166, towbar wiring, help?

I have just spent many hours fitting a lovely Brink towbar to my 166 2.0TS, (well, you never know when you may have to tow another purchase home). I have looked at the workshop CD, and it seems to suggest that the spare socket adjacent to the fuse and relay board in the right side of the boot is a trailer specific socket. Can anybody confirm that i can just connect the tow bar socket wires to this? A major Tow equipment supplier's website sells a vehicle specific wiring kit for £140, any idea why if the connection is already in the boot? Or would this kit perhaps be for twin electrics? Any chance any of you guys could have a look, or maybe take a picture. GIBBO, can you help? I want to avoid having any 'auto electricians' touch my car after previous bodgery by so called specialists.Thanks all.

the socket is there but you'll need that expensive plug in kit for it! Just buy a 7way relay and splice it into the rear cluster....that's what i did and it works a treat

Thanks Niall, i have ordered one from towsure.

How did you get to the reversing lights in the boot lid niall ? does the loom along the back of the car contain the reverse wires aswell ?

is this what i need 7 Way Bypass Relay from Towsure

yup, i think that will do the job....to be honest i can't remember what i did for the reversing lights...actually, i don't think you need to wire them in as they are not part of the standard trailer lights.

actually, i think you need a slightly more sophisticated one that that...it says it's not suitable for modulated outputs. The one i used had an IC controller and wasn't just a plain old relay.

no your right, tialers dont tend to have reversing lights... what a dummy

do 166's actually monitor the lights ? i recently was driveing without a headlamp main beam bulg and nothing cam up

Ok i look for the modulated type

cheers

Andy

166 light sensors are not left on, but come on for a set time 30s-1m ish when it detects a blown bulb.

The yellow bulb symbol on the dash should stay on after the check routine, or come on when the light is used.

My trailer specific connector was wired with 3 wires. The trailer specific cable was wired with 6 wires. The result: Only the warning lights left and right worked OK. I also had a check panel indication of a lamp failure on the back of the car although all lamps were fine. The fix: An additional cable from the control box in front of the car to the battery and 3 additional wires to the trailer specific cable. For some 2000 models Alfa decided not to install this cable.

i didn't use the alfa wiring - the kit to use it was about 120 quid and a relay that lets you splice into the rear light wiring only cost me 20 quid