03 tahoe LED dome light

[Rivieraracing]

Here are a few pics of how I taped up the connections to support and protect them, I taped the wires to others to keep them from being pulled out and then wrapped the rest of it to keep it from shorting out!!

For diodes, I bought radio shack part # 276-1653, it is a 25 diode package for only a couple of bucks!! Like I said, if you wire it up like I did, you should only need one diode per light cluster that has a manual switch!!

Can anyone help me with a good 12v at the fuse box? I have found a few good 12v options in there but not sure what they go to!! I don't want to piggy back off of an important circuit and have something short out and crash!! I'm looking at the harness plug on the left of the fuse box, there are 2 orange wires at the bottom right of that harness plug that have good power!! Needs to be good 12v all the time power!

 

[BillBlatt18]

thats awesome! The windshield wiper fuse in that block gets a constant 12v btw

 

[Rivieraracing]

thats awesome! The windshield wiper fuse in that block gets a constant 12v btw

I'm not worried about finding 12v power, just trying to brainstorm a good place to tap into that would be safe!! I'm nervous about sharing power with my windshield wipers, it rains soo much here that if something happened and blew the circuit, I wouldn't wanna be without wipers just because I wanted some lights to be bright!! Plus it's my wifes primary rig, I wouldn't want her to crash because she couldn't see!! If she survived, I'm also afraid she would kill me!! lol

Keep the ideas coming folks, I'm also open to going beyond the fuse box some for some safe power!!

 

[BillBlatt18]

i run my footwell lights on a switch through that fuse. Been fine since i did it about a month ago and i know Timmy runs his subs and amp off of it too

 

[chauncey0337]

Well I'm glad Somebody actually tried this. Maybe we should have kept it a secret, lol. Glad to seeyou got the problem solved. How aboot the constant for the cigarette lighters. If it blows you wont loose anything important.

 

[Tahoewhat]

Looks good Chris. In a way, glad you had this problem, b/c you have all the right tools to figure it out, volts and all. Might have to try this for the two fronts, once you find a good place for the constant 12v.

 

[Rivieraracing]

Yeah, I should have time tomorrow to figure out a good voltage source, which I will post back up here when I do!!

 

[Rivieraracing]

Well, finished it all up tonight and it seems to be working lovely!! I ended up quick tapping one of the orange wires in the fusebox for the power and also put a 3A blade stlye fuse inline as well for protection in case something not good happens!! I should know tomorrow if it works like is should!!

 

[Rivieraracing]

Well, thought I'd update my results!! Looks to be a winner!! Last night I turned off my dome light button so the door wouldn't trigger the lights, then went out 3 times so far today and all 3 times I have full power at both dim light clusters!!

 

[chauncey0337]

Well, thought I'd update my results!! Looks to be a winner!! Last night I turned off my dome light button so the door wouldn't trigger the lights, then went out 3 times so far today and all 3 times I have full power at both dim light clusters!!

That's great man! This is a big breakthrough imo. People with this problem now have a solution and people who have not done the dome led's because of this problem can now do it.

 

[Rivieraracing]

I'm happy that I don't have to think about it anymore!!

But yes, the problem is irritating and at least there is a way to fix it!! Thanks goes out to Angel for actually taking the first step in finding a way to eliminate the problem in the first place, he's the one that first proved that by adding power to a light that it would brighten up a dim LED!! We just improved the idea a bit and eliminated the relay!! Thanks again for your help Chauncey, now just hoping others use this info and fix their trucks!!

 

[angel.arteaga]

Your welcome mike and great work !

Will soon get this done on mine cuz all the side effects that we had with the relay "buzzing" and "wakin up" were driving my wife crazy.

So thanks for all your help guys.

 

[Rivieraracing]

Hope someone else gives this a try, I'm glad I had the problem but was really just hoping to help others out by solving this problem!! A win/win for everyone in my opinion!! If anyone tries my fix, can you post up on your results on whether it worked for you or not!!

And thank you for even being the first to tackle this problem, if you hadn't tried the relay trick, I doubt any progress would have happened to this problem at all!!

 

[Tahoewhat]

Might do it once i do my "other mod" then i will have the 12v there already.

 

[Rivieraracing]

Just drove the truck down the street a bit ago and the mod still works great!! It's a winner folks!!!

---------- Post added at 07:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:14 PM ----------

Might do it once i do my "other mod" then i will have the 12v there already.

Very nice!!!

 

[BillBlatt18]

do we know if the canbus LEDs have this problem as well or will they work fine?

 

[Rivieraracing]

Well, I was reading 8.5v's when the LED's would be dim, so just need to find some LED's that can run at full bright with a voltage as low as 8v. Otherwise, if you can't and you have the dimming problem, then this mod would be what you need to do if it bugs you!

 

[BillBlatt18]

The "mod" is way to complicated for me. I might just try to go back to stock vanities and try the glitch thing.

 

[Rivieraracing]

Trust me, if you can wire up a switch, then you can do this!! I promise!

 

[BillBlatt18]

I can wire more than a switch, but this looks extremely complex