Hi guys, I am looking to build a manual switch to turn on my reverse light even if the car is forward (light to flash the driver behind me). Rather than going straight to the source at the reverse switch in the transmission, I would like to tap the wire that goes to both of the reverse light bulb. My plan is to find a 12v source, send it to the on off switch, then send the other end straight to those wire on hte light bulb. So when I have the switch on on, lights will turn off. Off if the switch is on off. Does that sound right by theory? It should work with no problem right?

THe only thing that conerns me is that if that setup works. What if i left it on accidently when I have the car in reverse. What would happen if the 2 12v source collided? Would anything happen?

Thanks

 

hehehe... you really should not be doing anykinda eletrical work on your car man, it does not sound like you understand enuf about how eletricity works to be doing this stuff to your own car. (am I the only one in here that learned how to rewire a TV/VCR or a car or anythign eletrical at the age of 13-14??? This stuff is really not that hard!)

I'll try to help you as much as possible but you really should get a friend or someone that can do very simple eletrical work to do this for you.

First of all, get yourself a multimeter (i cant believe hwo many people on this forum does not have one yet), splice in to your reverse light wires and find which one is the negative and positive, a simple way to do this is with the car off and you not in reverse. jsut tap the wires and the car in to ohm mode and find out which wire has consistancy with ground (meaning no resistance). After this you will know not to put any voltage on to this line (well not unless you want a eletrical fire or a fuse to short out!) Then you tap any 12volt positive, (the rear lights use so little voltage, i highly doubt you can tap in to anything which will affect anything, use the cig lighter wire if you cant choose one but remember, that wire will only work with the car switched to the on position) and you hook it to a switch. the other end of the switch goes to the pos end of the lightbulb wire (use vampire clips if you want to hook them together or solder them or what ever). Then you when you throw the switch to the on position, the light will come on.

BTW: If the car is in reverse and you put the switch on, it will double the voltage and you will get a eletrical spike and blow out all the lights on your car hahahaha, just joking dude, it actually won't do a damn thing so you'll be fine hehe (it will just stay on if your on reverse and stay on after you get out of reverse if the switch is still on)

Good luck dude and I hope you don't burn down your car!

 

Thats exactly what I was planning to do. Just needed someone to verify it. Thanks

 

FInally got my butt together to start to put that together. I spliced a wire into the positive of the reverse light bulb wire. To test to see if it works, i just connected to the nearest 12v source. That turned out to just pop my fuse. I havent had a chance to finish putting a switch in or anything, but would I still be popping fuses if I have the switch in? It seems like there are too much current into the bulb causing the fuse to pop. How do if ix that. Thanks