Do it by yourself guide: LED Footwell Lights
Thread Starter
Op is too busy to care
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 5,257
Likes: 913
Do it by yourself guide: LED Footwell Lights
difficult: mad easy, yo
required time: not that long bro
Okay so the interior lights in the footwells of the tsx are pretty glum. To me they are barely noticeable and after i saw ed_423's pic of sweet blue lights in his car i decided to do the same. The lights only come on with the low beams so make sure those are on or its dark when you are testing them. And i know my car is dirty but its really cold here in jersey
. Sorry about the shitty picture quality, my sisters have managed to lose three brand new digital cameras so im using my cell phone
disclaimer: i am by no means an electrical expert and literally just finished this today. I have not stress tested this set up. If you happen to set your Acura, Home, and loved ones on fire because you used this guide then don't look at me. If anything goes wrong on my end i'll be sure to post an update.
Required materials:
(1) Acura TSX
(2) Led lights of your choice - i used the strips below and while they are a little steep they dont necessarily have to be the ones you use. I bought them from i_jdms ebay store and paid 5$ total for both with shipping and they came pretty fast too.
http://store.ijdmtoy.com/LED-Strip-L...trip_sku56.htm
(4) 18-22 Guage wire t-taps - heres a link to the exact ones i ended up using. You will need two packs of these at minimum, buy a third if you plan on fucking up alot
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2998435
and just a general word of advice, if you plan on buying shit from amazon, please pay attention to the quanity of what you are buying, otherwise you will end up with 400 of what you need instead of 4....
(1) wire crimper - this thing was pretty cool but pliers will suffice if you dont plan on doing anything else with wires afterwards
http://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Industri...5655307&sr=8-6
Recommended materials:
exacto knife, electrical tape, small flashlight
Alright this is pretty easy lets get to it...
First start on the passenger side so you can get a feel for what you are fondling around for. You're gonna wanna reach for the underdash panel and gently start pulling it down on the side thats towards you, youll see something similar to this:
keep pulling gently and you'll pop out three orange taps and the panel should now be hanging down towards you and you should be able to see in with the aid of a flashlight. you will see exactly this with one exception: in this picture i already pulled out the connector for the light
once you are looking at something similar to this just disconnect the footwell light by pushing down on the tab and pulling it out towards you so can work on it a bit
now with the cable in your hands what i want you to do is pick a spot two or three inches south of the connector and make an incision using your exacto knife. Pretend you are doing brain surgery and strip away the insulation from about an inch of the wires. There is an orange wire and a grey wire. I believe the orange is the live wire and the grey is the ground, though i am not positive. I just plugged the led lights in to test and orange to orange and silver to silver worked great for me.
The power draw from the light is very minimal and should not cause any problems even if you get the polarity wrong. If you want to test than you can just stick the wires into the two holes on the end of the connector and find out what the right orientation is.
Continuing on, once you strip the insulation and are ready then take the ends of your led wiring and crimp two of the male connector ends onto them. then take the splice connectors and snap them onto both wires (its a little tough but you can do it) and just plug in the male ends and you are done! position the light wherever you wish and close up the passenger side.
I personally chose NOT to plug the footwell lights back in since it was already bright enough and i didnt want to add any extra strain but if you choose to do so at your perogative. If you choose not to like I did then use some zip ties to tie up the mess you and maybe you wanna use some electrical tape to cover some of the harder materials just so they dont make noise if they bounce around.
Onto the drivers side... Over here i didnt quite know how to remove the panel and i didnt wanna go online and find out cause it was fucking cold outside so i just reached my hand underneath the panel and there was plenty of space to just remove the wire from the light without even seeing it. Like so:
the connector is a little different but that really doesnt matter. just knife in like you did before. should be even easier. repeat the same process. the end result should look this:
i know, i have the palms of a greek god. Splice on, snap in, clean up your mess, zip tie what you want to and then just stuff the wiring back in to where you took it out from. Enjoy your new lighting!!
I was too lazy to take another pic at night so heres what it looks like on ed_423's super sexy grigio metallic
its not overwhelmingly bright and looks just right. In this pic you can see ed has blue led door courtesy lights as well which is adding to the blueness, so if yours are white or stock the car setup wont be as blue as above. Sorry for plagiarizing!
required time: not that long bro
Okay so the interior lights in the footwells of the tsx are pretty glum. To me they are barely noticeable and after i saw ed_423's pic of sweet blue lights in his car i decided to do the same. The lights only come on with the low beams so make sure those are on or its dark when you are testing them. And i know my car is dirty but its really cold here in jersey
. Sorry about the shitty picture quality, my sisters have managed to lose three brand new digital cameras so im using my cell phonedisclaimer: i am by no means an electrical expert and literally just finished this today. I have not stress tested this set up. If you happen to set your Acura, Home, and loved ones on fire because you used this guide then don't look at me. If anything goes wrong on my end i'll be sure to post an update.
