As rumored, the 2005 Element does not have a trailer-tow plug connection behind the right rear paneling, as seems to be the case for the 2003-2004 models. The plug is actually in the spare tire compartment, and is designed for use with the Honda harness, part #08L91-SCV-102Y1. I purchased this part from H & A for $120.00

Photo 1 shows the contents of the Honda factory wiring harness that arrived from H & A Accessories. I have labeled the photo for easier reference.

Box Contents:
·Wiring Harness “A”.
·Wiring Harness “B”.
·Power Converter Box “C”.
·Bracket “D”, used to mount power converter box “C”
·7.5 amp mini-fuse
·Document “E”, listing maximum trailer lighting bulb wattages.
·4 qty assorted sticky-back foam strips that were not used.
·8 qty large black zip-ties that were not used.
·2 qty small white zip ties that were not used.
·1 small bracket that was not used, shown to the right of bracket “D”
·1 small bracket that was not used, shown to the left of the large zip ties.
·Installation instructions were missing from packaging from H & A. A previous post on 2-9-05, by member “Grey”, in a thread titled “05 Trailer Wiring” on EOC, was helpful to me when installing this harness and creating these instructions.

Installation Instructions:
1. Remove lower door-sill panel on driver’s side, which runs entire length of front & rear doors. This allows you to perform step 2.

2. Remove driver’s side left kick-panel.

3. Slide Bracket “D” onto Power Converter Box “C”, until it snaps into place.

4. Looking at photo 2, temporarily remove bolt at top of picture, using a 10mm socket. This will allow you mount bracket “D” under the existing bracket that was held in place by the bolt just removed.

5. Install wiring harness “A”. One end has 2 connectors and a fuse holder. Plug one of the connectors into the power converter box “C” that you just mounted. Plug the second connector into the existing plug that is blue-taped to the vehicle harness under the dash, above the driver’s side kick panel that was removed earlier. The fuse holder contains a supplied 5 amp fuse. The only function of this fuse is to power the trailer’s tail and marker lights. Once you have made these connections, you can route the other end of harness “A”, to a receiving plug that is hiding underneath the plastic flooring, under the driver’s seat. Proceed to step 6 to do this.

6. Slide driver’s seat fully forward, then remove hard plastic trim cover behind the seat. Pull up the plastic floor, and you will see the plug, as shown in photo 3. Initially, I routed the harness under the door-sill panel that was removed in step 1, but I found that the support ribs on the underside of the door-sill panel were cutting into the wiring harness. I decided to route the harness under the plastic floor material instead, which required me to temporarily remove the 4 bolts that hold the driver’s seat to the vehicle body. Use a 14mm socket to do this. Removing the seat is not as difficult as it sounds, and it created a much better install. Once you route the harness under the floor material, plug the harness into the plug under the seat. Re-install the seat. Re-install the plastic trim behind the seat. Re-install the driver’s side kick panel removed in step 2. Re-install the door-sill trim removed in step 1. This completes the install of harness “A”.

7. Move to the spare tire area to install harness “B”. Find the factory connector, which is blue-taped to the harness at the rear of the spare tire well. This connector can be seen in photo 4. Plug the connectors together, and you are done installing harness “B”. Unfortunately, this step was not this easy for me, as the male and female connectors were not wired identically.. ie.. the green(right turn/brake) and brown(tail-light) were reversed, and the white/black(ground) and yellow(left turn/brake) were reversed. This forced me to cut both connectors off, and hard-wire harness “B”. If you encounter this problem, it may be worth your time to go to the dealer and point this out to them, as they may have a “correctly” wired harness “B” as a fix. I chose not to route the harness and permanently mount the trailer “flat-four” connector on the outside of the vehicle. I prefer to keep the plug inside, away from water and salt, and pull the harness out whenever I want to tow.

8. The last step is to install the 2 supplied fuses. The first one should already be installed, as shown in step 5, and as stated earlier, powers the tail-lights and any marker lights. The second supplied mini-fuse, rated at 7.5 amps, needs to be installed in the fuse box under the hood. Install this fuse in the open space, marked “OP2”, which is also referred to as number “8”. This second fuse only powers the left turn, right turn, and brake lights. See photo 5.

