iTISTIC

I've seen other posts about replacing dome lights, door panel lights, etc. w/ blue lights to match the rest of the lighting in the car. I was wondering, however, if anyone has added more blue LED lights to light the inside of the car while driving, to match the lights that point down from the map lighting. It's definitely a cool effect, but I think the lights could be a little brigher, and it would be cool if there were some strategically placed throughout the rest of the car as well to provide a little more glow, but still remain subtle. Anyone have any ideas, or has anyone else done anything like this?

NFLblitze1

you would probably interested in FOOTWELL lighting...there is a kit on EBAY that fits our cars where they put a few neon bulbs under the footwells and fuse them into the battery where it gives off a nice and tasteful blue glow from the footwell lighting...

TLJohn

At Fry's they had a LED kit that was basically a couple of LED's that could be wired to a 12 volt system. I was thinking it may be a little more subtle than neon. The device was $10 each which seemed a little pricey to me.

Blue LED's are less than $1 each, you could wire/soldier three or four of them in series (3-4v each) and wire it to any 12 volt lead and ground.

I was thinking under the driver and passenger seat and maybe under the dash. The seats only have power when the key is on so tapping into the 12V source for each seat would seem to be pretty easy.

NFLblitze1

i would love that....that would be INCREDIBLY HOT to have the blue lights under the driver and passanger seat as "footwell lighting" for the rear passangers....

iTISTIC

Alright -- we definitely have to do this, haha. I'm kinda a newb when it comes to hookin up stuff like this. I've always had my car stereo installation shop do it, but I am not handing over my TL to anyone. So lets figure this out and maybe we can end up with somethin that looks pretty cool and we can make a tutorial for it. I'm game for sure. I knew the lights were cheap. I was lookin at the console today where the 2 blue LEDs are near the map lights, and was wondering if it would be possible to add 2 more and point them out of the microphone vents? I'd have to take that off to look and see if it would be possible. The lights are small though, right?

ayethetiense

i have small LEDs hooked up to the bottom of the armrest facing the shifter. it looks really cool. i like light that you can't see but only the flood light itself.

and for those of you saying "this thread is worthless without pics" screw you!

ayethetiense

just kidding.... took me awhile to go outside, take pics, crop em and host em. but here they are...

these are just the regular blue leds in the back, and super white in the front. kinda hard to see clearly with blue so i decided to go with the white int he front





this are the lights hidden under the armrest. this view if from the top of the shifter, facing towards the back of the vehicle



and this view is a straight on view looking from the shifter towards the back of the vehicle.



i took picstures of what it actually lights up, but its so dark that you cant really see it in the pictures. its just the perfect amount of light while driving day or night. its not too bright like other cars

i took a pic of my nav startup whil ei was there =)



o, by the way, really important. those leds under the armrest are hooked up to the outlet in the armrest.

iTISTIC

Where did you get these LEDs? .. And did they come w/ a cigarette lighter adapter or did your wire it manually? Send me a link to the LEDs you purchased.. Also (I'm full of questions), how did you secure the LEDs to the armrest?

NFLblitze1

Thats Sick! I Love That Idea! Im Putting That On My To Do List!

Papaman677

AYETHETIENSE------How did you get the Matrix background on your Navi screen?

iTISTIC

There's a sticky in the Navi form for hacking the Navi. That'll point you in the right direction.

bluenoise

I'm looking to brighten the ambient blue LEDs. Does someone have a diagram or instructions on accessing the map console beyond just popping out the map lights?

ewbuster

Iam not sure if this is what you are looking for or now. The pics were taken by my phone, so its not the best quality.

I have four 9 inch blue neon light on my floor. They are up under the drivers feet, passanger floor, and across the back floor. All the wires run up into the center console and go into the outlet.

Also I just ordered the door and doom LED's, so they will be in on tuesday.

This is the front seats, with the garage lights off


Front and back seats where taken with the garage lights on




I just put these in, so take the other pictures and put them together.


Hope thats what you are lookin for.

zax123

ewbuster, where did you get the 9" neons? Do you have a picture of them installed on the front and back seats? What I mean is so you can actually see the lights and where they are located and installed?

ashaman

One thing I don't liek about the blue led's are that they aren't bright enough, and trying to read under themcan be somewhat tiresome. I would like some more pics of those 9 inch neons and their location if you could.

It looks great!

xcelir8TL

Not that I really care, but I thought I should point out that the last picture with the door shots is actually my car from a previous post that I did.

ludachrisvt

iTrader: (2)

^^ swagger jacker hahaha

bluenoise

I like the look of your cars' additional lighting, but I'm only looking to brighten the existing pair of blue LEDs in the ceiling. I'd like to know how to access them. I saw a thread mentioning swapping them for white LEDs, but I can't find any showing how to actually remove the panel and get to the stock LEDs themselves.

Thanks in advance.

nightmaix

lookin real good.... where do you order your LED from? and what brand of neon u using?

zax123

bluenoise,

it's quite simple. I did it because I hid the antenna for my remote starter under there. You pop off the two lenses for the dome lights. Remove the bulbs. There is metal shielding underneath. Remove the shielding by prying it away from the plastic. Underneath you will see two bolts. Remove the bolts. The whole assembly will fall away from the ceiling. Good luck.

bluenoise

Excellent. Thanks, zax123!

ewbuster

My brother got the neons lights for me. He got them at Best Buy. They are 10 times brighter neons. So if you get the normal neons they would not look the same. they are taped in the car, its hard to take a picture because my phone does not have that good of quality. There is a lip on the back seatand they are taped up under that. There are two back there, one on each side. Then two in the front seat also. In the front seat they are just taped up to the plastic. All the wires are pushed under the plastic and ran to the center console and plugged into the outlet. If you install the neon light bar all the way under the back seat lip then you will not see the bar, and it looks very good that way. That is the same with the front seats, If you put the bar up under the steering wheel and glove box then you will not see the bar. That is how i have them installed and they still put out a lot of light.

bluenoise

I finally got around to trying to brighten the output of the overhead blue LEDs, so I followed the instructions to access them. Here's what I found:

1. There is no need to remove any screws. The light assembly is held by a clip at the center edge nearest the moonroof. The grey trim stays put, but the inner black section unsnaps.

2. The blue LEDs are inside the section secured by torx screws, but they're easy to remove if you have torx bits.

3. The blue LEDs are surface-mount devices, so changing them out would require replacing the SMD LEDs.

4. I don't know if they're running max current already, and I didn't have an easy way to measure nor do I have an easy way to increase it if they're not.

Maybe I should've taken some pictures to show what I'm saying above, but I didn't bother.

Bottom line: Doing any kind of mod to the overhead ambient LEDs is extremely difficult, so I'll just leave them as they are.