I've always wanted puddle lights, I think it looks classy. I finally found the right LEDs. They're a bit expensive, but totally worth it. Here's the link. I first bought 2x Cool White 1W Black Aluminium 11mm with no lens, which cost me about 19$ with shipping, but I didn't find them bright compared to my interior lightning. I ended up installing them on my 06 Civic Coupe. Therefore, I bought 2x Cool White 3W Stainless Steel 11mm with no lens for 31$ with shipping.

Took me 1 hour to install per door. Remove door panel, remove side mirror from door, disassemble side mirror, drill hole, install the LED. I tapped into the footwell lights, I already had wires fished into the door previously so it might take a bit longer if you haven't fished those wires. Put everything back together.

They fade in when unlocking the doors with the remote, fade out when locking the doors or closing the doors, turn on instantly when opening a door and they do not stay on while driving.















They are bright as hell !!

Leo

Acura TSX A-Spec 2013

 

Not a fan of the blue

But great job

My Lexus has puddle lights and when parallel parking at night it is very helpful when coming back to passenger side making sure door doesn't get scratched

Of course you can make it even more baller like Range Rover and have the puddle light up as emblem of Acura

Very creative nice job

 

Nice! Loving your mods.

2012wagon, I don't think the LEDs are blue. Just looks blue cuz of the paint. Unless you were referring to the colour of his car

 

My bad

I didn't realize that

The ones on my Lexus are more subtle

Apologies

 

Good job looks good! Can you post photos of the lights you used on the civic too? Are they as dim as the ambiant foot well lights?

 

OEM puddle lights are usually warm white (a bit yellowish). I ordered cool white because I think that it matches better with the blue colour of the car. Cool white is bright white with a hint of blue.

Brian Wilson, I didn't wire the LEDs in the Civic yet, I just drilled holes and put the lights in the side mirrors for now. I'll post pictures when I wire them up. But they are not dim at all! With stock interior lightning, the 1W LEDs are still very bright but it wasn't enough for my taste.

 

Nice job

There's a DIY on this for 3G TLs, same procedure:

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...lights-907045/

 

Is the LED beam of light on the wall?

 

yeah almost, from the height of the side mirrors to the ground, yeah it is. From the top of the car to the height of the side mirrors, it's the interior light (My interior is full of lights :P)

 

wow... acura should have included this as a standard option...

but it looks more luxurious great job!

 

Can you go more in depth on how you tapped into the power system or what fuse you used?

 

I'm sure you can tap right into the foot well lights wiring.

 

Aren't the footwell lights on when the headlights are on

 

Mine turn on when I press the unlock button on the key fob. If I were to install the puddle lights, that's when I would like them to come on. The foot well lights have nothing to do with the headlights.

 

Wasn't there a change in the footwell lighting on / not on with headlights around the new beak timeframe? I seem to remember hearing this argument before. Older version of the CU2 have the footwell lights on all the time but later versions don't. I can't recall when the breakover point is. Maybe someone else will...

 

You might be right. Footwell lighting thread should confirm, but I recall this bit.

 

Here we go; slight derail, but here's the footwell discussion. Seems it was the 2011 MC that changed the function:

Click Me

 

Thanks for digging that up! My 2010 has them on with headlights. Bummer! Atleast I didn't wire them first. Can anyone think of a work around solution to only have them turn on and off with the unlocking of the car? If not someone's going to get a good deal on my leds

 

Trigger a capacitor from a relay tied into the door lock?

Doesn't the dome light inside the car come on upon unlock and turns back off after some period of time? Maybe tie into that circuit?

 

I think tapping the dome light is the best option. You should be able to tap the wires behind the driver's fusebox. I don't know which wire though. You just have to find the controlled ground wire and the constant 12V wire (or you can use any constant 12V wire from the car). With these wires, even if you don't set your dome lights to turn on when unlocking the doors, it will still work.

On my 06 Civic, the controlled ground wire is the LT BLU wire (at the driver's fusebox) but I don't know which one it is on the TSX

 

I just tapped the front map lights up at the top(for another lighting project). Then ran the wires across the headliner and down the A pillar. And as ceb would say "make sure the hidden wires down the A pillar don't interfere with the side air bags".

 

You can also use the negative dome light supervision wire. It's a pink wire, below drivers side fuse box, it's a white 20 pin plug. Pin 1. Run the negative wire of the led to that pink wire and the positive to a constant 12v source.

 

That helps a lot! Thank you

 

No prob bob.
There are many options to power this project. Basically anything that lights up with the press of your unlock key fob button you can use.
Some people prefer the instant on and off but I prefer the soft on and off of the dome lights. Looks classier.