Installation complete.

One additional note.
If you are considering installing a less expensive, non-OEM, non-powered converter harness, you should realize several things.

1. You will not have the safety for your vehicle wiring and electronics that a "powered" converter offers.

2. The connector plug that is in the rear tire well is "dead" as is from the factory. If you try to probe it for signal, you will get nothing. That is because the other end of this wiring merely dead-ends at the connector underneath the plastic floor under the driver's seat. So, unless you connect the plug under the seat to the plug under the dash as instructed, you will not get a signal.

If the connection was made from the under-seat to the dash, the rear connector would work, as the plug under the dash emits signal functions as-is from the factory, even if you do not use a "powered" converter. But, you would have to at least use a standard converter, so that you separate your turn and brake signals to work properly with the trailer lights. But, if you are going to put this much energy into installing a non-powered converter, save yourself some time, and hard-wire it directly into the rear turn signals, using 3M "wire-piercing" connectors.

Thanks for all the hard work!
Where will the the harness be pulled out through when you want to tow?

Thanks for the information.

E-nigma,

Thanks so very much for the hard work. Without you I would of had to take it to the dealer, but with your great instructions and PIC I got it done. Again many thanks.

Ivan

That's where it should have been all along. Also, that's where I store the pigtail when I am not towing.

the end is where it should have been!

but of course, just to keep things complicated, now you have to exchange the hard install on the back side, for one under the driver's seat!

why couldn't they just extend the wiring from the side to the spare well, yet keep the front end connected? that way, all you would need would be an extension-type cable to the hitch?

a way for them to make more money?

THANKS so much for the instructions.......I will be installing this on the two Elements we just purchased. You saved me a lot of time because I had ordered the old style wiring harness. Fortunately, I was able to cancel before it shipped.

<QOUTE> Unfortunately, this step was not this easy for me, as the male and female connectors were not wired identically.. ie.. the green(right turn/brake) and brown(tail-light) were reversed, and the white/black(ground) and yellow(left turn/brake) were reversed. This forced me to cut both connectors off, and hard-wire harness “B”. If you encounter this problem, it may be worth your time to go to the dealer and point this out to them, as they may have a “correctly” wired harness “B” as a fix <QUOTE>

Remember this part.....especially important. You can have your dealer move the pins for you and correct it so it be easier....or just do like E-Nigma and myself.....strip and connect

I ordered a 05 harness from H and A. After installation I found this thread and checked it out - it was not wired correctly. After a call to H and A I received the following email, and a nice call to see if I understood the required change. The fix was easy. I'm now very happy. Here's the post:

Here's a pic and some steps to rearrange the pins on the trailer harness gray connector that plugs into the existing gray connector in the spare tire well.

The connector shown, oriented as I'm holding it, will be considered "upright" for this instruction. Using needle-nose pliers, gently grasp the white insert inside the connector housing and pull it straight out from the housing. It may require a bit of wiggling as some of them are kind of tight. Be careful not to squeeze too hard or it may deform the insert. At the back side of the connector, you can take the electrical tape off and slide the conduit sleeve back from the housing, or just leave the tape in place and it will usually slide back ok, that way it won't need to be re-taped.

Going to step 2, using a small flat blade screwdriver, a jewelers screwdriver works well as the blade has to be a bit narrow, place the tip of the driver at the base of the pin just where it comes through the hole in the housing, don't push the end of the pin or it may bend. Gently push the pin upward toward the top of the housing and at the same time gently push it toward the back of the housing so it slips out through the back of the connector. It should come out very easily, so practically no force is required, if it feels stuck, try pushing upward a tiny bit more until it releases and comes out the back. Repeat with the other 3 pins.

Once all the pins are out, check the pins to make sure the little blue seals on the wires are ok and in place. They are not extremely critical as this connector is on the inside of the vehicle anyway and will most likely not see any weather. Refer to step 3 in the picture, looking at the back of the connector, just push the pins back into the connector in the same order as shown in the picture - white = upper left, brown = upper right, yellow = lower left, green = lower right. The flat side of the metal pin is the top of the pin, the little teeth that are on the pin are the bottom.

