Trunk Light Diagram Help

This isn't my X, but DC current is DC current, and a relay is a relay, no matter what vehicle, soo:

When I got my civic the PO had disconnected the interior trunk light, and had put in a 12” red neon in its place. This is cool with me, but the 1 neon just isn’t enough light to see squat at night. Since I had 4 pairs of 4” red cold cathodes collecting dust I figured I’d throw them in there.
The tricky part is making sure the lights come on and turn off when they are supposed to. Here is a diagram of the stock trunk wiring:

As you can see the light always has power, the trunk switch opens and closes the ground (it connects the circuit when the trunk is opened). The Control Unit activates the dash warning light when grounded (saying that the trunk is opened).
This is what I have in mind:

This will now run juice through the trunk latch switch, but only enough to turn on the relay. I’ll have to cut the wire to the control unit, which means that the warning light will never work.

Is this a safe way to work it? Can anyone think of a scheme that would still retain the “trunk opened” warning light?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Why did you decide to use a neon light instead of a regular incandescent bulb? They make LED, and fluorescent strip lights which are brigher than the neon strip.

 

[little x]

Why did you decide to use a neon light instead of a regular incandescent bulb? They make LED, and fluorescent strip lights which are brigher than the neon strip.

When I got my civic the PO had disconnected the interior trunk light, and had put in a 12” red neon in its place . . . Since I had 4 pairs of 4” red cold cathodes collecting dust I figured I’d throw them in there too.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Why use a relay? Why not just splice into the wire that is already there for the trunk light and add your other lights?

 

[little x]

I thought that 1 neon and 8 cold cathodes would be too much on the 22g wire and 7.5 amp fuse. Am I wrong? Do I not need a relay?

 

[Bill Kemp]

I just Googled "cold cathode amps". Seems they dont use many amps.
However since I dont know what you have its sorta hard to tell but if 2 tubes use .7 amps then you should be fine.
If you have a transformer it may say right on it what the power draw is.
Links in Lighting FAQs will give you the wire size necessary for a given amp load.

 

[CAHUNTERMAN]

Here's a way to do it by just adding a relay that is triggered by the ground from your trunk switch.

 

[little x]

O, ok, I can do that. I didn't know if you could control a relay like that (this diagram had crossed my mind).

Thanks guys.

 

[CAHUNTERMAN]

I trigger almost all my add on relays with the ground. That way I don't have a bunch of 12 volt lines running under my dash.