Dome Light/ACC Override Switch Install Writeup

Welcome Guest, we hope you find what you're looking for. Take a few seconds to register for an account and participate in the conversations!

ALL FORUMS ARE OFF-LIMITS FOR 0-POST USERS
CLICK THE SIGN AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF

[Chris]

WRITEUP: Dome Override Switch

For those of you that work on your 1st gen W cars with the doors/hood/trunk open with the stereo going and that lovely drain of having all your interior/underhood/trunk lights on; this mod might be worth it for you. It is a switch to cut the power to your interior/trunk/hood lights to not have that drain on your battery. I usually just pulled the fuse, but this makes it much easier! This should take you roughly 30 minutes if you do it right.

Either disconnect your negative battery terminal or pull out your 15A Courtesy fuse. I recommend disconnecting your battery terminal, but I was too lazy and just pulled the fuse. All screws are 8mm unless otherwise stated.


1. Remove the dash trim:



2. Remove the two screws from the top of the fuse box bracket:



3. Remove the six screws. Remove the one on the door limiter first, this will make it easier to remove the others:



4. Remove the glove box and disconnect your electrical connection and the light:



5. Now that you have that done, remove the lower molding. The one on the left is a plastic phillips pressure screw:



6. While you are under there remove the two bottom screws for the fuse box bracket:



7. Remove the three screws holding the fuse box in the bracket:



8. This is the wire you will be cutting. Cut the wire with about 3" hanging off the back of the fuse box. Splice in new terminated wire on both ends, solder and apply heat shrink tubing over the two splices. The terminated ends will plug into the toggle switch:



9. This is where I mounted the toggle switch in my glove box. I was going to use a lighted switch but decided to keep it simple:



10. Finished product. Power cut, and power applied:



The wires coming out of the fuse box are for my laptop, ignore those

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

lol laptop sound on the car stereo? dont worry bro, i got a headphone jack in my center console, as well as a Tekonsha P3 Electric Trailer brake controller... and an AC power point.

[Chris]

Yeah, I use to have power, GPS & WiFi hookups in my Lumina when I worked as a Mobile Tech for Dell. I had a WiFi router installed under the seat with a hi gain antenna on the roof that could pick up WiFi signals from a good mile away.

[Jay]

More info on that? I want to do that to the Blazer...Not the override, it already has that. haha

[Chris]

Can you be a bit more specific?

The 120v?
The GPS?
The WiFI?

[Jay]

Wifi.

[Chris]

You need a DD-WRT compatible router. I took a Linksys WRT54G, hacked it to DD-WRT and configured it as a bridge to connect to any available WiFi network

[Jay]

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

Chris, is that a Neon light strip i see in your dash just above the trim?

[Chris]

That switch doesn't look like it was supposed to fit there


Yeah, I use to have some EL lights running along the trim in my car, at one point I had LED underbody lights too. That shit lasted like a week before I took it out.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

i was thinking of doing underglow, but its illegal here. i dont really need another reason to get pulled over (tint, speeding, stereo, seatbelt, and anything else you can think of) lol the kit i found was pretty cool though, when you signaled, the sides would flash orange for the direction you want to turn. brakes would make the back light up red, or brighter red... and reverse made the back one light up white.

-still illegal here.

[Chris]

That's pretty cool. My kit was one of the first 2.1million color kits. It was cool, but I didn't really like it on my car. I want to mount it in the computer room in my house, I think that would be spiffy. I haven't seen that kit in a good 4 years though, I think it's at my parents house somewhere.

It's illegal down here too, but that didn't stop me from using it. I only got caught once, and the cop told me to turn it off or take it out. I turned it off.

[Mike]

Not completely illegal here. You just can't drive with them on... it can sit in a parking lot with them on constantly.

[Jay]

That switch doesn't look like it was supposed to fit there

That was in mock up. Only pic I had at the time. I'll post a better one.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

hmmm maybe i will order the one i found than, it looked really cool... and i call it safety if it goes with the cars regular lighting