Interior Led Lights :d

[shifted]

Alrighty, well, hey everyone :D lol

I have a 2002 toyota rav4, and have bought that book which covers everything, apparently,quite extensively, based on a complete take apart and rebuild. however, i dont think so, i still am lost as to how to disengage the airbag but doesnt matter.

Now, what I am planning to do is:

I have two led lights, i want to place them somewhere and run them off either the tacho lights, or some other light that turns on when you turn on the lights while driving at night.

these lights will light up the interior, and they are quite small.

they are also 12v, so if i was to wire them up to the wire that is running to the tacho lights [the speedo and rpm and ****] will that decrease the brightness of the speedo and all those lights?

also, what risks am i involving in doing this? [i know its dodgy lol, and i have already taken apart most of the dashboard, apart from the sensitive things like the stearing column, the airbag on the passenger side and etc]

has anyone themselves put led lights into their car to light up the interior nicely and wired it up this way?

my mate did it, and i think he is an idiot cos he soldered it to the Battery [the wires for the led lights]

but i want them on only at night, hence i need to hook them up to the lights that turn on when you turn on your lights to drive at night.

should i include some images?? as it might make it easier to understand?

it is a 3door rav 4 so would like to know any wiring diagrams or something someone might have that would be able to tell me?

also planning on running another set in the back of the car, so help would be greatly appreciated as to whats gonna happen once i do this, cos i dont want to die :D or have my car rendered unusable cos i did something stupid :D

edit: image: and would prefer option (a) :D

so basically, i would like to be able to connect the lights in parallel with the wires connecting to the light that is illuminating the cigaret lighter, which is turned on only at night when the lights are turned on for driving.

are both the wires that run that light positive?

how do i connect the LED to it? i know the negative has to go to the metal body of the car, and thus, the positive only to one of the wires connected to that cigaret lighter illuminating light?

last time the lights blew up, so i bought another set, i want to do this right so it doesnt blow up :)

[anchorman]

Hi

As your lights are diodes and not bulbs I believe they will not dim with the panel lights they will only go out below a certain voltage so I think you should find something that doesn't dim (I think the cigar lighter should be OK).

I cant understand what you did to destroy them previously. They must be polarised when connecting i.e. they have a positive and negative but they usually just don't work if you get them the wrong way around. Remove the cigar lighter and just hold the wires accross the terminals while you try them. When you have determined the right polarity extend the wires. Red ones would work well recessed into the overhead lighting panel as the will cast down over the centre console.

You should be OK adding others as you wish as they only take a tiny current.

Good luck!