Hi. I bought a 380 factory towbar from wreckers today but the wiring loop is cut. The main loop is easy as they are different color wires so all I need is to match them and join them up but there are couple of wires blue & brown were taped to the side of the main loop which I have no idea what they are. Just wondering if someone have the factory installation manual/diagram for the towbar installation? Thanks for the help in advance.

Dan:cry:

Best buy another harness from Mitsu, or go back to the wreckers, find the car it came from, work out what the wiring is doing.

How many wires in the main loop?
If 5, then assuming the original installer knew what they were doing :), the blue wire is for electric brakes. (7 pin system)
Since brown is used for side clearance running lights, it would be covered in the main loop wiring.
Maybe it's a 12 volt feed wire, no idea which pin it would have been connected to, (maybe pin 2 instead of a reversing light?)
http://www.exploroz.com/Vehicle/Electrics/TrailerWiringDiagrams.aspx

Dan,

I still have my factory HD towbar (trying to sell it for ages but no takers!) and the wiring cable still intact in the boot.
The cable has been cut.
Maybe you can look at my remaining cable and the severed connections and figure out what goes where?
Whereabouts in SA are you?

KJ.

Daniel, these things are standardised. If you take the cover plate off the 380 plug, and also off your trailer plug, you should see that each pin is marked with a number and also a brief description. The wiring colours on my 380 plug and two trailers I have checked mainly match, but do not always match the colours inside the boot. Brown is "tail" and there should be a brown wire on your trailer showing the correct position. Blue is "Ser Bk" and is next to "Brake" but is not connected on my trailer.

There may be another issue. In my 380 there is a block of fuses under the boot mat. It is wrapped in felt. Also a relay on the rear wall next to the passenger side tail light. I suspect (but dont know) that one or both of these may be part of a wiring kit that came with the towbar.

Edit: see the diagram for "7 pin flat" in the exploroz link above. That should be your plug.

There may be another issue. In my 380 there is a block of fuses under the boot mat. It is wrapped in felt. Also a relay on the rear wall next to the passenger side tail light. I suspect (but dont know) that one or both of these may be part of a wiring kit that came with the towbar.

Under the boot mat, wrapped in felt - could be an aftermarket fitment. Sounds like a setup for a caravan, one with it's own battery. Car runs, relay triggers, charges the caravan battery. Ignition off, caravan battery is isolated so using it won't flatten the car battery. (Caravan battery runs fridge, interior lights, water pump etc)
This is just a guess though. Flame me if you know better. lol

Here a simply way to look at this job go through the cables:

Left indicator
Right indicator
Brake lights
Tail lights
Ground

Now in a standard trailer wiring harness you got 7 cables, you use 5 of them, and you got 2 left which are spare cables.

Not that hard :D

Dealer charged me $80 to fit second hand towbar plus $100 for wiring kit 15 months ago

There is also some connection back to reverse sensors (if u have them) so they are disabled when trailer is present

Under the boot mat, wrapped in felt - could be an aftermarket fitment. Sounds like a setup for a caravan, one with it's own battery. Car runs, relay triggers, charges the caravan battery. Ignition off, caravan battery is isolated so using it won't flatten the car battery. (Caravan battery runs fridge, interior lights, water pump etc)
This is just a guess though. Flame me if you know better. lol

Max, I just checked, it isnt felt. Kind of a tape with grey foam on it. Wrapped around a block of fuses in the boot passenger side. I bought the car new and the towbar was fitted by the dealer- I watched them do it. I dont know where the fuses came from but unless all 380s have them they must have been fitted then. Sounds like Treeadeyman should have the same.

Interesting! Mitsu uses a lot of the foam wrapping to stop things rattling on bodywork.
I've fitted a couple of second hand tow bars, latest to a TJ, with the standard factory wiring harness and have not come across extra fuses or relays. Just towing a trailer, wiring relies on the car's fuses. Must be a 380 thing, perhaps you got the "heavy duty caravan towing" package towbar? Were there different towbar packages available for the 380?

Yes, heavy duty option which I think I took. Thought it might be stronger. So the extra fuses and relay might be on the HD unit only, not on all 380 towbars?

The bar is not marked as HD but has Part Number MR927708 (Tongue is MR933915).

Yes, heavy duty option which I think I took. Thought it might be stronger. So the extra fuses and relay might be on the HD unit only, not on all 380 towbars?

