Installing a Neon light in the trunk Options

[korban]

For the purposes of not confusing any Americans that will read this, I will be referring to my boot as a 'trunk'.

The sub boxes I am currently finishing off will partially cover the current trunk light. So I decided to install a neon light i've had hanging around for a while, bought it on clearance.

I wanted it to come on when I open the trunk, just like the light that's already there.

You should disconnect the battery when you are soldering, in case the 12V shorts through your soldering iron etc, I didn't and my fuses were fine, but it's not worth the risk.

First I pryed out the current light with a flat head screwdriver. Testing the connections with a multimeter I found that the blue/yellow wire was 12V, and the red/blue wire was ground.



The 12V is connected to one side of the bulb (circled in red), and the ground is connected through the switch to the other side of the bulb (circled in blue).

This is where you want to connect the power for the neon light, this way it will work only when the trunk is open, and the switch is on.

I found it was too difficult to solder to the little rivet like things, so the negative was soldered to the wire that is crimped to the blue circled thingy, and the positive was soldered to the blue/yellow wire (and wrapped with electricians tape).



Please note the connector flips over before plugging in, otherwise it looks like I'm just connecting it across the switch, which wouldn't work.

After pic:



Should be good at night when unloading groceries.

[richee3]

Nice! I just did something like this a couple of weeks ago, since my trunk light never has worked. Except I used LED's and drilled them into the sides of the trunk.

[Slick]

Nice! I just did something like this a couple of weeks ago, since my trunk light never has worked. Except I used LED's and drilled them into the sides of the trunk.

Let's see!