Route from engine bay to cabin
 

Can you recommend a route from the engine bay to the cabin? I need to run two wires.
I'd prefer the near side.
At the moment I'm considering in via the bonnet pull cable but this is on the off side.

macafee2

I've done it in the past. In passenger footwell.

I think I had to remove the plastic wheel arch liner though :icon_confused: as that is where the wires come out. and then run into the engine bay. So not a 5 minute job

If you want to avoid damaging the cars wiring, make a new small hole in the rubber. It will self seal when a wire put though

Yes, in the passengers footwell the main harness passes through from the wheel arch.
Note. This grommet is double sided so you have to puncture it on the inside and outside. I used an old car speedo cable which can easily be passed through then with your cables attached you can pull them through.
Best to put a little sealer on the cab,Es where they pass through the grommet.

oh heck a major operation. I can't face doing that today!

I cant find a permanent live or switched live hanging loose in the rear of the tourer so will need to run from front of car.

So close but yet so far. At least I'll be able to use the trailer even if the caravan electrics wont be complete.

Thank you gents for the advice

macafee2

I'm all excited. Gone from depression to excitement :)

I found something on the net that refers to an orange/slate wire laying spare under the engine bay fuse box, doubled over and taped up. Had a look and it is there.
I'm not sure but I think the other end is taped up behind the passenger footwell fuse box.

If it is there and being a "thick" wire, I may be able to use that as my switched live as this powers the fridge and forget about the permanent live.
I think the permanent live is only used to power the caravan lights when connected to the car, I'll double check


macafee2

Hi Ian,
The "official" way was to use the orange/slate wire to provide the permanent live to the towing electrics, and then do the switching inside the car.
Probably the easiest way to do this is with a volt sensing relay, as these only require the battery supply and a return, then switch on when the battery voltage reaches ~13.5 volts.


Officially the towing eclectics gets it's supply from one of the fuses that feeds the Light switch, however if you look not very hard, then there is a spare fuse position in the under-bonnet fuse box (reserved for the self leveling suspension that we never got), this spare position goes to a spade connector that is unused, so could be utilized to provide an independent feed to the towing electrics (But you would need an additional fuse to fit there). This is what I have done, as this allowed me to have independent fuses for car lighting and caravan electrics.


Hope this is of some help
Chris

goodness I'm a dork.
Hours spent wasted, questions needlessly asked.

fuse 22 is a switched live and it's the towing accessories, just what I need
There is a spare wire from engine bay fuse box to cabin fuse box so that could be used.
A little confused as the sun roof fuse is in place which is a permanent live but I've no sunroof so I could piggy back that and use it.

macafee2

Chris, thank you. It is the orange/slate I've found. Engine bay fuse box does have a missing fuse but in a different location to the fuse box in my donor 1.8. I will check it goes to the single tag underneath the fuse box. The 1.8 fuse box does go to the single tag.

Now it seems to be falling into place.

macafee2

Hi Ian,

The fuse space I used is one of the screw down fuses, not the blade fuse, or the Maxi fuse.
Regards
Chris