Jedadiah
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2010
- Location
- Central Kentucky
- TDI
- Former: '15 Passat TDI SE 6M, '15 Golf S 6M and '10 JSW
're MK5 or 6 Golf or Sportwagen
A couple of years ago, I installed an Erich Jaeger brand European 7 pin trailer harness on my JSW. It worked well, but I didn’t know it wouldn’t accept NAR coding until after I installed it. Last summer, I toyed with the idea of using the Erich Jaeger wiring and changing the module to an OEM one (or a Westfalia since they use the same modules), but the costs of buying the connectors and module scared me away. Over the holidays, I was searching www.Amazon.de for a few books to read, when I noticed that I could buy a Westfalia 7 Pin for 40 Euros. I pounced. Right after I bought it, the price jumped to 168 euros!
With a recoded euro 7 pin, you can provide everything a US 7 way needs except the 12v accessory wire and the brake controller output. Since 7 pin and 13 kits use the exact same module, you can remove the rear fog output wire from the exit connector on the module (pin 2) and insert in pin 3, which will switch the output to reverse lights. The power for the brake controller and for the 12v accessory wire can be sourced from the cabin fuse block. The brake output wire, signal wire, and 12v accessory wire can be run to the trunk alongside the Westfalia harness. Here’s a step by step.
What you need:
1.A Westfalia 321 600 300 107 Trailer Harness. If you use a 13 pin, you can still follow the steps for the brake controller. You can ignore the 12v accessory steps. https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0068MCVZ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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2. A VW repair wire 000 979 306 4.0mm wire. Much cheaper on eBay than at the dealer.
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3. A Euro 7 Pin trailer end connector. These are cheaper on Ebay, but here’s an example. https://smile.amazon.com/docooler-Trailer-Connector-Caravan-Plastic/dp/B00KGVIPKK/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&qid=1485311943&sr=8-30&keywords=7+pin+trailer+connector
4. A Brake controller. I’m using a Prodigy P2
5. Wire: 10 or 12 gauge wire for the brake output and 12v accessory wires (in two different colors. Blue and black make the most sense.) and one 16 or 18-gauge wire for the brake signal wire. These need to be just a little longer than the length of the entire Westfalia harness. Stretch it out somewhere and lay the wire down beside it to get the length. You don’t want them to be too short.
6. A US 7way Trailer plug and connector harness with bracket https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BGHV6Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
7. A de-pinning tool. This works, but it won’t impress you. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ZOMMT6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
8. Two 20 Amp fuses
9. A soldering iron, solder, and heat shrink for the connections you won’t see when the panels go back in the interior
10. Two 10-12 gauge Posi-Lock fasteners for the brake controller output and the accessory wire in the spare tire well. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HTADIOY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
11. A crimp on ring terminal for the Brake Controller ground wire.
Step 1: Switching the rear fog output on the Westfalia Module to reverse lamp.
Here’s the module’s wiring diagram. The guy who sent me this told me not to say where I got it. I’m not sure why Westfalia keeps it such a secret.
[/IMG]
To enable a reverse light output on a 7 pin, you have to run a wire from position 3 on the black exit connector on the module. The easiest way to do this is to remove the wire from position 2 on the exit connector and place it in position 3. Position 2 is the rear fog-light output. I wasn’t planning on having a rear fog-light, nor do I even have right headlight switch on my car to even turn one on, so I didn’t think twice about the change. 13 pin set ups already have the reverse light output coming out of position 3
Unlock the connector, insert the proper de-pinning tool, and using a smooth pair of needle nose pliers, push the wire in towards the plug, and then pull it swiftly out. Once out, put the wire in position three, lock the connector, and you’ll have reverse lights instead of a rear fog at the socket.
Step 2: Wire up the Westfalia Harness with its included instructions.
There are many threads on this and the instructions are very thorough. I did three things differently than the instructions:
1.The harness has three terminals that plug into the back of the fuse block once you’ve unlocked it. Two large terminals and one small. Install the large ones just like the instructions say. The instructions tell you to put the small terminal into fuse number 4. If there is a fuse already there, you’re supposed to de-pin the terminal, plug it into the new harness, and then insert the new terminal in its place. This lets the harness piggy back off the same fuse.
I tried to de-pin this terminal, while under the dash, and it wasn’t working. I looked at the fuse box, and noticed that the bar that powers location 4 also powers location 5 which was empty. Instead of using location 4 for my harness, I inserted the new terminal into location 5. I assume location 5 may be used on some models for something, but wasn’t on mine. I imagine Westfalia wants everyone to use the same location for troubleshooting purposes, in Europe…..
