Quote:
Originally Posted by JZiggy
I like that dome light! Can you tell us more about the installation and the wiring? Would like to try this. Looks like you got some good bulbs in there too.
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yeah. The light is out of a early 2000s f250-350 although I think there in the crewcab f150s too. The wiring isn't totally straight forward since ford tends to use the mounting screws as ground and if I remember correctly switches the hot instead of the ground like Toyota, or vis versa. so to mount it I had to mount it to the trim peice and not use the factory mounting points to ensure no ground contact. I did use the one of the factory screw holes as a ground. (the green wire off the ford plug) The red wire is just a lazy tap for a charge port found in the later models passenger panel that I use for charging specialty work tools. I also had to trim out the 4runner trim piece to allow access to the screws for the cover.
As far as the wiring there is a blue and yellow wire is a constant 12v. so that is pretty straight forward and connected to the center of the ford plug which distributes to all 3 bulbs. The local ground on the green wire is for the two reading lamps. And heres where it gets screwy the switched ground. I can't remember why and I remember digging into it, but the last wire (factory red and white) actually has a slightly reduced 11.5v on it in my case only when the front dome light is in the "door" position and the door is closed. I believe its feed back from the front bulb, but it still acts as a switched ground when the hatch is opened. With a led in position it doesn't matter since its directional anyway. everything works the way its supposed to so I go with it.
I also taped off and silver painted the "reflector" area of each bulb.
I'm just using the zevo leds from auto zone. While it was a significant improvement over the factory dome light but I will say that the best modification I did for working out of the truck was the rock lights in the hatch. I find that since I installed those I rarely switch on the reading lights in the hatch, and all the necessary power and ground for them is contained in the hatch already.
now you've got me curious about the feedback again. need to pull up the dome light diagram.