Hi all.

Just a quickie. Has anyone had a towbar fitted to their Tipo?

I have sourced a multitude of reasonably priced towbars but can't find a model specific wiring set yet, apart from Fiat's own. I only need single electrics. I have been advise by a towbar company not to have universal electrics fitted.

Thought/comments, folks?

Cheers, Panda

Try Hedley Towing. Prices and service are excellent. I did my bravo recentishly. Tow bar company are talking tosh as universal electrics will work fine. I have used these on a string of cars with Cn bus electrical systems Vectra, Focus, Mondeo, golf and Bravo without any issues at all . Plug in harness from Fiat will activate the dash mounted trailer repeater lamp. Bespoke wiring is very very expensive though.

The worst parts of the job were

1. Super brittle bumper mounting comb which really now needs replacing and really required two people to successfully remove the bumper.
2. Cleaning the underseal off the bumper mounting bolts. Its a sort of sprayed rubber and was half an inch thick and hard to remove to get at the bolts

Bump up on this subject, I'm in the process of wiring in a universal kit into my Tipo Estate and finding it difficult to get a brake light signal. The tail lamps have a single filament 21W bulb which has a 4V feed to make it work like a tail lamp and 12V to work as a brake lamp. I'm trying to find the right wire for the high level brake light in the loom that goes up the C-pillar taking all the signals to the tailgate and so far failed. Also trying to remove the rear spoiler to see what colour wire actually goes into the high level brake light but it doesn't want to budge after removing the two bolts on either side and I'm not keen to force it and damage it.

So, has anyone come across the single wire side/brake light wire when wiring a universal relay box into a canbus vehicle and what way did you approach it or get it to work successfully?

Does anyone know how to get in to the high level brake light assembly? I assume that should be possible to change bulbs etc so shouldn't be impossible, just looking for a hint / tip?

Thanks!

The high level brake light is LED and bonded on so I wouldn't try to remove it , sorry I can't help with the wiring

155Ringman said:

Bump up on this subject, I'm in the process of wiring in a universal kit into my Tipo Estate and finding it difficult to get a brake light signal. The tail lamps have a single filament 21W bulb which has a 4V feed to make it work like a tail lamp and 12V to work as a brake lamp. I'm trying to find the right wire for the high level brake light in the loom that goes up the C-pillar taking all the signals to the tailgate and so far failed. Also trying to remove the rear spoiler to see what colour wire actually goes into the high level brake light but it doesn't want to budge after removing the two bolts on either side and I'm not keen to force it and damage it.

So, has anyone come across the single wire side/brake light wire when wiring a universal relay box into a canbus vehicle and what way did you approach it or get it to work successfully?

Does anyone know how to get in to the high level brake light assembly? I assume that should be possible to change bulbs etc so shouldn't be impossible, just looking for a hint / tip?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

There is a bypass relay that can handle the single wire tail/brake system fitted to your car.
Your signal wire tail/ stop wire connects to bypass relay and the relay then converts the signal to turn on the normal lights on tow board.
I have fitted this type of bypass relay and it is very well made though it was fitted to a tipper with normal tail and brake lights.

Here you go a link


I didn't purchase relay from pfJones but have bought other items from pfJones including 2 different tow bar kits and pfjones are very good to deal with.

Good info, thanks. I didn't check back here yesterday but was able to pop off a central trim at the top of the tailgate on the inside to see the wires going to the high level brake light. I was able to then trace the wire down to the passenger side c-pillar and checked that it was a 12V signal.
Also popped out the number plate light fitting and found that this was also a 12V signal so I'm sorted using these two.

For anyone trying to sort this in the future, here are the cable colours & locations that I used:

Signal / Cable Colour / Location
Brake / White & Grey / Behind left side (Passenger) C-pillar trim
Tail lights / Yellow & Green / In main loom behind the carpet trim on the right side (Drivers) of the boot.
Right side Indicator / Blue & White / Branch loom to the tail lights on the right side (Drivers) of the boot.
Reversing lights / Red & Yellow (TBC) / In main loom behind the carpet trim on the right side (Drivers) of the boot.
Fog lights / TBC / In main loom behind the carpet trim on the left side (Passengers) of the boot.
Left side Indicator / TBC / Branch loom to the tail lights on the left side (Passengers) of the boot.

I'll confirm the others when I do a final check on it and connect the power as I can't remember them all now.

Well I just checked and the wiring / colours on my 500X are not the same as on the Tipo. Why of why can't Fait come up with common colour and usage conventions.

Moving on.

On my 500X I have the same twin bulb that is modulated to give side lights at a lower voltage and brake lights at full voltage using the same pair of bulbs in each of the rear clusters.

I got fooled by Fiat as they had separate wires for the side lights and brake lights when in fact the system operates differently by using two voltages and having both bulbs and side lights and brake lights.

So I wired my PCT ZR2500 up with all wires connected an then found a wee little oddity.

When the sidelights are on the caravan sidelights and front top Red/White corner lights come on. With sidelights on and press the brake pedal the trailer/caravan brake lights come on. Brilliant.

Then I noticed with side lights off and pressing the brake pedal then the caravan side lights, top corner lights and brake light come on.

To get round this the ZR2500 can handle multiplexed (which Fiat fooled me to thinking I did not have). All you have to do is drop one wire off.

Having finished and put everything back I decided to leave as wired. Perfectly legal and actually now when I press the brake pedal I get on the caravan: High Level Red, Brake Red, Sidelight Red and top Corner Red marker lights. Blinking Christmas Tree

One day when I'm behind all the boot covers etc. I may snip the offending wire but to be honest I quite like the fact that I have so many rear brake lights 3 high level, 4 main.