courtesy light for R50 Pathfinder

[A1218]

Has anyone ever added rock lights to the undercarriage of the vehicle to be used as courtesy lights at night when the door is open?

I'm planning to do something like this on my 1997 Pathfinder. Just one on each side of vehicle so when I open any of the doors and its dark out the ground can be seen better. I know you can tap the dome lights which already come on in the interior when any door is open.

But I would like to know of any other method and as to how I can route the wires from underneath to the inside.

Thanks

[VStar650CL]

The plastic "flood plugs" in the floorboard will be the simplest way to route wires inside without needing to drill. Poke some holes in them and then seal with hard RTV or body sealer once everything works. Even long strings of 5050 LED's will only draw a couple of amps, so powering two strings off the dome circuit shouldn't overload anything. The biggest issue is sealing the strings, I recommend a couple coats of clear Flex Seal and lay it on thick.

[A1218]

The plastic "flood plugs" in the floorboard will be the simplest way to route wires inside without needing to drill. Poke some holes in them and then seal with hard RTV or body sealer once everything works. Even long strings of 5050 LED's will only draw a couple of amps, so powering two strings off the dome circuit shouldn't overload anything. The biggest issue is sealing the strings, I recommend a couple coats of clear Flex Seal and lay it on thick.

Where are the “flood plugs” in the floorboard? I’m not familiar with it honestly so I’m not too sure of what you are speaking of.

[VStar650CL]

They're plastic plugs in the floor of the car that are often used to let water out when a car floods. Almost all vehicles have them. On Nissans they're generally covered with seam sealer on the inside but are pretty obvious when looking from underneath.

[A1218]

They're plastic plugs in the floor of the car that are often used to let water out when a car floods. Almost all vehicles have them. On Nissans they're generally covered with seam sealer on the inside but are pretty obvious when looking from underneath.


Floor Pan Plug.png

Oh, okay. I'll check that out then.

Probably should have one in the trunk area which could make it a bit easier so I don't have to pull up the carpeting up front.

[VStar650CL]

Yep, the old Pathies had separate front and rear floor panels so I expect you'll find plugs at both ends.

[A1218]

Yep, the old Pathies had separate front and rear floor panels so I expect you'll find plugs at both ends.

Yes sir, found one right above the spare tire under the vehicle going into the trunk.

Thanks for pointing that out to me.

[A1218]

So I found the rubber grommets under the rear seats that provide me access to the bottom of the vehicle. I tested the wiring to the dome light using a random led pod I have and it works as should once the door opens and closes.

Now that I know my wire routing and that it works, I'm trying to figure out how to attach this to the vehicle frame.

I'm trying not to spend a drastic amount on this and welding on two brackets to each side frame will cost some here in NYC, but if I have to so be it. And I am skeptical about drilling into the frame and using a self tap screw.

Is it safe to drill into the vehicle frame? I would imagine it not to be a great idea. There are existing holes along the frame, however they are too large.

Would heavy duty 3M double side taping work? (supports over 30lb)

I will be using the small rock light pods instead of led strip.

[VStar650CL]

I've only installed strips, but for those, some good double-stick on the bottom and two coats of Flex Seal clear over the top worked excellent. The ones on my wife's Altie are still trouble-free after 5 years.

[VStar650CL]

PS - Maybe this will help you out or give you some ideas. The standard strip LED's don't need to be used in strips. They all have a "cut line" every third LED where the string can be severed and new wires soldered on if desired. So if you own a scissors and a soldering iron, turning a 30-LED string into 10 different light sources isn't much of a chore. The ones I used for underglow on the wife's Altie are actually broken into 4 strips of about a meter each and glued to the inside surfaces of the reinforcement rails running along the floorpan.

5050 W LED Strip.png (179.61 KiB) Viewed 983 times

[A1218]

So I’ve decided to go with the Nilight 60inch led strip for each side. Will go under vehicle near the pinch weld above running boards. Hopefully it’s not insanely bright.

I tapped the dome in the trunk and ran the wire to the underneath of rear seats where it will come out one of the “flood plugs” to the exterior.

Any tips on installing these in colder weather as per the tape? And does it have to keep warm for a few days after sticking it on? I’ve read some stuff about that online but not sure how true it is.

These nilight strips claim to have “tough as nails adhesive enchancer” to make it 5x stronger. So they say.

