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Wiring help from anyone that knows?

4K views 31 replies 7 participants last post by  The Ikon 
#1 ·
Ive purchased a set of LED lights that I am adding as footwell lighting and underglow to the car. The underglow im going to put on a 2 way switch, the footwell lighting I want to just have tied into the fog lights. So ill use the existing fog switch as an on/off for it so it will be on with lights.
I also want all of these to come on with my dome light, so when I unlock the car, it will glow.

Questions, for those that know more about current and wiring than myself:
If I wire into my fog lights, when I turn my high beams on will my footwell lights also go off?
How do I wire this so that it will get current from the dome light and come on with it, even if the switches are off, but then turning the switches on will not turn the dome on as well?

I may have worded this poorly, if anyone knows about this stuff but needs clarification on anything, please just ask.

Thanks in advance for all assistance =)
 
#2 ·
@JohnWR is going to be your best bet. The man is a wiring guru. I'll give it my best shot though.

So if you tie in the footwell lights to the fog lights, they will go on and off with the fog lights. Thus if you turn on your high beams, you footwell lights would, in theory, go off. However, the fog light switch is a momentary ground switch that just sends a signal to the BCM that you want the lights on...if I remember correctly (JohnWR please correct me if I'm wrong here...)

What would seem to make more sense to me is tying into your fog light switch but running that to a relay that will make a connection when it's trigger is grounded then maintain the connection until that trigger is grounded again or the power to the car is shut off. Then the output of that relay would go to your footwell lights.

To tie that into your dome lights, you would need to tie into the power wire of your dome lights after the control that is used to dim them (again, JohnWR is going to be far better with this one) then run that with an inline diode (which will only allow power to run in one direction...from the dome light power to the underbody and footwell lights) to your other lights. However you'll also want to put a Diode on the power wire that is used to power them when you're driving otherwise you'll cause a short on that curcuit instead.

Hope this helps and hope John comes in here and fixes what is probably the ton of mistakes in my idea. LOL
 
#4 ·
The responses (even, I have a hard time saying, Mike's) are essentially correct.

That said, what you are wanting to do doesn't make sense to me, mainly: Why tie them into the fog lights? Are you planning to keep the fog lights? Do you want the new lighting to go off when the high beams are activated?

This is the bolster that Mike referenced: https://www.factoryoemparts.com/06-09-pontiac-solstice-knee-bolster-under-column-trim-15920829 If your desire is to have a factory-look switch installation and maintain fog light control, it will give you the second switch location.

Robo is correct that the fog light switch is momentary and that the on-off logic is handled in the BCM, with the output happening in the UFB. This further complicates your footwell lighting because you now have to get a wire from under the hood into the cockpit, which is possible but not fun.

The automatic and manual control of the interior lights are independent, so something connected to the output from the BCM is not going to be affected by the manual switches. Keep in mind that the interior lights have "theater dimming" and that can play havoc with relays.

I'm not sure why you don't just tie them into the interior lights like everyone else has done, and then put in a rocker switch to turn them on manually.
 
#5 ·
I was wondering why the complexity in the setup too John. I just have a feeling when he parks the car with the lights on, he wants them to dim as he walks away locking the doors.

The issue I see with the dimming setup too is that if you turn the key off, they'll flicker as the power from the "on/off" solution turns off and the "dome light" circuit turns on. If he's wanting a smooth transition, not sure how it would be done. I was envisioning the relay working on the "fog light" solution and then the dome light power would meet up with the lights after the relay so the lights could be receiving power from the dome light and relay at the same time (and hence the diodes).

I may need to pick your brain too JohnWR about wiring. Trying to diagnose why my son's Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4's OBD1 port isn't working. This car has a junction box and about five or six computers tying into a junction box through half a dozen wiring looms...to say the wiring is complicated is an understatement.
 