Required materials:
(1) Acura TSX
(2) Led lights of your choice - i used the strips below and while they are a little steep they dont necessarily have to be the ones you use. I bought them from i_jdms ebay store and paid 5$ total for both with shipping and they came pretty fast too.
http://store.ijdmtoy.com/LED-Strip-L...trip_sku56.htm
(4) 18-22 Guage wire t-taps - heres a link to the exact ones i ended up using. You will need two packs of these at minimum, buy a third if you plan on fucking up alot
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...ductId=2998435
and just a general word of advice, if you plan on buying shit from amazon, please pay attention to the quanity of what you are buying, otherwise you will end up with 400 of what you need instead of 4....
(1) wire crimper - this thing was pretty cool but pliers will suffice if you dont plan on doing anything else with wires afterwards
http://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Industri...5655307&sr=8-6
Recommended materials:
exacto knife, electrical tape, small flashlight
Alright this is pretty easy lets get to it...
First start on the passenger side so you can get a feel for what you are fondling around for. You're gonna wanna reach for the underdash panel and gently start pulling it down on the side thats towards you, youll see something similar to this:
keep pulling gently and you'll pop out three orange taps and the panel should now be hanging down towards you and you should be able to see in with the aid of a flashlight. you will see exactly this with one exception: in this picture i already pulled out the connector for the light
once you are looking at something similar to this just disconnect the footwell light by pushing down on the tab and pulling it out towards you so can work on it a bit
now with the cable in your hands what i want you to do is pick a spot two or three inches south of the connector and make an incision using your exacto knife. Pretend you are doing brain surgery and strip away the insulation from about an inch of the wires. There is an orange wire and a grey wire. I believe the orange is the live wire and the grey is the ground, though i am not positive. I just plugged the led lights in to test and orange to orange and silver to silver worked great for me.
The power draw from the light is very minimal and should not cause any problems even if you get the polarity wrong. If you want to test than you can just stick the wires into the two holes on the end of the connector and find out what the right orientation is.
Continuing on, once you strip the insulation and are ready then take the ends of your led wiring and crimp two of the male connector ends onto them. then take the splice connectors and snap them onto both wires (its a little tough but you can do it) and just plug in the male ends and you are done! position the light wherever you wish and close up the passenger side.
I personally chose NOT to plug the footwell lights back in since it was already bright enough and i didnt want to add any extra strain but if you choose to do so at your perogative. If you choose not to like I did then use some zip ties to tie up the mess you and maybe you wanna use some electrical tape to cover some of the harder materials just so they dont make noise if they bounce around.
Onto the drivers side... Over here i didnt quite know how to remove the panel and i didnt wanna go online and find out cause it was fucking cold outside so i just reached my hand underneath the panel and there was plenty of space to just remove the wire from the light without even seeing it. Like so:
the connector is a little different but that really doesnt matter. just knife in like you did before. should be even easier. repeat the same process. the end result should look this:
i know, i have the palms of a greek god. Splice on, snap in, clean up your mess, zip tie what you want to and then just stuff the wiring back in to where you took it out from. Enjoy your new lighting!!
I was too lazy to take another pic at night so heres what it looks like on ed_423's super sexy grigio metallic
its not overwhelmingly bright and looks just right. In this pic you can see ed has blue led door courtesy lights as well which is adding to the blueness, so if yours are white or stock the car setup wont be as blue as above. Sorry for plagiarizing!
SeeYou2Crew #2
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 8,574
Likes: 825
From: Socal 626
LOL first of all. awesome write up man. i lol'd when i see u bought 400 of them LOL.
your way was much easier and better than how my friend did it for me
and i was like, whoa that looks a lot like my car! LOl
ttk: thanks!
dont mean to thread jack...but need some opinions. right now my blue underdash only turns on when i turn my headlights on. thats why i have blue led courtesy light to match it. but in the day time...the underdash leds wont be on and i'd jsut have blue courtesy light...which sometimes i feel its a bit ricy...should i change to white? or keep it blue? thanks!
again, awesome sht killerG!
your way was much easier and better than how my friend did it for me
and i was like, whoa that looks a lot like my car! LOl
ttk: thanks!
dont mean to thread jack...but need some opinions. right now my blue underdash only turns on when i turn my headlights on. thats why i have blue led courtesy light to match it. but in the day time...the underdash leds wont be on and i'd jsut have blue courtesy light...which sometimes i feel its a bit ricy...should i change to white? or keep it blue? thanks!
again, awesome sht killerG!
