Door Courtesy Light and Ghost Lights

[Artaban]

I thought I saw somewhere a picture of an Elan door with a red courtesy light just below the door lock. The type that is there to warn others that the door is being opened so they don't run into it. Was this something someone had done as a one off or was it on American spec cars? I'm curious because I've ordered a pair of ghost lights with the Lotus logos from ebay and wondered whether the wiring was already in place in the door loom. Whilst the ghost lights will shine on the ground as opposed to being a red light facing backwards the principle of them coming on when the door is opened is the same.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121229596622? ... 1497.l2649

The Lotus ones are number 47. Having seen the Ford version I was quite impressed and thought it would make a good project. If the wiring doesn't exist does anyone have any suggestions as to where i would join in to the same circuit that brings the interior courtesy lights on when the door is opened? Bear in mind that I'm an absolute amateur when it come to car electrics; changing a bulb is a challenge. Don't laugh, when I first got the car I couldn't find the battery and had to get the RAC man to show me where it was. Well it was dark.

Thanks.

Andrew

[Elanlover]

I looked into these myself a while back. I was going to check to see if there was enough clearance between the bottom of the door and the window when all the way down but never got around to it (of course). When you start thinking about installing them you should have a look first before you start cutting holes in the bottom of the door. Also, you might want to install them towards the back end of the door (as opposed to near the hinges) to get the full effect as the door swings open. I'd suggest you tap into the wiring for the interior lights so that they come on when he door opens only.

On FED models the wiring is on the passenger's side and runs from inside the top interior header, inside the A pillar post and out the bottom behind the dash. Check the electrical manual for wiring colours, etc. and tap that one (you'll need to run another wire around to the other door of course).

[Artaban]

Eventually installed the Ghost Lights. They work really well and light up the whole of the ground when the doors are open. Available on ebay and relatively easy to wire up. The most difficult bit was threading a wire through to the door from under the dash for a live feed.

[Tuga2112]

Artaban,

I was inspired by your post and I'm considering doing the same.

any chance to take some pics of the wiring? maybe a how to?
I am assuming you added wiring to connect to the door that wasn't there originally, what type of wire did you use ? I been to maplin's today and found out there are more than 2 types of electrical wire. so before doing anything might as well ask someone who has done it already.

Cheers

[cliff]

Not my thing but looks surprisingly good, I have red ones on the GT and they are very effective.

Tuga, Maplins may be good for some things but for car electrics, they are worse than Halfrauds. Cables are rated by current carrying capacity and it is very important to choose the correct cable for the job. Maplins stock basic stuff and sadly most of the staff (certainly in my local branch) have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

If you want to buy cables, try a firm like this, they will offer every spec you might need with the colour code to match the car's original wiring.

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/

http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/s ... -pvc-cable

PS: Never be tempted to use scotch locks.

[Megwenda]

A calculator can be useful in deciding what cable to use

[epipete]

When I was a youngster, 30 odd yrs back, and bought my first HiFi I needed some speaker cable and naively went to the local specialist HiFi store and requested some 10mtrs of speaker wire only to be rather haughtily advised that their cable was sold @ iirc £5.00 per inch - gold plated apparently! I beat a rather hasty, red faced, retreat.

Off topic, but I thought I'd share

[Artaban]

Those were the days in the 80's when I had more money than sense. Another of my vices is hifi and I'd often be swayed by the latest offering from the wire wizards of Wilmslow. The purest copper from the Tibetan mines of Hur, plated with silver and drawn in a single strand across the ley lines of Salisbury plain and then hand rolled on the thighs of Patagonian virgins. Actually I think they just got a load from Maplin and rebadged it and dreamt up a price for the gullable (that would be me). Anyway back to the topic.

The ghost lights I purchased from ebay came with about 1/2 to 3/4 metre of cable attached; long enough to do one part of the wiring. I positioned the ghost light by the metal bracket that supports the central window channel. This keeps it on the inside of the door in what looked to be the driest place and close to the wiring. It was very easy to drill through the door with the supplied hole cutter. You may need to cut out a bit of the door panel itself and again I used the hole cutter to do this. I found the hole cutter gave a very tight fit so I had to file the inside of the hole to get the light to fit but not a great problem. I found that the logo inside the light moved around a bit so I unscrewed the light (be careful of all the lenses) and applied a tiny bit of glue to the logo to keep it in place. I attached an ordinary battery to the ghost light to line up the logo on the floor (not easily visible in daylight) before tightening the ghost light into position.

