Very nice work, great job [thumb]

 

wow, that's a lot of extra wire in there.
nice work.. sometimes i wish mine was brighter

 

It was a quick install
I figured with all the space up there, I might as well save the wire on the LEDs.

 

That's pretty simple. I recently ordered the festoon bulbs for the dome and an considering getting a rear dome and do the same.. great price on that strip.

 

Thanks for the great idea! I bought an LED 'bulb' that precisely replaced my dome bulb (with like 6 teeny tiny little lights on a teeny circuit board), and it's DIM as heck. Even a darker color would show up great when you have 9 of the suckers!

 

it's dim?? don't tell me that, man... I just got (eBay) a 6 cluster super bright festoon... I hope it's right.. good thing it's a pack of two although I'm strongly considering getting a 9led strip for the rear dome (also just purchased from eBay)..it does look hot...

 

So much for those night pics, I broke something while working on another mod. Now I can't get the dome to light up at all...
Back to the drawing board.

It wasn't because of this mod, so don't be worried, lol.

 

Thanks for postin' this stuff. I was just thinking about doing some of these LED mods.

 

Just ordered some Red LEDs today, might need some further assistance... haha

 

A few things before I start:
Any color can be used.
it should be a row of 3-9 LEDs.
LEDs must be 12v-ready.

HOW TO REPLACE DOME LIGHT BLUB... WITHOUT A DOME LIGHT BULB

STEP 1

Remove the dome light. I used a penny to pry it down. The side closest to the windshield comes down first. Once the front side is down, push it back up a little, and pry the other side down with the penny.

STEP 2
Look at your connections. Dont worry about the connectors, the 2 black and 1 red wires; those will be untouched in this mod.

Flip it over and observe the bulb. Sitting in the drivers seat facing the windshield, the clips holding the bulb on the right side are the 12v, the clips on the right are the ground for the bulb.

STEP 3
Remove the bulb. Attach your LED wires to the corresponding clips; right (12v) clip the the LED 12v wire(red), left (ground) clip to the LED ground wire(black).

I placed my LEDs on top of those clips to give it more room to defuse. The further away the LEDs are from the plastic clear thing, the better the defusion will be.

STEP 4
Replace dome light. Follow step 1 in reverse order.

STEP 5
Enjoy your new, much brighter, and possibly colourful dome light.

Don't let these pics fool you, these LEDs light the interior up like a night club when its dark.
Night pics later tonight.

Heres the LEDs I used:
http://www.5starscomputer.net/9-led-ligh9.html

Please post results, questions, comments, complaints, lawsuits, whatever!

could you wire 2 strips to the dome light? and if i wanted to mount them under my seats where would i hook it to power? could i put them on a togel swich if so where would you mount it?

 

I just ordered me a set. I am SO doing this. My red light isn't bright enough.

 

Anybody have pics of this at night? I'd like to see how bright it is? (if anybody has red that would be even better, but any night pics would be nice.)

 

The ones I ordered red. I'll take pics when I get them.

 

could you wire 2 strips to one dome light?

 

You could, but I doubt it would be as bright. Its only one power source.

As for everyone else, I would love to fix mine, but stupid tropical storms have to come... -_-

Anyways, I'd love to see different colors! If anyone does white, please post. That may be my next color.

 

how would you go about wireing them under seats and hooking them up to a swich?

 

Do you have power seats? If so, there should be a 12v power source there. If you don't, you could run a wire from the fusebox to under your seat. You'd need about 2-3 feet of wire to the drivers seat, then another wire to your passengers seat...

If you want a dash mount switch, you would run a 12v wire to your dash, mount the switch, then run another wire from the switch to the seats, then ground it on the car frame (under the carpet, maybe.)

the mid console would be easier, but may not look as good.

Either way, you would run a 12v to the switch, then from the switch to the lights, then from the lights to ground.

 

would the battery be to much power? thats really the only thing i know how to hook things too... and would it change the output if i put sayyyy 4 strips to one switch?

 

Most parts for a car are made to take 12v. So almost any power source that you split will give 12v to each LED.
No, directly from the battery would not be too much power, because the fusebox is just power from the distribution box by the battery. (don't quote me on that, i'm just learning this stuff too.)

If you want to run power directly from the battery, the LEDs would only turn off with the switch turned off.

And if you want more then one LED bar or w/e, do it like this:

The grounds are only seperate because it seems that it would be easier to find a ground source seperatley, but you could run them all on the same ground wire, then ground it.

You could split the 12v wire and add in wires, but if you do that, use a larger gauge wire. not like a 16 or anything, but 22 or 21.

You could also run 3 12v wires from the switch to each LED, but that would be much harder.

Heres the wire gauges for reference.

 

has anybody done this? i would love to see

 

Do you think this mod can be done with a dome light that has the map lights? Id like to put the white strip in mine... that is if it would still fit with the map lights in there.

 

My parents have a map light, its one LED. If yours is the same, I dont think that this should affect the installation. It may have another 12v connector, though...

Ok, since no one has posted pic, I'll fix my dome light tonight...

 

Are you gonna post that night pic?

 

I bought two of the 9 LED strips one for my dome light and one for the trunk... hoping that will brighten the trunk up... anything has to be better then the crappy light ford put in... If nobody posts any pics by then I'll take some of my car

 

Sweet, just ordered my LEDs. Can a mod throw this in the How To archive?

 

I really want to see a picture of one of these installed at night!

 

I'll post a night pic when I get mine. I'm hoping I have them Friday.

 

What color will yours be?

 

Red.

 

how to attach?

HOw did you attach the led strips. I just got mine in the mail. Did you have to use some kind of glue?

 

HOw did you attach the led strips. I just got mine in the mail. Did you have to use some kind of glue?

Back from my vacation!


The tabs that hold the original bulb in worked perfect for the LEDs I bought.
I put the LED bar inside the clips, but make sure its centered, or else it will look rather odd... lol.

 

oh ok, I could not tell by looking at the photo's. So if I put the leads into the clip the lights will be facing sides ways right? I can put them facing down, but then one of the lead blubs will be facing down on the clip itself.

 

We must have different sized LED bar things. Try placing it on top of the clips, and underneath that big metal thing (shown in pics). If it wont stay there, you could do one of the following:

Remove the clips, stick double sided tape on the large metal peice.
OR
Bend the clips so that it holds it without blocking an LED.
OR
Put the LEDs under the clips, resting on the plastic.
This would not have a great diffusion, but it would still be bright.

Other then that, I can not help you. Your going to have to find a way to retrofit it.

BUT HERES THE GOOD NEWS:
I have pics!