Where to tap the dome light?

[ajspagna]

I have LEDs in both my footwells which are currently hooked to a switch, getting power from the battery. I want to hook them up so that they turn on when any one of the doors open. I know I have to tap into the dome light, but I dont know where to find that wire. I have tried to search but have only found it on the 4th gens. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TheDurk]

Find Connector 1A-Top left connector to the Driver Side J/B (behind the lower finish panel to the left of the steering wheel). Wire goes to PIN 3 Blue w/Yellow stripe. (on a 2002, anyway). I have to assume it comes down the driver A pillar.

 

[ajspagna]

Find Connector 1A-Top left connector to the Driver Side J/B (behind the lower finish panel to the left of the steering wheel). Wire goes to PIN 3 Blue w/Yellow stripe. (on a 2002, anyway). I have to assume it comes down the driver A pillar.

I tapped into this wire and it didnt work. This wire is hot all the time no matter if the doors are open or closed. I even tried tapping into the ignition light and it didnt work. I dont know where else to look.

 

[theizzardking]

maybe tap into the wire loom where the door sensors connect, it would be easy to do this just on the drivers side door but trying to tap into all of the doors may be a bit harder, that's weird you would think that tapping into it @ the dome light would do the trick, try further back in the system if that makes any sense.

 

[ajspagna]

I even tapped into the dome light wire right at the dome light. There seems to be something in the dome light housing which controls when it gets power or not. The wire is hot all the time. This doesnt make sense to me because how does the dome light know when one of the doors are open. Im stumped...

 

[TheDurk]

I even tapped into the dome light wire right at the dome light. There seems to be something in the dome light housing which controls when it gets power or not. The wire is hot all the time. This doesnt make sense to me because how does the dome light know when one of the doors are open. Im stumped...

Duh...I'm sorry, of course it's hot all the time. I should have realized that. Most cars are that way. The dome light is a switched GROUND. You would have to wire your LED's accordingly. That W-B ground wire passes through the J4 junction connector under the dash. You could feed full-time power to the LED's and ground them to that wire. In my defense, you only asked where the dome power wire was, you didn't ask if it worked.

The reasons for the switched ground is you can have an on position at the light just by having a local short to ground and you only need one wire to each door switch as they ground straight to the body. Otherwise you would need the switched lead AND a 12V+ power lead.

 

[ajspagna]

Duh...I'm sorry, of course it's hot all the time. I should have realized that. Most cars are that way. The dome light is a switched GROUND. You would have to wire your LED's accordingly. That W-B ground wire passes through the J4 junction connector under the dash. You could feed full-time power to the LED's and ground them to that wire. In my defense, you only asked where the dome power wire was, you didn't ask if it worked.

The reasons for the switched ground is you can have an on position at the light just by having a local short to ground and you only need one wire to each door switch as they ground straight to the body. Otherwise you would need the switched lead AND a 12V+ power lead.

Thanks for clarifying that. And my bad on not being clear in my question. Ill work on that in the next couple of days

 

[GottaBeTRD]

hey man im going to do this myself, did you get it working? do you have any advise or pics of where i can tap my LED's into??

 

[Wstrelevitz]

yes i no this was a while ago but i want to do this myself. i dont know much about the wiring in my truck and may be biting off a little more than i can chew but ohh well haha. if you could post some pics or further explain how you did it and where and at what wire you tapped into. thanks a ton.

 

[Grenvilleter]

The reasons for the switched ground is you can have an on position at the light just by having a local short to ground and you only need one wire to each door switch as they ground straight to the body. Otherwise you would need the switched lead AND a 12V+ power lead.

And to further the explanation as to why this is done, contact closure or cct completion is done after the current drawing load to minimize the arc or "spark" that occurs when a cct is closed.
If pwr was to run through your door switch, the little arc that would occur each time the cct was completed would soon pit the contacts and failure would result.
This is a standard way in engineering practices to avoid contactor pitting in delicate switches or relays.

 

[GottaBeTRD]

here is how i did it. The only downside is the key ring light and door chime comes on when the passenger door is open. good luck!
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/108292-footwell-courtesy-light-mod-dummies.html