The light has two wires; one goes to a permanent live feed under the dash and the other to the purple and white wire in the door loom (see pic below). I exposed the door loom by the access panel near the lock and soldered on the ghost wire to an exposed bit of the purple/white wire before covering it all back up with insulation tape. I soldered all connections as I don't want to have to find a failed wire connector at a later date.



I can't guide you on where to attach the other wire to a live feed under the dash as I was having a Toad alarm fitted on the same day and the auto electrician did that for me whilst he was grovelling in the passenger footwell. However the pig of a job was feeding a length of cable (I used very thin multi strand cable; actually an off cut of the alarm loom) through the door grommet and under the dash. I found you had to remove the grommet at both ends and follow the loom through it to under the dash. For ease I went from the dash side through the grommet into the door and used a flexible but heavier duty wire (part of a thin metal coat hanger would be good) to guide it through. Replacing the grommet isn't easy but persevere; keep the coffee coming, don't let the cat anywhere near you as you'll probably kick it over the fence in frustration and finally make sure the 80 year old spinster next door hasn't got her hearing aid in as the air will be colourful with fluent anglo saxon phrases.

I've had no problems with the lights, they work really well and you do smile every time you open the door (at least at night). Best of luck.

Did I read in another post you were considering LED's on the washer jets? I'm not sure about that....well yes actually I am sure...Don't do it! It'll make you look like the local low level drug dealer from the council estate...unless of course you are. Better stop digging...I'll get my coat.

Andy

[Tuga2112]

Those were the days in the 80's when I had more money than sense. Another of my vices is hifi and I'd often be swayed by the latest offering from the wire wizards of Wilmslow. The purest copper from the Tibetan mines of Hur, plated with silver and drawn in a single strand across the ley lines of Salisbury plain and then hand rolled on the thighs of Patagonian virgins. Actually I think they just got a load from Maplin and rebadged it and dreamt up a price for the gullable (that would be me). Anyway back to the topic.

The ghost lights I purchased from ebay came with about 1/2 to 3/4 metre of cable attached; long enough to do one part of the wiring. I positioned the ghost light by the metal bracket that supports the central window channel. This keeps it on the inside of the door in what looked to be the driest place and close to the wiring. It was very easy to drill through the door with the supplied hole cutter. You may need to cut out a bit of the door panel itself and again I used the hole cutter to do this. I found the hole cutter gave a very tight fit so I had to file the inside of the hole to get the light to fit but not a great problem. I found that the logo inside the light moved around a bit so I unscrewed the light (be careful of all the lenses) and applied a tiny bit of glue to the logo to keep it in place. I attached an ordinary battery to the ghost light to line up the logo on the floor (not easily visible in daylight) before tightening the ghost light into position.

The light has two wires; one goes to a permanent live feed under the dash and the other to the purple and white wire in the door loom (see pic below). I exposed the door loom by the access panel near the lock and soldered on the ghost wire to an exposed bit of the purple/white wire before covering it all back up with insulation tape. I soldered all connections as I don't want to have to find a failed wire connector at a later date.



I can't guide you on where to attach the other wire to a live feed under the dash as I was having a Toad alarm fitted on the same day and the auto electrician did that for me whilst he was grovelling in the passenger footwell. However the pig of a job was feeding a length of cable (I used very thin multi strand cable; actually an off cut of the alarm loom) through the door grommet and under the dash. I found you had to remove the grommet at both ends and follow the loom through it to under the dash. For ease I went from the dash side through the grommet into the door and used a flexible but heavier duty wire (part of a thin metal coat hanger would be good) to guide it through. Replacing the grommet isn't easy but persevere; keep the coffee coming, don't let the cat anywhere near you as you'll probably kick it over the fence in frustration and finally make sure the 80 year old spinster next door hasn't got her hearing aid in as the air will be colourful with fluent anglo saxon phrases.

I've had no problems with the lights, they work really well and you do smile every time you open the door (at least at night). Best of luck.

Did I read in another post you were considering LED's on the washer jets? I'm not sure about that....well yes actually I am sure...Don't do it! It'll make you look like the local low level drug dealer from the council estate...unless of course you are. Better stop digging...I'll get my coat.

