E30 Map Light Mirror Wiring Help

[smithdog57]

I wired my map light to the dome light. I figured that if I can turn the dome on at any time it should power my mirror. It didn't quite work as planned. The map lights are only getting power when the doors are open. Not so good when your driving at night. I connected the mirror to the red and black/brown wires directly on the dome light. I saw that there were other wires above the headliner with spades in the B pillar area. What is the correct wiring method. I did a few searchs with no luck. Thanks

[robsanab]

just move the connection and splice it directly in with the power wire... your switch ought to have a setting where you can turn on the dome light with the doors shut... I'm not around mine so I can't see the configuration of the switch... just find where there is power all the time... it's there.

[Guest Anonymous]

. . . you already have the mirror's hot wire connected correctly.

The dome light switch has a hot (Red/White wire) and two grounds:

- You need to be connected to the ground side of the dome light switch that doesn't connect to the door switches. That's shown as a Brown wire on the schematic I have.

- The door switch ground on the dome light switch is shown as a Brown/Violet wire.

[smithdog57]

I see the same thing on the schematic but my dome only has two wires the red and brown/violet. No brown, could it be grounding directly to the body?

[JayKray]

The other brown wire is connected directly to the frame that the dome light screws into. I think it is above the frame, that's why you can't see it. The connection is actually made when you put the screw into the dome light shell.

You just need to connect the other wire to the body ground at any convenient point that you can find. The red wire sounds like it is already connected correctly as someone else stated.

[Guest Anonymous]

- this is the over-the-shoulder light, not the center mounted, sun-roof type - and I think you're screwed.

There is no easy connection to be made. You'll have to figure out a way to tie the map light ground wire to the moving part of the switch or add a separate switch for the map light.

If your center council has a green dummy plug you could replace that with a simple ON/OFF pushbutton switch from a 320i.