Slip the white insert back into the connector - it will only fit one way, so you may have to flip it over, and your done. Reconnect the connector and check the wire colors on both sides. They should match, green to green, brown to brown, etc., the only one that is different is the white wire on the trailer harness which is ground, goes to a black wire on the vehicle harness which is also ground, so that one is white to black.

If you run into any problems, you can call me at 888-440-8655, I usually get in about 7 am and here until around 4 pm Pacific time, Monday - Friday.

Thanks very much for your patience,

--Bill
Bill@HandA-Accessories.com

I'm not able to get the picture to paste here - the explanation works. If you need the picture, let me know - or let me know how to affix it.

Glenn (gkrum@aol.com)

Thanks for the great information and instructions. Just what I needed. Before I order the wiring kit from H & A have you heard if they have got the bugs worked out and replaced the harness you purchased with a corrected version?
Thanks for you help.
Lee
Georgia

Before I order the wiring kit from H & A have you heard if they have got the bugs worked out and replaced the harness you purchased with a corrected version?H & A is aware of the problem, and they should only be sending out the "fixed" product at this point. Call or email them to make sure this is the case.

Where are the images that go with the instructions?

My dealer called this afternoon and said they just got in the corrected 2005 harness. So I guess they are finally shipping the fixed harness's for the '05's, :grin: About time!!!! Tim

Where are the images that go with the instructions?You are right!

The pictures were missing when I checked the post at work yesterday. But this morning, I checked at home, and they are still there.

Very strange. I'm wondering if this problem is access-point related or website related.

Any thoughts?

I remember printing them out before, but now they do not show on my home computer. Mite be site related? Tim

I actually got a recall from Honda. I called the dealer and he said to bring the harness in and they would fix it. Since I hadn't installed it yet it took them less than ten minutes to make the wiring switch. Thanks for the great instructions and photo's since no instructions came with the parts and it's not mentioned in my service manual.

Well, I finally broke down and ordered the OEM harness from www.hondaacuraworld.com. $124 including shipping. That was about $6 cheaper than Hand-a... enough for a 6 pack to lubricate the installer. Hopefully, with all these pictures and info, I can pull it off "without a hitch" (pun obviously intended)

But I'm curious... how do you store the pigtail if you do route it to the outside? Does it just dangle freely or do you have to wrap it up around something to prevent it from dragging on the ground? And if you don't route it outside, what route does it follow when fed out from the wheel well? Is it in danger of getting pinched off by the floor boards or rear hatch? :? Maybe this is obvious but I haven't actually looked at it that closely yet.

Thanks for all the info. It's given me confidence to try this myself rather than pay through the nose for the local Honda dealer to do it... it's bad enough that the harness is $120... paying labor on top of that would probably send me over the edge! :twisted:

Well I'm here to say the instructions were very good. I just completed the installation with no problems. In your instructions you mentioned that you ran the wire under the floor which is fine. I noticed the sill cover did have an area that looked like it was for a harness to pass. It looked like if I could keep the wires running right down the center of the inside of the sill they would line up with the indentation. I used some electricians tape to keep the wires centered. When I installed the sill cover it went right in. I'll attach some photo's. The photo of the upside down sill cover shows a rope laying in the channel. The other shows where the wides should be taped. Hope this helps.
There was a questioned mentioned earlier about where to run the wires out the rear of the car. This hasn't been answered yet. I see the rubber grommet on the wires but don't see the hole to put it. Anybody got an answer?

Go to H and A and download the instructions to install the harness. It will tell you how to take the bumper off (30 min off and on total) That is where you will find the hole for the rubber grommet and where to run the rest of the wir

better yet.....just click here ------> http://www.handaaccessories.com/element/05hitch.pdf

it's only like 10 clips and 2 screws and the bumper is off!!!

hope this helps!!

