Lights On Reminder
I am no way responsible for any damages or injuries caused by doing these modifications. WORK AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
Lights On Reminder
Go to Radio Shack or any electronic parts store. Get a “Pulsing Piezo Buzzer”. It sounds intimidating, but all it does is go “beep beep beep”. Make sure it operates on 12VDC systems. Radio Shack has 5 or 6 to choose from, but pick the best one according to tone, volume, size, current, and quality. I got part “#273-066a” and it works great in all respects. It runs about $5 bucks, and already includes a pulsing driver circuit.
When you get the buzzer, it will already have 2-stripped wires coming off of the buzzer – a positive wire (red) and a ground wire (black). Solder a 3A in-line fuse onto the positive wire, and splice the end of the red wire (now with a fuse in between the buzzer and the target power source) into the parking lights/turn signal fuse hookup. You can find the color-coded wire that comes out of the back of the fuse box to make the install a little cleaner if you wish. Check your Service Manual, Chilton’s, etc. for the correct color. Or you can just do it the easy way and slave it to the fuse. Why not the headlights, you ask? Well, the regular headlights are on a totally separate circuit than the brights. So if you wire it into the parking lights, the buzzer will notify you regardless of whether you leave your lights or brights on, because the parking lights are on no matter what the headlights are doing.
Splice the ground wire into your windshield wiper fuse hookup. The same deal goes for this hookup; Take the easy route and stick it in with the fuse, or go the clean route and splice it into the correct wire coming out of the back of the fuse box. Your choice.
Slap a little double-sided tape to the back of the buzzer, and stick it onto something. I stuck it to the side of a wiring harness, just because it was clean, flat, and plastic. Try to avoid metal, because there’s too much temperature variation and the tape will keep falling off. You can also screw the buzzer to something, because it has 2 holes built in for screws. Use SHORT, SMALL screws to avoid screwing into something live, or just tape because it’s a little easier than maneuvering a drill up under the dash. The buzzer weighs practically nothing anyway.
Make sure the ignition is off, and turn on your lights. The buzzer should start beeping at you to “turn off your lights stupid!” If it doesn’t, then: 1. You probably did it wrong. Follow the steps again, a little SLOWER this time. 2. You blew the in-line 3A fuse when you touched the power source (a little spark sound.) Replace the fuse and it should work. 3. You hooked up the red and black wires backwards. Switch them and it should work. One more note: If you have a car alarm that flashes your parking lights, you will hear the buzzer beep as your parking lights beep. This is totally normal, and makes sense, because your alarm is flashing your parking lights with the ignition turned off. Besides, it sounds really cool as you arm and disarm your alarm!