Had a Blue Ox baseplate and a Demco brake system installed by an authorized installer about 2 1/2 weeks ago in my 2018 Equinox. They put a 6 pin round plug in the front to connect signals from my coach to the Equinox. No issues, until it rained out. The L and R turn signals started hyper-flashing. I ended up pulling the 2 fuses installed with the light kit. Took the car to the installer and they supposedly fixed it as they found water in the connector. Next rain, same issues with some more observations of the opposite blinker dimly lighting when the requested signal was hyper flashing and a brake LED board that lights up indicating the car brakes are on, was lit up indicating they were when they weren't. Back to the installer. More water supposedly. They packed the connector with dielectric grease inside and out. No issues again, until the next rain. Hyper flashing again with intermittent opposite blinker lightly flashing too. LED brake on indicating board was not lit this time. I opened the spring loaded door on the front plug and blew air into the plug with a leaf blower for about 10 minutes. When testing, the L blinker seemed to be flashing just fine, but the R still hyper flashing. The next day, Saturday, I found some wiring diagrams online of both the brake system and the tail light wiring. The tail lights each required diode assemblies installed. I pulled the tail lights and they were installed correctly. Looked around for any sharp edges where the insulation around a wire may have been cut and found nothing. As far as I can tell, without unwinding a lot of electrical tape, everything looks fine. I did not disassemble the front plug as I paid this installer a lot of money to do this and will be bringing the car back in to them Monday morning. I'm very skeptical of the water in the plug theory. I've accidentally put boat trailers in the water with the plug still connected and had no issues. This brake system and signal connector have a common problem that I can't figure out. Unless it is a common problem, common like a ground needed somewhere. I found an added ground on top of the L strut mount that checked true as a ground. The Equinox always works fine when I pull the fuses added for the Demco brake system. TBD
Update 6/13/2022 - Upon disassembling the female connector with male plugs at the front of the vehicle, and even though the installer crammed it with dielectric grease, I found water in the "protective boot". Not only water, but I noticed a single strand of copper wire possibly touching the center pin which carries 12V from the coach to the car to keep the car battery from dying while being towed. As long as the 30 amp fuse is in, that center pin is live! That might explain all the other crazy observations besides the hyper flashing turn signals.
Update 6/13/2022 - Upon disassembling the female connector with male plugs at the front of the vehicle, and even though the installer crammed it with dielectric grease, I found water in the "protective boot". Not only water, but I noticed a single strand of copper wire possibly touching the center pin which carries 12V from the coach to the car to keep the car battery from dying while being towed. As long as the 30 amp fuse is in, that center pin is live! That might explain all the other crazy observations besides the hyper flashing turn signals.
