Basically, I want to buy 2 high output LED strips and hook them up under my side skirts as puddle lights. Meaning I want to wire them so that they only turn on when the door is open. I was wondering if I could just splice the positive and negative wires from the LED strip in to the courtesy light at the bottom of the door.

BUT, before I do that I want to test out the LED strips. So I was wondering if I could just take the positive and negative contacts from the LED strip and touch it to the car's main battery to test it.

 

just remove one of the lights and touch them to the positive and neg there. id figure the battery would just blow them?

 

so the battery will blow the led strip?

 

im just saying i would go with what it will run on. they probably arent that expensive so if you do its not a huge deal. im no expert.

 

Oh gotcha. Yeah but I'm too lazy to wait for shipping for new ones if I do blow them.. so if I blow them I'm probably not going to replace them haha No offence or anything bro but I want for-sure info on whether it'll blow or not. Thanks for the help you provided though.

 

You can also use your dome lights to test out the wires. If something does blow it will be the fuse, which is located near your feet next to the BCM. Ive hooked up LED strips to the dome light with no problem, so for you to test them out shouldn't be a problem also.

 

To do this, I would remove the dome bulb cover and the bulb itself, and then touch the two contacts together?

 

^ yes that is correct.

 

if you get an led strip, it will already have resistors and be ready for a 12v lead from the puddle light in the door.

 

IIRC when i tried my led's out i just went straight to the battery.... If you have a correct battery (12V) and the led strips are for a 12V application then you should be fine

 

Thanks, guys. I touched the contacts to the dome light to test them out. Worked great. Thanks again!

 

You can use dummy bulbs to hook them up in place of the courtesy light if you don't want to splice:

http://www.oznium.com/dummy-bulbs