Ok, I bought some Cathodes today and wanted to hook them up to the dome light so they'd all come on at once. I got them from Oznium.com. Now, I have them installed where I want them, but I'm having trouble with the wiring. I checked the dome light wires and they're all a constant positive. I hooked up the + from the cathodes to the dome light (tried both wires, orange and white) and grounded the black, and it stays on constant.

Is the dome light wired with a negative as the trigger? Can anybody help?

if i'm not mistaken, YES, they should be neg, trig.
the reason probably being, is your door trig, is probably also neg trig.
most bdomes should be that way.....
try wiring it in the same way, have a constant positive, and the ground switched,
i don';t see why that would make a difference....
( disclaimer: if i'm wrong, someone please correct me )



wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

I'll give it a shot tomorrow, it's late now. Thanks man.

My idea was to close the doors after installing it..

keysurfer wrote:My idea was to close the doors after installing it..

yes i would say that would help



wait for it... wait for it... NOW GO!! ---> '02 LS Sport <---
Yahoo IM : buzz122 AIM : buzz122cav

Tried that, Actually, I was testing the wires while the door was closed. The cathodes were on no matter what. Time to re-wire today!

Ok, I have now connected the + to the battery (with a fuse), and the negative is connected to the door switches. On each door, there was a Black wire, and colored (Green on driver's side, blue on passenger). I tapped into the colored wires.

The Cathodes turn on when I open and close the door now, BUT, they do not turn on with the remote (when the car is unlocked) and they do not turn on with the dome light switch.

Now, I thought about instead of running the wire from the battery to run it to the + of the dome light, but that would work the same way. To the colored wires for the door do not trigger the lights to come on unless the door is open.

Google is no help, and autozone is out of manuals for the cavalier's. Can anybody help me? What else should I tap these into?

Ok my 05 works this way and I think your car does too. The orange wire is a constant 12V+ . The white wire switches, with the lights on it will be ground and with them off it will be 12V+. Sooo if you want them to come on whenever your dome light comes on just hook the + lead to the orange wire and the Neg to the white wire in the A pillar. Then they will come on when your doors open, when you turn the dimmer on the dash and when you unlock the car from the remote. Hope that helps.

The thing is though, the white wire with the dome light i hooked the + to the cathodes into with the doors closed, lights off, and the cathodes turned on! I hooked the transformer neg to the white, + to the orange and nothing happened... I'm lost.

The white wire has 12V+ on it with the door closed and the lights off so it wouldnt work. It only has a ground on it when the dome light is turned on. When your doors are closed and the light is off both the orange and white wire are 12v+. Try powering them from a different source for your 12v+ like the battery and then hooking the ground side of them to the white wire. they should work with the door open that way.

I'll give it a shot, I bought some more wire taps and I got time

I will keep the ground hooked up to the door switches as well.

Thanks man! I really appreciate it. I disconnected the grounds to the doors, and re-grounded with the white wire from the dome light. All lights turn on when the doors open, turn on with the remote, and with the switch, and turn off too! Awesome...

Next, gotta buy my replacement underbody light and I'll ground that to the same wire Cathodes and neons at the same time!

I have never done neons on a car so I might be wrong on this but I would think it would be a bad idea to hook them up to your dome light, I would think that that kind of constant on-off would be bad for those. Again I might be wrong as I have never done neons only LEDs

I've had the neons for awhile, 2 years I think. They survived the on/off for that time (until I ran over one when I was trying to install it on the cav), Streetglow Gold Series They're gonna be running power from the battery, just grounding with the dome light

Ugh, sorry to resurrect an old thread:

I hooked up the underbodies to the negative... and they'll turn on with the dome SWITCH, but not when the doors open/pull the key out, etc. Now.. my cathodes did this when I first hooked them up too, I just had to keep playing with it and it started to work. I bet the underbodies need a stronger ground....

input?

Am I retarded?

No comments? Ah well... I'll mess with it today. Last resort, I'll be wired to a switch.

Man I feel retarded... I didn't do anything to it today, but it WORKS. wtf? Why did they keep shutting off last night, but today they work perfect when I opened the door? Hmm....

i dunno man thats a little nutty.. i just read through this and its very hard to picture wut u got goin there... but if it woks good enough right? lol

lol, if it helps out, I did something like this

I have an 04 and want to do some leds as well. If i understand right the positive on the led hooks to the orange wire at the dome switch and negative led to the white in the pillar? Are there white wires in both pillars or am i going to need to run them all to that spot? Could i tap into the blue wire for positive at the door switch?


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