E-Brake Wire Problems

Hi,
I am having some weird issues with the e-brake wire on my car. What I want to accomplish is having +12 volts go to a terminal on a relay once the e-brake is released and is down, and the ignition is on. When I tested my '94 Toyota Celica's e-brake wire with a multimeter, it produced +12 volts when it was released and the ignition was on, and didn't when the e-brake was up, or the ignition was off. So I spliced a wire into this e-brake wire, and then I ran the wire to the terminal on my relay, and it produced some strange results.

What happens is that when my e-brake is up and the ignition is on, the brake light on the gauge cluster wass lit up like it should be, but when I released the e-brake, the light didn't turn off like it should, and instead only got dimmer. So I figured that I was getting some sort of voltage coming from the relay that was going back into the wire, so I installed a diode in the wire that I spliced into the e-brake wire, but that didn't change anything. So I figured that I must be pulling too much power from the e-brake wire, so it must not be sending a full +12 volts to the car, resulting in the light only being partially lit up. So, I hooked up terminal 85 of a SPDT relay to ground, terminal 86 to the e-brake wire, terminal 30 to a fused +12 volt power source, and terminal 87 to the terminal on the relay that should be getting +12 volts once the e-brake is released. This didn't change anything either though.

So now I am completely confused, and I have no idea why my terminal of my relay isn't getting +12 volts, and why e-brake light stays partially lit up when the e-brake is released and the ignition is on. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could do to try to solve my problem?

Yup...you're backfeeding something...Did you take everything off to make sure the problem went away??

Which way is the band on the Diode facing? towards the e-brake wire, or towards the relay? It needs to be facing towards the relay otherwise no current will flow to the relay.

Second, is the 12V on the e-brake wire constant or momentary. Meaning it's there for a second or two, than goes away, or does it stay?

The relay should go something like this.
85 Ground
86 E-brake wire (+) side
30 12V+
87A Not used
87 To whatever you are giving 12V to.

Also, if you don't mind me asking...what are you trying to do??? maybe I or someone else can come up with an easier way.

I did take the wire off of the terminal of the relay, and the problem did go away. The band on the diode is facing towards the relay. I tested the wire with a multimeter after I installed the diode, and I was able to get +12 volts at the end of the wire where it meets the terminal when the e-brake was down.

Also, the +12 volts on the e-brake is constant, and stays at +12 volts until you pull up the e-brake or turn off the ignition. And my relay was hooked up exactly like you described.

What I have set up is a pushbutton switch that, when pressed, creates an infinite loop that connects a ground wire to my negative neutral safety switch wire of my remote start. I want that loop to be broken when my car is started, or when I get in my car and drive it. For more information, you can click here to read the thread about what exactly I'm doing. Basically, the only way to break that loop is to send +12 volts to a terminal on a relay, so I figured that a good place to get +12 volts to break the loop would be when the e-brake is released, because I would only do this once the car is started.

So what I want to do is have the loop be broken once I release the e-brake, so that if I want to remote start the car again, I have to press the button once I pull up the e-brake.

Anyone have any ideas? I'd really like to get this working soon, but this is my only problem left.

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