Yes, that does help, Thank you. While you were giving me what I needed I went searching other threads and found someone with a Valley Hitch that said he can't remove the bumper without lowering the hitch. Guess what kind of hitch I have!! The e is covered with salt, thanks to the latest weather, so I'm just going to run it out the tailgait for now until the weather clears up enough to give this thing a bath. Thanks again for the info.

I finally got around to installing my harness this weekend. I followed the Hand-A instructions to the letter and everything went very smoothly. I was very careful and kept stopping to review the next step but all told, it took me about 1 hr to install the rear harness (from wheel well out through bumper to hitch and about 1.5 hrs to install the harness from under the dash back to underneath the driver's seat. Overall, I'm very pleased. Admittedly, it can be a bit unnerving popping those clips loose but given my lack of mechanical apptitude, I'd cite my success as proof that this install can be performed by just about anyone! :D

Enjoy,
Shawn

Well, I finally broke down and ordered the OEM harness from www.hondaacuraworld.com. $124 including shipping. That was about $6 cheaper than Hand-a... enough for a 6 pack to lubricate the installer. Hopefully, with all these pictures and info, I can pull it off "without a hitch" (pun obviously intended)

But I'm curious... how do you store the pigtail if you do route it to the outside? Does it just dangle freely or do you have to wrap it up around something to prevent it from dragging on the ground? And if you don't route it outside, what route does it follow when fed out from the wheel well? Is it in danger of getting pinched off by the floor boards or rear hatch? :? Maybe this is obvious but I haven't actually looked at it that closely yet.

Thanks for all the info. It's given me confidence to try this myself rather than pay through the nose for the local Honda dealer to do it... it's bad enough that the harness is $120... paying labor on top of that would probably send me over the edge! :twisted:

Hello All,

If I could get a few good closeup pics of the pinouts of the two cables in that kit I will show everyone how to build these for a FRACTION of the price paid. I just need to know what color wire goes to which pin and the numbers off of the molex connectors involved (both male and female) would wrap things up nicely. At this stage I think a $80 savings is fair to say. Anyone care to help out here? I'll do the "grunt" work . . .

Thanks
Al

If I could get a few good closeup pics of the pinouts of the two cables in that kit I will show everyone how to build these for a FRACTION of the price paid. I just need to know what color wire goes to which pin and the numbers off of the molex connectors involved (both male and female) would wrap things up nicely. At this stage I think a $80 savings is fair to say. Anyone care to help out here? I'll do the "grunt" work . . .


You'll need someone who hasn't installed theirs yet... now that mine is in, I'm certainly not pulling things apart to take pics... Still, you could basically just look at the existing tail in the 2005 wheel wheel and see the wire colors and pin configuration... You'll also need a compatible powered converter box to be equivalent to what comes with the OEM harness...

Don't get me wrong... I applaud the effort and I still think that Honda is a total wank for not installing the wiring harness at the factory but in the end, it just didn't seem worth the time or effort to have to build a harness myself which at best would only be equivalent to the OEM model and more probably somewhat inferior...

However, if you succeed, I figure that those that have yet to buy and install the durn thing will probably be beating a path to your door however!

Good luck...

Hello All,

If I could get a few good closeup pics of the pinouts of the two cables in that kit I will show everyone how to build these for a FRACTION of the price paid. I just need to know what color wire goes to which pin and the numbers off of the molex connectors involved (both male and female) would wrap things up nicely. At this stage I think a $80 savings is fair to say. Anyone care to help out here? I'll do the "grunt" work . . .

Thanks
Al


I keep watching your post to see if someone answers. I don't have the harness, but will need one this Spring. This would be great if you can make it work!!

Ken

I keep watching your post to see if someone answers. I don't have the harness, but will need one this Spring. This would be great if you can make it work!!

Ken

Hey Ken,

Yeah! This should be a new thread !!! (I don't have the clout to start my own yet!) Better advertising for sure. I have a ton of wiring experience and currently work as a Network Specialist for an IT outfit. So this won't be anything intimidating. I just want to have a view of the original equipment for assurance. If no one responds then I will go for it anyway (won't be the first time or last!).

patience is a virtue?

Al-out.

