Hi,

Can anybody tell me the colour of the above wire please?

I have put reversing sensors on my car, but the orange and yellow wire that I thought was for the reversing lamp seems to be permanent live when the key is in the on position.

I need to find the wire that only becomes live when reverse is selected.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Grab a test light & test the wiring at the bulb.

 

Maybe a negative switched circuit.

 

Reverse lights are a permanent live with transmission supplying ground or earthing
cannot recall colours at the moment but had this fun wiring in a reversing camera

 

Hi,

Have tried a test light.

When ignition is in position 2, BOTH wires are showing as live.
In position 2 with reverse selected, only the orange and yellow wire is live!!

Alan

 

Wires going to reversing lights are red/black and orange/yellow.

Alan

 

Orange/Yellow IS hot, key on. Red/Black run to the Transaxle Range Switch. When placed in reverse, Transaxle Range Switch sends the circuit to ground, illuminating the reverse lights.

What did you end up doing peedee? Running the ground back up to the Trans?

 

Found a possible solution elsewhere. It is for a camera and head unit, but will hopefully be the same principle!!!!




I figured it out if this can helps others that have a 2002 Mazda Tribute (or in general, a ground activated reverse trigger) needing to connect your Soundstream head unit or any unit that does not allow you change the polarity of the trigger from within the radios software) to work correctly with a backup camera, here is tail light relay wiring set of instructions and relay diagram that I pulled together from various sources. The backup display now works as designed in my vehicle.

The 2002 Mazda Tribute/Escape's reverse lamps work on a "ground activated circuit".

This means that the black and pink stripe Wire from the reverse bulb actually has 12V there at all time with the ignition switch in the run position, until the transmission sensor grounds this circuit when put in reverse gear).

So if you connect your camera red Wire directly to this wire, the backup camera will work backwards, displaying the camera image in all positions except reverse. The radio will also not function, staying in backup camera mode all the time.

Some head units have a function allowing you to reverse the trigger via its setup function, but if it doesn't you will need to use a relay.

Relay used in the below example: Amazon: Absolute RLS125 12-VCD Automotive Relay SPDT 30/40A & (optional): Absolute SRS105 5-Pin 12 VDC Relay Socket Interlocking Style:

Coil side of the relay:

o Connect a Power source to the coil side of the relay (pin #86 on relay, and Power source is orange /yellow stripe on reverse light which has 12v when Car is on ACC)- (ACC = power when key on)

o Then connect the other side of the coil side of the relay to the BK/PK wire pin # 85 to black/pink stripe of reverse light (which has 12v when Car is on but 0v when in reverse).

Then on the switch side of the relay:

o Connect the same 12v ACC power source to the switch side of the relay #87 (you will connect the same orange/yellow when car is on). Basically #87 & 86 are connected to the same 12v ACC constant power.

o Connect the other side of the relay switch (pin #30) to the reverse camera power (red) and the Soundstream head unit "cam control" trigger wire.

o Then connect the ground side of the camera to ground. The radio also needs to be grounded per the installation instructions that came with the radio.

So, now when you go into reverse gear, power is supplied to the coil (Pin #86) and then ground is supplied to the other side of the coil (pin #85) via the Black/Pink wire.

This creates a magnetic field which then pulls the switch side of the relay closed (Pin 87 connects to pin 30) and this allows power to flow to the camera and head unit 'cam control' trigger wire.

 

It worked!!!!

Bangers

 

I know this is an old thread but i'm doing the same thing and also found both reverse light wires are hot whenever the key is on. Adding the relay is not only simple but it works great. Thank you to the op for clearing this up. It is great info.