2. Instead of running the new harness and 7 pin socket outside of the car, assemble the euro socket (put the reverse light output into pin 2 on the 7 pin socket) and leave it in your spare tire well. You will connect the US 7way connector to it with a Euro 7 pin plug later.
3. Don’t put any of the interior back together yet. You still need access to everything for a while.
Step 3: Brake controller and 12v Accessory Wire.
1. Brake Controller. Take the Volkswagen repair wire and cut it in half, but not in the middle. Have one end about 1/3 longer than the other. Take the longer half and solder it onto the end of the Brake controller power wire on the brake controller harness. Don’t forget to slip the heat shrink onto the wire before you solder. Next solder one of the long 10 or 12-gauge wires to the brake controller output, and solder the long 16/18 wire to the red signal wire. Crimp a ring terminal onto the end of the white ground wire.
2. Solder the other end of the Volkswagen repair wire to the other long 10 or 12-gauge wire.
3. Run the wires alongside the Westfalia wiring harness you’ve already installed, starting with the terminals by the fuse box and all the way to the euro socket on the other end. These three wires will completely bypass the Westfalia CAN module. There is a chassis ground for the fuse block just under the hood release. Attach the brake controller ground here.
4. Decide which fuse locations you will use in the fuse box for your brake controller and your 12v accessory wire. Locations 32-36 in my car were empty and hot all the time. With the fuse box unlocked, insert the terminals on the ends of the repair wire into your desired location in the fuse box. You’ll be familiar with how this works after installing the Wesfalia terminals in fuse box positions 44 and 45.
I used location 36 for the 12v wire and 35 for my Brake controller. If all of your hot fuse locations are occupied (ie: you have a lot more options than I do), you can run hot wires to empty location in the fuse box, or bypass it altogether. I like using the fuse block because it’s a very clean install. Don’t insert the fuses in these locations yet!
5. Wire tie or tape everything into place, so that the panels can be reinstalled.
6. Mount your brake controller mounting bracket or sleeve at the bottom edge of your lower left dash panel.
7. Reinstall all the interior panels except the piece that covers the trunk latch in the very back, making sure your wring is out of the way. The harness for the brake controller can slip out between the under dash panel and the panel behind the hood release. Just make sure it has enough slack for you to be able to unplug your brake controller if needed.
Step 4: Recode your Module with VCDS
1. Go to the CAN gateway and add address 69: Trailer.
2. Open up the controller and us the long coding helper to change the coding from ROW to NAR. This will send the brake signal over the turn signal wires from the module. Even after coding, the pin six brake light wire will still output current when the brake pedal is pressed. You’ll use it in the next step.
Step 5: Getting all the wires in the trunk ready.
1. You’ll now have a completed euro socket, a brake controller wire, a 12v wire, and a brake signal wire in the back of your spare tire well. You can do two things with the signal wire. The first is to insert it into pin 6 of the Westfalia harness socket with the brake light output. The second is to insert it into pin 6 of the Euro 7 pin plug that you will plug into your new harness. Either way, you’ll send a signal to the controller
2.Take the US 7way harness, pull the grommet from the Westfalia kit over the end, and insert it from the outside into the spare tire well. (I was able to do this without removing the rear bumper cover. If you have a detachable Westfalia or Bosal hitch, this won’t even be a concern)
3. Take your 7way Connector and wire it to the 7 pin euro plug as follows
Pin 1—Red wire LT and Brake
Pin 4 – Green wire RT and Brake
Pin 5– Brown wire running lights
Pin 3—White wire ground
Pin 2— Yellow wire reverse lights
Pin 6—leave empty or insert brake signal wire from the brake controller if you didn’t put it in the socket.
Pin 7—leave empty
You will have a black wire and a blue wire on your 7way harness that are not connected to anything yet.
4. Plug the Euro plug into the euro socket.
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5. Use a Posi-lock to connect the brake controller wire running from under the dash to the blue wire on the US 7way harness. A Posi-lock makes it easy unhook if you need to for some reason.
6. Use a Posi-lock to connect the 12v accessory wire running from the fuse box to the black wire on the US 7 way harness. A Posi-lock makes it easy unhook if you need to for some reason.
7. Reinstall the last piece of interior trim.
[/IMG]
8. Run the other end of the US 7 way harness to wherever you want it. I have a fixed bosal hitch, so I drilled a hole in my lower valence and mounted it like so. The metal mounting bracket is on the inside of the valence to provide strength.
[/IMG]
8. Insert the proper fuses in your fuse block, and you are done. Here’s a pic of my Fuse box after the install.
[/IMG]
[/IMG]
I hope this will be helpful to a few people. Thanks to all the others, who have done Euro trailer wiring installs,because they've made my research worlds easier. Let me know if you have any questions.
