For those of you who haven't seen my car, well, I have this knightrider style LED scanner attached to my rearview mirror. It's a blue light that goes back and forth, giving the knight rider effect. Looks pretty sweet IMO.

Well, to wire it up I opened the fuse box. I wired the red wire to the fuse that my alarm is plugged in. This gives power. Then I needed a ground, and I couldn't find anything metal around the fusebox... SO what did I do? I grounded the ground wire to this little metal switch/**** found inbetween the door "jam" that tells your interior light to turn on when the door opens.

Well I thought it worked pretty well until I noticed that whenever I go for a ride in my car, and then touch any part of my car, like the lock/unlock button on the door, or even the door handle, or anything for heavens sake, I get a BIG SHOCK. We're not talking about a dinky static shock. I mean, you actually say "OUCH".

I gotta find a new ground... but what can I USE???

 

Good Lord Man! Your stories are great! You're not serious are you?

 

Better be careful with that LED man ! Knight Rider used RED not BLUE ! It was the Cylons (Battlestar Galactica) that used BLUE ! Man one of these days some Buckaroo Spaceman is going mistake you for a Cylon and use his blaster on your car NOW THAT WILL BE A SHOCK EH ?

You know EasySpeed I think I would miss it if you stopped making posts.

Thx -- no really -- thx.
RP.

 

i have another question

what is your voltage gauge suppose to be at.

I noticed lately that when I start my car the voltage is at the 3/4 mark, just a little bit away from the red area. Then it normally sinks back down to in between 1/2-3/4...

Hmm..?

 

You cant do anything..The car is acting on self defense..

Seriously though,take the plastic radio plate off and youll see the a metal piece there..try that..I suggest getting a voltmeter or at least a test light if you like putting electric doodads in your car..Could be useful for electrical diagnosis and stereo install yo!

Daz

 

hahaha, I forgot to mention something.

The first owner of my car had like a $20000 stereo system in the car, no joke.

My car use to win every single sound competition it attended with the 1st owner. Unfortunately, when he sold the car to the 2nd owner, he took everything out. And now I'm the 3rd.

If you unscrew that plate, you will see about 35 wires that aren't suppose to be there.

Even more so, when I open my hood, the passenger side firewall has a big thick red wire cut.

My trunk... in the little storage box there there is a wooden plank with a million wires.

Aiee!

 

Thats your car saying, get those fricken stickers off me . Better take em off before it decides to commit suicide

Maybe what you grounded it to already has 12 volts goin to it? That would be a big nono... Just ground it to any screws attached to the body/chassis. Lots under the dash, radio well, firewall... Not hard to make one either. As for the volts, you should be around 13-14 volts without your headlights on.
greg

 

...tears well up in hilarity still reading that...


hell, that dinky thing you could even ground on the seat rail bolts. ...lol

 

I've always found some kind of ground by the fuse box... In my other car, I used one of the bolts that attached the diagnostic plug to the dash.

 

Hmm. The radio has a ground? LOL Alex you can ground it to anything that is metal. Like Daz said, get a test light. Connect it to a 12v power source and touch the lead to anything metal. If the light come on nice and bright..."Good Ground!" simple as that. I really don't think that your little Knight rider light is causing your problem though. Shut everything off on the car, I mean everthing. Close the doors and all. You want to make sure nothing is on or running. Disconnect your ground lead on the battery and reconnect it. Did it make a good spark or no? If it sparked you have a draw somewhere. I can't say if it is a ground or a positive source...but something isn't right. Now the trouble is finding the right thing. Individually pull "ONE!" fuse at a time, try removing and installing the ground. Do this with each fuse until the spark stops. Once the spark is gone, that fused link is where your problem is. This will put you in the right direction anyway. Remember 1 fuse at a time, and make sure nothing is on, not even a interior light. This should help you.

As for all that left over wiring junk...you should get rid of all that crap. If any of those wires still have power and it shorts or ground itself it can cause alot of headaches. Make sure you have a person with a good amount of electrical knowledge with you before you start cutting wires out though. You don't want to make things worse.

 

just ground to any of the steering column bolts problem solved !!!

 

Yes radios have grounds
greg

 

theres no way he can loosen those bolts even with his and all of his friends strength combined..He might ground it to the air bag harness then pooof!!! Kodak moment..lol

Daz

 

ok this may be a really retarded question....

but why did you use the power from the fuse box anyways???

you are just asking to get zapped!!

go direct to the battery and use a switch turn it on when you set your alram(rather b4 you set it) problem solved man..

iroc2nv

 

exactly because of what you just said

cuz wiring it to the battery is too complicated. the fusebox is right there. bam and done.

you think i wanna figure to figure out how to get it to the battery?

 

if i had a car id come and help ya out..but since you live far far away from me....it may have to wait til next summer!!


iroc2nv

 

#1) Eliminate all this extraneous wiring from the car- you don't know what is/isn't still connected and if it's also shorting/going to short somewhere. Even if you plan to re-install a $20,000 stereo- it will be more work trying to figure out what all the existing wire hooks to than just replacing it when the time comes.

#2) Ground your light to anywhere on the body. Pick a spot on the interior firewall and use a self-tapping, conductive screw- just make sure the other end of the screw is somewhere behind engine where it won't be seen. If this makes you nervous- put some silicone over screw before final tightening to seal out moisture.

#3) Make sure you have proper grounds from battery to engine and engine to body/chassis- i.e. proper grounding strap(s).

 

Easy if you need help pulling all those wires out let me know, I install all my friends stereos for them.

 

Here's my thought... why don't you hook up that groung to your A$$.... hahahahaha that would be cool... hahahahaha just a thought..j/k

The stuff you get yourself into... just kills me!!! hahahah
keep up the good work... hahaha