I'm still drilling through the electrical problems on our newly acquired 2009 320.

I've now resolved the biggest problem: When connecting to our Citroen C4 Picasso with a 13 pin Jaeger ISO11446 standard trailer socket, the main 20A fuse supplying the rear electrics was blowing. It also took out the battery supply 15A fuse in the Eriba. The socket was fitted prior to us purchasing the car in 2014. Up to now I've towed the caravan with a different 7 pin vehicle.

After some checking, I found that the White/Blue wire on the socket pin 12 carries 12V powered with the ignition on. In the Jaeger system, pin 12 has no designation.

On the Eriba, the White/Blue wire is connected to terminal 2 on the distribution board (earth). IS THIS NORMAL?? Clearly there was a direct short to earth when the Eriba was hooked up to the car, thereby blowing the fuses.

I would like to know what connection is used for the pin 12 wire (white/blue) in the under chassis distribution block on both older (French) Eribas and also the newer ones.

For now I have disconnected the pin 12 wire at the trailer plug and it seems fine - no fuse blowing.

I'm also going to check contiinuity on the trailer cable as I'm still looking to diagnose other faults (1) is no refrigerator power under towing conditions with the engine running, and (2) the reversing light is inoperative (bulb is good). There is evidence of a repair to the cable where it touched the road surface in the past. It may be that this is contributing to the problems.

Thanks

Pete

Pin 3 is earth and would normally have a white wire.
The blue and white wire is normally connected to pin 12 but has no function. Can be used for trailer information to the towing vehicle.

The blue and white wire should not be connected to terminal 3 on your Eriba, that is earth. Somebody has wired your Eriba incorrectly.

I've rechecked the distribution box under the chassis again and made a voice-memo of all the connections using my iPhone - much easier than trying to take a photo or scribble down connections on a notepad when you're under the van with limited space.

Here are my findings:

Pin 12 (White/Blue) was indeed connected to earth with a white wire to terminal #2. I'm not sure how this happened but I can only assume someone has rewired and got it wrong in the past.

Here are the connections on the terminal block with #1 being towards the front. The pins refer to the trailer plug pins.

Terminal #1 Blue (Rear Fog Lights), Pin 2
#2 White (Earth for road lights) Pin 3
#3 Black (LH Tail & Side Lights) Pin 7
#4 Yellow (LH Indicators), Pin 1
#5 Red (Stop Lights), Pin 6
#6 Brown (RH Tail, Side & Number Plate Lights), Pin 5
#7 Green (RH Indicators), Pin 4
#8 Grey (12V Power feed for Fridge), Pin 10
#9 Orange (12V Power Supply), Pin 9
#10 White/Red (Common return for pin 9) , Pin 13

These next 3 are on a separate strip

#11 White/Black (Return for Pin 10):, Pin 11
#12 White/Blue (Coding coupled trailer - not used on the Eriba), Pin 12 - I disconnected the white earth wire from this terminal.
#13 Pink (Reversing Light), Pin 8

There are 2x 3-core cables 2.5mm2 connected BROWN to Terminal #10 (Return), BLUE to terminal #9 (Supply) and BLACK to terminal #8 (12V Auxiliary).

There are links connecting #11 to #10 and #11 to #2 meaning that all the returns are connected to a common point. I'm not sure if this is intended as the fridge return shouldn’t be connected to other caravan earthing but only be earthed through the car.

Can anyone throw any light on what is meant to be done with the return wires - is it OK to connect them all together on terminal 2 (white wire)?

PS. I’ve since discovered that pin 12 can be connected to pin 3 as the ‘earth short’ is meant to send a signal to the ECU in the car that a trailer has been connected. However, in my car (a Citroen C4 Picasso) this just causes a fuse to blow.

Well I've finally got through the hideous Captcha system to login - only works on my laptop as on my mobile it's impossible to view. Can the forum admin please do something about this??

Latest update (and in the absence of any replies or help) I'm going to revert all the earthing to what I think should be done - separate earthing back to vehicle.

I still have the problem of no working Awning light and no operation of Fridge on 12V hookup. I'm beginning to look at the BIP unit and might need to disassemble as I suspect the internal circuitry might be suspect (for example the fridge relay is duff).

I did notice that Pin 9 on the plug has full leisure battery voltage on it - this isn't a good thing as if the rain shorts out this pin to earth then a 15A fuse will blow. This happens if the BIP switch for charging is in the 'on' position - so it should be turned off if not connected to the towing vehicle just in case.

The car is a Citroen C4 Picasso Exclusive 2.0L Diesel (2008).

Yes I appreciate that the awning light shouldn't work when towing - there appears to be a relay (RL1) in the BIP that provides voltage to the awning light when on 230V so it won't work when running on 12V. However, the awning light doesn't works when on mains - wiring and bulbs are OK. So I suspect the relay is faulty.

Pete

The awning light has its own fuse, 1st position F0 - 5A, have you checked that?

A quick and dirty fix when off grid is to change the supply to the awning light from position 1 to a spare position which I recall is position 6?

I now use that supply to the common of a c/o relay. The relay is energised from the the supply to the fridge relay which is only energised when connected to the towing vehicle. I use the normally closed contact for the awning light and the normally open contact to a dash cam looking out of the rear window. Handy when I was rear ended.

Thanks Ray - I did check the 5A fuse on F0 - the first thing I did.

Using s spare 'way' and another relay is a very useful tip. Where did you mount the relay? I assume it's not somewhere inside the BIP unit.

Pete

This is on my 2007 Triton 430, your BIP may be mounted differently.
The lights you can see in the background are from my Ctek smart charger, by-passing the BIP transformer and charging circuit.
BIP_small.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

Thanks Ray for the information. Now that I've converted the Awning light to LEDs I think getting it to work on 12V would be a useful upgrade.

You don't seem to have a fresh water tank - on my 320 that seems to be getting in the way of accessing the BIP.

I'm going to add a changeover relay in the manner you have. At the same time I think I need to remove the BIP unit to see what's happening inside. I suspect a faulty component. I have the same BIP 30.65100.84.

I have a CTEK charger - presumably you have this connected before the 230V circuit breaker so that you can have the breaker disconnect the BIP out of circuit. Am I correct in thinking the BIP only does battery charging while on mains power? The leisure battery +ve seems to be connected to a busbar via the F5 fuse (15A) and thereby supplies 12V ancilliaries (pumps, lights, blower) via the other fuses.The awning light is only switched when on 230V via an on-board relay.

Pete

Pete, I simply disconnected the 230Vac supply to the BIP charging transformer and used that to power the CTek. The 12Vdc output from the CTek is wired directly to the leisure battery.

No hot water tank on a 2007 Triton!

Quote: Allypete wrote in post #12

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Am I correct in thinking the BIP only does battery charging while on mains power? The leisure battery +ve seems to be connected to a busbar via the F5 fuse (15A) and thereby supplies 12V ancilliaries (pumps, lights, blower) via the other fuses.The awning light is only switched when on 230V via an on-board relay

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