Hi all,

So I'm halfway through wiring in some extra lights, I have all the switches and relays and am about to run the wires between them now, however I'm unsure where to find:
1. A permanent live feed so that I am able to turn the lights on without ignition being on
2. The dash light feed so that when I turn my headlights on and the dashboard lights up, the switches light up to

Still new to this I'm afraid so apologies if its a dub question! Pictures with big arrows pointing to correct wires would be amazing, that's the kind of level I'm at when it comes to car electrics haha!

Many thanks in advance!

Stephen

Your permanent live feed either direct off the battery or live side off the fuse box as for a feed for the light on the switch ?? When your lights are on ??? usually once powerd up they self illuminate. Is that what you mean ?

The easiest way to get a "permanent +12 volt feed" is to wire straight back to the battery, via a suitable inline fuse, of course, although why you should wish to wire them to work in this way eludes me right now.
Your second query implies that your dashboard lighting isn't working, It should illuminate when the side lights are switched on and should remain illuminated no matter which additional lights, dipped and/or main beam headlights are switch on too.
There are two fuses involved in the interior lights, both are on the fuse board under the steering wheel, Fuse F11 and Fuse F33. Both are 10 Amp fuses. But a failure of either should also affect some other circuits too, although fuse F33 would be the more likely culprit.

biketeacherdave said:

Your permanent live feed either direct off the battery or live side off the fuse box as for a feed for the light on the switch ?? When your lights are on ??? usually once powerd up they self illuminate. Is that what you mean ?

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Yep I was hoping there was already one under the steering wheel bit, so I don't have to run anything through the bulkhead as I couldn't spot anywhere easy to get to. Not sure what you mean by the second bit? No so they have a backlight that you're supposed to wire in with the headlight somewhere if that makes sense?

brian47 said:

The easiest way to get a "permanent +12 volt feed" is to wire straight back to the battery, via a suitable inline fuse, of course, although why you should wish to wire them to work in this way eludes me right now.
Your second query implies that your dashboard lighting isn't working, It should illuminate when the side lights are switched on and should remain illuminated no matter which additional lights, dipped and/or main beam headlights are switch on too.
There are two fuses involved in the interior lights, both are on the fuse board under the steering wheel, Fuse F11 and Fuse F33. Both are 10 Amp fuses. But a failure of either should also affect some other circuits too, although fuse F33 would be the more likely culprit.

Click to expand...

Again, I was hoping there was a feed inside already but if not I guess I'll just have to bit the bullet! The reason is so that I can switch the lights on without having the keys in the ignition.
No sorry that must've come out wrong! The lights are working, and do illuminate when the sidelights are switched on, but I need to tap into that for the switch lights and not sure where/which wire that would be?

Thanks both

Hi,

Have you looked at the wiring diagram and tried to find what you want?

Cheers

HavoK said:

No sorry that must've come out wrong! The lights are working, and do illuminate when the sidelights are switched on, but I need to tap into that for the switch lights and not sure where/which wire that would be?

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The dashboard lighting is generally using the Red/Brown wires under the dashboard.

neilly said:

Hi,

Have you looked at the wiring diagram and tried to find what you want?

Cheers

Click to expand...

I did try, however I struggled to find where the wires are physically located haha - don't want to start cutting into the wrong ones!

brian47 said:

The dashboard lighting is generally using the Red/Brown wires under the dashboard.

Click to expand...

Ahh thanks I'll check it out!

HavoK said:

I did try, however I struggled to find where the wires are physically located haha - don't want to start cutting into the wrong ones!

Click to expand...

If you use the rave electrical diagram then it shows which connectors , then you can look at the connector locator drawing / photos.

Cheers

Permannent live on the brown wire(pin1) of C0028 and illumination live on the red wire(pin4) from the stalk's plug(C0041)

sierrafery said:

Permannent live on the brown wire(pin1) of C0028 and illumination live on the red wire(pin4) from the stalk's plug(C0041)

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Ahh amazing! Thank you so much, that's exactly what I needed! Really appreciate the help.

Stephen

The "normal" way to wire extra lights would be:

- find a good 12v live feed (i'd use one of those little additional fuse boxes fitted under the bonnet so you have spare power sources in the future) and run a feed into the relay.

- Find any 12v feed that meets your requirements (permanent, ignition or lighting) in the cab. The power draw on this will be absolutely tiny as it only needs to flip the relay. run that into the "common" on the switch.

- Connect a wire from the switch ground to a suitable grounding point if applicable (ie if the switch has lights)

- Run a wire from the switch in the cab through a gromit in the bulkhead to the relay under the bonnet.

- Connect the ground on the relay to a suitable ground point under the bonnet

- Connect the output from the relay to the +ve on the lights, and connect the -ve on the lights to a suitable ground point.

This way only 1 wire (from the switch to the relay) has to pass through the bulkhead.
Obviously if the switches also have a circuit to illuminate the switch when your lights are on, that will require an additional (lighting circuit) input. There's loads of suitable wires in the dashboard that you can splice into - the one on the back of the clock is quite accessible but it depends where you're putting the switch.


Be aware that if you're running the lights on a permanent live, theres a good chance of draining the battery. That said, for things like work lights, its quite useful to be able to run them with the engine off as long as you remember that they're linked to the battery. If you're going to be doing it a lot then a second battery with a split charge relay may be a good investment, or at least a voltage guage!!