Dome light question?

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Rivieraracing

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The question I have are about the little reading lights or map lights, not sure what they are called, they are round and are with the rear heat controls on the ceiling in the front of the truck. When I open the door, every other light in the truck turns on except these 2 lights, is there a way to get them to turn on with everything else or are they just the exception?
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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Anyone ever done a mod to make them come on with the doors opening?
 

Anthony

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Mine have always came on with everything else, I replaced all my lights to LED and its like an operating room in my car now cause its so bright!
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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Thanks for the help, I see yours is an 04 and mine is an 02, I wonder if they changed it up after 02? Any '01-02 guys out there that can answer my question?
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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Anybody??? '01 or '02 owners? Just wondering if I am missing something like I did with pushing the dome light switch 4 times to turn off the headlights? Anybody??
:)
 

El Capitan

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Same as yours ive got an 01 but its never really bothered me. I guess pull the assembly out and bust out the soldering iron and see what you can do. If you figure it out lemme know that might be something i wanna do.
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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Same as yours ive got an 01 but its never really bothered me. I guess pull the assembly out and bust out the soldering iron and see what you can do. If you figure it out lemme know that might be something i wanna do.

Thank for your info, just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one, it doesn't really bother me but it also doesn't make sense that they didn't make them turn on with everything else!! I might mess around with it to make them turn on, it really shouldn't be hard!!
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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So I finally tackled the project last week and now I have map lights that come on with the rest of the interior lights!! All I did was tap into the wire in the overhead TV screen I have for the back seats that turns those lights on with the interior lights and ran a wire in the headliner, around the sunroof and down through the front overhead console. To do this properly, you will need 2 diodes, one for each map light where this wire connects to, otherwise whenever you push the button for the map light to operate it manually, it will turn on all the interior lights (backfeed). I included a few pics of the install, I have more so if you need more info, hit me up!! If your lights don't turn with the rest of the interior lights like the newer trucks do, this is an easy and very useful mod to do!
For those wanting to do this mod, the diodes I used were Radio Shacks's part # 276-1653 which is a 25 pack of assorted diodes, any of those will work for this mod that's in the pack!
 

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silverado3521

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i had to comment because i thought it was funny that i was trying to find a way to stop my 2 maps lights from coming on with the door in my 2005 hoe and here i find you with the opposite problem
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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Yours would be an easy problem, all you have to do is drop the console down, find the wire and snip it!! Problem solved!! I never liked the fact that the front was quite a bit darker than the back section of the truck at night so this was a good thing for me!! ha ha ha!!
 

silverado3521

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i hope it is that easy but the catch is i still want them to be able to be turned on manually just not the switch. I am doing it because i have some cool pure white lights in the back and the map lights do not look right when the others light up
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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It should be easy, I would think there would be a separate wire for each the switch and the courtesy light circuit, not sure since I haven't seen the setup on the newer than '02's!! When you drop the map light console down, take a pic and post it up, I bet I could help ya out!!
Another fix would be to get some matching cool white colored map lights and keep everything the way it is!!
 

silverado3521

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Yea I figured it should be a pretty easy fix and the pure white bulbs I am have are blue in color and I have not been able to find any more of. I got these from a closeout sale at a stereo shop I used to frequent bake in my military days in NC and also glad you got everything worked out with yours.
 

seantopps

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If you do not have a DVD player built in then it will be a little different, at least it was for me. The front map lights you will need the two diodes as stated earlier, but the way you need to trigger it will be different. There are three wires feeding into the back seat overhead lamp.

Black- ground
Orange- 12v constant
White- trigger wire

The white wire is the trigger wire but it is a little backwards. The trigger wire has a 12v supply when the lights are off and when the lights are on it discontinues the power. So if you tap straight into the wire to the front map lights it will do the exact opposite that you want. When the doors open the lights will be off and when the doors close the lights will come on. So to change the wire to make it where the map lights will come on with the rest of them you will need to wire in a relay. The picture below will show how to wire the relay.



86 & 30 (fused 12V+)- tap into orange constant wire
85 (trigger)- tap into white trigger wire
87 (12V+ output)- wire to the two diodes that is connected to the map lights

I did not find anything on how to wire the map lights for a 2000-2002 so I just used my multimeter, read a little, and figured it out. Maybe it is too much work just to make them work but it was well worth it. With my LEDs it lights but the whole front of the cab. Hope this helps somebody.

References: http://www.the12volt.com/relays/relaydiagram8.html

neg2pos.gif
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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If you do not have a DVD player built in then it will be a little different, at least it was for me. The front map lights you will need the two diodes as stated earlier, but the way you need to trigger it will be different. There are three wires feeding into the back seat overhead lamp.

Black- ground
Orange- 12v constant
White- trigger wire

The white wire is the trigger wire but it is a little backwards. The trigger wire has a 12v supply when the lights are off and when the lights are on it discontinues the power. So if you tap straight into the wire to the front map lights it will do the exact opposite that you want. When the doors open the lights will be off and when the doors close the lights will come on. So to change the wire to make it where the map lights will come on with the rest of them you will need to wire in a relay. The picture below will show how to wire the relay.



86 & 30 (fused 12V+)- tap into orange constant wire
85 (trigger)- tap into white trigger wire
87 (12V+ output)- wire to the two diodes that is connected to the map lights

I did not find anything on how to wire the map lights for a 2000-2002 so I just used my multimeter, read a little, and figured it out. Maybe it is too much work just to make them work but it was well worth it. With my LEDs it lights but the whole front of the cab. Hope this helps somebody.

References: http://www.the12volt.com/relays/relaydiagram8.html

I messaged you with something to check in your truck Sean!
 

Gatorlac

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why not just wire from the other lights right next to them instead of thru the DVD player?
 
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Rivieraracing

Rivieraracing

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why not just wire from the other lights right next to them instead of thru the DVD player?

If you are referring to me, the DVD player was the closest to the map lights and had the wire I was after! Yes, there are other sources to tap from but this was the easiest for my application!
 

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