neon advice - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

frtmatt83 · 04-20-2003, 04:48

i want to install a few neons in my fairmont on a switch how would i do that

xacoupe · 04-20-2003, 06:00

neons should light up your garage.. not your car...
my opinion .. worthless I know but here none the less :)

If you must have them and don't know how to do it ... get an auto elec to do it .. or read up on wiring and tackle it yourself

SiX_iN_a_RoW · 04-20-2003, 06:08

advice on neons...hmmm DONT DO IT!!!

TopGhia · 04-20-2003, 12:55

Shall we call you guys neon-nazis? jk :)

Rmyers · 04-20-2003, 17:58

Just wire up a switch in series with your neon light, with + connected straight from the battery or another power source (eg. bootlight) and the negative earthed to the car, simple. Don't listen to them, neons look cool (if put in the right places that is!)

AUForte · 04-20-2003, 18:18

Ok, if you really want to put neons in your car it's pretty simple.

All you need to do in the simplest form is run a +ve and -ve wire to the battery with a switch on the +ve line.

However, it would be very wise to include a relay, just one like used for driving lights, you can buy one from Kmart

There will be 4 connections on the relay

+ve from battery
The power from the battery for the neons, also put a fuse between this and the battery

- ve from battery
The ground reference for the relay coil, a relay is an electro mechanical switch, it uses the magnetic field from an electrical source to mechanically switch another electrical line

Trigger 
Use a wire tap from the Accessory Ignition wire, this means the neons will only operate when the ignition is on, to save you accidentally leaving them on during the day and flattening your battery. Also run a switch in series with this line and mount it in the cabin so you can switch on/off

Output to Neons The positive line to the neons, just attach the -ve wire from the neons to the chassis of the car.

To wire in more neons just attatch them in parallel with each other, that is + to + and - to -

Rmyers · 04-20-2003, 18:25

/\ /\ /\ /\ Yeah a relay's a very good idea to have as well :)

XplodEd EA · 04-20-2003, 18:55

What sort of neons are you looking at and where do you want to put them? Alot of them just plug into your cigerette lighter, easy to install but messy wiring everywhere.

If you get hard wired ones buy a two way switch (one that has only on and off) a standard relay and an inline fuse holder.

- Run a wire from your accesories power (eg cigerette lighter power wire) to the switch (mount the switch wherever you want it) then run a wire from the other terminal on the switch to terminal 86 on the relay.
- Run an earth to terminal 85 on the relay.
- Run a wire from the + terminal on the battery to terminal 30 on the relay, also put the inline fuse on this wire close to the battery.
- Then run a wire from terminal 87 to all your neons, earth your neons to the closest earth point.

dodgy wiring diargram

The size of the inline fuse depends on how many neons your running and how many amps all the neons will be using, it will probably end up being SFA tho

Wiring up the way I have just described will mean the neons will only turn on with the key in the ignition in the accessories position. If you want them to come on without the key in the ignition run a constant + supply to the switch (either from the battery or the constant + supply to the radio).

XplodEd EA · 04-20-2003, 18:59

woops, didnt see those other posts before posting lol

ahh well at least the relay is in that pic

BlueAvatar · 04-20-2003, 19:45

ive got neon boot lights in my ef.. it was easy as, since there is a boot light in there already, all you need to do is crimp on some spade lugs (Check what size you need) and then plug it in place of the boot light.

when you take out the boot light to replace the globe then you see there is just two spade lugs to power it, and they are switched already! it doesnt get much easier than that.