Dimmer switch question

okay I'm wiring my switch panel for my lights.... heres the problem so I got my switches wired to the cigarette lighter and another line to the dimmer switch so i can adjust the dimmer with the lights. So what's happening is i have to turn the dimmer nob all the way off for my switches to light up but that turns off my speedo cluster. FYI my speedo has leds in it not stock filiment bulbs. I'm wondering if that's the problem being the cluster is led? Also the dimmer line I tapped in is the white with green stripe. Please help my truck is in a million pieces lol

 

Alright so I changed the bulbs in the speedo back to stock but here is the problem now when I turn down the knob on the dimmer the switch panel gets brighter and the speedo gets dimmer! What the hell am I doing wrong?!? HELP

 

Were there 3 wires going to the dimmer? (1) Green, (2) white with black stripe, and (3) white with green stripe?

White with black stripe should go to ground. The dimmer varies the resistance from the other two terminals to ground. As resistance from (1) to (2) goes up, resistance from (3) to (2) goes down. If you have things wired incorrectly, then you'll get the symptoms you have, some lights get brighter as others get dimmer.

I don't have the Tacoma wiring diagram, but am looking at a Corolla wiring diagram which I believe is probably wired similarly. The wire colors may vary, but in this case, green wire is always 12 volts (with light switch on), white with black stripe goes to ground, and bulbs are connected to 12 volts (with light switch on) then to the white with green stripe wire going to the dimmer.

 

I only have green/white and Black/white coming out of the dimmer knob

 

So your dimmer only has 2 terminals? One wire goes to ground (B-W)? You attached all the other wires to the other terminal?

 

Good luck bud, we've all been there with those little shitty electrical problems lmao

 

Yes only 2 wires I found the white green in the radio wiring and it still does the same shit

 

weird. I know green is (+) and white {-} i just down know how the two light sets are inverted. Is it an s-pod by chance?

 

It's a bussman relay box it's a diy spod

 

The box wouldn't matter this is a Separate circuit to just turn on the leds on the switches

 

shit dude then I'm not sure. Possibly something on the dimmer know itself.. best of luck!

 

I just need to know what wire to splice on the truck cause the one I'm doing ain't working lol

 

It would be useful to have a wiring diagram.

It sounds like the speedo is still behaving correctly, yes?

It sounds like as the resistance increases in the dimmer switch as you turn it down somehow more voltage is going to your new switches.

Did you test the voltage on the wires coming from the switches?

How about removing the fuse for the speedo lights (maybe TAIL) and testing without that circuit involved, or remove the green/white wire from the dimmer to isolate the circuit?

 

I'm at the point were I don't give a crap about the dimming all I want now is the have the switches light up when I turn then headlights Ect. On. Been wiring that thing for 14hrs I'm just beat. So if you know a way to do that I'll be happy with that

 

Bump

 

Follow the 2 wires from the dimmer. Where do they go? The dimmer may have 2 parts. Look at the wiring diagram in this post. There is rheostat R3 an R4. You may have the same setup.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...ghts-all-out-help-please.268763/#post-6610088

From your discription it sounds like yours switches aren't hooked in series correctly. Battery to switch bulb wire, other switch wire to dimmer, grounded through dimmer wire. Your symptoms suggest the switch is grounded, but not through the dimmer. Like you hooked to the cigarette ground not the cigarette power. That's why I suggested checking voltages on the wires. Then if no volts check for continuity to ground so you know you've got the right wires hooked up.

 

Just want to chime in and say thanks for the research but I'm on a time limit so I just went ahead and tapped into the parking light wire so they only light up when the headlights are on it will work just don't want to fight with it anymore thanks again guys

 

So I hooked up my switchbacks to the following harness behind my dash. People ran into the same problem you are when you hook it up directly to the dimmer switch (reverse dimming, etc). It has something to do with the rheostat.

Green w/red stripe = positive
White w/green stripe = negative

That is hooked up to the dimmer switch and will operate the way you want it to.

 

Well shit lol great now you wanna make me rip the whole stupid thing apart again lol

 

Alright, I know this thread is long dead and buried, but I'm running into similar issues and I think it might be useful.

Long story short, I'm trying to get lighted switches to use two different voltages: one tied to the dimmer (with dash lights) and one directly to 12v, so normally everything is on but gets brighter when a switch is on. Playing around with this, I wired things backwards, so instead of the new lights going through the dimmer to ground they were being fed from the wire I spliced into. So the path to ground was going from the rest of the dash, back through my new lights as well as through the dimmer; dimmer and lights were in parallel. What this means is that as I turn up the dimmer switch, the resistance through it goes down (so the dash lights get brighter), but at the same time it means that the current flows more easily through the dimmer switch than through my new lights, meaning they aren't fed the same voltage.

Hope it helps somebody finding this thread in the same boat. I swapped the wire on the other side of the lights to (+) instead of (-), so like tapping into the other wire in the cigarette lighter.