Advice For My Footwell Lighting Setup, Please Help :)

[Harvey19]

Hi there! What I am trying to do is wire my footwell lighting to the 12volt wire which lights the roof ambient lighting ( the little orange lights next to the interior light switch).

This way my footwell lighting will be on when my ambient lighting is on.

I have trimmed the wire and successfully connected my new wire to this, the ambient lighting still works which proves that the connection is live, but unfortunately when i connect the new wire to either of my red LED's there is no sign of power and the bulbs will not light?

Can anyone offer a solution to this or tell me what I am doing wrong, I am willing to try a new method but nothing too advanced as I am quite a newbie with electrics.

Many Thanks!!

Also please no criticism to my idea, I would rather the advice hehe.

[Chris Ecc]

LED's are diodes which means they will only work if connected the right way, have you tried connecting them otherway round (positive & negative)

Also mine only come on when the doors are opened, car unlocked, engine turned off, etc not when you switch on the interior light, can get some pictures for you if you need to show you where they are conencted on the interior light to ensure you have the right place?

[Harvey19]

LED's are diodes which means they will only work if connected the right way, have you tried connecting them otherway round (positive & negative)

Also mine only come on when the doors are opened, car unlocked, engine turned off, etc not when you switch on the interior light, can get some pictures for you if you need to show you where they are conencted on the interior light to ensure you have the right place?

I will try and get some pictures later, yes those are what mine do too but I am connecting a wire from the LED's to the wire which lights the roof ambient lighting. This way the LED's should stay on upon ignition.

Thanks

[mintalkin]

what voltage have you got at the ambient lighting before connecting? and what voltage are your led's?

[Harvey19]

The roof ambient lighting wire is 12V and the LED I tested is 12V

[fordpartsman]

have you actually used a multimeter and checked these values, as leds normally have a resistor that drops the voltage drastically