Tips on how to install neons without lighting your car on fire
As some of you know, I had a "problem" with my car the night before MAXUS which almost forced me to miss it. (Check the link below)
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....440#post426440
First lesson: DONT get power for your neons from the in-car fuse panel, i.e. take a wire end and push it in with a fuse in a spare fuse terminal as I was told by someone. (Once again see above thread)
Second lesson: Ive come to realize (atleast on my 1996 Maxima GXE) that you cant splice into your cig lighter to power two or more neons. First I wired two neon lights in series up to a switch and got power from my cig lighter resulting in blowing the 15amp fuse for it. I popped in another fuse and changed my wiring around to wire the neons in parallel resulting in the same thing. Since everyone I talked to on either this board or somewhere else said nonchalantly to "just get power from the cig lighter man," I was frustrated.
I got my hands on a multimeter to test all connections and even though everything seemed to be checking out ok, I couldnt figure out why the cig lighter fuse kept blowing. I did some more investigative work and I found another plug coming off of the cig lighter wire. I didnt know what it was but I tested it with a test light and it wasnt hot anyway.
The bottom line is I think the cig light power is running something other than just the cig light because I dont think hooking up two neons would blow a 15A fuse that easily.
Anyway, what I ended up doing was just running some 16 gauge wire from an open slot in my stereo's distribution block and popped a 30 amp fuse in. The only thing that I have to be careful of is making sure my switch is off since the lights can be turned on when the car is off.
I think I finally got it right after 4 tries and almost burning up my car. Seemingly way to difficult for lights that have no purpose really but look cool.
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....440#post426440
First lesson: DONT get power for your neons from the in-car fuse panel, i.e. take a wire end and push it in with a fuse in a spare fuse terminal as I was told by someone. (Once again see above thread)
Second lesson: Ive come to realize (atleast on my 1996 Maxima GXE) that you cant splice into your cig lighter to power two or more neons. First I wired two neon lights in series up to a switch and got power from my cig lighter resulting in blowing the 15amp fuse for it. I popped in another fuse and changed my wiring around to wire the neons in parallel resulting in the same thing. Since everyone I talked to on either this board or somewhere else said nonchalantly to "just get power from the cig lighter man," I was frustrated.
I got my hands on a multimeter to test all connections and even though everything seemed to be checking out ok, I couldnt figure out why the cig lighter fuse kept blowing. I did some more investigative work and I found another plug coming off of the cig lighter wire. I didnt know what it was but I tested it with a test light and it wasnt hot anyway.
The bottom line is I think the cig light power is running something other than just the cig light because I dont think hooking up two neons would blow a 15A fuse that easily.
Anyway, what I ended up doing was just running some 16 gauge wire from an open slot in my stereo's distribution block and popped a 30 amp fuse in. The only thing that I have to be careful of is making sure my switch is off since the lights can be turned on when the car is off.
I think I finally got it right after 4 tries and almost burning up my car. Seemingly way to difficult for lights that have no purpose really but look cool.
Hope I don't have any problems....
I have two interior neons, neon underbody kit and nozzle lights all powered from the cig lighter. I did blow a fuse once but I think it was a short somewhere, I re-did the wiring and replaced the fuse and it worked fine and still working...
MaxMoJo
MaxMoJo
Originally posted by DCmax
As some of you know, I had a "problem" with my car the night before MAXUS which almost forced me to miss it. (Check the link below)
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....440#post426440
First lesson: DONT get power for your neons from the in-car fuse panel, i.e. take a wire end and push it in with a fuse in a spare fuse terminal as I was told by someone. (Once again see above thread)
Second lesson: Ive come to realize (atleast on my 1996 Maxima GXE) that you cant splice into your cig lighter to power two or more neons. First I wired two neon lights in series up to a switch and got power from my cig lighter resulting in blowing the 15amp fuse for it. I popped in another fuse and changed my wiring around to wire the neons in parallel resulting in the same thing. Since everyone I talked to on either this board or somewhere else said nonchalantly to "just get power from the cig lighter man," I was frustrated.
I got my hands on a multimeter to test all connections and even though everything seemed to be checking out ok, I couldnt figure out why the cig lighter fuse kept blowing. I did some more investigative work and I found another plug coming off of the cig lighter wire. I didnt know what it was but I tested it with a test light and it wasnt hot anyway.
The bottom line is I think the cig light power is running something other than just the cig light because I dont think hooking up two neons would blow a 15A fuse that easily.
Anyway, what I ended up doing was just running some 16 gauge wire from an open slot in my stereo's distribution block and popped a 30 amp fuse in. The only thing that I have to be careful of is making sure my switch is off since the lights can be turned on when the car is off.
I think I finally got it right after 4 tries and almost burning up my car. Seemingly way to difficult for lights that have no purpose really but look cool.
As some of you know, I had a "problem" with my car the night before MAXUS which almost forced me to miss it. (Check the link below)
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....440#post426440
First lesson: DONT get power for your neons from the in-car fuse panel, i.e. take a wire end and push it in with a fuse in a spare fuse terminal as I was told by someone. (Once again see above thread)
Second lesson: Ive come to realize (atleast on my 1996 Maxima GXE) that you cant splice into your cig lighter to power two or more neons. First I wired two neon lights in series up to a switch and got power from my cig lighter resulting in blowing the 15amp fuse for it. I popped in another fuse and changed my wiring around to wire the neons in parallel resulting in the same thing. Since everyone I talked to on either this board or somewhere else said nonchalantly to "just get power from the cig lighter man," I was frustrated.
I got my hands on a multimeter to test all connections and even though everything seemed to be checking out ok, I couldnt figure out why the cig lighter fuse kept blowing. I did some more investigative work and I found another plug coming off of the cig lighter wire. I didnt know what it was but I tested it with a test light and it wasnt hot anyway.
The bottom line is I think the cig light power is running something other than just the cig light because I dont think hooking up two neons would blow a 15A fuse that easily.
Anyway, what I ended up doing was just running some 16 gauge wire from an open slot in my stereo's distribution block and popped a 30 amp fuse in. The only thing that I have to be careful of is making sure my switch is off since the lights can be turned on when the car is off.
I think I finally got it right after 4 tries and almost burning up my car. Seemingly way to difficult for lights that have no purpose really but look cool.
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 6,344
Hmm...Use a relay if you want to run off the
cig. lighter. You can do some cool things with a relay. I have two strobes lights and two blue neon tube in my plexi sub box. The trunk light triggers the relay and sends power to the strobe lights and neon tubes. When I close my trunk, everything turns off. When I open my trunk, all the lights come on.
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