BIG LONG under dash neon 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!!

[blackwidow00]

This is exactly what I would like to do with my car... I have the black and red theme going adn would like to do this with red neons. If you do figure out how to do this, please let me know!

Dave

[ez4zoz1]

Hey I'm more than willing to help, just as soon as the hundreds of knowledgeble members throw me a line on this one, I'll do a nice pretty write up on it, and tell you guys how easy it is, and how cool it looks, just as soon as I get some help!!!!

[dodiet]

How did you run the wires to the switches? You might of put the wrong wires on the wrong prongs.

[Personafied]

Try to get in contact with Clone. He has a install guide on this on his site.

[Mistrimeat]

I hate when people post the same thread in multiple forums:

http://www.newcelica.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26146

[F22-Raptor]

Why didn't you just wire them up to the dome fuse then you would have what you are looking for.

[Bri]

I'm not quite sure why you are using 2 switches, it should be do-able with just one.

If I remember correctly, on the wires that you are using from the door switch, the 12V is constant, and the door switch is on the ground line.

Just hook the +12v line from the door wires to the red wire on your neon. Hook the ground wire from the neon to the center post of a SPDT (single pole, double throw) switch.

Hook the ground wire from the door switch to one of the other posts, and hook the last post to any grounded piece of metal.

That ought to do the trick. I've never worked with lighted switches, so you're on your own making the switch light up.

I have blue neons under the dash, and they look great, especally since I got the shiny aluminum diamond plate floor mats.

I hooked up my neons to only come on when the door is open, so I didn't use any switches at all on my setup. I have no idea how many amps the neons draw, but I have never blown a fuse.

I hope that helps!

[ez4zoz1]

Bri
when you say door switch you mean wires coming from the little button on the inside of the door that lets the dome light know to come on and off right? I was thinking of trying this next, and if you havent blown any fuses I don't see what the problem would be with me trying it then. Also, if I have to make any kind of extention of wires in the car, what size should I use? I know to go bigger but would it make a difference and possibly help if I used a little bit bigger than usual guage wire?

To Mistrimeat, sorry, my car is filled with electrical equipment, panals are off, and wires are everywhere, I just wanted to get some ideas and help to speed this up.

To personified, He has a different setup than I want. But I have read it.

To do diet, I never got to put them on the switches, I shorted out

[Blue Lucifer]

I already did this on my car years ago. I'm telling you what you think is wrong. The neons do not take that much power at all. They sip power, so 15 amp fuse is fine. What you have is probably a bad ground or something that keeps interrupting the circuit. On mine, I have it so that I can run the lamps continuous while driving, and the only way to do that is to turn the domelight switch on. BUt then the dome light stays on. NOt a problem. I installed a switch on the dome light itself using a dremel, and made the switch control the lamp, so I could turn that portion off, while keeping the dome light switch on, and run the neons. Sounds like you already have a good idea of what's going on, so try the extra switch on the domelamp itself instead of going through all that extra trouble.

[ez4zoz1]

Umm ,i dont want to dremel anything, and the fuse you end up unning through, and the one you blow is a 7.5amp not a 15, it's in the back of the celica manual, but thanks anyways.

[Pa00GTS]

I used the black wire for the ground, and the white wire for the hot, and everything works fine on mine, then again, I have mine working off of the dome light switch.

[J3adSeed]

dude i posted on the other forum how to fix it. or probably what the problem is. my way works. something is just being done wrong. have you checked everything? as in making sure your wires are good, making sure the neons work, etc etc.

[Bri]

Originally posted by ez4zoz1
Bri
when you say door switch you mean wires coming from the little button on the inside of the door that lets the dome light know to come on and off right? I was thinking of trying this next, and if you havent blown any fuses I don't see what the problem would be with me trying it then. Also, if I have to make any kind of extention of wires in the car, what size should I use? I know to go bigger but would it make a difference and possibly help if I used a little bit bigger than usual guage wire?


When I mentioned the door switch, I do mean those 2 wires behind the lower left kick panel that seem to power the dome light. If you stick a multimeter on them, you'll find that when you open the door, you should see power on those to wires, and when you close the door, the power should stay on for 30 seconds, or however long the dome light stays on for.

As for the wire gauge, I dont' think those neons draw much power. You cand use the same guage as the wires you are splicing into. I used the cheep speaker wire that came with a pair of car speakers I bought some time ago, somewhere between 22 - 18 guage.

[J3adSeed]

that isn't the door switch wire, its the wire he was already using. the ground is connected on that red wire when you close the door. ground the neons to it.

the problem you're having is something is hooked up wrong. before putting in another fuse, check each neon on the battery making sure they work ok. then check where you put the extension wires, make sure the + and - aren't hitting each other. make sure no wires have been sliced and are grounding out, and make sure your switches are wired correctly. make sure the red and blue wires that you connect to your neons aren't touching, and make sure you get all the neon's +s to the + and all the -s to -. something just isn't right w/ your wiring.

[IceManFX]

aight its very simple to do this

u said u want ur neon lights to turn on when ur door is opened.. fine the fuse on teh passanger side for the overhead light.. run a power wire wrapped around that fuse

so now whenever the dome light is actived ie when u open ur door the neons light up... similiarly if u cut into ur alarm wire.. the neons would flash with the alarm

now for constant power

you need teh switches if its a 2 pronged switched.....well prolly 3 pronged the middle goes nothing.. now u connect a power to say the top prong.. leave the bottom blank...so that when when u flip the switch up... there is power when u flip it down it breaks the circuit...


MAKE SURE you are fusing power that u are taking from your battery...

i basically have 2 gauge wire coming from my battery... that goes to my huge fuseblock
1 4 g outgoes to my 2 pg amps

1 8 gauge goes to my strobes under my seats... 1 8 gaugge goes to my indash monitor....the last 8 gauge isent to a minifuse block

1 8 gauge went to my neons up ffront and my neons under the seat....and neones in teh back... the last 8 gauge went to another minifuse block... and this held all the wiring for my undercar neons... if you all want i have a wiring diagram

[J3adSeed]

Originally posted by IceManFX
aight its very simple to do this

u said u want ur neon lights to turn on when ur door is opened.. fine the fuse on teh passanger side for the overhead light.. run a power wire wrapped around that fuse

so now whenever the dome light is actived ie when u open ur door the neons light up... similiarly if u cut into ur alarm wire.. the neons would flash with the alarm

now for constant power

you need teh switches if its a 2 pronged switched.....well prolly 3 pronged the middle goes nothing.. now u connect a power to say the top prong.. leave the bottom blank...so that when when u flip the switch up... there is power when u flip it down it breaks the circuit...


MAKE SURE you are fusing power that u are taking from your battery...

i basically have 2 gauge wire coming from my battery... that goes to my huge fuseblock
1 4 g outgoes to my 2 pg amps

1 8 gauge goes to my strobes under my seats... 1 8 gaugge goes to my indash monitor....the last 8 gauge isent to a minifuse block

1 8 gauge went to my neons up ffront and my neons under the seat....and neones in teh back... the last 8 gauge went to another minifuse block... and this held all the wiring for my undercar neons... if you all want i have a wiring diagram


Noooooooooo. I take it you're just guessing what to do and haven't already tried this. this won't work as the power to the dome light is consant. The dome ALWAYS has power going to it. the ground is the switch. I've already explained to him how to wire this he just has to figure out what he messed up.

And on a side note, why did you use EIGHT GAUGE for neons. thats a little excessive don't you think.