Adding a Front Door Puddle Light - looking for trigger wire

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Jbenrod
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Adding a Front Door Puddle Light - looking for trigger wire

Post by Jbenrod »

For a Gen 1.

Does anyone know if I can find a wire that is in the dome light circuit inside of the driver's door? I want to connect to it and run down to the door bottom to add some LED lights that will go on and off the same as the dome light. (Or, maybe the door ajar circuit but anything that is triggered when the door is open or closed)

I know I could find the dome light circuit wire somewhere in the car body and then run a wire through the door grommet but it would obviously be easier if there is already a wire inside of the door. I believe Derf / Fred added something similar to his external mirror so if there isn't a trigger wire in the door I may review his old thread to try and find out where he made his connection. I don't recall reading much about anyone doing this except for him, but if others have done something along this line I would welcome any comments or suggestions.
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joatmon
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Re: Adding a Front Door Puddle Light - looking for trigger wire

Post by joatmon »

I would be greatly surprised if there was a wire for it in the doors already.

In Derf's write up, he had to snake a wire into the door viewtopic.php?f=18&t=42843
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jolt
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Re: Adding a Front Door Puddle Light - looking for trigger wire

Post by jolt »

Attached is the wiring diagram for a 2003 COROLLA MATRIX Interior Lighting. This should be very close to what the Vibe has but some of the wire colors may be different. As you can see, the door switches only take a signal to ground and do not have power for lighting.
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zbyers
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Re: Adding a Front Door Puddle Light - looking for trigger wire

Post by zbyers »

As the other two mentioned, your best bet will be to run wires to the door. Probably just put it on a toggle switch in one of the blanks on the dash then you can turn them on or off as you please.
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joatmon
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Re: Adding a Front Door Puddle Light - looking for trigger wire

Post by joatmon »

jolt wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 10:29 pm Attached is the wiring diagram for a 2003 COROLLA MATRIX Interior Lighting. This should be very close to what the Vibe has but some of the wire colors may be different. As you can see, the door switches only take a signal to ground and do not have power for lighting.
If I remember right, the door switches are in the door frames, not the actual doors.

There is a difference in gen1's between 03/04 and the 05-08 up models. 03/04 have a dimmer switch that also allows selecting the overhead dome lights as being always on, always off, or door controlled, the 05-08 have that selection built into the overhead light fixtures.

The dome lights get a constant 12V and a controlled ground, the control happens in the integration relay on the bottom of the under dash fuse block. I know that on an 03 without the power window/locks, the dome lights are binary, full on or off with nothing in between, when they shut off its like throwing a hard switch, where on an 03 and an 05 with the power package, the dome lights slowly fade out.
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Jbenrod
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Re: Adding a Front Door Puddle Light - looking for trigger wire

Post by Jbenrod »

Thanks for those links and comments. This will be a good resource.
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BrandonMassey
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Re: Adding a Front Door Puddle Light - looking for trigger wire

Post by BrandonMassey »

Jbenrod wrote: Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:56 am For a Gen 1.

Does anyone know if I can find a wire that is in the dome light circuit inside of the driver's door? I want to connect to it and run down to the door bottom to add some LED lights that will go on and off the same as the dome light. (Or, maybe the door ajar circuit but anything that is triggered when the door is open or closed)

I know I could find the dome light circuit wire somewhere in the car body and then run a wire through the door grommet but it would obviously be easier if there is already a wire inside of the door. I believe Derf / Fred added something similar to his external mirror so if there isn't a trigger wire in the door I may review his old thread to try and find out where he made his connection. I don't recall reading much about anyone doing this except for him, but if others have done something along this line I would welcome any comments or suggestions.
There is a wire in the I believe called "A Pillar" panel on the driver side that I used from a video i saw on YouTube, PLEASE BEFORE YOU DO ANY OF THIS DISCONNECT THE BATTERY! I'm still fixing electrical issues I had when I shorted my fuse and other things from messing with it, you should be fine though as long as you disconnect it, in the video he shows the wire he used and he has all these extra resistors and stuff installed which you don't need since he did way more than you are trying to do, it'll work with the dome lights and I literally just connected them all to that tiny dome light wire with speaker wire, I'm not at all a wiring dude but it worked for me, the pillar I'm talking about is the panel above the left driver side and the plastic should just pop off, mid typing this I found the video and link for ya, good luck they look sweet. https://youtu.be/rII9X2pQBZI
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