Hey guys,

 

Just wondering if anyone could tell me where I could find a power source inside the car that would allow me to have my LED's come on with the parking lights? I have a DIY W8 light mod done front and back but the power source is on an ignition live from the fuse box so the lights come on during the day even. 

 

Is there anywhere I can tap the parking lights that will solve this?

 

I did this with my civic and I piggy backed the interior light fuse so the LED would fade out as the interior lights do and at nights I could switch them on if I wanted to show off failing that idea can you not piggy back from the parking light fuse? You can buy piggy back adapters from eBay or I just wrapped the cables around the metal section of the chosen fuse and pushed in back in. Simples

I did this with my civic and I piggy backed the interior light fuse so the LED would fade out as the interior lights do and at nights I could switch them on if I wanted to show off failing that idea can you not piggy back from the parking light fuse? You can buy piggy back adapters from eBay or I just wrapped the cables around the metal section of the chosen fuse and pushed in back in. Simples

I haven't done much experimenting with the add-a-circuit jobby yet even though I have them lying in the toolbox. I just assumed I would be able to solder or scotch-lock a live feed onto the parking circuit. Might be worth looking into that though as I'd prefer not to have the W8 style lights on constantly!

Decided to go and have a further look around this morning, I dont know if it's something I'm doing wrong or is this car different to the civic mentioned above but piggy-backing off the parking light circuit at the minute still leaves my LED's on constantly.

 

There seems to be a constant live through this fuse that's not switching when the headlight switch is turned! 

 

Any further advice would be appreciated!

Best place would be the light switch and tap into the interior lighting circuit. The switch is very easy to remove. With it turned off push it in and turn clockwise. It will click and pop out.

 

That way when you have your lights on and the buttons etc light up so will the LEDs they would also dim with the interior lighting too.

 

I don't know which wire you need but if you have a volt meter find which wire is live when you turn the lights on.

 

The access to the switch is also easy from the end dash panel by the fuse box to run a wire down the windscreen pillar.

 

Phil

Parking light are live all the time as they operate when ignition is off. You'd be better finding a fuse such as headlight,sidelight or interior lights that are only live upon ingntion of the car.

Parking light are live all the time as they operate when ignition is off. You'd be better finding a fuse such as headlight,sidelight or interior lights that are only live upon ingntion of the car.

I've tried these, I think the problem is that I have auto lights and the interior lights also switch on when the car is unlocked so the fuse for these seems to be constantly live.

As was mentioned already I really need to find the parking light circuit from the back of the switch but all these are covered in i.e. I have no access to put a probe on any bare part of the wiring.

I've tried these, I think the problem is that I have auto lights and the interior lights also switch on when the car is unlocked so the fuse for these seems to be constantly live.

As was mentioned already I really need to find the parking light circuit from the back of the switch but all these are covered in i.e. I have no access to put a probe on any bare part of the wiring.

 

If you remove the cable tie you can slide the cover off and get at the pins to test them.

 

Phil

I'll have to give this a lash tomorrow so, cheers!

CAN-Bus circuits work differently to conventional wiring. You can't just tap into a circuit anywhere as this will probably not work and may well damage the circuit. To get a reliable feed for what you would want to do you would need to tap into the circuit between the control module and the light bulb. This may cause you errors as you are drawing more than the controller is expecting. Whether the power used by LED's is enough to trigger an error is anyone's guess.

Hmmm, might have to leave it for a while so! Was thinking of getting some VCDS work done in the next while anyway so might just leave it and let the mechanic find the proper feed for it!

if you are stuck trying to find a feed inside the car you could try connecting it up to side light wire on the connector near the headlamp unit and then feed a wire back through the engine compartment.

CAN-Bus circuits work differently to conventional wiring. You can't just tap into a circuit anywhere as this will probably not work and may well damage the circuit. To get a reliable feed for what you would want to do you would need to tap into the circuit between the control module and the light bulb. This may cause you errors as you are drawing more than the controller is expecting. Whether the power used by LED's is enough to trigger an error is anyone's guess.

 

The interior lights aren't monitored on the Octavia.

 

You will have no problems running a couple of LEDs from the interior lighting circuit.

 

Phil

Have solved the problem of the interior LEDs in the map lights, decided to stick a switch in the compartment to the right of the steering wheel. Even though there's a constant feed from the fusebox I can switch the lights on and off as needed at night. Mostly on as they looks totally cool IMO 

 

Next up... some footwell lighting!