Introduction: Awesome Push Button Ignition
Here's a fun project that I did to my very first car. When I first got it I was quite happy with my purchase, but soon after that I found that I really wanted a sweet push button ignition and an engine kill switch, like a rocket or a race car or something cooler than an early nineties economy car. Well, it has been nearly a year and today i tore apart my dash, cut up some wires, soldered and drilled and figured and puzzled for about 5 hours and now, the final result, you will see in this instructable.
I'll show you how to wire in a push button ignition and an engine kill switch in your car. It's easy, as I have done all of the puzzling and figuring for you. It should take between one and two hours, depending on how fast you can take apart your dashboard, but could take considerably longer. This project cost me like 25 bucks for a soldering iron, wire, one relay, two momentary buttons, and a switch. If you have some of these it will be cheaper. Either way, this is a small price to pay for such a cool feature.
Step 1: Gather Materials
For this project you will need:
One Single Pole Double Throw Relay (a SPST normally open will work as well)
One Momentary switch, Normally open (toggle or button)
One Single Pole Single Throw Switch (toggle or button)
Soldering Equipment/Knowledge
Wire (I used 18 g)
Screwdriver
Wire Cutter
Other various tools
Be sure that whatever momentary switch or button you get is a normally open, momentary switch.
anything else will not work for what we need.
Step 2: Open Up the Dash
Here you will need to get inside your dashboard to where your ignition harness is. This is near the keyhole. Once you get to this bundle of wires you will need to cut the Ignition Wire and the Starter wire, so also disconnect the battery first. You will have to find a wiring diagram for your car to know what wires do what. I can tell you that for Hondas the Ignition wire is black and yellow, and the Starter wire is black and white.
Cut these wires and strip the end enough that you can solder it or splice it well.
Just a caution, this step, more than any others so far, has a potential for really messing up your car. as long as you cut the wires such that you can splice or solder them back together you should be ok, but be aware that cutting wires to your ignition could become a problem.
Step 3: Assemble the Hardware
Now we will solder together the chain of switches and wires and buttons and relays to make this all work. This is by far the easiest step.
Basically the way this all works is that the Ignition wire, which needs to remain a closed circuit as long as the engine is going is connected to the relay, and we will borrow some of the current going through it to switch the relay and start the engine. Solder the wire ends to the Ignition wire or the starter wire as indicated.
Step 4: Put It All Under the Dash.
Now that your parts and wires are all wired in its time to test it. Turn the key to the "Engine On" position. Flip the switch on. Push the button. If you have wired everything all correctly you will start the engine. Now put your dash back together and put your buttons and switches wherever you like. You can drill holes in the dash and put the button and switch through there, or you can hide it under the dash.
Step 5: Show It Off to Your Friends
Alright! now you have a push button ignition in your car, just like all the high end sports cars, rocket ships, and computers. Go ahead and show it off, thats what you did it for, right? Be sure to post a picture here so we all can see it.
1 Person Made This Project!
mrhealthpatriot made it!
Recommendations
Make It Bridge
Big and Small Contest
For the Home Contest
249 Comments
Tip 2 years ago
Be sure to match the wiring on the relay and switch to the ignition wiring under the steering column, except for the ground wire, which goes to a metal bracket.
14 years ago on Introduction
I have an interesting idea for a car engine. does anybody have any idea how you could modify a car engine to run off oxygen removed directly from he air around the car, basically making gasoline useless? I know it sounds too much like science fiction, but I think it could be possible. I have some idea of a design, but I don't have any solid ideas. any automotive engineers that could help me?
Reply 2 years ago
Problem is most of the air around us that we breathe is Nitrogen not Oxygen.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
The closest thing you can get is a hydrogen generator which uses electricity to split H and O in water to make a combustible gas but no one really has an engine that works off straight hydrogen like that (not yet any way.) look for HHO or hydrogen generators and you can find kits that you put in current cars to up your gas milage.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
I would use a hydrogen generator to because they make the oxygen and the hydrogen the only problem is they don't make it very fast. The way to solve this is to let it run overnight perhaps and have a system to compress it so it could be stored in a tank in the trunk or something. Then you would have to design a system to keep it from backfiring because the gas will start to burn before it enters the cylinder.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
The hydrogen gas should not burn before it enters the cylinder because the spark plug ignites the gas when the intake valve is closed.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
They can if you pump heaps of amps into them
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
However the car cannot supply enough power alone so yes it can work fast just it would be another energy bill to pay. On a separate note there is probably an optimum efficiency so you can get the most hydrogen per amount of amps applied. This in a sense is similar to using good driving habits to get the best mpg.
Reply 13 years ago on Introduction
yeah but after that you get a lot of problems like compressing it storing it in a safe container ( if you get in a crash with a badly installed hydrogen car you get big boom )
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
Well i think most 4 stroke engines would work with hydrogen. You just need a different carburetor. But those hydrogen generators don't create enough hydrogen for a car engine to run.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
oxygen is the catalyst that allows a fire to burn. without a fuel source i.e gasoline, kerosene etc. it wil not ignite. like most of the other people have said oxygen is just what allows the fire to burn and is not actually what ignites the fire. think about it for a second. have you ever threw a blanket over a fire or maybe threw dirt on a fire? what that does is smother the fire. in other words it takes the oxygen out of the area where the fire is burning and causes it to extinguish itself. therefore if you try to make an engine run just on O2 it will simply not work.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
Sorry buddy, but you still need fuel. Oxygen just allows fuel to burn. For example a hard candy such as Jolly Ranchers don't burn normally, but in pure oxygen they do. The sugar in the candy is combustible.
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
no regular "air" dose not burn pure oxygen dose burn. Why do you think that you cant smoke around old ladies that are breathing compressed air?
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
yeah.. pure oxygen does burn... buuuutttt in normal air oxygen exists as 02 its more stable form. if you can pull flammable oxygen out of the air, then smoking anywhere would ignite all the surrounding oxygen molecules
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
Pure Oxygen does not burn! It just supports combustion, meaning stuff burns EASIER. And Oxygen in the atmosphere is not 2%, it's approx. 20.946%, by volume.
By the way... If oxygen did burn, what do you think would have happened to our atmosphere?
Just to prove it to you...
Link - Down near the bottom
Link - Another source
Link - Yet another source
Reply 14 years ago on Introduction
I understand your short mind. O2 does not burn - O2 is what is found in the atmosphere - O1 is a different form of oxygen which is also never found in the atmosphere(maybe for fractions of seconds during chemical reactions but thats it)however O1 indeed would burn if you could keep it stable long enough to enter the engine. Which would just cause a backfire from bad ignition.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
please dont call padlock short minded it makes you sound more stupid that necessary. oxygen is the name given to a chemical know as O2 ozone is O3 they both exist in the atmosphere. O1 doesnt simply because the O1 would react with the neares chemical molecule that is near it.
now to tackle oxygen burning. it DOESNT burn do some research oxygen got its name because its a very good oxidizer (oxygen and oxidize sound similar dont they) now all form of cumbustion is an extreme form of oxidizing where there is a fuel and an oxidizer to put it simple read what padlock said but if your not convinced please show me your evidence of oxygen ever burning. by the way what flammiblity class is oxygen in you can see it on the containers that it comes in when u find that please let me know
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Actually the word "Oxidation" comes from "Oxygen," not the other way around.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
thanks for the info bro btw why havent you corrected these people going around talking about oxygen burning
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
It's impossible to stop. Where there is internet, there is people making trouble over insignificant stuff. I can't help it if i wanted to, i wouldn't help it even if i could.