To "exit" the trailer wire harness I used a hole saw and made a thru-hole in the side of the spare tire well. The hole should be the same diameter as "groove" diameter of the rubber grommet provided on the harness. I made the hole mid-way up on the driver side of the well. The hole must be on the flat wall of the well, not on a curved area. The sheet metal is very thin and drills thru easily. Drill from the inside with the spare removed. I inserted the grommet, caulked from both inside and outside as insurance. I routed the harness along the hitch to the passenger side with zip-ties. I secure the excess (trailer connector plug) when not in use by folding the harness over and using a strip (strap) of double sided velcro to keep it up along the hitch cross member. It's out of sight yet accessible.

The exact placement of the hole isn't critical. Pick a spot that you can reach from underneath to caulk around the grommet. Drill a small pilot hole to verify. If the pilot hole isn't in a good location when viewed from below it is easily sealed with a dab of caulk and it gives you a reference from which to adjust your location. I didn't like the idea if running the cable out the rear hatch and possibly damaging the weather stripping. That's OK if seldom done, I suppose. This method makes trailer hook up a snap. I usually have the back of the E all loaded up before I hook the trailer and don't have access to the spare tire well to dig out the harness.

I'm not clear why did you needed to cut another hole? There's already a hole leading out form the spare tire well to below the bumper... (you have so snake the cable over a few inches to from exit to entry point but it was pretty easy). Check out the factory harness install directions from Hand-A for details...


To "exit" the trailer wire harness I used a hole saw and made a thru-hole in the side of the spare tire well. The hole should be the same diameter as "groove" diameter of the rubber grommet provided on the harness. I made the hole mid-way up on the driver side of the well. The hole must be on the flat wall of the well, not on a curved area. The sheet metal is very thin and drills thru easily. Drill from the inside with the spare removed. I inserted the grommet, caulked from both inside and outside as insurance. I routed the harness along the hitch to the passenger side with zip-ties. I secure the excess (trailer connector plug) when not in use by folding the harness over and using a strip (strap) of double sided velcro to keep it up along the hitch cross member. It's out of sight yet accessible.

The exact placement of the hole isn't critical. Pick a spot that you can reach from underneath to caulk around the grommet. Drill a small pilot hole to verify. If the pilot hole isn't in a good location when viewed from below it is easily sealed with a dab of caulk and it gives you a reference from which to adjust your location. I didn't like the idea if running the cable out the rear hatch and possibly damaging the weather stripping. That's OK if seldom done, I suppose. This method makes trailer hook up a snap. I usually have the back of the E all loaded up before I hook the trailer and don't have access to the spare tire well to dig out the harness.

putting in my order in a few minutes.....lot of good info here thanks guys..

I came to this forum because I discovered that the 2006 harness was
not the same as the 2004 (the parts online ended with 2004 models).
Is the 2006 harness setup the same as the 2005?
Thanks.

I came to this forum because I discovered that the 2006 harness was
not the same as the 2004 (the parts online ended with 2004 models).
Is the 2006 harness setup the same as the 2005?
Thanks.

Yes, the '06 harness is the same as the '05.

I ordered the wiring harness and never installed it.

After reading this thread I will not be using a cheap harness I guess. $16.00 sounded nice but maybe troublesome.

Hi, new member....just finished the install on our 08. Just an FYI, the only thing you need to remove for the install on the 08 is the fuse cover! (I wish I figured that out before I took everything apart.....the one time I actually read the directions......:roll:)

What do you mean you only removed the fuse cover? How did you route the wires??:twisted: I'm planning on ordering one harness kit soon....:confused:

Thank you all for this information :)

I'm gonna stick on a Class II or III hitch to my '05, because even though right now I just want to stick a bike rack on it, some day I want a jet ski or iCamp Elite.. a boy can dream, right?

Since I'll definitely go with the OEM harness, I want to know if I can save the money by putting off that purchase until I'm actually going to hook up a trailer. Is that something you want to handle before the hitch goes on, though?

Is that something you want to handle before the hitch goes on, though?

