Where to tap footwells light to come on with domelight

I've been doing a lot of research, gathered all my ambient leds but can't for the life of me find the wire to splice into so that my leds turn on when the doors open/ unlock and turn off when locked. What's the easiest way to accomplish this? Search function just installed working for me. Pics would be great!

 

Open up the drivers A-pillar. On the upper segment of the connector separate out the blue and yellow wires. These are the dome wires. Tap these and drop the wires down between the dash and interior side of truck. Basically follow the lower half of the connectors wiring. I found it easier this way, and the Toyota docs also show tapping here, too (step 25). Peel back some of the wiring loom, grab those wires, then tape it back up. I added a small inline fuse, too, just because I had one.

You could drop the lower panel below the steering wheel and grab them there at the fuse box but it's way more fun working right next to the curtain airbag, right?






I used LED tape and on the drivers side attached to the black piece surrounding the steering column. Here's a piss-poor picture but you get the idea. Passenger side is a little trickier but there is a blower motor loom that I attached to.

 

Hey so I was wondering if I could use an add a circuit to the "dome" fuse instead of the yellow wire so I can use the switch to turn on footwells and map lights?

 

Remember it's a ground switched circuit. If you want it to behave in sync with the dome AND be switched for demand on when dome isn't triggered I'd need to think about that a little. I'm not sure I can think of a case I'd want footwell lights to be on and the dome remain off. That said my Mustang footwell lights were always on but dim and not really useful.

Off the top, maybe using a relay, feeding the switched ground into 87 and a hard ground into 87a, then 30 on to the footwell lights negative would work. A switch on 85/86 to control relay state. IDK, just typing.... I'll think about this some more... Padres game has my attention.

UPDATE: I think this would work assuming you used a dash mounted switch to trigger the manual footwell ground. Then when the relay is normal it connects 87 to 30, so the footwell lights would be in sync with the dome. When the dash switch is active, the relay releases 87 from 30 and bridges 30 with 87a. Since 87a is hard grounded the footwell lights are now on, and the dome should be off since 87 is removed from the circuit.

 

I am seeing a beige wire that is a negative.. I am guessing both will work?

 

Been wanting to do this for awhile so tks for the 411. I suppose tapping one side would be good for both sides footwell.

 

Been thinking about doing the same, glad to see someone doing the research to find an answer, thus saving me time.

EDIT: With that said, I am looking to put a switch in to work more like the cargo light but on the dome circuit. Meaning, footwell switch can be OFF and they will not turnon at all, DOOR and they come on if any door opens, or ON so light independantly of dome and stay on as long as truck Acc mode or ignition is on. Much like the 1st gen maplight mod. So, I will still need more research that has not been disclosed here.

 

Yea ive been wanting to do this and tie them in with puddle lights as well.

 

Just what I was looking for . I was about to do something like this. I already fixed the EL tape under the dash.
Btw, noticed 619. If you got the time, we should meet up on a weekend . Lets do this?

 

Hey my 619 days are getting fewer and farther in between. I consider myself a CA refugee at this point. Let me know how it goes.

 

Locating and tapping into the dome circuit seems pretty straight forward but can you elaborate on your wiring after that. Did you tap your lights directly into that circuit or did you run it to a relay to control your LEDs? Where did you put the inline fuse? I am wanting to run (4) puddle lights that draw about .22 amps each. I would guess that the dome circuit would handle the addition load with not problems but i have heard some horror stories about frying the ECU so I'm wondering if using a relay would be a safer route.

 

I did tap direct into the dome circuit because 12" of LED tape is a super low draw. The inline fuse should always be added closest to the tap point as possible - and rated as close to the ADDED load as possible. I didn't look at the dome circuit fuse amperage. I'd guess the circuit has 880ma overhead but you should be able to figure that out easy enough with a decent meter.

 

The fact that the Toyota kit (0016-00069) appears to be an added load of puddle lights and foot-well lights to the circuit makes me feel like I would be fine. Any idea where i could find the fuse for that circuit. That would give me a good idea of what its rated for.

What are your thoughts about using a relay to keep the load off the dome circuit? I think you said that the dome light circuit is a switched negative? (or maybe i read that somewhere else) Would this mean that the positive is always hot when the truck is on? So it could not be used to trigger a relay?

Thank you in advance for your help on this!

 

Looking at the fuse cover, it is a 7.5 fuse. 4th from the bottom on the right side.

 

The fuse is below the dash on the drivers side. As for the negative switched circuit, I suppose you could straddle the dome circuit across relay 85 and 86. 85 on switched ground from truck and 86 could be +12 hot all the time and then when the ground is applied by the truck the circuit would close activating the relay. Not a complete fan of the idea myself, and I'd bet that dome circuit draws well below the 7.5A fuse load TC_Mic mentioned. Meter it and see.

 

I'm hoping someone can help. I think I tapped the wrong wires... they are yellow and blue, but they don't work. I opened the taps up and they seem to have made a connection, but I get 0 VDC across them.
The wires in the green circle are the ones I tapped. Can anyone help?

 

I tapped mine today, worked like a charm! Puddle lights come on when I open the door or approach the vehicle.

Make sure after you tap them to plug it back in. Also try to reverse your wires.

 

Great write up.

 

Hi just to confirm, the blue wire is ground and yellow is hot?

 

Blue is positive.