Southern

I made a wiring modification to my homelink (garage door opener) which requires the ignition switch to be in (II) position for the homelink to work.

I did this modification because I did not like the fact that the homelink was powered with the key out of the ignition. On the rare occasion that I have my car parked in my driveway, anyone could break into the car, open my garage door and have access inside my house.

The modification was simple. I removed the spotlight unit and snipped the WHT/BLU wire going to pin 1 of the spotlight unit near the connector for the auto dimming mirror. I spliced the WHT/BLU wire from the spotlight unit connector to the YEL wire going to pin 1 of the auto dimming mirror connector.

With this modification both the spotlights and homelink will require the ignition switch to be in (II) position for them to work.

jpadilla

awesome ... i was concerned about this too. always need to think like a wanna be thug (they might be too stupid to think of that though).

I'll see if i can do it tonight.

Southern

I forgot to mention that the above wiring modification is for Acura's without the onstar system. For units with the onstar system the only difference is that you splice into the YEL wire going to pin 12 of the auto dimming mirror connector.

04AcuraTL6speed

The homelink and map lights use the same power wire correct?

jpadilla

actually, i'll try this using a bosch relay with the coil switch lead going to the ignition. then cut the WHT/BLU u mentioned and have one end going to the relay source and the other end to the relay drain. that way i don't over load the circuit for the auto dimming mirror and you keep the original circuit intact (just have a relay doing the switching). Let me know if you want the wiring diagram of how to do this.

Southern

Correct, after the modification the map lights will require the ignition switch to be in (II) position for them to work.

Jpadilla, I thought about overloading the auto dimming mirror circuit however both circuits are feed from a 7.5A fuse and the map lights only draw 12.4W and the homelink can't be drawing more than a few watts. Assuming that both the homelink and map lights draw 15W that is 1.5A additional load on the circuit.

Reviewing the power distribution for the fuse which supplies power for the auto dimming mirror, depending on the model year certain options may exist.
For example for the 99-01 models the back-up lights are included in the circuit. For the 02-03 models the tension reducer solenoid, keyless receiver unit, and power seat control unit are included in the circuit but the back-up lights are not in the circuit.

This indicates that the circuit has been designed to handle additional loads, however adding a relay to utilize the original power circuit won't hurt but you will be adding the relay coil draw to the auto dimming mirror circuit. If the relay coil draw is more than 1.5A then you would defeat the intended purpose keeping the two circuits separate.

jpadilla

Good point, I was actually thinking of not using the auto dim mirror and use a different source for the coil instead. The coil should not use more than 0.5 amps.

TL_Diplomat

all this electrical talk makes me sick, but thats an awesome MOD!