projector puddle lights

Hello,

I need help resolving an issue I am having with projector puddle lights this at I am trying to install. I apologize if this a lengthy post but I'd like to be thorough describing eggs at I have done. I am a novice with these things but pick up quickly.

My vehicle is a 2011 F150 that has stick puddle lights under the mirror. I installed the additions all puddle lights by tapping into the existing stock puddle lights and ground them to the door. Everything worked fine.

I then decided to install running board and bed lights. They were attached to the same circuit which controls the puddle, dome and cargo light. They worked fine for a few days but then the puddle and cargo lights stopped working.

I removed all the additional lights to try and trace the issue. I now have the running board and bed lights installed and everything is working. I tried reinstalling the projector puddles. Works fine when I install the first one, but when I install the second, the puddle and cargo lights go back out. I found that the bcm is giving a short to ground with the puddle lights but I cannot find the short.

I disconnected the battery and checked the puddle light wiring with a continuity tester attached to ground and it lights up. I did not trace the whole wire but checked any area that I was near to make sure power wasn't touching a ground. I can't find anything. Without the projector lights the stock puddles work fine and the bcm shows no errors. The continuity tester still lights up when attached to ground so it seems like there is still a short.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I'm thinking if there really was a short to ground the stock puddle lights wouldn't work and the bcm would throw a code. Is it possible the additional projectors are drawing too much power and that is causing the issue but the bcm just reports it as short to ground? Any suggestions on where to go from here?

Sorry for the spelling errors in the post (don't know where eggs came from!). I'm on a mobile and too new to go back and edit the post.

Just a thought. If not a wiring issue perhaps your trying to run too much on that circuit. I would try using a relay and that circuit to trigger your relay but draw power from the battery.

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Gary Sather

I was thinking that and started looking into how to do that. Do you think disconnecting the stock puddle lights is an option?

Running wires into the door looks to be a giant pain since they used a Molex connector at the door. I don't like the look of the light the stock ones throw off with the running board lights I put on anyway.

So after doing much reading I have decided to just go ahead and redo the wiring for the additional lights. I do have a few questions so any help is appreciated. Here is my plan:

Add fuse box, run fused power wire from battery to fuse box
Run power from fuse box to relay and then to additional lights
Use puddle light wire as switch on relay
Add capacitor and diode to handle any buzzing from fade out

The questions I have are:

Can I attach all of the leds to just one relay or do I need one for driver side and one for passenger side?
Where would the diode be wired?
How exactly do I connect the capacitor? Is it soldered to the relay?

I will try to post a diagram but this is all new to me so it might be a very crude drawing.

Here is my attempt at a diagram. I'd like to wire 2 led strips and one projector puddle to the relay. Also don't know where the diode would go.

Just to confirm that I wired the lights this way and everything appears to be working fine.