#11 ·
In my mind, the most logical control for the footwell lights is to slave them to the interior lights. This has been done numerous times and is not difficult. If you want additional control, whether to turn them on when the interior lights are off or off when they are on, a manual switch would have to be added. It could even be an OFF-AUTO-ON switch, but I really don't see a need for it.

I think the underbody lights would have most of the function you want if they are operated with the headlight low beams. The low beams turn on when the car is unlocked and stay on for a time after it is shut off. If you want manual off control you could use a relay powered by the fog lights to turn them off when the fogs turn on. Fog lights, as far as I know, only operate when the car is powered, and revert to off whenever it is shut down, so the on-when-unlocked feature would not be affected. That would avoid the need to add a switch or to run wires from the interior to the exterior, since all of the lighting control is under-hood.
 
#12 ·
I do have 1 switch for control of the underglow lights. wanted it on a fully separate control.
and the reason for turning off the footwell lighting is because its going to be bright-ish, and cops hassle about EVERYTHING around here. just want to be able to flick them off somehow in case.

So with the footwells tied to the interior lighting, would they go off when i open the door? cause id like for those to stay on when the door is opened. lol. i know, i keep adding complexity. thats why i thought dome originally. if thats too hard, interior would be fine to do.
where would you think the best place to tap both of these would be? like, actual location of the wires.

and how to i hook up the on/off 2 way switch to the underglow lights, tied into the headlights, so that when i turn them off, the headlights dont go out.

Im sure i could figure most of this out trial and error and checking continuity, but you seem to have a wealth of knowledge. Definitely easier to ask if you dont mind sharing the knowledge =)
 
#15 ·
OK. I was confused by your first post reference to using the fog lights to turn something off.

You should be able to find the detail about operating the footwell lights along with the interior lights as there have been several threads covering the process. Those lights are powered constantly through the ILC relay and the BCM provides the on-off-dim control on the ground. For manual control you will need a three position switch that will let you connect the footwell lights to the BCM circuit, the chassis ground, or nothing.

The underbody lights will do what you want if powered from the low beam headlight circuit. The low beams turn on when you unlock the car and when they aren't on the DRLs are. The DRL circuit supplies a lower voltage to the headlight, 10V I think, so you will have to test it to see if it is enough. The manual off switch could be in the ground wire or the supply wire. Putting it on the supply side will require two wires but would allow for manual on as well as off, while putting it on the ground side will require one wire but will only provide for manual off.
 
#16 ·
Thank you so much for the help!
So if im understanding correctly, I can just tie into the headlight to the underglow lights, and then run from that side to the switch on the power end, so I can turn it on and off, but not effect the headlights.
And tying into the ground of the BCM I can do, that's easy enough for the control inside the car. and I assume I can attach it to the same power source, separate in line fuse, that I have my heated seats powered from. the 1 blank fuse tap im aware of that powers off completely with the car.
 
#26 ·
I apologize for assuming that you know more than you do about the connectors. I also thought that if you looked at one of the footwell light threads you would have seen a diagram of the connector.

The pins are identified by position with letters in the short direction and numbers in the long. The blue/white wire (A3) is the third down in the first row. The correct grey wire (A10) would be the tenth wire in that same row.
 
#28 ·
Awesome! That makes so much more sense. I figured there should be something, but I'll be honest, I'm a very big guy, and it's a very tight spot. And it was alresdy getting rather dark when I was trying to do this. Lol
If there are letters and numbers for the grid, I most definitely could not read them lol
 
#31 ·
So i hooked it up that way, properly now. and that works perfectly with the map lights. Problem is...its working with just the map lights. I DO want them running when the interior lights(gauges, AC control, all that) lights are on. By either we turning them on at the control or the auto on on the car function.
With it on the Map lights, they just go off as soon as the car is on for a few seconds.
On the other hand, this is exactly how id like to install some for "Puddle" lights on the doors. This is awesome! Puddle lights working with the map is perfect.
 
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