Connecting Electric Trailer Brake Controller to 2020 Chevy Traverse
Updated 08/26/2020 | Published 08/24/2020
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Question:
I am connecting a tekonsha 90160 brake controller to a 2020 traverse that does not have the factory tow package. The dealer has installed a hitch and 7 connector plug and I have pulled a trailer and all of the lights work correctly on the trailer. I have found the 4 wires that are to the left of the drivers left footowners manual tells you where they are. I have 12 volts on the power wire but I do not get any voltage on the wire brake applied signal. This is a white/blue wire on the traverse and is also stated in the owners manual. Do you know if there is another jumper that is needed to be completed for this signal to work? I have put a volt meter on the wire and shows about .569 volt before pressing brake and .572 volt when pressing brake. Not much change but there is a difference. Also with ohms 25.87 M ohm, then 25.98 M ohm when pressing brake. If you have any helpful ideas I would sure appreciate it. Thanks.
asked by: Jeff T
Expert Reply:
The 2020 Traverse without factory 7-way will require running the # 5506 wiring to connect to your 7-way unless those wires were already run when you added the 7-way. There won't be factory wires run for those functions. Then for your brake controller # TK90160 you will want to connect the blue wire to the brake controller output wire that connects to the 5 o'clock pin on your 7-way. It sounds like you found a 12v power, but you will want to make sure it has the circuit breaker, so I'd run a separate one to the brake controller with the circuit breaker. Finally the red wire will need to be tapped into the violet with white tracer wire that will come from the BCM (body control module). This wire goes to the center high mounted stop lamp so it is isolated to only use the stop lamp signal.