Nope....go ahead and do the hitch first, but leave the center bumper clip off so that the bumper can be removed later w/o lowering the hitch. See details of this in the hitch install sticky.

I see that U-Haul has a hitch for the 05 Element. Do they put in the wiring too? I wonder how much their wiring kit is and if it will work correctly?

Thoughts?

Awesome, thank you so much ApriliaGuy.

And Steve, I can answer that for you since I had scheduled with U-Haul to have this done (but was planning to cancel after reading all this).

Quote right in front of me (though I imagine it depends on your location) for hitch and wiring installation:

HITCH3, ROUND TUBE, HONDA ELEM
$134.95

Hitch Labor per hour
$60.00

CONVERTER, 3 TO 2 WIRE
$16.95

Wiring Labor per hour
$60.00

Hitch Warranty
$5.00

I may end up dropping the wiring portion and going with the install anyway, because I'm not very handy with a socket. May be worth the $60 for me.

Oh yeah, it's worth the $60 to let them do it. I don't have the time and it would take me all day vs their one hour.

Haha, well this is interesting.

I just called to have the work order changed to drop the wiring, and they couldn't find my work order. So I set it up again, but this time I was speaking to someone different and the labor charge according to her is only $30.

So I guess the guy I spoke to in person other day was trying to overcharge me on labor (twice)... He was a little rude, too. But thankfully he can't use a computer!

So the total is now $183.53 with tax.

Awesome! My local U-Haul quoted me $165.56 total for the hitch and wiring installed, drive-out! I will do that!

NNOOOOO!!!
Don't let Uhaul do your wiring. They are going to use wire taps into your lovely wiring, to a 3 to 2 converter, to the 4 prong flat plug. Suck it up and get the factory harness. (This applies to 2005 E's-Honda got stupid for a year).
I put on a 1-1/4" receiver Hidden Hitch. Took 10 minutes, including going to the basement refrigerator to get a beer. I don't think the factory hitch takes much longer.
The wiring harness will take longer than that, but it's not difficult. It all plugs in (and in and in and in...a completely stupid number of plugs.) Took me about an hour or so to install the harness.

What is the difference between these two harnesses?

08L91-SCV-102Y1
08L91-SCV-102

The one mentioned in this thread (08L91-SCV-102Y1) is now selling for around $74.

When I search on Honda parts sites the part number comes up as 08L91-SCV-102 which is selling for around $117.

The part number mentioned in this thread should work and save me some money. Am I correct?

TIA,

Andy

What is the difference between these two harnesses?

08L91-SCV-102Y1
08L91-SCV-102

The one mentioned in this thread (08L91-SCV-102Y1) is now selling for around $74.

When I search on Honda parts sites the part number comes up as 08L91-SCV-102 which is selling for around $117.

The part number mentioned in this thread should work and save me some money. Am I correct?

TIA,

Andy

Here is what I get from a couple of Honda Parts sites:

08L91-SCV-100 03-04 Wiring Harness
08L91-SCV-101 03-04 Wiring Harness
08L91-SCV-102 05-06 Wiring Harness
08L91-SCV-100A 07-11 Wiring Harness

I would get the kit for the year of your Element. I dont know what exactly
changed, but if one wire changed, then the control module or the lights
wont work properly. They all had about the same price on the sites I checked.
Not sure why some places add the Y1 to the end of the part number. It is
the part number that the OP used, so Im sure it will be fine.

In 05 there is a lot more to it. You have to remove the front seat and the door sill to run part of the wiring. You have to remove the bumper to put the rear part in. As said above, buy the one for your vehicle, they are different.

08L91-SCV-102Y1 is the part number for the harness that connects under the spare tire cover. The OP may have just mentioned the part number for reference purposes.

You will need to buy the comeplete kit.

08L91-SCV-102Y1 is the part number for the harness that connects under the spare tire cover. The OP may have just mentioned the part number for reference purposes.

You will need to buy the comeplete kit.

Thanks. That explains it. I was confused as to what the "Y1" part was for.

I contacted Hondapartsnow.com and gave them my VIN. They said I would need 08L91-SCV-102.

Andy