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02 Overhead switches installed

hockeyfwd334

Active Member
Joined
November 2, 2009
Messages
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City, State
Dowagiac,MI
Year, Model & Trim Level
2002 XLT
So I will give this a shot..hopefully I get this right. This was a little project I did that put 8 extra switches in my overhead where the garage door opener is supposed to go and a power strip from the battery in the interior of the car.
4 currently power front lighting. (4 are not in use yet) I also installed 3 buttons on the dash. (one is my brown wire mod.) I installed lighted switches in the overhead, I don’t recommend it. Although I really did like them, at night they are cool.. yet as distracting as a fig newton sticker on the windshield.
This install is on a 2002 Ex XLT with no sunroof. I’m sure this can be refined and tweaked.


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Things you need.
1. Relays..This will be based on how many lights you will run.. I bought a lot of 5 wire relays off ebay
2. 1 six or eight slot terminal strip and jumper. (power terminal strip)(Requires connectors) (radio shack)
3. 1 12 wiring terminal strip (console terminal strip)(no connectors required)(radio shack)
4. JB weld or epoxy
5. Lots of connectors, spade, forked, and wire connectors.
6. 2 inline fuse holders and fuses
7. Wire…
8. Wire lables…. Don’t forget these!!!
9. Up to 8 switches (don’t recommend lighted for the overhead)(ebay)
10. Piggy back connector (I have no idea what it is really called)

I made a power terminal strip that is powered from the battery to run the lights. (I will show where I ran it through the front of the truck soon) It is on the passenger side behind the plastic panel. It has two sides, one is always powered up from the battery all the time, in case I need that. The jumper for this power terminal strip is split …The other side is powered through a relay with the control signal being the piggy back wire for the original brown wire mod. (PS… this is all wired with brown, red or green wire, I have a lot of that)



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Top of the strip is powered directly from battery (red wire blue white connector). Bottom is powered from the battery through a relay (blue wire is from relay). The red wire with the blue connector is the power up to the switches. This way when I turn off the car, all of the switches lose power and turn the lights off automatically…. I am horrible about turning off switches so I made it fail safe……Not hooked up is the green wire, power back up to the buttons in the dash for brown wire mod and other buttons.




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The power for the lighted dash buttons come up from the relay side of the power terminal strip via a green wire to the three yellow wires. BWM control signal comes from the top button.. I am not using the other two buttons at this time. My BWM is wired to be on all the time unless I turn it off or lose power to the switch. (fails to AWD). The dash buttons were installed by drilling a hole in the locations for the brown wire mod on Ronin’s thread. (He is a sensei)


Now on to the overhead switch install, we have to pull the overhead console . You have to remove the screw in the garage door opener section and pull on the front. It has clips on the front and will come out… disconnect the overhead light connector and take it in the house.


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Remember to label all wiring….. The red wires are the power going to the switches. The brown were for the ground return for the switch lights. The browns are really not necessary if you are not using lighted switches. I prewired the wiring console terminal prior to installing. There are jumpers on the bottom of the console terminal strip, these need to be installed prior to gluing. The power from the power terimial strip comes in from the top side. I jb welded the 12 slot console terminal strip to the console. It fit quite nicely. I also drilled ½ inch holes in the console webbing to route wires.


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Remove the garage door cover, drill and install the switches. I painted it black as well. Remember labels on all the wires and switches.


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Route the wires and terminate. Almost ready to go back to the truck. (2+ hours later)

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You should now have 8 wires going from the console terminal strip to the switches, and 8 coming back from the switches that will be wired in the truck. The wires should be jumpered at the console terminal strip with one hole open to power them all. If you install the lighted you need to run the ground return wire (brown ones)…. Jumper the underside, just as you did the other side. The ground will also be handy for anything else you want to power up there. (back up camera?) The cover will close.. its tight...but wait to do it in the truck


Back to the truck. Pull both the plastic covers on the sides of the front windshield. The 8 wires will go down the drivers side. The power and ground will come up the passenger side.


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I hung the console in the car and wired the output of the switches to the 8 wires I bundled and ran under the headliner and down the driver side plastic piece. Those wires were about 10ft long and went through the firewall just behind the vacuum booster for the brakes. (I don’t know if that hole is there on some of the other year models.) These wires hook directly to the control power for any relay you want to operate. Hook the output of the relay to ground in the engine compartment.


This hole is the same one I ran a power line from the battery with an inline 30a fuse to the power terminal strip I first mentioned. It runs through the hole under the dash, there is a little space to run the wire across to the passenger side.


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Note the 2 wires going to the right (passenger side) in the picture. One is the power line coming up from the powered terminal strip and the ground line going down to the ground connection used for the BWM. They both are under the head liner and down the passenger side. Hopefully you remembered the labels…


Finally hook up the connector for your dome light and push the front clips in and tighten the screw to holds the console to the roof. I needed to use a socket and a philips head because with the wires connected its tight. Then slowly close the cover with the switches and latch it… yeah that at was easy….


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I only have the first 4 switches doing anything at this point… 1 for bottom light bar, 1 for halo’s , 1 for fogs, and 1 for the lights on the bar. They all operate independent of my headlights, and auto turn off when I shut off the car. The wiring through the relays is pretty straight forward but this is mostly for installing the control power switches for any relay you want to use.


Hopefully this is useful to someone else, it was a cool project. It turned out better than I thought. Hopefully I didn’t violate any rules…


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Here’s a wiring diagram… Jpeg a bit sloppy, but hopefully it works. Photobucket won’t take a pdf.


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That was beautifully done. Can't thank you enough, I'm interested in doing this very thing in the near future and making good use of that overhead panel.

And, ladies and gentlemen....ON HIS 10th POST!



-Dubya
 






Excellent write up - might have to use that overhead for a similar project!
 






That was beautifully done. Can't thank you enough, I'm interested in doing this very thing in the near future and making good use of that overhead panel.

And, ladies and gentlemen....ON HIS 10th POST!



-Dubya

Thank you!
 






Yeah man, VERY clean install. Why did you decide to run such a low gauge wire between the switches and relays? Seems like it would have been easier to run wire with something a little higher.
 






Yeah man, VERY clean install. Why did you decide to run such a low gauge wire between the switches and relays? Seems like it would have been easier to run wire with something a little higher.

10Amp or 15 Amp wire would've done alright, but larger wire is built in insurance I guess....
 






I have alot of it at the house. But only red and brown lol... So it's mostly due to availability.
 






JCUZ, I plan on sticking a backup camera in the glasses compartment.. Thanks for the compliments guys.
 






I have alot of it at the house. But only red and brown lol... So it's mostly due to availability.

Good call. That's why I built my roof rack. Spare cedar lol
 






Very very well done. Nice neat clean install
 






Good call. That's why I built my roof rack. Spare cedar lol

Was checking out the your rack ... who doesn't right?? Awesome!!.. where did you run the wires up to the lights??? I actually was thinking of trying to run a solar panel up there... and lights... ?
 






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