Interior Lights

[jas820]

Hey, I'm looking to add some interior lights to my 02 cougar but I was wondering if there was a way that I could hook them up to only come on when a door is opened similar to an overhead dome light. The cougar does not have a dome light so any help would be appreciated.

[curtis73]

Pull one of your door pin switches out of the door jamb. It should be just a simple 10mm wrench or something like that. See how many wires there are. If its two wires that disappear into the body of the switch, its a positive switch. If its simply a metal plunger with one wire that grounds, its a grounding switch. Double check that with a test light.

Most cars supply 12v hot to the dome lights and the door switches ground it, so you could replicate that by supplying fused 12v to a light and grounding it at a door peg. If the door peg is the one supplying the voltage, just get the power from the switch and ground it anywhere.

[jas820]

Alright thanks. I'm looking to hook up some neon lights in the normal places under the dash and under the seats so that they will come on when the door is opened I'll let you know how it comes out.

[curtis73]

If the switches are grounding, no problem. If they're a power supply you'll need a relay and a separate fused circuit. Regular incandescent lights use very little juice. Neon uses a huge amount of juice to start the lights which will overload the light duty circuit of the factory interior lights.

I would hate to see your cougar go up in flames.

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by curtis73

I would hate to see your cougar go up in flames.

it would be be pretty bright, problem solved!

j/k.

[jas820]

Alright I'll definately have to check that out before getting too carried away. Thanks again.