Hi all,

I have scoured the interwebs high and low for a thorough, updated how-to for installing trailer wiring on a Countryman. Since none exists, I'm posting my own experience/how-to.

Background: I bought a 2011 Countryman S All4 a few months ago. I'm going to haul a Hobie Cat (small sailboat) with the bolt-on trailer hitch from Cooper Crap. To do this, I needed trailer wiring.

Minis, like most other modern German cars, use pulse width modulation (PWM) for turn signals and brake lights. This means that you can't just splice in a couple wires and go. You need a signal converter to translate the PWM stuff into normal output. Luckily, I had a similar situation when I wired up my 2010 VW Golf, so I already kinda knew what was going on.

The signal converter should have 5 input wires (right turn, left turn, brake/tail, power, and ground) and 4 output wires (right turn, left turn, tail, and ground). I used a Curt converter, ordered through Cooper Crap but available on eTrailer (love them) or elsewhere. See mine below:



Anyway, after some trial and error and lots of testing, here's what worked on my Countryman:



1. Locate the passenger side vent panel in the boot:



(Note that yours won't have a wire sticking out of it...yet)



2. Unplug the wiring harness from the taillight assembly. It's a flat plug with a 6-pin connector like this:



The plug has a number for each pin, 1-6. In the picture above, 1 is on the far right, 5 is blanked out, and 6 is on the far left.



3. Using the little blue wire splicers (available at any auto supply store), splice* your signal converter's right turn signal input wire into the #1 wire of the passenger side wiring harness:



(You may have to peel back a little bit of the black wiring harness tape to make room; that's ok to do.)



4. Locate the driver side vent panel in the boot:



(Note that, again, yours won't have wires sticking out of it yet)



5. Similar to step 2, unplug the wiring harness from the taillight assembly:



Like the passenger side, each connection pin on the plug has a number, 1-6. In the photo above, 1 is on the far left, 5 is blanked, and 6 is on the far right.



6. This is where I screwed it up** a couple times, as evidenced by the extra blue wire splicers. The blue wire splicers allow for mistakes to be made without penalty, which is why I used them :P Splice your converter's left turn signal input wire into the #1 wire of the driver side wiring harness. Then, splice your converter's brake/tail input wire into the #2 wire of the driver side wiring harness. See the photo below:



(I used wire nuts to cap off my mistakes**. Whoops :/)



7. There should now be two signal converter input wires left: the ground and power. In my VW, I grounded to the frame in the trunk and had to run a power cable under the car to the positive terminal of the battery. Hoping to avoid that mess, I decided to use the cigarette lighter outlet in the boot of the Mini. After all, the cigarette outlet is a 12V power source that's grounded somewhere. To tap into this power source, I bought a Bell accessory plug with a built-in 5 Amp fuse (similar to http://www.bellautomotive.com/12-Vol...-1-39002-8.htm). I got mine from an auto parts store for cheap. Mine looked a little different, but it was functionally equivalent:



(Step 7 is to buy one of these)



8. To connect the signal converter to the power source, I used quick-disconnect wire joiners. I wasn't 100% sure which wire coming out of the Bell plug was the ground, so the quick disconnects allowed me to swap the polarity easily. You can use whatever method you want to splice the wires, but the polarity does matter. FWIW, I swapped the wires around a couple times to see what would happen, and while the signal converter didn't work correctly in reverse polarity, I didn't fry or break anything. This is what mine ended up looking like:




9. Now that everything is connected, it's time plug the wiring harnesses back into their taillights, connect a set of trailer lights, and test it! Keep in mind that the signal converter needs power to function, so the Bell plug needs to actually be plugged in, and the car needs to have accessories on (or be running).


A couple notes:

-Plugging into the boot's cigarette outlet is a great way to get power to the signal converter. It's cleaner than running a power wire to the battery, doesn't require drilling for a ground, has a built-in fuse, and can be disconnected so it isn't always drawing power. I wish I would have done that on the VW.

-No matter how you supply power to the signal converter, make sure there's a fuse! 5A was sufficient for me.

