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Brake light on trailer wiring
Mark is right, you can easily fry some spendy electric hardware crossing wires in a modern vehicle.
You can also do some pretty major MECHANICAL (read REALLY spendy) damage by connecting a few wires together wrong.
For instance, a lot of modern automatics use, amongst other things, the presence of 12 volts in the brake light circuit past the switch as a sign you are stopping and it is one of the triggers that unlocks the torque converter.
If your trailer harness back feeds the brake light circuit with 12 volts on such a vehicle, even at a low enough amperage that the lights don't come on, the torque converter will never lock up, and that together with the extra weight of even a small trailer can cause severe over-heating, this will shorten if not end the transmissions life. It will also likely void the warranty on said transmission.
Best of luck.
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Brake light on trailer wiring
Ok, skipping the potential issues for the moment, a little more info. is needed to answer your question.
Is the vehicle equipped with a separate turn signal and brake light, such as the Japanese cars that have a yellow turn signal and a red brake light?
If that is the case, you need a 5 to 4 wire converter. It is basically a small set rectifiers (one way valves for electricity) and solenoids which allow the voltage to flow from the cars turn signal into the brake light circuit of the trailer and make it flash, without back feeding the brake lights on the car and making them flash too. These are available most any place that sells trailer wiring stuff such as auto parts places.
In a 'standard' 4 wire harness, the brake light flashes as a turn signal. In such cases the wiring is easier described as there being a ground wire, a running light wire, and a pair of brake light wires.
Best of luck.
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Brake light on trailer wiring
If you haven't already started, I strongly suggest you spend the extra couple of dollars and buy the pre-made trailer converter, Hoppy is one of the biggest. I believe Draw-tite also make them, as well as several others.
The big advantage to these setups is they are about as simple as gravity, and use the factory harness connections. All you do is split apart a particular plug under the vehicle and plug in the T-fitting they give you!!!
All connections are then completely waterproof and guaranteed correct.
Best of luck.
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