Troubleshooting No Power on 12V Pin for a 2008 Nissan Frontier

Question:

I purchased your wiring harness and trailer hitch for my 2008 Nissan Frontier in 2016. It just came to my attention that the constant 12V pin black wire, 2 oclock does not have power. I checked the connection with a voltmeter grounded to the white wire 7 oclock and have no power. I browsed through the etrailer website looking for answers and looked further into the brown relay in the passenger kick panel. I tried to jump the pins to test for a bad relay with little success and had a LED light hooked up to +/- on the 7 way plug in case I ever got power. I checked my trailer fuses, continuity in the Etrailer harness and for recessed terminals and pins in the relay as well as the harness and the plug on my frame. I crawled under the length of my truck wiggling the wire in case of broken strands inside of it. Again , at any point had I got power I would have seen the light turn on. All my other wires on the 7 way are working along with the brake controller which connects at the same point as the black wire. Is there a part I am missing? How can I jump the pins on the brown relay to test for a bad relay? Is there a different fuse involved other than the 2 marked trailer/tow ? What pin can I test on the relay for continuity between the relay and the +12v on the 7 way? Any information will help , thanks

asked by: Cody H

Expert Reply:

The easiest way to determine if a relay is bad is to swap it with a relay that you know is working and see if that fixes the problem. If it is the relay then you will simply need to replace the brown relay that you mentioned like what comes in the Kit # C57000.

The only other thing I can think is that the power wire itself is damaged somewhere. I tried looking up your order but I couldn't find anything. If you can let me know what your order number is or the email address you used to place the order then I can get a better idea of what connections you have. Otherwise the next best thing would be to take a circuit tester like part # PTW2991 and pierce the black 12V wire you mentioned at different locations to see if there is a drop off or if the wire is getting any power at all.

expert reply by: Jon G