Dome Light/ACC Override Switch Install Writeup

[Chris]

WRITEUP: Dome Override Switch

For those of you that work on your 1st gen W cars with the doors/hood/trunk open with the stereo going and that lovely drain of having all your interior/underhood/trunk lights on; this mod might be worth it for you. It is a switch to cut the power to your interior/trunk/hood lights to not have that drain on your battery. I usually just pulled the fuse, but this makes it much easier! This should take you roughly 30 minutes if you do it right.

Either disconnect your negative battery terminal or pull out your 15A Courtesy fuse. I recommend disconnecting your battery terminal, but I was too lazy and just pulled the fuse. All screws are 8mm unless otherwise stated.


1. Remove the dash trim:



2. Remove the two screws from the top of the fuse box bracket:



3. Remove the six screws. Remove the one on the door limiter first, this will make it easier to remove the others:



4. Remove the glove box and disconnect your electrical connection and the light:



5. Now that you have that done, remove the lower molding. The one on the left is a plastic phillips pressure screw:



6. While you are under there remove the two bottom screws for the fuse box bracket:



7. Remove the three screws holding the fuse box in the bracket:



8. This is the wire you will be cutting. Cut the wire with about 3" hanging off the back of the fuse box. Splice in new terminated wire on both ends, solder and apply heat shrink tubing over the two splices. The terminated ends will plug into the toggle switch:



9. This is where I mounted the toggle switch in my glove box. I was going to use a lighted switch but decided to keep it simple:



10. Finished product. Power cut, and power applied:



The wires coming out of the fuse box are for my laptop, ignore those