underdash neon BIG LONG question...

[ez4zoz1]

Ok people, I am bound and determined to do this, and do it the way I want to. I read a post about 3 weeks ago, and printed it out on how to wire the neons under the dash. I lost it and now can't find the post. However the post was unclear and I was using it to prompt ideas so I'm making a post to see if I can actually do this or the guy who did this is really full of $hit.

Here's what I want...
1. The neons to act as interior ligts when the doors open, just like the dome light would.
2. The lights to be able to be turned on for constant lighting.

Here's what I did
1. Bought 2 switches from Radio shack, three pronged illuminating ones, and mounted them both in a dead switch on the lower left side of the dash.
2. Got into the lower left plastic panel under the driverside dash and found the red and blue wires that run to the dome light.
3. Mounted the passenger side neon back, and under the glove box, ran the wire with the cigarette lighter plug to the driver side dash behind the center console, and cut the plug off.
4. spliced into the red and blue wires, blue is the power, and red is the ground (And I know this because I used a 12v finder, and yes it seems backa$$wards)
5. Ran 2 extension wires from the blue and red dome light wires so they would be able to reach the switches on the dash.
6. I wanted to see if I was going to get power to the passenger side neon and like a dumba$$ I touched the wires and blew a fuse...Not a problem, I put in the spare and continued to get power to the dome light and my radar detector. All of a sudden the dome light went out and so did the clock and my radar detector. Well phuck, no more fuses and I packed up for the night.

What I think is wrong
1. The fuse cant handle the amps going through the circuit, need a 15A fuse or something, duh
2. Somewhere in the wires something is bad
3. The neons have an outrageous amount of amps and this wont work at all.

What bothers me
1. How in the hell did this guy on this site do this and not blow any fuses and make it work just fine? He took 2 switches, one for the interioe light seeting, and one for constant power of the lights, and he posted pics, and it worked fine or so he said. I mean electricity doesn't just pick and choose when to say"hey lets be good and not blow a fuse" it follows certain rules. If whoever has done this, or read this, please help me out, I really want to do this, and do it this way.

What I am going to try
1. Find out the amount of Amps coming from the neons (if anyone knows tell me please.
2. Go get more fuses to replace the blown ones and buy all kinds of larger capacity ones so I can stop bugging the guys at autozone.
3. I'm going to try and find a soulution to this little project from YOU GUYS ;) cause I know we can all make this happen! And when we do I'll make sure I'll post EXACTLY how to do it, no confusion whatsoever. And If anything confuses you in this post let me know!! THANK YOU!!

[wingless]

The MOST important thing to consider is to NOT attempt modifications to the wiring, unless the person performing these changes has all of the skills and experience required for the job.

Next, that person would always disconnect the battery negative lead, prior to starting.

Also, it is a VERY bad idea to replace a blown fuse with one of a larger size. The fuse protects the wiring and components. That protection is eliminated by increasing the size, with the result of very expensive and difficult, if not impossible, repairs.

Armed with all those basics, the red dome lamp wire is NOT ground. Instead, the red wire is connected to ground by the Body ECU. If neon lamps are connected to the red lamp instead of, or even worse, in addition to, the dome lamp, the current going through the Body ECU may increase above it's design limit, causing it to fail. Of course, Toyota does not define how much additional current the Body ECU is designed to handle on that wire, so this modification involves the risk of that damage.

If that all sounds okay, then what kind of switch has been added? A single pole, double throw, three position, On - Off - On, is the one that is correct. A two position, On - On, will not permit the neons to be disabled.

If the switch is correct, connect the neon red lead to the dome lamp blue lead. Connect the neon lamp black lead to the center terminal of the switch. Connect one side of the switch to ground. Connect the other side of the switch to the red dome lamp lead.

[J3adSeed]

uh i think "that guy" is me. i have mine wired to these wires and it works fine.

