Central locking = Lights on

[C.A.R.]

Bear with me!

I've spent a good half hour studying the wiring diagrams in the back of the Haynes manual to no avail.

Basically I'm looking for the feed or the wire which causes the courtesy lights to come on with the unlock function of the doors.

The only feeds to the interior light (on the diagram at least) come from the door switches (2 or 4 depending on number of doors you have). I'm interested as to how the interior lights come on from the central locking module, what circuit to tap into and whether it gives off a positive signal upon activation.

The reason?

The interior lights come on when you unlock the doors, this could be very handy as a feed for a secondary external bootlock switch, as I have a smoothed boot. I don't much fancy having an external switch wired up to permanent live, despite retaining the locking mechanism (so the boot still locks as it would with a handle in place). If the feed from the central locking can be taken from there then it could be used to power the switch / solenoid for the 20 seconds or so that the light stays on after the car has been unlocked.

Phew.

Finally, it could also be used for some external LED lighting to come on when unlocking the car. Think; illuminating the door handles, small LEDs in the headlight assemblies or the rear number plate lights, which come on when you unlock the car.

Any help?

[Dan!]

Can't you use the original boot lock wiring? The standard boot lock on phase 3's doesn't have a key to open, just a button which activates/deactivates when the central locking is opened or locked.

[C.A.R.]

Can't you use the original boot lock wiring? The standard boot lock on phase 3's doesn't have a key to open, just a button which activates/deactivates when the central locking is opened or locked.

I get what you mean.

The latch effectively doesn't operate if the boot is locked, but upon unlocking it you can release the latch to open the boot using the button. Without seeing how the button works I have no idea whether it's a switch within the boot button which operates a solenoid (same solenoid used to lock/unlock?) or whether the boot button is purely mechanical in operating the lever for the latch itself.

Basically, I have no f*cking idea what I'm doing.

[Niall]

Yours is ph3 so ignore all the Haynes diagrams. There crap.

The lighting feed comes from the BSI straight to the front light then to the one in the back if you have one.
Now heres the tricky bit. The wire is live when the car is locked yet when you unlock is drops voltage so it's backwards from what you (and I!) want. You also have the trouble of the voltage doesn't just switch. It ramps so you can't use it to activate any relays which you need to do. If you run your boot popper straight from the light feed, there is a chance you could wreck your BSI as this line is not fused.
Basically it's a pita which I am working round at the moment for some ninja mods.

[C.A.R.]

Cheers Niall,

I suspected that was probably the case, as I couldn't work out how it would otherwise work with just two feeds and a negative...

Anyhow, sod doing anything linked to that. I'll just ignore having an external switch for now.

Whilst you're here, do you know where I can grab a constant live from down by the headlight level adjuster on a phase 3? It's not too far from the ignition of course, but I don't know what wire to look for....

[Niall]

What is it for? You've got a constant live going to the head light adjuster switch I believe but god knows which one!

[Connor]

Search for cullys plasma dial guide, he picks up a live from down there

[Niall]

Search for cullys plasma dial guide, he picks up a live from down there

That's a switched live from the light that illuminates on the head light leveller switch.

[C.A.R.]

Yea well I'll need that one too!
Constant live is for the boot popper solenoid as I'll be installing it (with fuse) somewhere on that little panel (probably on the blank button)
I have an illuminated momentary switch too so it would be nice if it came on with the dashboard illumination...

Can't be arsed running a whole new live feed from the battery!