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Because of the poor interior lighting I wanted to add some interior LEDs and have them only turn on/off with the door opening/closing.

So here's my write up on how I did it.

Please Note:
My instructions outlined below will make the lights come on when the doors are opened and then turn off when the doors are closed. They do NOT auto dim and are NOT controlled by the dimming switch on the dash.


Things to keep in mind:
The positive cable from your LEDs gets constant power from the car. ie: fuse box or other constant source.
The negative cable from your LEDs gets run to the relay..

ALWAYS DISCONNECT YOUR BATTERY BEFORE PERFORMING ELECTRICAL WORK.
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Here is the equipment I recommend you have on hand before starting:

• 3 spools of 18-gauge wire (in different colors to identify)
• wire stripper
• quick connects / connection pairs
• 4-pin relay 12-volt / 40-amp (bought at autozone #A-715A)

First step - Pick a location for the relay placement. I chose to place it in the 'cubby' hole in the sides of the dash. I used a small screw driver to pry off the cover.




Second step - would be to remove all the plastic coverings so you can gain access to the car wiring and so you can hide your new wires. (you will need to pull up on the hood release lever to have enough room to remove this piece of plastic.





Third step - was to find a good place to mount your LEDs. I mounted them behind the center console. (I had bought LED strips from Walmart. A set of 4in strips was around $12.)




Forth step - is to locate a good grounding point, preferably close to your relay. I chose this bolt just under the dash, but there are many around. I also used a flat connection pair to ground my cable. Make sure you make your ground wire long enough to get in behind the dash and into the 'cubby' where your relay is.
fyi - This bolt requires a 13mm socket.





Fifth step - decide were your going to get your constant voltage from. Many chose to go to the fuse box. You will find 3 red wires there that provide constant current. I chose to get it from the rear view mirror by tapping into the wire running up the passenger side pillar -- where you get it, is entirely up to you. But as always make sure you give yourself plenty of slack to work with as it will need to reach the LEDs power cable, it does not run to the relay, it powers the LEDs directly.




Sixth step - Run the negative cable from the LEDs to your relays. Tuck your wires out of sight. (under the dash or under the carpet, depending on your install.)



Seventh step - tap into the door actuator wiring.

• On the drivers side - the wire is gray with a black stripe

• On the passenger side - the wire is brown with a white stripe

You will end up running 3 wires to your relay.

• the ground to the car chassis (black wire)
• the wire to the car actuator that triggers the door lights (green wire)
• the ground from the LED lights (black wire)

Eighth step - Connecting your wires to the relay.
Negative from the LED lights go to #85, green wire from car door actuator goes to #86, and the car ground wire goes to #30.




Tidy up your wiring, tuck the relay into the cubby and put your plastic interior back in place.




Follow the same process for the other side.






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Great write-up!!! Bet it looks great - would love to see some pictures on the effect it gives but that might be a bit hard to capture????

Well done - thanks for the posting - it will help others for sure.

 

Ask and you shall receive...

 

Now, that is awesome. I would love to do that, but unfortunately it would just show all the dirt!!!! ;-)

Great shots man, and once again, great write-up.

 

So you actually need 2 relays? You can't easily make it so that either door turns on both lights?

H'mm, now my mind is spinning. Couldn't you use the LEDs as the switch and use the dome light current? Or am I spinning out of control?

 

You could use one relay. I considered this. However you will need to tap into both door actuators and bring them together into one single wire and run that to relay position #86.

What I did was connect 2 LED strips to each relay and just installed 1 LED strip on each side of the car.
Example: relay #1 on drivers side activates 2 LED lights strips. I installed one LED under the drivers side and the other on the passengers side.
Relay #2 on the passengers side activates 2 LED lighting strips. I installed one strip on passenger side and the other on drivers side.

You can modify the install how ever you'd like. Use either 2 relays or just one. I chose 2 relays (they are cheap $5) because I didn't want to go nuts over wiring.

Hope that helps.

 

Great write up but I am confused by one thing. you mention the grey/black and brown/white as actuator wires but then you have a green wire going to the relays as the actuator wire. Where did the green wire come from?
I have all the stuff you mentioned and am getting ready to tackle this, along with all my interior lights
thanks

 

Splice.

Step #7 and Step #8

 

tap into the door actuator and the green wire is YOUR wire you run to the solenoid!
I'm with it!