Dome Light - Door Open - Wiring

[IDon'tKnow]

I swapped the dome light assembly from my parts car into my good car. I'm not sure if I am going to paint the thing black or not; I'll decide if the contrast looks as tacky once I swap the dark blue headliner for the light gray currently installed.

Well when I first installed it I wasn't getting any light so I proceeded to diagnose the problem. After much trouble that wasn't really necessary -when I checked the fuse it was good but then it blew when I put it back in, so the before and after voltage readings were confusing me - I figured out that the the little ball contact was corroded in the switch so I pulled it down and cleaned it as best I could with a nail file and dart (common tools, I know) because I couldn't find any emery cloth.

When I reinstalled it, in the ON position it worked but the door function does not. I manually bridged the connection for it and still didn't get anything so it's not the contact in this case. When I open my door with the keys in I still get that annoying buzzing sound so I think the door sensor is up and running.

Any ideas on my next diagnosis step?

[mr3]

On my car, the dome light did not work for the first year and half of ownership. It just recently started to work. I dont know why but after I replaced my fusible link it started working. Also a few other wiring problems seemed to fix themselves like my cig lighter. Just waiting for the clock to come back on.

[IDon'tKnow]

That's interesting that your light works and the clock doesn't. I'm pretty sure that they are on the same circuit.

I'm not really a "wait till it fixes itself" kind of guy. I'm hoping someone on here can give me some good pointers. I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out on my own but it will probably take longer.

I'm going to swap the headliners here in a few hours and see if I can get my buddies multi-meter up here; all I have is a live wire tester. I'm going to swap the forward facing rear speaker from the 87 over as well so I'll be running wires up there anyway.

[Archidamus-R]

Dome lights are the only part Toyota can't build well.

[IDon'tKnow]

I think I'm going to have to agree with you.

I tested the door function again to make sure it wasn't working by way of some voodo magic, and it wasn't. I manually connected the leads for the door function again on the dome light and no luck their either. So I decided to start pulling interior trim panels to get to the wiring and door switches to check them. I found no problems with any of the switches and all of the wires had the neccessary current, so I start scratching my head on this one.

What to do when you think you've checked everything? Check everything again.

Once everything is back together again I manually connect the leads again and viola: light. So it must be the switch (that's funny, this test didn't turn out this way last time and I really haven't changed anything..... Perhaps I striped some corrosion from the plugs when I connected and disconnected them.)

Well, as stated above I already cleaned all of the contacts in the switch and can't identify any breaks in the switch. When I reinstall it and poke at it a bit with a pair if needle nose and find that the far right contact is comprimised in some nonvisible way.

Not wanting to buy a new dome light assembly - I just forked out $7 for the lense cover (the one from my parts car disintegrated when I tried to remove it) - I just took the thing inside and soldered the switch together. It's now permenantly in door mode, which is fine with me.

I wasn't sure if flipping the switch into "on" mode would damage anything due to both circuits being completed when the door is open. Everything seems to be fine though.

I adjusted the ignition timing and tightened up some noisey belts. The car is much smoother now. I also did a Sea Foam scrub on the internals and cleaned all of the carbon build up out of the throttle body.

[Archidamus-R]

I think I'm going to try to build my own dome light . . . Mebbe install one of the more ubiquitous ones from a Camry or Celica -- or build another one of my own -- for the rear of the passenger compartment.

[ice_mr2turbo]

mine has never worked so i made a change...

[mr3]

My clock works again! haha over a year of not working and it works now lol.

[Archidamus-R]

Wow. I know Toyota makes the important stuff -- engine, chassis, etc. -- but where do they get some of these ridiculous electronics? :P

[Sh0ty]

Denso.

[IDon'tKnow]

I think the 2 needs two dome lights. Not going to give it a shot anytime soon, but it's being filed in the back of my brain: Front and Rear Dome Light.

[mr3]

Or 3, one on each side under the dash to shine down on the floor. I could use that more than a frontward one.

[IDon'tKnow]

I think it would be nice to do some ambient blue LED's.

[YellowJacket]

I have been wanting to do this.... so lets discuss how....


If I wanted to put some LED lights in the footwell areas that come on when either door opens (like the dome light) then does anyone know what the best way to wire those LED lights?

Any mk1 wiring guru's out there know the best way to do this?

[mr3]

My best guess would be to wire it in with the door light thats in the cluster area. Just wire it in with that and you should be fine. LED's dont use that much power so you should be fine and not blow fuses. There are probably better ways to do it though.

[IDon'tKnow]

I think it would be very tasteful provided it is done with some LED's that don't make your floor look like a nightclub, i.e., not too bright.

All you would need to do is borrow a 12V supply from just about anywhere and then attach the negative to the door trigger. The door trigger wire is red with a black stripe.

I think it would be even better if you tied the circuit into a 3 way switch just like the dome light so you could change them between on/off/door. Or just tie them into the dome light switch. I would think that having some lights as ambient lighting which were wired to turn on anytime the key is in the ignition would be a great compliment to something a little bit brighter to help illuminate the cabin when the dome light is switched on.

My RL has them and it allows you to see in the dark without turning on a bright dome or map light.

[YellowJacket]

Ah thats the best idea to somehow wire it with the dome light switch.. door/on/off would be perfect.

You seem to have a decent grasp on it... do you know what wire to tap into to use that dome light circuit? I am guessing from looking at a diagram that its a red wire (is R-W indicating a Red and White wire?) and just wondering where it runs... apparently to jctn #4 .... does that run through the drivers side foot sill? so maybe the 64 million dollar question is WHERE is the best place to tap into it?

[IDon'tKnow]

I've got a harness pulled from my parts car and it's not very easy to trace the dome light wires. You're correct though that the wire is red with a white stripe. It ends up at the plug on the floor behind the driver seat.

Where and how do you plan on mounting the LEDs?

[YellowJacket]

Hmmm, that doesnt help too much yet. Not sure where that plug you are talking about is... under the carpet? or you mean the plug near the door sills and the drivers door switch?

As far as mounting, I found these little dome shaped green LED lights at radio shack, and I though I would kind of just hide them up under the foot well areas and maybe just zip tie them to something under there. I dont want to see them, just the light they cast.

I have four of them. Wanted to do two per side... I would just wire them all in to the R-W wire and just cast a green glow down there.
But unless I figure out where to hook them in to do the dome switch control I will just have to put them on a manual switch, or I suppose I could figure out how to connect them to the door switch - 2 on each side at least. I know where those come out and they are easy to get to running along the door sills. Pass. side would turn on pass side lights and driver side switch would illuminate the drivers side lights.



They kind of look like this but not near this big:

[IDon'tKnow]

I'll take a closer look at the harness tomorrow. The tricky thing about figuring which wire to tap into is that the wire running to the door switch is red with a black stripe, and the wires running into the dome light are red and red with a white stripe.

Edit: yea, the plug I'm referring to is under the carpet right up against the rear bulkhead. The lines coming off of the door switches have a lot of slack in them that is taped up to the routing tab that secures the harness (sub).... I'm not sure what is going on at that juncture. Come to think of it, I don't think it matters if you tap the r or rw line to/from the dome light. Maybee you could just let that slack out and add a little extra length.

I would feel like I cheated myself if I went through all the trouble of setting that up and then put it on a manual switch. I'm a wiring noob and I'm learning as I go. I can't imagine that getting it to function with the dome light switch will be difficult.... It's a two wire plug up there.

I'll get my electrical engineering buddy on the phone tomorrow