Trailer Wiring Harness Installation - 2012 Kia Sportage

Installation of a Trailer Wiring Harness on a 2012 Kia Sportage

Today on our 2012 Kia Sportage, were gonna install a Tow-Ready T1 Connector part number 118526. First, were gonna need to access the cargo area of the vehicle. Next were gonna remove the rear cargo liner and flooring. Were gonna remove the rear cargo tray compartment also. Now, with that out of the way, well go ahead and remove the rear threshold. To remove the rear threshold, there are three fasteners that well have to remove first.

These are plastic screwed-in fasteners with the center where the center will screw out then you can remove the whole fastener. Quick tech tip: Be very gentle with these as they can strip out easily. With the three fasteners removed, well go ahead and pop the rear threshold loose. Well take that an set it aside for reinstallation later. Next, were gonna go ahead and remove the two fasteners holding the taillight assembly.

With our fasteners removed, were gonna pull the assembly, straight back and pop it free from the sheet metal. At this point, well go ahead and disconnect the taillight assembly at the wiring connector. Simply pressing the locking tab and disconnect tube wiring connectors. Ill set the taillight assembly aside for reinstallation later. Now were gonna remove the three fasteners holding the driver side trim panel in place.

Next is underneath the vehicle. We need to locate the rear wiring harness connection here on the driver side inside the bumper cover attached to the sheet metal. Well pop it free, press on the locking tab and disconnect the tube. Now, what we can do is go ahead and take the gromit where it comes through the floor board of the vehicle and simply push it up into the cargo area. Next well do is get inside of the vehicle and were gonna make a connection in line with the manufacturers from these two connectors.

Now were back inside the, we can go ahead and reach behind the driver side trim panel and locate the wire, well just push back up into the vehicle. Heres the connection point. Now what were gonna do is go ahead and connect our new Tow-Ready harness. This will be the one on the same side as your yellow and green wire, your gray connector, the black power wire, white wire with the ring terminal. These wires along with your new 4-pole connector will all stay inside the vehicle. The other side of our gromit, the ones that well be feeding back down through the gromit we just removed is going to be the red and brown wire thatll feed up behind the plastic bumper fascia and sheet metal to the taillight housing and the new territory connector that well plug in to the connection point that weve just removed underneath. Feed the wires underneath now. Now well go ahead and make our connection here snapping the two connection in place. Now weve made our connection that well be feeding outside the vehicle, Im gonna go ahead and start routing my power wire coz well use the gromit to run it outside the vehicle. The power wire will connect here that runs through our gray plug that will connect to the converter box. So lets go ahead. Well first cut the zip tie on our gromit, you go ahead and feed your power wire up from underneath through the whole where we push our gromit through, itll make it much easier to get your wire outside the vehicle. Now well take our power wire, feed it through the gromit. So well make our connection here for the converter box. Before I make that connection, well go ahead and take a zip tie and resecure our wiring to the gromit. Well pull our zip tie nice and tight, this will seal it off from entering the element from outside and then well cut off the excess. Now, before we go ahead and feed our wires underneath, we can go ahead and make our connection with the power wire. Well simply strip back our power wire, put it into our butt connector and clamp it down. Now were ready to go ahead and feed our wire behind our trim panel underneath the vehicle and put our gromit in place. Now with our wires outside the vehicle, we can go ahead and pull our gromit into position. Now with our wires outside, well go ahead and run back over the manufacturers plug and make our connection there, locking them into place. Take the red and brown wire, its gonna feed up behind the body panel to the tail light assembly. Quick tech assembly: if you attach your wire to a piece of tubing, strip wire or even a rope, itll make it easier to pull up behind the taillight assembly. Im gonna use a piece of tubing in this application. Now weve got our wire fed up behind taillight assembly, well go ahead and remove our pull wire, we can make the connection to the manufacturers wiring then to our taillight assembly and reinstall it. With our taillight assembly reinstalled, we can go ahead and go on to mounting our wire. Our ground wire is the white wire with the ring terminal already attached. Were gonna mount it inside to the sheet metal of the vehicle. The best location back here is gonna be where the two pieces of sheet metal overlap and it will be the thickest and most secure location. Taking our self-tacking screw provided on our install kit, we can simply run it right into the sheet metal. With our ground wire attached, we can now go ahead and connect our converter box and mount. When mounting the converter box, you wanna make sure you go to an area thats clean and flat, preferably sheet metal. Just not in the driver side trim panel. Floor board of the vehicle is a perfect location. Now were ready to go ahead and reassemble the interior. Alright, now were gonna go ahead and route our power wire up to the battery. When routing your power, you wanna make sure you stay away from moving components such as a steering suspension or excessive heat such as exhaust. Alright, now with our wire up here in the engine compartment, we have some excess so well go ahead and trim it off and add our fuse holder. Our fuse holder will come in our installation kit like this. What we want is a lead long enough to come up through the cover and make a connection to the batteries. So Im gonna go ahead and trim our fuse holder here with just a little end thatll connect to my power wire and a longer end thatll run up the positive battery terminal cover and make my terminal connection. Lets go ahead and strip the fuse holder back, add our butt connector and our terminal and route it up to the battery terminal cover. On the other end, we can go ahead and add our butt connector. Lets go ahead and route it up inside the battery cover. Theres a latch on the cover to open. Lets go ahead add our ring terminal to our fuse holder. Now Im gonna go ahead and cutoff the excess length from my power wire strip it back and add it to the butt connector. As you can see, weve not added the fuse to the fuse holder yet and we wont do that until we complete making our connection to the battery terminal. Now, using a couple of black zip ties, well go ahead and secure our wiring and our fuse holder. Alright, now we can just go ahead and take our side cutters, cutoff the excess from our zip ties, well make our connection with the battery terminal. Well go ahead and close the cover and now we can add our fuse. We take our 15 amp fuse and install it to the fuse holder and put our cap on. Now with everything installed, lets go ahead and show you how to use your new 4-pole connection. Simply open up the rear cargo door, open up the rear cargo compartment, well take our 4-pole harness route it out to your trailer hitch or accessory and we can go ahead and close the door on the harness as the leather stripping is thick enough that it wont harm the wire. However, do stay away from the latch as it can damage the wire. And there you have it for our new Tow-Ready T1 connector part number 118526 on our 2012 Kia Sportage.