Which is the interior dome light wire?

[Miyage007]

Gday All. I wanted to install a led light and wanted to tap into the interior dome light of my 2013 Sahara LC.
Does anyone know if there's a dome wire I can access on the foot panel and which wire colour it is?
I wanted teh led light to behave exactly what the dome light does and I dont want to tap to the door switch. And I prefer not to dismantle the roof console just to determine this wire.
The fuse box on the engine bay just shows constant power so I will guess the dome light gets controlled or activated on the -NEG side.
Anyone tapped on the dome light wire before? Any pics will be great
Thanks heaps for all your knowledge.

 

[Miyage007]

Looks like nobody has done this before and added an extra light that triggers together with the dome light?

 

[CharlieS]

Pretty sure it has been done - Eric Sarjeant has some builds that I seem to recall, but I don't recall it being as easy as just tapping a wire. I think there may be a ground triggered relay involved? Somebody has definitely posted about this in the last several years here on 'mud - it might be worth some time spent searching this forum for prior threads.

 

[brasskey]

Looks like nobody has done this before and added an extra light that triggers together with the dome light?

Somebody might have as @CharlieS mentioned, but I'd give it more than a day and a half to give people more time to respond. Most people are not on here every day.

 

[CharlieS]

It has been done - Eric mentions dome light triggered lights in this thread (but it is not a how-to for how it was done):

Show me some Rock Lights and Scene Lights

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Miyage007]

Thanks CharlieS for the link.

I went thru this but it has no mention as to where or which dome light wire was used.

I'll just have to find out myself and go thru some wires with a multi meter and see what I can detect.

Thanks again.

 

[CharlieS]

I don't know if he can tell you (whether he did it himself or had someone do it for him), but you could message Eric and ask. He's a really good guy and has always helped when he can. The worst that could happen is that he says he doesn't know...

 

[grinchy]

Many have fished the wires above the headliner from the hatch and tapped at the dome light itself.
It’s a minor hassle routing thru the hatch grommet, but doable.
While you’re in the hatch run a 4 wire for potential reverse camera relo, and maybe a couple extra conductors for rear mounted scene lights.

 

[bronc076]

Gday All. I wanted to install a led light and wanted to tap into the interior dome light of my 2013 Sahara LC.
Does anyone know if there's a dome wire I can access on the foot panel and which wire colour it is?
I wanted teh led light to behave exactly what the dome light does and I dont want to tap to the door switch. And I prefer not to dismantle the roof console just to determine this wire.
The fuse box on the engine bay just shows constant power so I will guess the dome light gets controlled or activated on the -NEG side.
Anyone tapped on the dome light wire before? Any pics will be great
Thanks heaps for all your knowledge.

I don’t think tapping into the door switch is an option like on old cars. I think the door switch just tells a computer that the door is open, then that computer turns on the interior lights as well as everything else software specifies.

i thought someone had posted some wiring diagrams a while back but I might be mistaken.

 

[linuxgod]

Gday All. I wanted to install a led light and wanted to tap into the interior dome light of my 2013 Sahara LC.
Does anyone know if there's a dome wire I can access on the foot panel and which wire colour it is?
I wanted teh led light to behave exactly what the dome light does and I dont want to tap to the door switch. And I prefer not to dismantle the roof console just to determine this wire.
The fuse box on the engine bay just shows constant power so I will guess the dome light gets controlled or activated on the -NEG side.
Anyone tapped on the dome light wire before? Any pics will be great
Thanks heaps for all your knowledge.

Where are you trying to put the light(s)? Are you adding them to the rear hatch? Are you trying to add courtesy lights up front under the dash? Reading lights for the 2nd row? How many Amps?

There's a thread in the forum showing how to tap the dome light in the trunk to add lights to the rear hatch. If you want to put your lights up front though there are probably much better places to use.

Keep in mind the dome light circuit is a relatively low amperage fuse. If you're adding a single LED you can probably tap it and you'll be fine but if you're adding a bunch of extra lighting you may need to run a new circuit (maybe using an add-a-fuse) and then trigger them with a relay off the dome light circuit, otherwise you may blwo the fuse and/or overload the factory wiring

 

[bloc]

Also doesn't the stock setup gradually dim and brighten the lights? This may do odd things to a directly powered LED..

 

[linuxgod]

Also doesn't the stock setup gradually dim and brighten the lights? This may do odd things to a directly powered LED..

Yeah good point, you'd want lighting which is dimmable if you're powering directly.

 

[Fisher23]

several people have tapped into that dome switch to install cargo door lights.

 

[linuxgod]

several people have tapped into that dome switch to install cargo door lights.

There's a wiring harness in the hatch I'm going to try. Interior light is 4 <-> 7. Ground is 3. If that works it'll save me needing to run wires up through the hatch and the headliner. Failing that I'm going to do the same and just tap the dome though.