A couple of years ago, I installed an Erich Jaeger brand European 7 pin trailer harness on my JSW. It worked well, but I didn’t know it wouldn’t accept NAR coding until after I installed it. Last summer, I toyed with the idea of using the Erich Jaeger wiring and changing the module to an OEM one (or a Westfalia since they use the same modules), but the costs of buying the connectors and module scared me away. Over the holidays, I was searching www.Amazon.de for a few books to read, when I noticed that I could buy a Westfalia 7 Pin for 40 Euros. I pounced. Right after I bought it, the price jumped to 168 euros!
With a recoded euro 7 pin, you can provide everything a US 7 way needs except the 12v accessory wire and the brake controller output. Since 7 pin and 13 kits use the exact same module, you can remove the rear fog output wire from the exit connector on the module (pin 2) and insert in pin 3, which will switch the output to reverse lights. The power for the brake controller and for the 12v accessory wire can be sourced from the cabin fuse block. The brake output wire, signal wire, and 12v accessory wire can be run to the trunk alongside the Westfalia harness. Here’s a step by step.
What you need:
1.A Westfalia 321 600 300 107 Trailer Harness. If you use a 13 pin, you can still follow the steps for the brake controller. You can ignore the 12v accessory steps. https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0068MCVZ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
2. A VW repair wire 000 979 306 4.0mm wire. Much cheaper on eBay than at the dealer.
3. A Euro 7 Pin trailer end connector. These are cheaper on Ebay, but here’s an example. https://smile.amazon.com/docooler-Trailer-Connector-Caravan-Plastic/dp/B00KGVIPKK/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&qid=1485311943&sr=8-30&keywords=7+pin+trailer+connector
4. A Brake controller. I’m using a Prodigy P2
5. Wire: 10 or 12 gauge wire for the brake output and 12v accessory wires (in two different colors. Blue and black make the most sense.) and one 16 or 18-gauge wire for the brake signal wire. These need to be just a little longer than the length of the entire Westfalia harness. Stretch it out somewhere and lay the wire down beside it to get the length. You don’t want them to be too short.
6. A US 7way Trailer plug and connector harness with bracket https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BGHV6Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
7. A de-pinning tool. This works, but it won’t impress you. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ZOMMT6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
8. Two 20 Amp fuses
9. A soldering iron, solder, and heat shrink for the connections you won’t see when the panels go back in the interior
10. Two 10-12 gauge Posi-Lock fasteners for the brake controller output and the accessory wire in the spare tire well. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HTADIOY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
11. A crimp on ring terminal for the Brake Controller ground wire.
Step 1: Switching the rear fog output on the Westfalia Module to reverse lamp.
Here’s the module’s wiring diagram. The guy who sent me this told me not to say where I got it. I’m not sure why Westfalia keeps it such a secret.
To enable a reverse light output on a 7 pin, you have to run a wire from position 3 on the black exit connector on the module. The easiest way to do this is to remove the wire from position 2 on the exit connector and place it in position 3. Position 2 is the rear fog-light output. I wasn’t planning on having a rear fog-light, nor do I even have right headlight switch on my car to even turn one on, so I didn’t think twice about the change. 13 pin set ups already have the reverse light output coming out of position 3
Unlock the connector, insert the proper de-pinning tool, and using a smooth pair of needle nose pliers, push the wire in towards the plug, and then pull it swiftly out. Once out, put the wire in position three, lock the connector, and you’ll have reverse lights instead of a rear fog at the socket.
Step 2: Wire up the Westfalia Harness with its included instructions.
There are many threads on this and the instructions are very thorough. I did three things differently than the instructions:
1.The harness has three terminals that plug into the back of the fuse block once you’ve unlocked it. Two large terminals and one small. Install the large ones just like the instructions say. The instructions tell you to put the small terminal into fuse number 4. If there is a fuse already there, you’re supposed to de-pin the terminal, plug it into the new harness, and then insert the new terminal in its place. This lets the harness piggy back off the same fuse.
I tried to de-pin this terminal, while under the dash, and it wasn’t working. I looked at the fuse box, and noticed that the bar that powers location 4 also powers location 5 which was empty. Instead of using location 4 for my harness, I inserted the new terminal into location 5. I assume location 5 may be used on some models for something, but wasn’t on mine. I imagine Westfalia wants everyone to use the same location for troubleshooting purposes, in Europe…..
