Floor well lights

[JSP]

Need some help here I'm not an electrical person.



My LED strip has a positive and negative wire.
I'm planning to use a fuse tap and get 12V supply from the cigarette lighter fuse terminal. Positive wire goes to the fuse tap. What about the negative wire from the LED?

I read that I need to ground it at any of the bolts. Is that right? What is the theory for grounding it at the bolts?

Many Thanks

[Anhevius]

Grounding at the bolt ties it into the car's grounding, leading back to the battery. Just find a bolt, unscrew it a bit, wrap the wire around it, then screw back in. Easy as.

[Dyl619]

Your better off using the dome light plug and wiring it straight in.This way when the doors open it will come on and fade out after a delay. If u want it continuous with a switch its a bit more difficult.
This video helped me in understanding were to wire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSFNEEg4mbQ

[JSP]

Your better off using the dome light plug and wiring it straight in.This way when the doors open it will come on and fade out after a delay. If u want it continuous with a switch its a bit more difficult. This video helped me in understanding were to wire.

In the video the dome light plug is at the bottom. I found my dome light plug to be above me. See picture. There are 3 wires there and using a multimeter I measured a 12Vdc and hence I know which is the positive and negative. Question is:- Do I connect the positive/negative of the LED strip to that plug?

I'm not sure what the other plug in my dome light is for. Havent test yet.



If I can wire the LEDs to the dome light above me, this means I have to lay the wire from the overhead till the bottom. I've to pull out the sides and that is one of the air bags location. Never pull out any fittings before so not sure if it will activate airbags.

[Lancer1993]

What LED strips do you use, seen quite a few on eBay for less than $5 a pair 30cm long each. Loads of colors but I'd probably choose white or yellow

[Dyl619]

I plugged mine into the other end of that same plug, much easier to wire.
And lancer1993 the leds I used were 9$ for 4x 30cm 3528 led strips. I personally like the 3528 over 5050 leds as they are nice and suttle over the brighter 5050s

[Swerve]

I use to work with autoelectrics and have wired my own footwells, boot and grille LEDs and done done some for my friends. Mines on a 3 way switch with a constant on, door, constant off setting if you want details ask me. For a simple straight hardwired light then.

First, the Lancer is negative switching not positive switching. So you'll want to take a constant positive and negative best bet would be to just go straight to the cigarette socket or what I did was use the main loom behind the key barrel.

If you want a simple on/off switch. Run a wire from the positive of the LED to a constant +12VDC source. Then run a wire from the negative on the LED to the top or bottom terminal of the switch. After that run a constant negative from behind the key barrel to the opposite terminal (or middle if there is one) on the switch.