interior light help

garrytd4 · Jan 20, 2012

right then, i will try n explain this the best i can so bear with me.

so, in the early freelander model like mine, i have the interior light above my head, with the two map reading lights either side, and their respective switches.

the main interior light bulb (the one in the middle, the long cylinder shaped one, not sure of their correct term) comes on when you unlock the car, open the door and then goes off when you turn engine on.

now then, the tricky part, ive wires up some leds on my dash so that they come on as and when the main interior light does, they are all wired up correctly as ive tested them on a 12v live.

but the thing is i cant work out where i connect the live to in order for them to come on with the interior bulb.

The cars wire loom that goes to the interior light has three cables: Purple, White/Purple and Black(which i guess is earth). The other two are live.
and they connect to the little circuit board on the interior light housing.
I know i cant hook the LEDs straight onto the purple cable because i will have a constant live.

So what i did was, tested to see what would happen if i connect the positive of the LEDs to the positive point where the interior light bulb fits to but i still get a constant shine of the LEDs.

So here my question.....i did earth the LEDs to the body of the car, is it possible im going wrong where i should earth the LEDs to the neutral/earth(whatever it is) of where the interior bulbs neutral/earth fits onto.

I hope this is understandable and if you need anymore explaining i can help.

PS sorry for the long post.

Garry

Mantamad · Jan 20, 2012

I had a look at the wiring diagram and if I understand it correctly, the purple live is constant and its the black earth that is switched to control the light, so I think if you connected the earth from your LEDs spliced into the black wire then provided a separate live feed to the LEDs they should work with the interior light.

Hopefully

garrytd4 · Jan 20, 2012

i see, do you rekon it will need tapping straight into that earth wire or somewhere on the circuit board on the the bulb terminal?

siblo · Jan 20, 2012

Hi Guys,

This is a little project I had on my notepad so I'm glad someone else asked the question before I did.

So, once I've tapped into the feed up at the interior light, what's the best route to run the cable down to the foot-well? (thats where I want the the extra lights)

Cheers.

longdog · Jan 21, 2012

The interior lights have one live feed, and two earth paths.
The auto one through the purple/white wire via the CCU, and the manual one via the black wire to a direct earth.
A look at a wiring diagram will make it a simple job to wire up.

markyzs180 · Jan 21, 2012

siblo said:
Hi Guys,

This is a little project I had on my notepad so I'm glad someone else asked the question before I did.

So, once I've tapped into the feed up at the interior light, what's the best route to run the cable down to the foot-well? (thats where I want the the extra lights)

Cheers.

take off the sunvisor and the a post trim then run across the headlining and down the a post

garrytd4 · Jan 21, 2012

Sorted, Yeh your right, the negative from the LEDs taps into the purple/white wire. I thought it was a live. Thanks again guys.

markyzs180 · Jan 21, 2012

garrytd4 said:
Sorted, Yeh your right, the negative from the LEDs taps into the purple/white wire. I thought it was a live. Thanks again guys.

c'mon...you can't just leave it like that lol wheres the pics???

garrytd4 · Jan 21, 2012

ok i'll take some tonight when it gets dark and show you my invention

garrytd4 · Jan 22, 2012

so now they are all working, i have 6 LEDs running down the windscreen posts and have wired them to come on and go out when the interior light does

Also have green LED strips under the footwells and LEDs in the vents, these are on there own circuit with a switch mounted in the Centre console.

take a look.

markyzs180 · Jan 22, 2012

hey thats pretty cool..good work mate.....who's the vinyl wrapping specialist then?

teddywood1 · Jan 22, 2012

just to note a led light or light emiting diode has positive (anode) and negitive (cathode) mix these up and you will blow the positive side has the longer wire form the led
hope this helps someone

garrytd4 · Jan 22, 2012

i did the carbon fibre filming, i did it without a heat gun so its coming off a bit but i just gotta heat it back down, also did the dials, clock surround, and heater control surrounds.

siblo · Jan 22, 2012

@ garryTD4

Hi, Ive got the facelift model and the door handles are really worn, this carbon fibre wrap looks like just what I need, I've had a quick look round, Is it the sticky-back stuff? can you recommend one.

Cheers

Si

garrytd4 · Jan 23, 2012

I won't lie to you siblo but its tricky and a heat gun helps alot, but with patience you can get it good.

Anyway I bought it from eBay, search carbon fibre sheet, i bought it from a seller called kakastyle, paid about 8 squid for 3 sheets of 300mm x 1200mm Deffo worth the money, I gotta buy some more as i messed up a few bits, but practise makes perfect. Good luck

garrytd4 · Jan 23, 2012

Oh Yeh and its sticky back, also its thicker than i thought, and trust me, you will neef a heat gun, or a lighter will do for small bits like door handles

siblo · Jan 23, 2012

Cheers Garry, Ill have a look round, if I can find some for under a tenner its worth a punt..

Just ordered some of this...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CARBON-FI...arParts_SM&hash=item2eb389320c#ht_6180wt_1163

Should be here before weekend so plenty of time to play with it..

If it works and looks ok Ill post some pics, if its a disaster it wont be spoke of again...

markyzs180 · Jan 23, 2012

toyed with wrapping them myself (did some trims on my old audi which worked well) but decided against it as the clock surrounds/radio surround etc would be too hard to do so will be spraying mine up with matching paint if i can find the thread with the correct paint code in it lol

Jamie Freelander Sport · Jan 25, 2012

If you want to respray anything inside your Freelander 1 facelift, use Ford Champagne Gold for the colour match. I got a can from Halfords worked perfect.

markyzs180 · Feb 2, 2012

garry...forgot to ask, now its connected to the ccu earth do the led's dim up/down when the door is open/closed?

interior light help

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