hey i was just wandering is there anyway to hook up a dimmer/fader to a VN Calais, it has the 2 rear lights above the rear doors and the centre light in the hood lining, they all operate off the door open switches, so how can i hook a dimmer up?
Hey there, there would be easy as long as you're not using the headlight switch. On a VS, undo the clips and drop the fuse cover down and look to the right just above the kick panel. You might have to take it off, but there's 2 orange wires there. 1 orange and 1 orange with a white stripe. I can't remember which is earth, but it's damn easy to work it out.
You would just need to intercept the 12v power source here with some sort of resister, or you could also do it to the earth. Either way would work but incepting it here would control both front lights and back lights too as this harness goes to the roof light, then to the side calais map lights (above the rear doors). You could install 3 dials (1 at each light) varying the resistance or whatever, being careful you don't intercept another lights line. You would probably need to create a bypass line and a resistance line to that particular light. This mod seems easy enough.
It easy enough to earth out other lights to the earth line here (interior neons etc) as long as each light in the car has a constant 12v feed. I replaced the interior lights with those fancy blue LEDS to lower the power drain on this line too. Plus it looks cool behind the map lights!
If you're using the headlight switch method in a Calais (which I'm trying to find how to switch from exec), then it's controlled at the BCM, and it's just a matter of finding whether it's the voltage that's changed here, or the level of resistance at the earth which is the difference between tapping into the 12v line and earthing out, or giving a 12v constant feed and letting the varying level of earth take care of it. Once again, sounds easy enough.