Racer
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 356
Likes: 1
From: Cerritos, CA
LOL first of all. awesome write up man. i lol'd when i see u bought 400 of them LOL.
your way was much easier and better than how my friend did it for me
and i was like, whoa that looks a lot like my car! LOl
ttk: thanks!
dont mean to thread jack...but need some opinions. right now my blue underdash only turns on when i turn my headlights on. thats why i have blue led courtesy light to match it. but in the day time...the underdash leds wont be on and i'd jsut have blue courtesy light...which sometimes i feel its a bit ricy...should i change to white? or keep it blue? thanks!
again, awesome sht killerG!
your way was much easier and better than how my friend did it for me
and i was like, whoa that looks a lot like my car! LOl
ttk: thanks!
dont mean to thread jack...but need some opinions. right now my blue underdash only turns on when i turn my headlights on. thats why i have blue led courtesy light to match it. but in the day time...the underdash leds wont be on and i'd jsut have blue courtesy light...which sometimes i feel its a bit ricy...should i change to white? or keep it blue? thanks!
again, awesome sht killerG!
Trending Topics
Thread Starter
Op is too busy to care
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 5,257
Likes: 913
id say go with the white door courtesy lights ed :x
i think the white keeps with the whole motif when the door is open and visible and the blue keeps it nice and sensual at night and goes with the dark interior.
grigio ftw
if someone wants to get white led lights and try em out please let us know how they look! i was thinking about that too but i worried it would look like i left flashlights on or something or it might be too bright and show off my shoes too much, although i would happily be wrong on this one and might get a white strip for mysef
I am also scared of making my car look too ricey...thankfully these interior leds are just right. I know there is a fine line between classy and trashy
i think the white keeps with the whole motif when the door is open and visible and the blue keeps it nice and sensual at night and goes with the dark interior.
grigio ftw
if someone wants to get white led lights and try em out please let us know how they look! i was thinking about that too but i worried it would look like i left flashlights on or something or it might be too bright and show off my shoes too much, although i would happily be wrong on this one and might get a white strip for mysef
I am also scared of making my car look too ricey...thankfully these interior leds are just right. I know there is a fine line between classy and trashy
SeeYou2Crew #2
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 8,574
Likes: 825
From: Socal 626
id say go with the white door courtesy lights ed :x
i think the white keeps with the whole motif when the door is open and visible and the blue keeps it nice and sensual at night and goes with the dark interior.
grigio ftw
if someone wants to get white led lights and try em out please let us know how they look! i was thinking about that too but i worried it would look like i left flashlights on or something or it might be too bright and show off my shoes too much, although i would happily be wrong on this one and might get a white strip for mysef
I am also scared of making my car look too ricey...thankfully these interior leds are just right. I know there is a fine line between classy and trashy
i think the white keeps with the whole motif when the door is open and visible and the blue keeps it nice and sensual at night and goes with the dark interior.
grigio ftw
if someone wants to get white led lights and try em out please let us know how they look! i was thinking about that too but i worried it would look like i left flashlights on or something or it might be too bright and show off my shoes too much, although i would happily be wrong on this one and might get a white strip for mysef
I am also scared of making my car look too ricey...thankfully these interior leds are just right. I know there is a fine line between classy and trashy
SeeYou2Crew #2
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 8,574
Likes: 825
From: Socal 626
haha killerg i took ur advice and swap out my blue courtesy to white. i like
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...=780304&page=2
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...=780304&page=2
SEEYOU2CREW
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,532
Likes: 207
From: Houston | New Orleans
I laughed out loud at the 400 t-taps.
You could always send some to me!
I don't know bout you guys but I personally love the blue LEDs....
I guess it's cuz I'm a young little rice kid!
LOL.
You could always send some to me!
I don't know bout you guys but I personally love the blue LEDs....
I guess it's cuz I'm a young little rice kid!
LOL.
?
Racer
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 356
Likes: 1
From: Cerritos, CA
Ed- I'll keep my Weathertechs 
Killer & Euro- White looks very nice. It just depends where u place the led strip. Its easier to find the perfect place on the passenger side, but the driver side is a Bitch cuz of the brake pedal. Objects there so you can see how much light there really is.
Killer & Euro- White looks very nice. It just depends where u place the led strip. Its easier to find the perfect place on the passenger side, but the driver side is a Bitch cuz of the brake pedal. Objects there so you can see how much light there really is.
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