Underdash lighting
 

One of my first mods is to go LED for the lighting. I also added LED strip lighting under the dash, wanting to tie into the interior light circuit to come on with the overheads when the door is open and turn off when the door is closed. I found the wiring running up the driver side pillar and I have a wiring diagram. There is an orange wire (12 volts, hot all the time), a white wire (switched 12 volt from the door switches) and a black wire (ground). I tapped into the white wire and ground, but my LED's dont work. I can connect the positive to the orange wire and the come on (but stay on all the time). I know the white wire is the one I want because I can disconnect it and the interior lights (map and back passenger light) go out, and it is the switched wire. I even ran a separate ground got the negative side of the LED. Strange thing is, when connected to the white wire, the LED's turn on at like half power with the door closed.....I have reversed polarity as well with no positive result. Anyone tied in to the interior lighting circuit have issues like this?

Try using a pigtail to connect your power wire to both the orange and white wires and see what that does.

That was it sort of. The white wire acts like the ground through the door switch. So LED positive to orange and LED negative to white. Thanks!

Can you guys out a wiring diagram up or something because I have some under my dash on a switch that is wired into my accessory power source and I tried to wite it the way you said....... It caught on fire D:

I actually cut the white wire and wired my LED's into that and used one of the other wires also. I only cut the white wire. I put a red bulb not led in the dome light because the LED's do not draw enough power to create the dimming effect and then shut the lights off. Now my mirror lights only work manually but that is Good for me.

this sounds like a great idea. got any pics of the led's in action?

Seems like a lot of trouble so that you can see your feet at night. lol

It's really not that bad. I also added some small purple LED's that turn on with the headlights. Just gives a subtle glow at night. Some newer cars these days (Taurus and others) have this "accent lighting" that comes on at night. I think it adds a cool look.

The red are the lights that come on when the door is opened. I would do the overheads in red as well, but that is against the law around here. The others LED's come on when the headlights are on. I also added a small blue LED inside the console area.

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/a...-20-27_114.jpg

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/a...-20-48_317.jpg

Looks good

The Red looks like mine but I have my rear view mirror lights so you have to manually turn them on. The white light kinda kills the effect of the Red Led's when I open the car.