Hey all,

I just added a quickie mod to my existing footwell light mod that I did a while back. Footwell lights are tied into dome light so they come on when doors open.

For this, I added one wire (ground only) and ran it from one of the footwell lights up to the map lights. Now the map light(s) come on when doors are opened as well. Since the map lights always have positive power and are ground on/off switched this is an easy one to do.

I hardly ever use the map lights, so at least this way they are being used. The only neg. is that I tied both map lights into the ground, so both come on, whether from the door/dome light or from hitting either of the switches on them.

Just thought I would share. Have a great weekend everyone.

 

Hey CBDenver! Where did you get the footwell lights? Are they like bare light holders? Thanks!

 

Milton;

I did a similar mod a while ago and got the lights I used from JC Whitney. My write-up is here (includes links to JCW's lamp selection):

http://www.midiwall.com/4Runner/footwell.html

 

Cool!! Thank you so much Mark!!

 

Umm... they are huge!! I'm looking for something a little smaller... if I cant find any, I'll use these. Thanks though!

 

Yeah, they ended up being a lot bigger than I thought they were. I had to cut the flange on the one for the passenger side to cram it in there. The upside is that they do through a lot of light, and you can't see the physical install...

 

You could solve this problem by using 2 power diodes...
Connect the cathode end of each diode (marked with a line) to the new ground wire that you've run.
Then connect the anode end of each diode (no line marking) to each of the maplights.

 

Check out PepBoys, they have smaller ones that I used for my footwell lights. They are called utility lights, and are about $2.50 each. They are easier to work with as you can strap them under the dash with two nylon zip ties.

 

Pepboys also has APC sidemarker lights that will work nicely (I have a set I haven't installed yet...)

 

hey,

Sorry I did not reply to the quesiton earlier. I got the lights at Checker or Autozone or some where. They were very cheap. I have the passenger light on the door side of the metal crossbar that is under the glove compartment. For the driver side, it is mounted center in the plastic air duct that has the vent below the steering column. Very easy mod to do, and nice at night for sure.

As for the diodes, thanks for the tip. I will try it. So that would make it work the way I hoped it would I guess? What rating or size of diode do I need to get?

Thanks again!
Chris

 

My map lights automatically come on when I open the doors.

 

That's cool. You must have a newer truck than my 97 I guess.
The light holders I found take a 194 bulb I think, so they are pretty small. They are a PITA though. There is a base plat, then a plastic cover, then a metal one over that. So when you want to change a bulb, the whole light assy comes off. You can't just take the cover off of them.

Other than that, they are pretty good. I painted all the metal parts black before installing them, so they don't look too bad. I like having the light in the footwells for sure though.

Thanks.

 

no my truck is a 93. But that mod is a cool idea.

 

dammit I hate how this forum 'times out' so fast. I have to re-login and then I lose what I'm typing!!
Here we go again...

The diodes will allow the maplight globes to ground (and therefore turn on) through the new wire that you installed, but because both globes would be isolated each one will work manually via the switch without turning the other globe on as well (currently your new wire has tied both globes in together).

You'll need to get 2 power diodes from an electronics/hobby shop. They're rated in Amps, so you need to know how much current each maplight globe draws.
For example:
If the globes are 5watts each, at 13.8volts they'll draw 0.4Amps.
A couple of 1Amp power diodes would work well in that case.

Let me know if you have any problems getting it to work.

 

A side suggestion...

When I'm entering long messages, I periodically hit CTRL-A (mark all), CTRL-C (copy marked to clipboard) then open Notepad (or some editor) and CTRL-V (paste from clipboard). That always gives me a backup in case something goes nuts.


Any chance that you're on dialup? I've taken well over an hour to enter a single message, with formatting and links and such, and have never had an issue with YT timing out... So it may not be the forum per se'.

if could be something else watching your network activity and closing the connection based on that. When you're typing into these message boxes, the typing is happening locally, not on the server. The server won't see a thing until you hit SUBMIT or PREVIEW.

Actually, that brings up another idea... If you need to keep network activity alive in order to maintain the 'net connection, then click PREVIEW every-so-often.

 

Not to hijack the thread or anything...

Yeah I usually dump long messages onto the clipboard just in case. Of course sometimes I forget

Thanks for the suggestions. I know my way around computers so the fact that your login session stays alive means it's something at my end.

I actually run a cable connection across my LAN at home.

 

Hey thanks everyone. I bought and put in diodes in both map lights and it works like perfect. They both turn on with opening of a door, and either will turn on with it's switch now without turning all the lights on.

Thanks for the tip. Worked awesome.

 

Pics and a write-up? I'd like to do this for my truck as well.