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Trailer light wiring install?

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
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1997 - 2004 C70

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rspi
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Re: Trailer light wiring install?

Post by rspi »

I just pulled a hitch from the jy and this is how it was wired. I have a wagon...

They wire harness was tapped into the tail lights, except for a hot power wire that was run clear up to the battery or braker panel.
At the drivers side tail light, the red harness wire was tapped into the top cluster yellow/purple wire.
the yellow harness wire was tapped into the top cluster green wire.
the brown harness wire was tapped into the lower cluster red/white wire.
the green harness wire was tapped into the top cluster (on the passerger side of the car) blue/green wire.

Hope that helps.
'95 855 T-5R M, Panther - 22/28 mpg, 546,000 miles
'95 955 T-5R Yellow Wagon, Lemonade, 180,000 miles
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TRuck
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Year and Model: '98 v70 GLT T-bo
Location: Brooklyn, NY

Post by TRuck »

thxs rspi.

jh...did it work?
thx
'98 V70 (T), 265k miles
what doesn't kill us makes us... bitter.

jh_on_the_cape
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Post by jh_on_the_cape »

Yes it worked. I had already done my tailgate struts. Look at that writeup on how to remove the plastic covering in the back of the wagon. You just pry off the speaker covers, then do the one torx bolt to pop off the plastic on the ceiling. The left turn and stop wires (see above for colors) are attached at the back of the light, not in the big bundle. the right turn wire was very long so I saw that you have to run it over to the other side. I tucked in from inside the headliner under the plastic piece where the interior light is. the running light I tapped into on the main bundle.
I used scotchbloks which made it all much easier. all in all about an hour.
I was using a uhaul lighting wiring pulled from a junkyard.
Bright Red 1994 850 Wagon, nonturbo, FWD, stickshift 150k-ish miles SOLD
2006 v70 FWD nonturbo, boring silver A/T, 200k miles

chernobyl1
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Year and Model: 1999 V70 Base
Location: Lansing,MI

Post by chernobyl1 »

They wire harness was tapped into the tail lights, except for a hot power wire that was run clear up to the battery or braker panel.
At the drivers side tail light, the red harness wire was tapped into the top cluster yellow/purple wire.
the yellow harness wire was tapped into the top cluster green wire.
the brown harness wire was tapped into the lower cluster red/white wire.
the green harness wire was tapped into the top cluster (on the passerger side of the car) blue/green wire.
I just set up the trailer wiring harness for my '99 V70 N/A on Sunday and I pulled an approximately 2000 lb trailer 500 miles on the highway at 65-70 mph (with about 600 lbs of extra cargo in the back). The wiring set up worked great! (the wagon looked a little funny with that big load though and gas mileage was in the mid to high teens). Definitely an acceptable setup for someone doing infrequent towing.
1999 V70 Base, Silver - "The Torpedo" - Hers
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abscate
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Post by abscate »

Using clamp clips for a single trip is fine - if you are going to trailer often, do it right - splice, solder, heat shrink and tape. The splice blocks will get loose, corrode and fritz out in time.
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Sufbug
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Post by Sufbug »

Choguy03 wrote: 28 Nov 2011, 12:41 The wire colors are on the diagrams. There is a chart on page 2 called, "How to use the diagrams" that breaks it down.

Ok, so on the driver's side rear light, the left turn signal is green, and the brake light is yellow-grey and it looks like the tail lights have two wires, one red-white and the other green-yellow. The right turn signal is blue-green. Hope this helps.
hey man ,

you are the real MVP

took me an hour to find the "colors" for my V70 1998 electric connections for the trailer wiring lighting ...
searching all over the internet, and all over this site and other sites....

NO ONE listed the colors of the wires on the automobile side, but YOU!!!


checked a million diagrams, and they all had two letter codes, that were just meaningless.

so....

there is an upper and a lower lighting system.

the brake lights and the turn signals are on the UPPER part, behind the speaker grille. ( 98 V70 Wagon, GLT)

the running lights are in the bottom part of the lighting assembly

there is a ground back there,

and the power , just run it up the driver side, and connect it to the battery positive.

going to get my trailer now, and lets see if it works.




DRIVERS SIDE Turn Signal ==== green

PASS SIDE Turn Signal ===== blue-green


BRAKE LIGHT ==== yellow-grey

TAIL LIGHTS ===== red-white AND green-yellow (two connections)



thank you again kind sir....saved my rear end


Big Al
1998 V70 wagon / 244,013 miles / purchased 9-25-2020
2016 Cadillac CTS4 / might be selling this
1979 trans am 400ci / 4 speed / t-tops / not selling this

Sufbug
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Post by Sufbug »

dang it it didnt work.


the lights work on the trailer, but the turn signals dont work and the brakes dont work.

funny thing, the turn signals and the brake lights work on the wagon, but not on the trailer.

and,

the parking lights work on both the trailer and the wagon.

again , 1998 v70 GLT


thoughts?
1998 V70 wagon / 244,013 miles / purchased 9-25-2020
2016 Cadillac CTS4 / might be selling this
1979 trans am 400ci / 4 speed / t-tops / not selling this

Sufbug
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Post by Sufbug »

Ok I fixed it. The scotch Connector things were not making contact. I just grabbed a test light, check out the voltages, and then got pliers and squeezed the connectors tight.

All working well now.

Again, thank you OP for giving me the color of the wires. Worked perfect!
1998 V70 wagon / 244,013 miles / purchased 9-25-2020
2016 Cadillac CTS4 / might be selling this
1979 trans am 400ci / 4 speed / t-tops / not selling this

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Post by abscate »

The scotch Connector things were not making contact.
:D :D

Just like we warned upthread.

They suck.

Those two letter codes on the wiring, by the way, are Swedish abbreviations for colours.

SB for Black is the one most people confuse.
Empty Nester
A Captain in a Sea of Estrogen
1999-V70-T5M56 2005-V70-M56 1999-S70 VW T4 XC90-in-Red
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