Do all 2nd gens have wiring for door lights?

[Stevo F]

I still have the door panels from my old '97 GT and was wondering if the wiring for lights on the lower part of the GT door panels is present in the doors of lower models, like the Legacy L.

 

I'd like to upgrade my wagon with these and ma hoping the wiring is already in the someplace, like the wiring for the factory subwoofers was when I added them.

[Jadu108]

Cant say for sure, as i wasnt necessarily checking for it, but i seem to remember noticeing a harness in the door of my with a free plug.

i know my L is wired for a lot of options that my car didnt come with.

[noahrexion]

My L had the wiring for the lights and the tweeters just taped up.

[Brighton96]

Nope, the lower end models don't. I ended up wiring mine to the dome light circuit.

[Stevo F]

Nope, the lower end models don't. I ended up wiring mine to the dome light circuit.

 

If yours is a Brighton I would imagine it wouldn't have any of the extra wiring (including power windows). Mine is an L and it did have the tweeter wiring so I was wondering if other L's had the light wiring too, without having to pull the door panel to look for it. I'm thinking the wiring harnesses may have changed with different year cars too (mine being in the latter part of the generation).

[Jadu108]

i could only find body wiring for 90-96 Legacys that applied to outbacks, but i could only see where the interior lights run from and on what color...

from the mode actuator behind the dash a blue/red and blk/white run to the interior light system... im assuming it would keep that color throughout, so maybe check around for some blue/reds running into the door?

[Stevo F]

I decided to pull the door panel and take a look tonight. I couldn't find a wire that might go to it anywhere. The only wiring in that part of the door goes to the door lock mechanism (presumably). I looked at the cut wire on light the GT door panel and the wires are blue and blue/orange. I didn't see those colors anywhere in the door either.

 

So it looks like a dead end as far as the wiring is concerned (and I would love to utilize anything else from the GT in my wagon that I can).

 

Does anyone have any other ideas?

[doublechaz]

Run your own pair of wires back to a central point and tie from there into the overhead light. That would involve removing a lot of trim panels. When I do something like that I make the entire new harness outside the car with extra extra length at the ends. Once I'm ready I can start putting it in the car, and if I don't get it done the tails can be tucked away for now. Once everything is in place you trim and tie them in with the power connection being last.

[Stevo F]

Run your own pair of wires back to a central point and tie from there into the overhead light. That would involve removing a lot of trim panels. When I do something like that I make the entire new harness outside the car with extra extra length at the ends. Once I'm ready I can start putting it in the car, and if I don't get it done the tails can be tucked away for now. Once everything is in place you trim and tie them in with the power connection being last.

 

This would a be a solution but the question would be where to tie in to the wiring. I'm not interested in removing my dash or headliner to find a junction point.

[doublechaz]

I agree on what to not want to remove. Perhaps there is a door closed switch that is easy to get to in the B or C column. You'd want to look at the wiring diagram to be sure, but a lot of door closed switches provide ground when the door opens allowing the light circuit to activate.

[Stevo F]

I goofed around with it for a few minutes today by removing the dome light assembly. It looks like I could attach a run of wire to an old straightened coat hanger and push it above the headliner and out to the edge where I could run it down the molding then run it inside each door. Looks like a possibility at least, but I don'tr feel like messing it with until a less humid day

[SLW-SVT]

The 97 and 98 base Outbacks that i've had do not have a plug for the courtesy lights. I plan on doing what Brighton did and tying them into the dome light. I've already tied my map lights to the dome light so that they do whatever the dome light does. You might want to switch to leds so that the draw is less than with halogens.

[Stevo F]

Thank you all. I went ahead and wired them in yesterday, but didn't have to go through the dome light itself.

 

I pulled out one of the door switches and saw only one wire leading to it from the dome light so I figured out the switch opens the ground side of the circuit when the door closes. I tested it by tapping in to that wire and hooking the other side to the battery and the light lit up when the door opened and went off when it closed, just like it should.

 

I found some stereo speaker wire and removed the door sill molding, running the negative wire to the switch, then splitting the wires and running the other one into the dash to the 12V constant power lead to the radio. I swapped the GT door panels in with my existing door cards and wired up the lights. I used some vacuum hose as a conduit for the wire where it comes out of the inside molding and goes back in behind the door panel (although it's a bit of a tight fit when closing the door).

 

The lights now are working great and it was nice to be able to utilize other parts I was able to pull from the old GT.