Interior LEDS
Last Updated on Monday, 15 February 2010 12:51 Written by Rob Friday, 01 May 2009 17:00
As with a few cars I’ve owned before this one, interior lighting was needed. I’ve done it to almost all of my cars, because it’s cheap, easy to do and it’s flat out cool at night. So we started out with blue LED’s from the local AutoZone type of parts store.
Now the plan is to take them and put then just under the front seats. There’s the small seat hump on the floor at the front base. For our example, that’s where they went. I didn’t screw them in or anything- these came with double sided tape, so thats what was used to secure them. Now they can be adjusted and will still stay put.
Same with the passenger side. Once you got it, take the wiring and go underneath the seat and bring it up to the side of the console. Just fish it up with your hands. For me, the dilemma was do I run two leads up to the dash, then across to the switch? I decided to run it through the console, and connect it all on the drivers side, then run the lead to the front.
Now remove the shifter trim. The chrome ring should pull straight up and out. Remove the rubber piece just below the ashtray and remove the two screws that are underneath it. Once their out, you can pull the bezel out from the console. Once the trim is out, take the passenger side wiring and fish it through the console so it sticks out of the drivers side of the console. It’s really not that bad. Got it? You can put the shifter bezel back in and piece it all together, in reverse of how it was removed.
Back on the drivers side, the passenger side wiring you fished through the console needs to meet up with the wiring on the drivers side. Then, take another piece of wiring and put it into the mix so it can run to the headlight switch, because what you have might not reach. Tuck it up under the console.
Remove the piece of dash below the steering wheel. There is one screw underneath, and the rest is held on with clips, so the piece should pop off. Careful not to be breaking stuff. Don’t force and go gently. If you are pulling and something just won’t move, look around to see if you missed a screw or something. From here you can run the wiring to the headlight switch.
Take the wire and connect it to the headlight switch. Pop the switch out slightly- inside are two clips that hold it in on the topside. Use a small screwdriver and push the clips down while pulling the switch out towards you. Be careful and don’t force it. Now once it’s out, you need to look for the correct wire. Get out your testlight, ground it, and check which leads have power (after your key is on). Check which one will dim with the factory dimmer switch. For my car, it was the orange and brown wire. Double check that though. Now thats the wire to tap the hot lead to the LEDS to.
Now you have to ground it. I created my own ground point.
Now put it all back together and give it a test run. Here is mine.
Click on any of the images below to bring it up larger.
