We found out that both our tail lights and our left turn signal light were out. The guy at the Honda place said that he thought that the person who put the hitch on our brand new car screwed something up. He said that 3 bulbs were burned out as well as 2 fuses. He replaced the bulbs and fuses and everything has been working. We pulled our light weight trailer about 4 times before the car was inspected. The car passed inspection. Then this problem showed up about a month later after we had pulled the trailer once or twice more. I’m afraid if I take it back to the guy who put the hitch on, he will just say that he did it right. Why didn’t the fuses protect the bulbs from burning out? Could the problem be that water got into the hitch wiring. We wrapped the end of the wires in plastic but noticed water got into the area anyway. Why didn’t the problem show up right away? Could the problem show up again even if we don’t pull the trailer. What should I do next.
I doubt the bulbs burned out because you’re towing a trailer. If the bulbs were all installed at the same time (ie factory), there’s a good chance they break all around the same time. Manufacturers have failure rates down to an exact science so they know when you’ll be back to buy another set of bulbs.
Buy a set and keep them in the glovebox. They fail from time to time.
Trailers are notorious for having light and wiring problems. Connections rust and fray and come loose and cause fuses to blow. I have had to just rewire mine a number of times with new wire and lights. You can also have a problem with the harness wiring but may want to have a third party check on that. Can’t see how bulbs would get blown from a wiring problem but from an excessive voltage output from the alternator.
I have had issues with my light weight trailer wiring even when it was new. The cheap wiring would fray, or the pinch type splices would short to the frame and blow the fuses, but that never took out a bulb, just the fuses. I finally rewired my trailer with 14 ga. romex and used the bare wire as a copper ground instead of the trailer chassis. I also replaced the lamps with LEDs, no light issues since.
In most vehicles, the trailer wiring adapter is a prewired adapter that is inserted between the halves of the cross connect between the taillights of the tow vehicle, its hard to mess up.