The bar is not marked as HD but has Part Number MR927708 (Tongue is MR933915).

Most towbars have a little metal plate riveted onto them saying maximum towing load and tongue load. Often not readable once on the car. lol Have a look-see anyhow, it will tell you what you have.

EDIT
Just typed your MR927708 part number into google and got another thread on this forum with some INTERESTING information!

===============================
QUOTE 1

i ended up paying 350 for the heavy duty towbar and wiring harness. the part no's are:

MR927708 - towbat
MR929988 - harness

it also hooks into ur reverse sensors so they dont go off.

================================
QUOTE 2
When putting tow bars on 380s you need the genuine wiring harness.

380s can not have wiring cut inline with the tail lights. Due to the intelligence of the 380s wiring the genuine wiring harness has a series of micro switches in it.

The micro switches are responsible for disabling the parking sensors when towing, also the micro switches inform the onboard telemetry that additional load is on the circuits otherwise the computer thinks there are blown globes or other faults.

The 380s wiring harness is of the flat type plug not the older round 7 pin design. I have heard of people thinking they know better and cutting the Mitsubishi flat plug off and wiring up the round 7 pin design, this also does not work reliably as the micro switches are imbedded within the Mitsubishi socket.

=========================

I hope this clears things up. You need a complete Mitsu 380 wiring harness, splicing into tail light wiring does not work due to the CANBUS system. Forget old tried and true methods. And don't replace the plug! Very informative, if I ever get a 380 in the future and it needs a towbar, I'm organised!

The 380s wiring harness is of the flat type plug not the older round 7 pin design.

Flat to round adaptors are easily bought - or made by bying a male falt and female round etc

how hard is it to install a factory towbar? fairly mechanically minded but probably wouldn't want to drill hole in chassis rails if that is needed. i ask as i just got quoted 395 nzd for a factory towbar but they wanted to charge 500nzd just to fit it , so 900 all up which is a joke unless serious work needs to be done.

how hard is it to install a factory towbar? fairly mechanically minded but probably wouldn't want to drill hole in chassis rails if that is needed. i ask as i just got quoted 395 nzd for a factory towbar but they wanted to charge 500nzd just to fit it , so 900 all up which is a joke unless serious work needs to be done.

I shopped around and found the best price I could get for the install is $180 in Melbourne including install of the loom. I thought that was quite expensive as it looked straight forward as the holes are all there. The shop explained to me that it is 2 hours labour - hence $180 is fair.

Fair enough i thought and I left the car with them. 45 minutes later they called me to say the car was ready - but they still wanted $180... lol

Moral of the story is don't believe anyone who tells you it is a tricky job.

You would expect the holes to be all there, at least for a factory designed towbar. Drilling into rear chassis rails would be frowned upon, as it may affect the structural integrity of the rear end. Avoid any after market towbar that needs holes drilled!

Fitting one yourself should be possible, as long as you have the proper wiring harness and some instructions to go with it and the towbar comes with the mounting bolts. On the 380, I don't know if this involves dropping the rear bumper, I did a TJ towbar and it was just possible to get the towbar in and bolted down without removing the rear bumper.

I shopped around and found the best price I could get for the install is $180 in Melbourne including install of the loom. I thought that was quite expensive as it looked straight forward as the holes are all there. The shop explained to me that it is 2 hours labour - hence $180 is fair.

Fair enough i thought and I left the car with them. 45 minutes later they called me to say the car was ready - but they still wanted $180... lol

Moral of the story is don't believe anyone who tells you it is a tricky job.

If you want to bend the crap out of the bar and risk damage 45 mins, if you want to remove the bar and muffler for easy access then 2 hours is the book time for install

Had a look at some pics of a 380 towbar and then ducked my head under the rear of the car. Seems there are already recovery hooks/loops bolted to the rear chassis rails on both sides where the towbar will mount (ie; remove recovery hooks and bolt up towbar). As the towbar mounts upwards from under the car and the tounge comes out under the bottom of the bumper I can't see why you would have to remove the bumper. A factory bar should come with bolts I'd imagine but I'd have to check. If it doesn't, does anyone have an opinion on whether the bolts holding the recovery hooks/loops would be ok? Also is the wiring loom adaptor a 'plug n play' deal or need to be hard wired in? If PnP where does it plug in?

Cheers