-*Before you go splicing into the wiring harnesses, it's a good idea to get a multimeter and check the voltages of the lines you're splicing into to confirm their functions. On both the driver and passenger wiring harnesses, the #6 wire was the ground for the system. For example, if you wanted to confirm the driver side #1 wire was the left turn signal, you'd turn on the signal, place the multimeter leads on pins #1 and #6, and look for the voltage to fluctuate between 0V and 12V. If you wanted to confirm the driver side #2 wire was the brake/tail, place the multimeter leads on pins #2 and #6. With no brakes or headlights, the voltage should be 0V; with headlights on but brakes, off, the voltage should be 3V; with brakes on (regardless of headlight status), you should get 12V.

-**Be careful with the labels on the signal converter. There are 5 input wires and 5 input labels, but sometimes the wires don't line up with their own labels (see photos above). Tricky! This screwed me up a couple times.

-It's tremendously helpful to have a friend to hit the brakes and headlights and turn signals during testing.

-It's also helpful to have a set of trailer lights on hand for testing. Way easier than trying to use a multimeter on the output end of the signal converter.

-Make sure the connection between the trailer lights and the output end of the signal converter is solid. If necessary, apply some dielectric grease to help electricity flow smoothly. I've spent several frustrated hours diagnosing trailer light problems only to find that the car-to-trailer connection is loose/corroded.

-I left my wires sticking out of the boot vents for now, but I might tuck them under the trim later to protect them from snagging on cargo in the boot. And it'll look better.

-The car knows when you unplug the wiring harnesses from the taillights, and it'll beep at you and make the turn signals flash faster. Don't worry; as soon as you plug the harness back in, it goes back to normal.

-One final note: I have the "comfort access" key; some have suggested that this changes the behavior of the wiring. This underscores the importance of confirming wiring behavior with a multimeter as outlined above.


So hopefully that helps someone! As always, proceed at your own risk! Feel free to ask questions/suggest improvements.

 

What is the model # of the Curt wiring?

 

Thanks for your post, as it helped a great deal to hook up the trailer wiring on my new 2013 Countryman. I also used the Curt 'converter', but I must have the wrong brake light wire selected, as something is wacky when I hooked up the trailer. I will look at that tomorrow, as I am to fried to finish tonight. Thanks again for posting what you did!

 

Thank you for posting this. I bought a hitch from Crap Industries and also bought the Curt wiring harness for my 2013 Paceman. Once I received it I noticed it also needed the wiring kit to attach to the battery for power. I didn't like the thought of it. Anyway, I found your post and was able to buy an Accessory Plug like you suggested from a local auto parts store to fit into cigarette lighter in the trunk for power. Problem solved! I am choosing to have it all done professionally at a UHaul dealer this week instead of doing it myself.

This is all for the Malone XtraLight Trailer we bought (mpg525g) to haul our kayaks around and whatever else. In my old Ford Contour I had for 19 years, I was able to shove my kayak through the trunk and with the rear seats folded down it fit perfectly. That won't work for the Paceman. Thanks again.

Norm

 

hitch wiring ,
Just brought a R60 2014, which has a "Tekonsha Modulite HD plus" wired in with a 4 pin flat plug. (I'm guessing its a imported american style plug adaptor ) but here (Downunder...) all trailer I've ever seen/used have either a round 5 or a flat 7 pin plug....i own a trailer with a flat 7 pin plug....Is there a way to wire this set up from the 4 flat pin plug (countryman) to a 7 pin flat plug ( trailer) ?

thank you

 

Thanks for the hints. I needed to get a hitch on my new-to-me 2016 to tow a trailer to the kiddo's college and for my bike rack.

I used the Curt 59236 adapter and wired it up in PWM Stop/Tail mode meaning the brown wire goes to ground, and a cigar lighter plug also from Amazon.

The 2" EcoHitch went on okay, but I'll admit I broke a few tabs getting the back of the car off

 

Hoping to have everything before next weekend and we'll see how it goes! Thank you for starting this thread.
I just purchased a new to me 2016 S All4 and need to get my trailer setup back and operational do to a recent move. Hoping it all works out!!

 

Great post and just in time for my new to me 2016 CM R60. The Curtis converter should be here next week.