Door Card Lights (Puddle Lights)

[highlander]

Hello,

Thought I'd start a new topic for this rather than piggy-back on the "footwell lighting" post as it's not quite the same thing.

My D9 (Nov 1999) has the LX trim (second-lowest level, superior only to "L") and came with cloth door cards that don't have the puddle lights.

I have bought leather door trim that does feature these lights, but my car doesn't appear to have any wiring in place to make them work.

I am not particularly au-fait with electronics or soldering, but I would guess that if an Exec car of the same age had these lights working, then it should be a simple case of buying some connectors, some wiring, and possibly some fuses. Run the wires, then add the connectors on the ends of the wires, and plug them in. Pop the fuse into the empty space on the fuse panel where there would be a fuse on an Exec. Right?

If someone could post a step-by-step, telling me what I need to buy, and how I would go about installing it, then I should be happy enough to try installing it.

Or is this mere folly? Would it maybe be easier to put in an individual battery to power each lamp, with a switch that completes the circuit and operates the light when that particular door is open? Change the battery when it expires?

I'd like to keep it original if I can, unless wiring in those lights the way it is done in the Execs would be a total freakin' nightmare.

Anyone done this on their early D9?

[mjb]

If memory serves, the D9 setup is to run the door lights separately from the BSI. You could take a feed from the courtesy lights but depending on how it's wired you run the risk of pulling too much juice from the BSI...

I wouldn't trust my memory though. Check the Haynes wiring diagram and see what's what?

[FarmerPug]

I have an exec with the lights there, but if i didnt id get the power from the overhead dome light, i dont know about fuses that would complicate it a bit but might be worth adding, but the overhead light should give you a positive anyhow, and just put in a bigger fuse for it and you should be able to get your puddle lights going, adding a battery shouldnt be necessary.

[mjb]

OK so I've had a look...

All 4 door card lights are fed power directly from the BSI (the blue 26 pin connector, pin 15, grey wire number 309). Un-fused, or using one of the BSI's fuses. Wire 309 is split into the following somewhere: 3203 (blue), 3202 (orange), and 3201 (mauve) so if you find one of those you're in luck.

If you decide to tap into the front courtesy light, I think you'll either want to take both pins 1 (green live wire BH08D) and 3 (grey wire 3001 BSI variable switched earth) of the plug to the light and run the lights in PARALLEL for correct brightness but a chance of blowing the BSI, or cut either or those wires and put bulbs in SERIES for reduced brightness of all 3 bulbs but a reduced chance of blowing the BSI (although it probably will record a fault). Doing this means the lights will only stay on as long as the BSI decides to keep the interior lights on.

[FarmerPug]

where is the bsi located

[mjb]

under the fusebox

[maxxymilian]

Use yellow LEDs, not regular bulbs. The chance of blowing any fuses goes way down. If you put Leds in the light ypu tapped into there will be no problem what so ever.

[FarmerPug]

after the ballzup i had there last night with my d9 id avoid overloading things, something i once thought was not possible is and it isnt good if it happens so be very careful

[mjb]

Use yellow LEDs, not regular bulbs. The chance of blowing any fuses goes way down.

Depends entirely on what resistors you use. If you just replace the bulbs with standard LEDs from Maplins you'll instantly blow fuses, the BSI, the lot

[maxxymilian]

you will certainly fry the leds but you'll hardly blow any fuses

[Bailes1992]

Replace all the bulbs in the system with LED's so the power drawn is massivley decreased.
You then need to use a multimeter and find the switched feed from the doors...

http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g16/B ... 00x600.jpg

Put the multimeter on one green and one brown one, open the door, close the door and turn the igition on and see if it goes off etc. Try any coboniation possible till you find the switched feed Then tap into them.
Just use LED's in the Puddle lights, main lights etc etc.

[FarmerPug]

does the d8 have a bsi system?
And another thing is that bit in the middle the infared reciever for your central locking, if the d8 has an infared central locking system like my old 106 then there is a cool thing you can do, get one of them casio remote control watches and program the signal into the watch, then the cars doors open from the watch

[Bailes1992]

does the d8 have a bsi system?
And another thing is that bit in the middle the infared reciever for your central locking, if the d8 has an infared central locking system like my old 106 then there is a cool thing you can do, get one of them casio remote control watches and program the signal into the watch, then the cars doors open from the watch

Haha I need to have ago at that
I had one of them watches YEARS ago!

And it dosen't matter about the BSI system, the theory is still the same, there will be a switched live at the light

[FarmerPug]

ah right ok, just watch the old bsi it doesnt like being messed about, on the infared topic i think a friend tried one of them old nokia phones with the infared it didnt work, but then a one for all remote control with the learning feature does work, but none will beat the effect of opening it with a watch.

[Bailes1992]

If you were to replace the system will LED's then the BSI should be fine, even get some LED strips and add footwell lights while you at it
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... 5&T=Module