[J3adSeed]

this is what i'm thinking. maybe its you have the power wires run wrong from the neons. as in you have a + in a - or something. i don't know if these things are directional, but maybe this could be something to check. also if you have them already wired to the switches, maybe the illuminating switches is the problem. these add a ground (and i don't think you can use a light-up switch for a ground switch and have it work right anyway). try using one neon's power wires and holding them straight to the wires and see if that works before you go any farther. once you know this works then you can try the two. i can do all three the dome and the neons and have no problems. never have blown a fuse.

wingless sounds like he knows what he's talking about but i don't know if he's right or what. there must be some truth to this since the lights dim off. this could be done with a simple ground and a capacitor, but then the lights would dim on. and they don't. so to me this would make me think he is correct. but again i've had this setup for like a year with no problems. i use street glow 15" neons. 2. if you can't get this to work you could always use a relay. this could work and is probably safer.

[J3adSeed]

this is what i think your prob is. your damn switch is hooked up wrong. maybe? you didn't say what the switch was hooked to, power or ground. say you have the power into the switch and the neon and a gound. well, if you have the ground on the wrong prong, when you turn it on, you're grounding your power. short circuit, blown fuse. this could definately be the problem.

how i did it: power goes to neon with no switch. ground comes from the neon to the switch. switch one and two are connected and connected to the neon's ground. the other end, switch 1 is connected to a ground (this will ground the neons, turning them on). switch 2 will go the red wire (this will ground the neons when the door opens, turning on when door is open). thats it. it would be much better to just use a 3 way switch but i didn't have one.

[ez4zoz1]

J3adSeed!! Thank God I found ya! Alright,
Ok the problem is not the switch because I never got that far, It shorted out before I got a chance to, you said to try touching the wires to see if I got power, I did and then the fuse blew, I think it blew because of what you others are saying, and it might have been the neg to the wrong source and pos the same way. The weird thing was I realized this may have been the problem, so I put the replacement fuse in and was back to normal. All of a sudden like 2 mins later, no wires touched, i was trying to reset the clock and $hit and the dome light went off, and the clock off and the fuse was blown again. No, I have extention wires running from the blue and red and the red is the neg and the blue is pos (backasswards) yes so I wired accordingly, My question is could that have done it? I am going to go buy a few more fuses tonight and put things back to the way they were and start over tomm morn, should I replace the wire? It's not that great of wire. If so with what guage? Basicly I just want to know what you did in excrutiating detail (sorry) don't worry about the switch bingilluminated, I can do without, and possibly figure it out later, but I have 4 wires for the neons (2 from each) A red wire (neg)and a blue wire (pos/power) Take me from there. I have 3 pronged switches one gold, (power, i believe) and 2 silver, I thought one to the accessory (neons) and one to ground for illumination. This is what I know and have, If you need any more specifics let me know, I am determined to do this, and do it correctly, and offer a write up since others are inquiring as well. Thanks, I'll be home all night

[ez4zoz1]

And another thing, What abot the door switch? the button that lets the the dome light know when to come on? is that the same wire, I never pulled up the instep to look. If it isn't would that work? And If I were to run it from a relay what would be different on the setup, and circuit wise?

[ez4zoz1]

and I know you told me how to do it, and I will try it before I ask for EXCRUTIATING detail is needed, I'm not losing my paitience with this I promise! Too many overtime hours this week, and not enoungh time to bond with the car, thanks again!

[J3adSeed]

well. i'm not sure what to say to all that. i'd try changing out the wires. maybe in running them you sliced one open and its grounding out??? i donno. i just took the two neons and connected their + and - to an extension, (probably around 20gauge or smaller, basically the same as the neon's wire), and then tapped into the red and blue. make sure the red and blue aren't touching each other as well, that will short circuit. make sure all +s and -s are all the same and lined up.

door switch. i looked at these, they're different wires. the problem with these is that you want any door to set off the neons.

relay. i'm not really experienced with relays yet unfortunately but will be soon. this is how i think it works.. you'd just use power straight from the battery to the + of the neons, and then connect the ground to the relay in and out. so in effect, the relay doesn't do anything to existing wiring. however when the ground is connected, the relay will connect its separate circuit. this separate circuit will be the ground of the neons to the ground of the car.

[J3adSeed]

but something is done wrong. either a wire is touching or grounding or hooked up wrong. because it works.

[ez4zoz1]

Thanks for everything, I'm going to give it a go tomm after I get the new fuses

[ez4zoz1]

oh yeah i looked at the door switch too tonight, phuck that