Whether you need to move house, go on holiday with a caravan, get rid of of green waste, or have a hitch is pretty handy. In this post, we will show you the electrical connection of a trailer hitch of a BMW 5 Series . In actual fact, even if the set up procedure is not difficult, it is required to clarify some details to consider this task without any issue. Firstly, we will see what the electrical wiring harness of your motor vehicle hitch consists of, then, in a second step, how to make the electrical connection of the hitch of a BMW 5 Series .

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What’s the wiring harness for a BMW 5 Series hitch trailer?

Why do we have to connect a wiring harness with the hitch trailer of a BMW 5 Series?

So we will commence our content page by detailing the principles of a wiring harness of a BMW 5 Series. In order to understand how it works, you must already understand its necessity. If you have a trailer or a caravan to tow, it is important and above all mandatory by the highway code to follow certain protocols, here they are:

  • A solid chassis for the trailer…
  • Wheels that fit.
  • An electrical connection.
  • A license plate in plain sight.
  • A stoplight repeater.
  • A traffic light repeater.
  • A blinker repeater.
  • License plate illumination.
  • A fog light repeater.

In order to meet all the electrical regulations, you will need to install a wiring harness connection on the hitch trailer of your BMW 5 Series . We will focus on this in this article, if you want to discover how to install the hitch of a BMW 5 Series, please see our content page on this topic.

What is the electrical connection of the trailer hitch of a BMW 5 Series?

We will now quickly show you how the electrical connection of your hitch works. The connection uses the 12-volt current from your motor vehicle to power the hitch lights on your BMW 5 Series. There are two different systems of electrical connection for a hitch, here they are:

  • The 7-pin electric plug for a BMW 5 Series trailer, 7 pins : This is the classic plug that will be discovered on all BMW 5 Series hitches. This electrical connection will allow you to transmit all the lighting functions needed for the rear signalling of your trailer, you will find a plug for each objective (left and right indicators, ground, fog light, left and right position light, left and right brake light).
  • Electrical connection for caravan with 13-pin plug for BMW 5 Series: This plug system is principally used for caravans that require 12 volts inside to supply the various electrical equipment in the cabin. This sort of connection requires the use of an adapter. The extra pins will bring the 12 volt power permanently (to recharge a battery in the caravan) and the 12 volt power in use (to use the 12 volt equipment when the motor vehicle is switched on).

How do I hook up the wiring harness of a BMW 5 Series?

To finish this content page, we will quickly show you you how to produce the connection of the wiring harness of your BMW 5 Series .

How to make the connection of the wiring harness of an old BMW 5 Series?

To install the wiring harness of an old BMW 5 Series, you will have to go and get all the required cables in the rear lights of this one. We suggest you to call in a motor vehicle electrician to do this intervention because it is difficult, but we will nevertheless summarize the main steps to be accomplished:

  • Take out the trunk lining from your BMW 5 Series to access the rear light unit.
  • Locate the wires that correspond to each of the taillight functions.
  • Connect them to the lugs on the wiring harness on your hitch.
  • Close the whole thing down.

How do you connect the wiring harness of a recent BMW 5 Series?

For recent BMW 5 Seriess, the wiring harness is much less complicated to connect:

  • You can use a multiplexable box, you will find particular ones for your BMW 5 Series and universal models. It’s up to you to select according to your budget, know that a universal version costs between 30 and 60 euros.
  • Take out the trunk lining from your BMW 5 Series so that you can route the cables from your box to the front of your BMW 5 Series and connect them to your fuse box.
  • Install the case in the trunk properly.
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  • You don’t have to retrieve your cables from the trunk and connect them to your outlet.

How do you hook up the power to a trailer on BMW 5 Series?

Finally, to finish this content page we will quickly show you you how to produce the electrical connection of a caravan on your BMW 5 Series . To do this you will automatically have to go through one of the previous steps, it’s up to you to select the one that points your model and your budget. After you have conducted this, the last step will be to buy an adapter that goes from a 7-pin plug to a 13-pin plug so that you can benefit from the 12 volt current in your caravan. These adapters come at different prices, you will need to count between 15 and 40 euros. All you have to do is plug it into your 7-pin plug.

If you want more tutorials on the BMW 5 Series, go to our BMW 5 Series category.