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Add wiring to doors

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mystiquevltwin

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Has anyone ever added wiring to the doors? If so, how did you run the wire? I need a wire that is hot when the dome lights are on but I don't have one currently in there.

Id like to do it as clean as possible, if that is an option.
 
Are you talking about adding in a rear dome light? If so you could run the wire to the front dome light. I realize there would be an issue getting it there above the headliner. But if you can get it to the doors than you could run it tucked under the side of the headliner to the front dome light. I think there was a How-To at one point, maybe i could find it. If this is even what you are talking about, the rear dome light.


found this, hope it helps.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/s...d=allposts&Main=740802&Search=true#Post740802
 
i think you're talking about something like a courtesy light to you doors. if so i would pigtail off of the courtesy lamp that's under the dash. there's one on each side of the car. iv'e been thinking about installing courtesy lights in the mirrors and under the seats in for the back floorboard and using the under dash lights is how i will do it, if i do.
 
well what are u wanting to run wiring to your doors 4? you could always run the wire from the courtesy light under the dash ( like cetroutt said) & thru the boot where the wires for your window & speakers are. but let us know what u are wiring for to better assist u
 
I am wiring lights in the door that come on with the courtesy lights.

The boot is a plug that is sealed so unless I take that apart and find a spare connector, there is no tapping into that.
 
ya sorry 4got about that that they are plugs in there. another thing u can try is run the wire behind the rubber door seal on the car then just jump it across to the door. then u can hide it behind the plug. there might be a few inches of wiring showing & it shouldnt look bad. probably wouldnt even notice it.
 
I think I've seen people drill straight through the plug if you can find a decent spot on the plug to drill through. It just twists off if you wanna see where the terminals are.

Years ago I wanted to run high gauge speaker wire through the plug but eventually just decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

I've also seen people drill through the door frame.. which is never a good idea.
 
So I figured I would bring this post from the dead rather than start a new one...

So I finally got around to tearing into my door panel to see if I could run a wire that would allow me to add courtesy lights to the doors. Upon taking the door panel off, I found a spare plug. I think that it is for the door light (previous models had the clear lens at the bottom of the front doors that was later replaced with a red reflector with no light)

I put a meter on the plug to find that I have 12v. With the meter still in the plug, I close the door thinking that once the dome/footwell lights go out, Ill loose power to the door plug right? Wrong. Its 12v all the time.

What gives? Is this plug not what I think it is for? If it is for the door lights from previous models, how can I make it work for this application (if at all)?
 
To better help you. What Make/Model/Year is the vehicle in question, and what are the wire colors at this plug you've found?
 
How about the pre 98 harnesses with the door handle lights in them. My 95 has the lights in the door and it goes on with the dome light and the headlights. I think the car doorframe side is still intact because I gave a set to a friend with a 98 to add one touch down on his drivers window. I recall the lights worked also.
 
I thought about it being for the handle lights but it is towards the bottom of the door and it has constant power whether the lights are on or off.

EDIT:
This is the connecter. I had cut it off when I was about to connect the wiring for the lights.

2011-09-11_17-11-50_342.jpg


2011-09-11_17-11-58_750.jpg
 
Alrighty, from what I've found in AllData, that connector is for the door key cylinder lamp. Found in both front doors.

Black goes to ground
Black/Orange goes to the Central Junction Box after it changes colors

It appears the black/orange changes to a BK/BU which I'm guessing is Black/Blue at the central junction box, which has the central timer module built into it. This should explain the constant 12v you were seeing, could rig a relay setup to it and still use the wiring in the doors. Just setup a relay at the central junction box and isolate the wiring at the junction box and use the rest to run whatever you are running in the doors.
 
Thank you very much. That explains a lot. Rather than running a relay, I was thinking about finding the wires that come into the car and just splicing it into a dome light wire.

Regardless, this helped a lot. Thank you!
 
mystiquevltwin said:
Thank you very much. That explains a lot. Rather than running a relay, I was thinking about finding the wires that come into the car and just splicing it into a dome light wire.

Regardless, this helped a lot. Thank you!
Click to expand...

Could be easily done at the fuse box, cut the wire coming out of the fuse box that goes to those wires in the door. Should be a footwell light very close by. I'd probably add a relay and or fusing depending on what is being added.
 
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