[In.The.Wild]

Hello everyone, happy Friday!

When I have the time this weekend, I’m planning on installing some courtesy/puddle lights. It’s something that’s always bothered me to not have on the FJ.

I’ve searched quite a bit, and from what I can gather there is a wire that can be tapped into on a harness in the drivers kick panel area as well as one in the a-pillar which is what I’m leaning towards, the a-pillar one is described as the “middle” wire in a three wire bundle.

Unfortunately, the pictures of pretty much every post on this project are no longer available. I don’t mind electrical work but when splicing into existing wiring it’s nice to be sure it’s the correct wire.

Also, from what I understand it’s a ground trigger so I’ll have to tap into a constant on source in the fuse box and the “ground trigger” is what will actually activate the lights.

I’m hoping someone can chime in with some information on the wire to tap as well as ensure that I’m going about this correctly. Thanks!

 

[FJX2000]

Hello! I actually added lights like these myself using the wire ribbon that goes to the headliner lights. I wanted them to automatically go on and off with the opening and closing of the doors so it was a no brainer for me to use these. I actually sent an email to Nestah Edition about this issue a couple years ago since he doesn't come around here anymore. The first picture is mine and is of that ribbon wire before I did anything to it. The second picture is what Nestor sent to me and he also told me on Facebook, "On the three wire ribbon cable, the middle wire is the negative and the outside wires are positives (one is constant and the other one is switched (dome light in "DOOR" setting)." What I ended up tapping into for the "door" power was the left-most wire and then my negative went to the center wire. Now my lights work as intended and come on and off with the dome lights! Hope this helps!

Found a thing I wrote on Facebook when I installed them and folks asked about them but I never wrote on the forums about the process until now!
"Well, the lights were just cheap 12" LED strips from AutoZone that someone gifted me for Christmas back in 2015. They have sticky backing on them so I just stuck them in a place on the bottom of the doors where the doors could still close without issues. I then ran the wiring through the plastic door boot and routed them from both sides under the dash and up to the driver's side a-pillar where you can find the ribbon wire going to the dome lights. I suggest checking with a multimeter for yourself but for me, the wiring you see in the picture, the left wire is the positive, the middle one is the ground controlled by the doors, and the right wire is the ground that is always on. So I tapped the positive wires from the LED strip lights to the left wire and the negative wire to the middle wire of the ribbon wire so now the door lights go on and off with the dome lights when set to the "door" setting. It is awesome!"

Reading that now I think I had the terms for ground and positive mixed up but hopefully you get the idea by now!

 

[In.The.Wild]

Hello! I actually added lights like these myself using the wire ribbon that goes to the headliner lights. I wanted them to automatically go on and off with the opening and closing of the doors so it was a no brainer for me to use these. I actually sent an email to Nestah Edition about this issue a couple years ago since he doesn't come around here anymore. The first picture is mine and is of that ribbon wire before I did anything to it. The second picture is what Nestor sent to me and he also told me on Facebook, "On the three wire ribbon cable, the middle wire is the negative and the outside wires are positives (one is constant and the other one is switched (dome light in "DOOR" setting)." What I ended up tapping into for the "door" power was the left-most wire and then my negative went to the center wire. Now my lights work as intended and come on and off with the dome lights! Hope this helps!
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Found a thing I wrote on Facebook when I installed them and folks asked about them but I never wrote on the forums about the process until now!
"Well, the lights were just cheap 12" LED strips from AutoZone that someone gifted me for Christmas back in 2015. They have sticky backing on them so I just stuck them in a place on the bottom of the doors where the doors could still close without issues. I then ran the wiring through the plastic door boot and routed them from both sides under the dash and up to the driver's side a-pillar where you can find the ribbon wire going to the dome lights. I suggest checking with a multimeter for yourself but for me, the wiring you see in the picture, the left wire is the positive, the middle one is the ground controlled by the doors, and the right wire is the ground that is always on. So I tapped the positive wires from the LED strip lights to the left wire and the negative wire to the middle wire of the ribbon wire so now the door lights go on and off with the dome lights when set to the "door" setting. It is awesome!"

Reading that now I think I had the terms for ground and positive mixed up but hopefully you get the idea by now!

View attachment 1143462

perfect example of why the Forum is so great. Thanks so much Hayden, this is exactly what I needed!