I will of course heat them up a bit

[VStar650CL]

Not that we get any sub-zero conditions here in Arkansas, but I did want to make sure the strips on the Altie were going to stay where I put them. To that end I used a dab of "gray death" Permatex Ultra Gray RTV at the ends of the strings and about every 6" or so along the length in order to augment the self-stick. I then covered the strips with green masking tape for a couple days to let the adhesives set up. Only after they were good and stuck did I peel the tape and hit them with Flex Seal to complete the installation.

[A1218]

Not that we get any sub-zero conditions here in Arkansas, but I did want to make sure the strips on the Altie were going to stay where I put them. To that end I used a dab of "gray death" Permatex Ultra Gray RTV at the ends of the strings and about every 6" or so along the length in order to augment the self-stick. I then covered the strips with green masking tape for a couple days to let the adhesives set up. Only after they were good and stuck did I peel the tape and hit them with Flex Seal to complete the installation.

So I installed the lights and they work as should when opening and closing doors.

However, sometimes it glows slightly when the doors are all closed. Doesn’t do it once engine is on.

What could be the issue with that?

[VStar650CL]

There's no control of the lamps on a '97 by the SEC, they're all wired straight to the door switches so there's no possibility of "leaky" silicon parts causing anything to light. However, LED's can be sensitive to small amounts of ground current that aren't sufficient to light up an incandescent bulb. My guess is one of your door switches or lamp fixtures is wet or corroded and supplying a few hundred ohms of "leakage ground" to the circuit even when all the doors are closed. You should be able to track it down by disconnecting the door switches and fixtures one by one and see which one is providing the leak.

[A1218]

There's no control of the lamps on a '97 by the SEC, they're all wired straight to the door switches so there's no possibility of "leaky" silicon parts causing anything to light. However, LED's can be sensitive to small amounts of ground current that aren't sufficient to light up an incandescent bulb. My guess is one of your door switches or lamp fixtures is wet or corroded and supplying a few hundred ohms of "leakage ground" to the circuit even when all the doors are closed. You should be able to track it down by disconnecting the door switches and fixtures one by one and see which one is providing the leak.

I did have a problem one time with the trunk switch assembly. I believe it’s built into the lock, but a while back when opening the trunk the dome lights would not come on. I sprayed some wd40 in it and fiddled with the latch and it never gave problems again.

I added an inline fuse and made sure the trunk was properly closed. It shows no signs of ground leakage so far. Lights are off when door is closed and only comes on when doors open.

If I get the issue again I’ll replace that switch.

I do have LEDS in both passenger and trunk dome lights as well. Shouldn’t be related though as this is a ground issue like you said. Or would putting incandescents back in them help?

[VStar650CL]

I do have LEDS in both passenger and trunk dome lights as well. Shouldn’t be related though as this is a ground issue like you said. Or would putting incandescents back in them help?

No, not with a circuit that's purely ground-switched. Putting incandescents back in might "pull down" the leak and make it invisible, but that's not exactly a fix, just a coverup.

[A1218]

I do have LEDS in both passenger and trunk dome lights as well. Shouldn’t be related though as this is a ground issue like you said. Or would putting incandescents back in them help?

No, not with a circuit that's purely ground-switched. Putting incandescents back in might "pull down" the leak and make it invisible, but that's not exactly a fix, just a coverup.

Alright, if it occurs again I'll check that trunk switch. I had issues with it before so that should be my first suspicion.

Thanks for your help!

[A1218]

Finished project:

https://imgur.com/a/Cp9CzRL

[VStar650CL]

Sweet!

[A1218]

It happend again. Lights randomly came on in the middle of the night. At least battery didn’t go dead from the 6 pods.

If it is ground leakage, how come the dome lights don’t dimly light up if they are LED as well?

[VStar650CL]

Depends how you have them wired and what the relative voltage drops are for your dome LED's and the underglow LED's. If they're parallel to the domes (wired across both the same supply and ground circuits) and the drops are equal then you're right, the domes should glow too. However, the drops may not be equal. Single LED peanut bulbs generally have drops around 2V, strings are generally 6~8V. Could be something about your source wiring too, if it isn't parallel. Exactly what wires are you tapped into, and at what location?

