I have a very basic 1994 Volvo 850 and I would like to hook-up some trailer wiring,(4) wire. There are some taps on the back of the light sockets, do I tap off of those or splice into the lighting string? Does anyone have the color code to the back light wires?
Thanks,
faaseworks

I used female 0.250 spade connectors to tap off the matching extra male connectors on the
rear of the tail light and turn signals of my wagon.
Strangely the brake circuit didn't have the extra tap, so I added one.
I used a Uhaul wiring converter and everything works fine. No issues with the
lamp out indicator.

Can you tell us what U-Haul converter you used? Part number?

Thanks.

You might consider getting a wiring harness from the dealer. More costly, but probably easy to install and you won't have problems with the bulb-out indicator lighting up.

I need to disagree with the comment about the 850 being a poor choice for towing. An auxiliary ATF cooler is always a good idea (along with regular ATF flushes), and you should avoid towing any significant load in 4th (frequent shifting back to third is the worst thing that you can do). It seems to be the heat, not the load that causes problems. However, towing is not an afterthought for Volvo. I've had more than 3,000 lbs behind my S60 and it handled it very well. A thousand pound trailer that is well-balanced is hardly noticeable. The S60 has independent rear suspension and a wider rear track, but I would expect the 850 to do fine as well if a little thought is put into hitch setup and the load being towed.

Check out http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/02/27/211961.html

The 850 is a VERY poor choice to tow anything with. The transmission wasn't built heavy enough to support it and there is no aux. tranny cooler installed to help cool it down. There's no internal tranny filter to catch the parts coming off either. The brakes and suspension are not the best for any heavy load either.

But anyway, here's the color coding to the rear lights:

Black = Ground
Blue = Reverse Lights
Yellow/Grey = Left Stop Light
Yellow/Brown = Right Stop Light
Blue/Green = Right Turn Signal
Green = Left Turn Signal
Grey/White = Parking Lights
Green/Yellow = Parking Lights


With separate brake and turn signal circuits you are better off to get the trailer light adapter harness from Hoppys to wire your connections. The typical trailer harness doesn't have separate turn/brake wiring, so you need the Hoppy adapter.






Mike
'95 850T

Thanks for the info - hooked up the wires per your print out nad every thing worked fine. As for towing - I pull (2) small dirt bikes around and it does just fine.