 

Others were using the add a fuse on the power seat fuse for power. If I did the same (I think fuse 32?) for power and ground to the dome lights ground would that work?

 

The power seats are always on, so yeah it should work with the controlled ground from the dome lights.

 

I can't find any 20 Guage wire. Will 18 or 16 be okay?

 

Yeah. These LEDs take up very little power. I usually use thin speaker wire.

 

It looks like the drivers seat fuse is 20 Amps and the add a fuse is rated for a max of 10 amps. I wonder if the drivers seat memory is a constant circuit as its 7.5 amps

 

Just did mine tonight. Tapped power at the footwell lights. Thanks for the idea!

 

iselfdevi, that's very nice! Is that LED Cool White or Warm White?

 

Thanks man. I would say it's cool white. It does have a faint yellow ring from the lens.

 

Hmmmm...I kind of want to see the puddles on the ground next my car too now...

 

Bump from the dead.

Can anyone with a 2009-2010 MY give me some pointers on the wires you guys used to wire it up? I know the general consensus is to use the overhead dome lights but which wires are you using?

 

i own a 2010 and am considering doing this mod. From some google searching i came across this image of the interior fuse box layout from a 3g tl if the layout is similar we just need to locate the interior light.
http://i977.photobucket.com/albums/a.../photo-516.jpg

The interior light i would assume is the map/dome lights and all you would need is a fuse tap and extra fuse to tap into fuse #6 7.5 amp. So tap in with a fuse tap and wire the led to that positive wire and run a ground wire to any ground point near the door or splice into a ground wire.

The only concern is, if that entire circuit is always on with headlights or it dims in and out. I might test it out once I have a little time.

 

I understand that you don't want to fish a wire through the roof and the A-pillar. As mentioned in the post #22 by Username0 of this thread, the dome light supervision wires must come from somewhere, and that is the driver's side fusebox. Thus you can tap into your fusebox under the steering wheel.

The #6 fuse you mentioned on the passenger fusebox controls the LEDs that are controlled by the brightness controller (ex: Climate Controls LEDs, PRNDS light, Radio Lights LEDs, etc). They only work when you turn the headlights. They are also dimmed depending of your brightness settings. I don't think this is the right circuit for puddle lights.

The correct wires to tap into are the PINK (controlled ground) and GREEN (constant 12V) wires under the driver's side fusebox (according to post #6 of this **THREAD**). How the system in the CU2 works (for dome lights), is that there is always +12V at the positive side of the light, and the controllable ground decides whether to turn it on or off. The ground at 0V will turn on the light and when put to +12V by the MICU, the lights will turn off. This type of circuit makes it easier to progressively dim the lights but I will not get into that.

Remember that this method will need you to tap into wires, thus permanently splicing 2 wires. Now which PINK & GREEN wires exactly? That I do not know. As Username0 mentioned, it is the PINK wire connected to a 20 pin white connector. Look at this thread for more info about the connections **THREAD**. Now, I just looked at my TSX fusebox, there is a PINK wire in one of the white connectors, and a PINK/GREY wire in another connector. It must be one of them. As reference, on my 2006 Civic, I tapped into the PINK/GREY and BLUE wires. In my 2013 TSX, I taped into the footwells wires which will not work on your 2010 TSX.

I don't think that using fuse taps will work, because the fuses are placed before the MICU, and the dome supervision wires are controlled by the MICU. The MICU controls the ground of this light circuit, and there is no fuse placed in that controlled circuit. Tapping into the fusebox will only get you a constant +12V. If you want, you can tap into the headlight circuit, but it will be on when driving the car, and you won't get the progressive dimming when locking/unlocking the car.

The fuse that protects the dome light circuit is the #16 fuse in the engine compartment fusebox. It also protects the trunk light and the courtesy lights (in the doors). This fuse is a constant +12V.

I suggest you use a multimeter to make sure you are tapping the right wires. You can use some wire splicers which can minimize the damage you make to the original wires when splicing. It was easy doing it on my Civic, must be as easy on the TSX. Fishing wires into the doors will be a big deal of pain and screaming :P Allocate a couple of hours for this. Have fun!

 

Doesn't every cu2 come with footwell lighting??

 

First years CU2's footwell LED's turn on when the parking light is on. For the second iteration CU2's (starting from 2012 I believe), the footwell LEDs turn on with the dome lights (when door is open, unlocking the doors). They are off while driving at night even when the parking lights are on. They are different circuits

 

Ok. Who said that you have to run a wire through the a pillar to the roof??
You can power the puddle lights through the pink wire at the drivers side fuse box, white 20 pin plug, pin 1.
Plain and simple.

 

These look great remind me of my old RL I wish Acura would of passed on some of the features into my TSX