Time to string some wire! This part of the wiring project will be all about finding the wires under the dash that we need to cut and tap into, and connecting those to the switches and relays.
When I removed the lower dash panel (three screws and two plastic fasteners) I realized I needed to get rid of some excess wire. This car’s previous owner, though he kept spectacular care of the car, didn’t believe in cutting the extra wire off of his many electronic gadgets and instead just tucked it away in neat coils. This makes for a cramped under-dash area, and isn’t much fun to sort through. With a few cuts and a few new soldered connections, I was rid of all this wire:
Into my bucket of spare wires with you!
As noted in the wiring diagrams, I would need 7 wires brought up to the three switches:
The easy wires were the three relays mounted in the engine bay - the spots, fogs, and magnetic spot. Since there was no stock wiring to tap in to, it was just a matter of stringing three new wires through the firewall into the cabin. An existing rubber grommet behind the brake reservoir made for a convenient location to pass them through, and a small piece of rigid wire taped to the wire ends was used to help me poke it through. Three different colours of wire help to keep the confusion to a minimum.
Engine bay:
…and poking through under the dash:
That takes care of wires 1-3 on the list above.
The critical wire to find was the switched ground on the high beam stalk switch. The Subaru wiring diagrams were marginally helpful, but the colours listed in the North American diagram didn’t jive with the Japanese-spec wiring harness. I eventually just followed the wires down from the steering column and tested them with a multimeter. The wire in question was found on this white connector in the top right position. When the switch is put into high beam mode it will have continuity between it and the pin next to it.
The wire was cut and two new lengths of wire were soldered to the cut ends. These will attach to the new high beam relay.
Speaking of the high beam relay, female terminals were crimped onto these wires and attached to the new high beam relay. Here it is, mounted in place with a zip tie:
The two blue wires heading off toward the switches are the high beam relay wire and the switched ground wire, and the blue wire curving around back to the relay is the relay ground. The relay ground, switched ground, and red wire to the high beam switch are all crimped into the same female terminal, making a solid connection at a convenient point.
There were now three relay wires, switched ground, and high beam relay wires taken care of. What remained were the illumination wires that would light up the switches when the dash lights came on. The illumination wires would need a constant ground, and this can be had by using a ring terminal on any convenient bolt under the dashboard that has a good connection to something metal (sorry, no picture). The positive wire can be easily found at the cigarette lighter, which has a lighted ring that illuminates with the dash lights. There are four connections going to the cigarette lighter - two for the lighter itself, and two for the illumination. Finding the illumination wires is a matter of probing the wires with a multimeter or test light while turning the dash lights on and off. Here is the connector for the lighter:
Now that all seven wires are accounted for, they need somewhere to go. Four screws remove the gauge surround where the new switches will be mounted. It helps to lower the steering wheel all the way down to provide a bit more room.
With the surround loose, you will also need to unclip the wires from the switches on the surround. With the surround out, the new switches are added to the three spots on the lower left, replacing the three blank plastic bits.
Now the wires could be strung up to where they would connect with the switches. Note the tape labels to keep the wires in order.
Almost there! Connecting the many switch wires to the many dash wires took some time, all done with soldered and heat-shrunk connections.
With all the connections made, the gauge surround was reinstalled. All loose wires were ziptied or taped in place, and the lower dash panel was reinstalled. Done!
As an aside commentary, I should note that I’ve been trying to decide whether this blog would be an instructional source or a documentary of my projects. In some cases it really doesn’t matter as it’s written much the same either way. In this case, it does matter. You see, now that I have attached everything (further installments forthcoming) I have realized some errors that were made in the under dash wiring. I suppose I will just have to accept the fact that there are things that I learn as I go, and I will update here as necessary. If you’re following this project with aspirations of copying it, hold on till the end - the last part will cover the fixes and errors.
