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What wire color for courtesy lights in door panels?
4th Gen Ram Tech2009 - 2018 Rams and the 2019 Ram Classic: This section is for TECHNICAL discussions only, that involve the 2009 - 2018 Rams and the 2019 Ram Classic. For any non-tech discussions, please direct your attention to the "General discussion/NON-tech" sub sections.
What wire color for courtesy lights in door panels?
What wire color for courtesy lights in door panels?
Hi all,
I am new to this group. I am going to install some Puddle lights (ghost lights ) in my 2015 ram 1500 sport crew cab truck but ran into a slight problem .I'm not sure witch wire I should hook them up to . I want the lights hooked up to the courtesy lights so that when I open my doors they come on . I was thinking the wires(in the picture attached) would be the green with blue stripe or the tan with blue stripe. But when I checked with my meter I am only getting 2˝volts when doors are open. But I need 12 volts to operate the Puddle lights . Could somebody please enlighten me which wire I should be using? Should I be using one of these wires with a relay? Sorry but I am a bit confused.
Also does anyone have a wiring schematic for the 2015 ram 1500 sport?
I just bought this truck (and lovin it ) a few months ago and want to do a few mods to it.
Where are the wires that you are showing in the image above located? That doesn't appear to be the wire harness from the power side mirror, but appears to be part of the door panel somewhere. I'm used to the puddle lamps being in the mirrors, but are you installing something different (bottom of the door, etc.)? How much current do your puddle lamps require? You'll have a tough time finding a relay with a 2.5 VDC coil, but you could probably find a logic level transistor that would turn on with that amount of base/gate voltage.
I have access to mirror wiring diagrams for my 2014 Ram 1500 which I suspect would be similar to your 2015.
Where are the wires that you are showing in the image above located? That doesn't appear to be the wire harness from the power side mirror, but appears to be part of the door panel somewhere. I'm used to the puddle lamps being in the mirrors, but are you installing something different (bottom of the door, etc.)? How much current do your puddle lamps require? You'll have a tough time finding a relay with a 2.5 VDC coil, but you could probably find a logic level transistor that would turn on with that amount of base/gate voltage.
I have access to mirror wiring diagrams for my 2014 Ram 1500 which I suspect would be similar to your 2015.
-Rod
Hi Rod,
Sorry for the confusion after posting I realized I shouldn't of wrote Puddle lights . They are ghost lights which mount on the bottom of the door panel and when door opens it shows the ram logo on the ground. I was trying to locate the wires coming off the switch for the dome lights.I drew a red arrow on picture to show you the wires I was looking at It looks like these wires went back to the latch on the door. The ghost lights require 12 volts to operate . I'm not familiar with logic level transistors, I will have to Google this.
Thank you for the reply I sure appreciate it because I am lost at this point . If you could post a wiring diagram of the switch for dome light on the drivers door I can see if I have the same color wires in my door
I really dislike the way FCA does their wiring diagrams lately. It's very difficult to find good information.
Does your truck have puddle lamps in the mirrors currently? If so, grabbing that signal may be the best option, although I'm not sure how much current that circuit can source or how much your ghost lights draw.
It's not terribly difficult to run wires from the cab through the connector body at the cab and in to the doors if you've done such a thing on vehicles before, but it's also not the easiest thing to do. There will be several unused terminals as well as some space between the locking clips where you can run a wire to power the puddle lamps from one of the interior lights. That might be the easier thing to do at this point. I recently did a similar wiring job on my 2014 when in installed power folding tow mirrors. My truck had towing mirrors from the factory but not power fold so I had to run a wire from the driver's door mirror to the passenger door mirror. The driver's door is more difficult to snake the wire in to due to the parking brake lever assembly but the passenger side wasn't bad.
Those 4 wires going in are for the door ajar signal and the lock actuator. Don't mess with those. If you don't already have puddles, there won't be any wires there to facilitate them. You will probably have to tap into dome lamp output INSIDE the cab.
I really dislike the way FCA does their wiring diagrams lately. It's very difficult to find good information.
Does your truck have puddle lamps in the mirrors currently? If so, grabbing that signal may be the best option, although I'm not sure how much current that circuit can source or how much your ghost lights draw.
It's not terribly difficult to run wires from the cab through the connector body at the cab and in to the doors if you've done such a thing on vehicles before, but it's also not the easiest thing to do. There will be several unused terminals as well as some space between the locking clips where you can run a wire to power the puddle lamps from one of the interior lights. That might be the easier thing to do at this point. I recently did a similar wiring job on my 2014 when in installed power folding tow mirrors. My truck had towing mirrors from the factory but not power fold so I had to run a wire from the driver's door mirror to the passenger door mirror. The driver's door is more difficult to snake the wire in to due to the parking brake lever assembly but the passenger side wasn't bad.
-Rod
Yes I do have Puddle lights and I agree I guess that is the best option to go with then . Yes I have ran wires out to the door before on my dodge Raider and also my pontiac Solstice before. Thx for the reply man I appreciate it 👍
Those 4 wires going in are for the door ajar signal and the lock actuator. Don't mess with those. If you don't already have puddles, there won't be any wires there to facilitate them. You will probably have to tap into dome lamp output INSIDE the cab.
TN Tech thx for the reply I belive I will run them to my puddle lights for now and see if I like that. . If not I guess I will tap into the doom lights. Thier is a floor light right above the brake pedal I could tap into thx for the help