2. Instead of running the new harness and 7 pin socket outside of the car, assemble the euro socket (put the reverse light output into pin 2 on the 7 pin socket) and leave it in your spare tire well. You will connect the US 7way connector to it with a Euro 7 pin plug later.
3. Don’t put any of the interior back together yet. You still need access to everything for a while.
Step 3: Brake controller and 12v Accessory Wire.
1. Brake Controller. Take the Volkswagen repair wire and cut it in half, but not in the middle. Have one end about 1/3 longer than the other. Take the longer half and solder it onto the end of the Brake controller power wire on the brake controller harness. Don’t forget to slip the heat shrink onto the wire before you solder. Next solder one of the long 10 or 12-gauge wires to the brake controller output, and solder the long 16/18 wire to the red signal wire. Crimp a ring terminal onto the end of the white ground wire.
2. Solder the other end of the Volkswagen repair wire to the other long 10 or 12-gauge wire.
3. Run the wires alongside the Westfalia wiring harness you’ve already installed, starting with the terminals by the fuse box and all the way to the euro socket on the other end. These three wires will completely bypass the Westfalia CAN module. There is a chassis ground for the fuse block just under the hood release. Attach the brake controller ground here.
4. Decide which fuse locations you will use in the fuse box for your brake controller and your 12v accessory wire. Locations 32-36 in my car were empty and hot all the time. With the fuse box unlocked, insert the terminals on the ends of the repair wire into your desired location in the fuse box. You’ll be familiar with how this works after installing the Wesfalia terminals in fuse box positions 44 and 45.
I used location 36 for the 12v wire and 35 for my Brake controller. If all of your hot fuse locations are occupied (ie: you have a lot more options than I do), you can run hot wires to empty location in the fuse box, or bypass it altogether. I like using the fuse block because it’s a very clean install. Don’t insert the fuses in these locations yet!
5. Wire tie or tape everything into place, so that the panels can be reinstalled.
6. Mount your brake controller mounting bracket or sleeve at the bottom edge of your lower left dash panel.
7. Reinstall all the interior panels except the piece that covers the trunk latch in the very back, making sure your wring is out of the way. The harness for the brake controller can slip out between the under dash panel and the panel behind the hood release. Just make sure it has enough slack for you to be able to unplug your brake controller if needed.
Step 4: Recode your Module with VCDS
1. Go to the CAN gateway and add address 69: Trailer.
2. Open up the controller and us the long coding helper to change the coding from ROW to NAR. This will send the brake signal over the turn signal wires from the module. Even after coding, the pin six brake light wire will still output current when the brake pedal is pressed. You’ll use it in the next step.
Step 5: Getting all the wires in the trunk ready.
1. You’ll now have a completed euro socket, a brake controller wire, a 12v wire, and a brake signal wire in the back of your spare tire well. You can do two things with the signal wire. The first is to insert it into pin 6 of the Westfalia harness socket with the brake light output. The second is to insert it into pin 6 of the Euro 7 pin plug that you will plug into your new harness. Either way, you’ll send a signal to the controller
2.Take the US 7way harness, pull the grommet from the Westfalia kit over the end, and insert it from the outside into the spare tire well. (I was able to do this without removing the rear bumper cover. If you have a detachable Westfalia or Bosal hitch, this won’t even be a concern)
3. Take your 7way Connector and wire it to the 7 pin euro plug as follows
Pin 1—Red wire LT and Brake
Pin 4 – Green wire RT and Brake
Pin 5– Brown wire running lights
Pin 3—White wire ground
Pin 2— Yellow wire reverse lights
Pin 6—leave empty or insert brake signal wire from the brake controller if you didn’t put it in the socket.
Pin 7—leave empty
You will have a black wire and a blue wire on your 7way harness that are not connected to anything yet.
4. Plug the Euro plug into the euro socket.
5. Use a Posi-lock to connect the brake controller wire running from under the dash to the blue wire on the US 7way harness. A Posi-lock makes it easy unhook if you need to for some reason.
6. Use a Posi-lock to connect the 12v accessory wire running from the fuse box to the black wire on the US 7 way harness. A Posi-lock makes it easy unhook if you need to for some reason.
7. Reinstall the last piece of interior trim.
8. Run the other end of the US 7 way harness to wherever you want it. I have a fixed bosal hitch, so I drilled a hole in my lower valence and mounted it like so. The metal mounting bracket is on the inside of the valence to provide strength.
8. Insert the proper fuses in your fuse block, and you are done. Here’s a pic of my Fuse box after the install.
I hope this will be helpful to a few people. Thanks to all the others, who have done Euro trailer wiring installs,because they've made my research worlds easier. Let me know if you have any questions.
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