanks, I'll take a look tomorrow night. Do you have to run the wire from the battery on all installations? I'm only powering 2 trailer tail lights with 2 side marker lights, so probably 7amps or less.

 

no- just tap into the wires with a 3M type tap of the right size for that wire diameter/guage example blue taps fit 14 guage wire-
You slip it over the solid wire and the new lead goes in the outer slot which has a closed end- clamp it shut with pliers and a metal piece goes thru both wires plastic cover and bites into the wire- connection made!
Wrap with electrical tape to be safe

The wires you need are all battery power-HOT when On/In use, and one of the wires is to Ground- so its all good

Use a 12volt test light to find what wire is what function- write it down!! and proceed to add the leads from the 4 pin trailer connector to the car wiring harness.
10 minute job

 

you might need to go up 1 step on fuse for the taillights- depending on what all is on that circuit
Pull the fuse for them and see what else stops working
You have to consider the ~total load~ on the circuit,,, when its `active`

Example with standard liability disclaimers:
The wire will handle a 15 amp fuse if it had 10 before- speaking only of this particular install job for low draw trailer light system.

Just had to do that on my bike- already had a higher power headlight bulb installed,, and with the addition of 2- 55 watt driving lights,,,10 amp fuse couldnt handle it
Maybe it was switching from low to high and the sudden jump in current demand??- but it popped the fuse
hi beam and the driving lights- are all hooked together now.
15 amp fuse on 14 guage wire- the actual useage/load/electrical current flow thru the wires doesnt even get the wire hot, so its fine.
My example is full time use, when the engine is running- the lights are on,,,

and you only need a few taillights,, that draw `full power` only when braking and signalling, not cruising

 

Ok, so can someone that has actually put trailer lights on a 3rd gen TL respond. I appreciate the attempts at an answer, but they are just general trailer wiring info which I already know, this isn't my first rodeo.

 

You're going to tow a horse trailer ?

 

Sort of. It has 50 horses.

 

I saw a NBP Type-S with a trailer hitch a couple months back.. I was like.. wtf? RBP (redneck black pearl) TL?.. lol. sorry. But the Type-S I saw had an aftermarket hitch.. all the hitches I've seen didn't have a wiring harness / connector on them meaning they were towing very light loads that were unobtrusive. I think that's your answer.. don't do it.. but it shouldn't be difficult to tap into the lines.

 

The hitch is very easy to find, three models alone on etrailer.com. I just needed a cheat sheet of where was the best place to tap into the tail lights and what wire was what so I didn't have to do the 12v tester routine. I'm towing 700lbs, probably 15 weekends a year, usually less than 30 miles each way unless I go to more Tours/Pros/Nationals.

 

Dude, the only place to pull the connections is from within the trunk, I gave you the wire colors, pull the carpet on the sides back, and use the T-taps as talked about to get the power from them. When you close the trunk you wont crush or cut the wires. No other way, unless you wanna pull the Turn and Parking light wires from the front and sneak them all the way back, but your STILL going to have to get the brake lights from within inside the car.

And I doubt you will find anyone on here with a tow hitch

 

Your's was the main helpful post, sorry if I wasn't clear about that. I was hoping to hear from more people and perhaps someone with pics.

 

I don't see the big problem taping into the lines.. but if you want something quick & easy with no fuss... here ya go..

 

look here

http://www.etrailer.com/c-ELEBF.htm

 

Thanks. I did order the 20251 with my hitch. I just got worried when I saw some people suggesting I might need to direct wire for extra power. The calcs I came up with say a max of about 7.3amps when I am running everything on the trailer lights. Thus why I was asking for people with experience on the TL itself to see if they were direct wiring for extra power.