Ever been in a Ford or a GM vehicle and notice how when you shut the car off, take the key
out, and the radio stays on until you open the door? Well I was bored today at work, and I
wanted this in my Maxi.

I figured some of you may be interested in this as well, so this is a mini-write up on how to install the switch, using relays.

Things needed:

-2 relays
-2 relay sockets
-1 diode
-various wire taps

First thing that needs to be done, is to tap the door trigger and run a wire from that location, up to the back of the radio area. The door trigger wire is red/white in our maximas, located low in the drivers kick panel (can easily find it in the running board as well). Those of you with alarms, this wire will be tapped.

Once you've run the line, grab your relays + sockets, tape them together (or whatever) and start making your harness. We won't be using all the wires for each relay, so you can cut them off or pull them out. heres a crappy diagram i made to show which wire is which, and which wires are needed:



-Notice how the diode is soldered in on the car-side ignition line, specifically with the stripe closest to the relay.

-Also notice the jumper i made from one pin to another, this can be done from wire to wire
instead if you'd like, I just did it in there because i happened to have the soldering iron handy.

 

Heres a real picture of what the wire side of the relays look like:



heres the jumper:



Heres a few pics of the harness all ready to be installed into the car:

 

Now its time to plug it all in.

-First ground the relay assembly, screwing it into a bare piece of metal is best.

-Now you need to cut the ignition wire to your radio (the red one), and wire each side to the appropriate wire on the relay assembly as shown in the original diagram.

-Find a constant 12v source, plug that in (both 12v wires can be twisted together)

-And last but not least, connect the last wire of the relay assembly to your door trigger extension.

Heres a messy pic of what it should sort of look like:




And voila! you're done. Congratulations. Finishing proof:

key in ignition:


key out of ignition:


And obviously when I open the door, the radio shuts right off.



*Note: This wiring configuration will ONLY work on cars equipped with NEGATIVE door triggers.

*2nd Note: Becuase of the way everything is hooked up here, 1 relay will stay ON if any door is left open, and will probably kill your battery overnight. If this bothers you, Im sorry.


All questions, comments and criticisms welcome.


-mendon99

 

nice write up

 

thanks buddy

 

Great write up and good job.

But .. DEI makes a module to do just this.

 

yeah i was thinking theres probably some company thats made one. oh well..


what does it cost out of curiosity?

 

mmmmmm Rush.....

 

hell yes.


9876546321

 

bout $8 or so IIRC

 

good stuff.
would be interested in the dei module cost as well, but hell this setup is ridiculous cheap lol.

 

even better group buy lol

 

wow, well that was barely worth the effort

 

nice work anyways, good write up too

 

Cool where can the module be had?