Swift Caravan LED light issue

MikeB123 replied on 01/11/2020 21:14

Posted on 01/11/2020 21:14

Hi guys,

Hoping you can help. Collected by new LR Discovery 5 a couple of weeks ago. When hooked up to my caravan (2016 Swift Challenger), the car isn’t reconginising it’s connected.
All the lights on the caravan work fine, but the flashing trailer indicator on the dash etc doesn’t function.
Im aware of the Swift LED lights issue, so I’ve spoken to Sergent and purchased a VLM unit, but when I connected that up, none of the caravan lights work at all. They weren’t much help on which model I needed, as apparently not had an issue with a discovery 5 before.
Appreciate it’s not a major issue, but just annoys me having such a competent tow car and not have all the features working properly. Im hoping I’m not the only one with this car/caravan combo. Seems crazy this problem exists.
Any help/advice would be really appreciated as it’s driving me mad.
Thanks.

Tirril replied on 01/11/2020 21:43

Posted on 01/11/2020 21:43

I had the same issue with a Discovery Sport 2017 model where the car did not recognise the caravan was plugged in. My model had the tow assist facility which obviously did not function. Also the green indicator light on the dash board which normally flashing when using the trafficators did not work although the indicators on the rear of the caravan did. The third problem was when reversing the car gave a warning that it was close to something (the caravan). The answer was getting the Sargent box, from memory a VLM 4. I went on line to Sargent and had to type in the caravan Chris number which not only got the right model but also earned a £10 discount which Swift and Sargent had agreed.

I wired it in myself which basically involved unplugging two coloured lighting connectors under the left front seat in the caravan close to the bulk head. The device was then connected between the two sets of plugs. They are both separate colours and fitting types so impossible to get wrong. At first I thought I had got it wrong as nothing worked but found that you had to start the engine and drive forward a foot or two and then the lights activated. I wonder if this is your problem or like me just expected it to work once wired. I guess it is part of the electronics checking procedure.  Everything functioned after that including the lights check (if yours has that option) where it tests all the lights in turn. Hope this helps.  

MikeB123 replied on 02/11/2020 21:53

Posted on 02/11/2020 21:53

Thanks for taking the time to reply. 
Spoke to Sargent again and got it sorted. The instructions with the VLM unit only state to use the second wiring connection between the fuse board and VLM if you have ATC installed. As I don’t have that I didn’t connect it. 
Turns out this connection actually supplies the power to the VLM box, so you need to connect it either way. You’d have thought the instructions would make this a bit clearer. Hopefully someone else reads this and won’t make the same mistake and save themselves a lot of time trawling google. 
thanks again. 

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