Andy

are you sure about the permanent feed being a wire in the dash ? i did a bit of research in the eletrical manual V6.
although i am not a eletrical literate, my understanding of the pictures is that the black wire is ground and the PW (Purple white) is the feed from the "door switch part of latch" in the door lock mechanism.

in the document i got.
page 73 is the wiring diagram i followed.
page 93 is the convention in appendix 1

it seems to me that i can wire everything in the door without the need to put any wires to the dashboard.
any chanse someone more eletrically literate than me to confirm or deny my suspicions ?

I intend to run a paralel feed to the purple white wire into a switch (one of these ) so i can decide if the lights come on or not manually.
this will involve an extra hole in the door. but i suppose after the moment i make one, the door is no use for a "purist" so might as well make it work to the best of my requirements.

[maz_r]

Hi Tuga

There is no permanent live in the door wiring. You'll need to pull one through into the door as Artaban suggests. The purple/white is a switched earth connection, not a switched positive.

[Megwenda]

Hi Maz_r,

If you look at p.73, you will see the door switches are simply on/off switches, allowing the PW wire from the interior lights to become an earth wire (extended via the black when the switch is closed).

On that diagram (left side), the P wire from the battery fuse goes to the interior light, and then via the PW wire to the earth, so the PW wire will in effect have power flowing through it.

Theoretically, it would be possible to wire another light IN SERIES on the PW wire, and it would switch on when the door is opened.

One would of course have to be very careful of the extra resistance that will be added!!
These ghost lights draw 7W, this will cause the interior lights and the ghost lights to be dimmer, and also add to the load on the wire, potentially causing it to overheat, burn out or even causing a fire.

edit: Although theoretically possible, I wouldn't do it myself, and would run an additional permanent powered cable from the dash.

Regards
Dave

[Tuga2112]

Hi Maz_r,

If you look at p.73, you will see the door switches are simply on/off switches, allowing the PW wire from the interior lights to become an earth wire (extended via the black when the switch is closed).

On that diagram (left side), the P wire from the battery fuse goes to the interior light, and then via the PW wire to the earth, so the PW wire will in effect have power flowing through it.

Theoretically, it would be possible to wire another light IN SERIES on the PW wire, and it would switch on when the door is opened.

One would of course have to be very careful of the extra resistance that will be added!!
These ghost lights draw 7W, this will cause the interior lights and the ghost lights to be dimmer, and also add to the load on the wire, potentially causing it to overheat, burn out or even causing a fire.

Regards
Dave

Dave.

You said in series because its unlikely to be there eenough power to trigger the dash lights or because if Irun a pparallel circuit it will short the ground stopping the lights fromgetting any current tthrough?

[Megwenda]

Tuga

I don't understand what you mean by a parallel wire?

If you are using the PW as your power, and then going through the ghost lights to the earth, then you will be parallel to the door switch, BUT that would mean that the the current would go from the battery, through the P wire, through the interior lights to the PW wire, then through your ghost lights to the earth (so, in series again).....effectively bypassing the door switch. In this case, if the door is closed, power would go through the ghost lights, and ghost lights and interior lights would be on..... if the door is opened, power would go through the door switch bypassing your ghost lights, so only the interior lights will be on.

Maybe I dont understand how you want to do it, so maybe a diagram would help explain

We have sunshine outside, so I am going for a long walk... may be a while before I am back

Regards
Dave

[GeoffSmith]

You need to run a separate live feed.

[Tuga2112]

Tuga

I don't understand what you mean by a parallel wire?

If you are using the PW as your power, and then going through the ghost lights to the earth, then you will be parallel to the door switch, BUT that would mean that the the current would go from the battery, through the P wire, through the interior lights to the PW wire, then through your ghost lights to the earth (so, in series again).....effectively bypassing the door switch. In this case, if the door is closed, power would go through the ghost lights, and ghost lights and interior lights would be on..... if the door is opened, power would go through the door switch bypassing your ghost lights, so only the interior lights will be on.

Maybe I dont understand how you want to do it, so maybe a diagram would help explain

We have sunshine outside, so I am going for a long walk... may be a while before I am back

Regards
Dave

what i meant by a paralell wire is exactly what you described.
I was under the impression the PW wire was being feed power from the switch and not the oposite.
so that makes you right.
i have tapped into the PW wire as a experiment. i got the ghost light to light up, but then the interior light couldnt power up.
been studying the manuals. and seems like your right, theres no way to avoid having to put an extra wire into the door for this toy.
ill be looking for the purple one that leads to the interiour lamp to make the paralel circuit so it is not in serial with the interior lamp