worldcrafter

At the moment I have 3 gauges tapped into one of the dimmer switch wires. There are 5 wires on the dimmer wire harness connecter, here is a description of their colors and voltages with key turned to accessory/ignition:

2 X red/yellow (reads 0.01-12 volts, changes with dimmer switch)
2 X red/blue (reads 12 volts, does not change with dimmer switch)
1 X black (ground wire I suppose, 0 volts)

Now, I figured I could tap my gauge lights to the red/yellow wires so that I could dim the gauges, but when I tried doing so, a funny thing happens: when I move the dimmer switch to the lowest setting, the gauges fully light up, while the gauge cluster lighting properly dims down. When I move the dimmer switch to the highest setting, the gauges dim fully, while the gauge cluster properly lights up fully. Can anyone explain why is this happening? Anyone know how to properly wire gauge lights to dim properly?

At the moment I have the gauges wired into one of the red/blue wires, and the gauges stay fully lit. They do not dim with the switch, obviously because voltage stays constant. But I would like them to dim, for a more professional installation.

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sonny

2 questions:

1) One wire is going to the red/blue in the first case, and red/blue in the second case; whats the other wire on the gauge going to? Black? Ground?

2) The red/yellow is showing 0.01 - 12V; do the lights get brighter as the voltage increases?

eric96ser

Wire one side to the red/blue and the other to the red/yellow. Polarity doesn't matter with light bulbs, so you can't wire them backwards. Problem solved.

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2006 Mitsubishi Evolution IX

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worldcrafter

for the autometer gauges I have, the gauge wiring is seperate from the light wiring. The light bulbs on my gauges have 2 wires--a white wire, and a black wire. The white wires tap into a main wire that is tapped into the red/blue wire. The black wires all tap into a main wire that grounds on the A-pillar. Here's a pic of my light bulb wiring setup:



as for the red/yellow wire, yes, the gauge cluster (the cluster with rpm, speed, etc) dims/gets brighter as the voltage decreases/increases. However, it is the exact opposite for the lights on my autometer gauges: the gauge lights dim when the voltage increases, and they get brighter when the voltage decreases.

worldcrafter

so what you're saying is, for the 2 (black/white) wires for my gauge light bulbs, I should tap each wire into either the red/yellow or red/blue dimmer wires, respectively?

sonny

What eric is saying is correct... connect the two wires on the gauges to those two wires on the dimmer switch (red/yellow and red/blue). Like he said, doesn't matter which gauge wire you connect to which dimmer switch wire, as long as your connect to the red/blue and the red/yellow. Let us know how it works.

eric96ser

Yep. When you have the dimmer all the way up, one side will see 12v, and the other ground. As you turn the dimmer down, the ground side will see the voltage go from ground to 12v. That's how all the other bulbs that the dimmer controls, are wired up. Pull a bulb, and put leads from a multimeter on the side showing ground with the lights on. Move the dimmer, and watch what the voltage does.

worldcrafter

thanks guys, I'll rewire the lights as mentioned