Tekonsha PRIMUS Trailer Brake Controller Flashes a Message with No Trailer Connected

Question:

I believe my brakes are working, I tow a horse float and have a Primas controller. When I brake numbers do come up on the LED display, however when I am just driving along not braking it seems to flash something every so often..hard to read without going off road.. If all is ok does it just tell you its connected every 30 seconds or so?? I bought Landcruiser with it already installed so dont have manual..

asked by: Katherine J

Expert Reply:

After going over the possible error messages in the manual which I have linked for you, none of them seem to match what you are describing. The closest is the n.c. code which will flash for 15 seconds. It indicates that a trailer is not connected to the vehicle, a trailer is connected but there is a short on the brake line, the trailer connector is corroded, or there is a loss to the rake magnet ground.

This is possibly the code that comes up. What I recommend is checking the trailer connector on the vehicle to make sure that it is clean of any dirt and corrosion because that could be causing an intermittent error code. Also, you will want to check the ground wire (white) on the controller.

A lot of Toyota vehicles do have a port for a plug and play type of operation with a brake controller and wiring harness, but the ground from the factory is insufficient on the vehicle. In this case you would need to ground the white wire separately to a more substantial bare metal surface.

expert reply by: Michael H