[A1218]

Depends how you have them wired and what the relative voltage drops are for your dome LED's and the underglow LED's. If they're parallel to the domes (wired across both the same supply and ground circuits) and the drops are equal then you're right, the domes should glow too. However, the drops may not be equal. Single LED peanut bulbs generally have drops around 2V, strings are generally 6~8V. Could be something about your source wiring too, if it isn't parallel. Exactly what wires are you tapped into, and at what location?

So they’re Nilight led pods, 3 on each side. The 3 on one side plug into each other with the last light having a positive and negative that go into the cabin. Same with other side.

I was originally going to tap the dome light above passenger seats but the wiring was in the way of the sunroof movement up in the roof. So I decided to tap the dome light in the trunk. There’s a red/green power wire, red/black ground for doors, and black ground for manual on/ off. I ran a red positive wire to the red/green power wire and a black negative wire to the red/black wire.

The pods were now wired to the red and black wires with a 5amp inline fuse. That’s about it. I know the wiring is correct because I checked the manual first. I used t-taps to tap into the wiring.

So the light came on around 3:30am (checked cameras) and were on till this morning until after driving vehicle for a bit it stopped doing it. I should mention the door indication light in the dash was glowing ever so slightly as well.

Could it be the cold weather affecting something in the wiring? Just throwing things out there. But one of those switches like you said has to be “leaking” some ground because not only did the lights glow but also the light in the dash when doors were closed.

I put back in incandescents in both passenger and trunk dome lights just out of curiosity. Let’s see what happens now.

Was I supposed to use a relay with the lights?

[VStar650CL]

The door indicator coming on is the key, because if you look at EL-96 and EL-99, the bulb in the cluster shouldn't have any power with the key off and there's a blocking diode that should prevent it from forming a parasitic ground through the ignition circuits when the key is off. For that bulb to light with the key off, the blocking diode has to be leaking. I don't know how difficult it is to get at your cluster, but I'd suggest pulling the door lamp bulb if it's accessible and see if the problem stops. If so, the blocking diode in the cluster is faulty and you can fix it by wiring a second diode externally onto the R/B wire at the back of the cluster. Something like a 1N5401 (3A, 100V) off eBay should do the trick.

[A1218]

The door indicator coming on is the key, because if you look at EL-96 and EL-99, the bulb in the cluster shouldn't have any power with the key off and there's a blocking diode that should prevent it from forming a parasitic ground through the ignition circuits when the key is off. For that bulb to light with the key off, the blocking diode has to be leaking. I don't know how difficult it is to get at your cluster, but I'd suggest pulling the door lamp bulb if it's accessible and see if the problem stops. If so, the blocking diode in the cluster is faulty and you can fix it by wiring a second diode externally onto the R/B wire at the back of the cluster. Something like a 1N5401 (3A, 100V) off eBay should do the trick.

No it doesn’t come on with the key off. Sorry, may have explained that part wrong. When the lights are glowing and I turn the key on, the dash light glows as well even if doors are closed.

Regardless of the issue with the underglow, the dash light does not light up unless key in ignition position. Comes on and off as normal when the doors open and close. But if the issue pops up with the under body lights glowing when doors are closed and I have the key to the ignition position, the door indication light in the cluster glows then.

[VStar650CL]

If it's only with the key off then you definitely have a leak to ground someplace in the system on the R/B wire. The diode on EL-80 can't really cause a problem, that's to prevent parasitic grounding of the luggage lamp through the spot lamps when the front dome is in the door position and a spot is switched on. So when the spots are off it shouldn't really affect anything. I think you're going to have to disconnect your switches one by one and see if any of them makes the problem go away. It's possible you have a chafed wire on a ride that old, too. LED's need so little current that even a couple hundred ohms can light them up, a dead short isn't necessary.

[A1218]

If it's only with the key off then you definitely have a leak to ground someplace in the system on the R/B wire. The diode on EL-80 can't really cause a problem, that's to prevent parasitic grounding of the luggage lamp through the spot lamps when the front dome is in the door position and a spot is switched on. So when the spots are off it shouldn't really affect anything. I think you're going to have to disconnect your switches one by one and see if any of them makes the problem go away. It's possible you have a chafed wire on a ride that old, too. LED's need so little current that even a couple hundred ohms can light them up, a dead short isn't necessary.

Yeah I understand, will have to check which ones are leaking the ground.

But putting back in the incandescents to the dome lights in passenger and trunk area since yesterday morning stopped it from occurring for now.