When I removed the lower dash panel (three screws and two plastic fasteners) I realized I needed to get rid of some excess wire. This car’s previous owner, though he kept spectacular care of the car, didn’t believe in cutting the extra wire off of his many electronic gadgets and instead just tucked it away in neat coils. This makes for a cramped under-dash area, and isn’t much fun to sort through. With a few cuts and a few new soldered connections, I was rid of all this wire:
Into my bucket of spare wires with you!
As noted in the wiring diagrams, I would need 7 wires brought up to the three switches:
- Spot relay
- Fog relay
- Magnetic spot relay
- High beam relay
- Illumination positive
- Illumination negative
- Switched ground
The easy wires were the three relays mounted in the engine bay - the spots, fogs, and magnetic spot. Since there was no stock wiring to tap in to, it was just a matter of stringing three new wires through the firewall into the cabin. An existing rubber grommet behind the brake reservoir made for a convenient location to pass them through, and a small piece of rigid wire taped to the wire ends was used to help me poke it through. Three different colours of wire help to keep the confusion to a minimum.
Engine bay:
…and poking through under the dash:
That takes care of wires 1-3 on the list above.
The critical wire to find was the switched ground on the high beam stalk switch. The Subaru wiring diagrams were marginally helpful, but the colours listed in the North American diagram didn’t jive with the Japanese-spec wiring harness. I eventually just followed the wires down from the steering column and tested them with a multimeter. The wire in question was found on this white connector in the top right position. When the switch is put into high beam mode it will have continuity between it and the pin next to it.
The wire was cut and two new lengths of wire were soldered to the cut ends. These will attach to the new high beam relay.
Speaking of the high beam relay, female terminals were crimped onto these wires and attached to the new high beam relay. Here it is, mounted in place with a zip tie:
The two blue wires heading off toward the switches are the high beam relay wire and the switched ground wire, and the blue wire curving around back to the relay is the relay ground. The relay ground, switched ground, and red wire to the high beam switch are all crimped into the same female terminal, making a solid connection at a convenient point.
There were now three relay wires, switched ground, and high beam relay wires taken care of. What remained were the illumination wires that would light up the switches when the dash lights came on. The illumination wires would need a constant ground, and this can be had by using a ring terminal on any convenient bolt under the dashboard that has a good connection to something metal (sorry, no picture). The positive wire can be easily found at the cigarette lighter, which has a lighted ring that illuminates with the dash lights. There are four connections going to the cigarette lighter - two for the lighter itself, and two for the illumination. Finding the illumination wires is a matter of probing the wires with a multimeter or test light while turning the dash lights on and off. Here is the connector for the lighter:
Now that all seven wires are accounted for, they need somewhere to go. Four screws remove the gauge surround where the new switches will be mounted. It helps to lower the steering wheel all the way down to provide a bit more room.
With the surround loose, you will also need to unclip the wires from the switches on the surround. With the surround out, the new switches are added to the three spots on the lower left, replacing the three blank plastic bits.
Now the wires could be strung up to where they would connect with the switches. Note the tape labels to keep the wires in order.
With all the connections made, the gauge surround was reinstalled. All loose wires were ziptied or taped in place, and the lower dash panel was reinstalled. Done!
As an aside commentary, I should note that I’ve been trying to decide whether this blog would be an instructional source or a documentary of my projects. In some cases it really doesn’t matter as it’s written much the same either way. In this case, it does matter. You see, now that I have attached everything (further installments forthcoming) I have realized some errors that were made in the under dash wiring. I suppose I will just have to accept the fact that there are things that I learn as I go, and I will update here as necessary. If you’re following this project with aspirations of copying it, hold on till the end - the last part will cover the fixes and errors.
- mounting the fog lights
- building the removable light bar
- wiring part 1: new bulbs in OEM foglight switches
- wiring part 2: the plan (wiring diagrams)
- wiring part 3: switches (more diagrams)
- wiring part 4: parts and pieces
- wiring part 5: under the dashboard
- wiring part 6: fuse and relay box
- wiring part 7: prepping the lights
- wiring part 8: final connections
- wiring part 9: aiming the lights
- wiring part 10: updates and fixes
No comments:
Post a Comment