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Here it is. Custom interior ambient footwell LED lighting. Pics inside!

49K views 109 replies 49 participants last post by  bill_de 
#1 ·
As promised here are the pictures of my custom ambient footwell LED lights.

For those that did not read the posts about the OEM Mopar footwell lighting kit I will give you a heads up on what I did and why I did it.


I have had a few cars previously that came from the factory with footwell LED lighting and IMO it looks great. Its not annoyingly bright, but just enough to add a nice touch at night. I like how the Jeeps have the door handle and storage bin LED's, but they did not have the footwell lighting. Turns out Mopar makes a footwell LED kit, but its extremely expensive, and IMO not that great of a kit. For one, it looks aftermarket! The instructions tell you to zip tie the LED strip in place, there are cables everywhere, a module box, a switch that needs to be mounted, and lastly they do not dim with the OEM dimmer switch.

My goal was to essentially do the exact same thing that except more OEM looking, functions like OEM, and costs less than five bucks :) This setup is not multi-colored like the Mopar kit as I did not want that. I only wanted LED to match the factory interior lights.


I purchased a few pre-wired 3mm aqua (cyan) colored LED's from superbrightleds.com which match the factory interior lighting perfectly. I wired them and tapped into the shifter gear indicator wires which were a simple black and red wire which provided 12v+ to the LED in the center console. This was a perfect place to tap into as it was very easy to get to, and was located only 2 feet from where my footwell LED's will bo located.
I mounted the LED's to the removable panels in the footwells and added push connectors incase I ever needed to remove those panels again so I can easily disconnect the LED's.

Hopefully the pictures speak for themselves, but if anyone wants a little more detail feel free to ask. All I had to actually buy for this project were a few 67 cent LED's since I had some wire laying around and other misc things. Total project cost was less than 5 bucks and a couple hours of time. At night the LED's are perfect! They match the lights exactly and add just the right amount of light to make the interior look incredible.

Enjoy the pictures!


























 
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#38 ·
Yeah, I can imagine. That's why I'd LOVE to do it. Unfortunately, I'm a musician and not that "handy". :lol:

And after seeing what you did, there ain't no way I'm paying for the Mopar kit! :rolleyes:

I mean, I don't need all the circus, disco color selection, and the fact that they don't dim with the rest of the lights, for me anyway, is a deal-breaker and just stupid!
 
#39 ·
Is the black plastic a panel LED mounting item or just a bezel off an LED you had laying around?
 
#40 ·
THey are just rubber grommets I had laying around that fit perfectly.


Tell you guys what if there is anyone that really wants this mod done but cant do it themselves I would be willing to do it for you for a relatively small amount. You will need to send me your two footwell panels, but other than that all you would have to do is splice into the two wires under your console which is simple. PM me if interested.

James
 
#41 ·
I picked up the LEDs on Wednesday, and my new GC yesterday. I hope to get a chance on the weekend to do this, and it wil be the first mod to the car.

In Australia 2 x LEDs, a pack of resistors, LED bezel clips and heat shrink tubing cost me $14. I think I have wire and connectors at home.

Just doing the fronts for now, and rear foot well sometime later.
 
#45 ·
Ledcalc.com is great for working out the right resistor.

I bought 390 ohm 1/4 watt resistors, based on calculations from ledcalc.com. I'll be using one resistor per 2 led's. So one resistor will feed the two front led's and another resistor will feed the rear two.

It's been a very wet weekend in Sydney so I didnt get a chance to do mine yet.
 
#46 ·
FYI ..... for any of your daring people that want to solder on your own resistor SuperbrightLEDs recommends 560 Ohm resistor for 12-14 volt power.

I am gonna tackle this project this weekend since I finally picked up the resistors
 
#48 ·
I just completed my install. Waiting for it to go dark so I can see how it looks.

Remarkably easy interior to work with. The most time consuming bit was building up the wiring loom before I installed it. I also provisioned wiring for the rear footwell, for when I get those LEDs, so it's just ready to go.

Great inspiration, James! How does it feel to have you work being replicated on the other side of the planet?

:thumbsup:
 
#50 ·
I just completed my install. Waiting for it to go dark so I can see how it looks.

Remarkably easy interior to work with. The most time consuming bit was building up the wiring loom before I installed it. I also provisioned wiring for the rear footwell, for when I get those LEDs, so it's just ready to go.

Great inspiration, James! How does it feel to have you work being replicated on the other side of the planet?

:thumbsup:

That is pretty cool glad to hear someone else was able to take advantage of this writeup. Hopefully it turned out great for you! I am still very pleased with the results and love driving at night even more now :)
 
#53 ·
I completed my install this weekend. It was simple. Thank you JTS97Z28. :) Great description. It would go quickly if I hadn't been afraid I would screw up the interior.

Savvas looks great. :thumbsup: I also left a connector for the rear footwells but I couldn't figure out a good place to secure the LEDs or how to route the wiring. Any suggestions/tips about this would be appreciated.
 
#54 · (Edited)
Dave,

I cable tied the LED's to the centre of the bar, under the back of the front seats. I bent the wiring so the LEDs sit at 90 degrees to the bar, and point straight down.

The wiring is a little untidy at the moment if you look under the seat, but I will be putting it in a split flexible tube to tidy it up and securing it to the seat frame with cable ties. Leave enough slack so it doesnt stretch with the seat being moved backwards and forwards. Also make sure it doesnt foul the seat tracks or other moving bits.
 
#55 ·
Can I ask what resistors you have added to each circuit and am I correct that you have "ganged" the 12V supply from the single source as mentioned on the original thread?
 
#57 · (Edited)
Here is the newest member of the footwell lighting club here!!!

I tried taking pictures but they did not come out well it seems that the Greystone carpet doen't show up the Aqua bulbs well all you can see it the SRT pedal reflecting the bluish like but in person it is beautiful and it dims with the rest of the interior.

I did the front footwells of my Mom's 2011 Laredo yesterday.

I used 1/8" grommets to hold the bulbs in place

I drilled a hole with a 7/32" drill bit

I have soldered 24 guage wire with male and female connectors to my LEDS so I can always disconnect the trim peice if need be

I am still debating whether I should do the front and rear footwells on my own car. I


I am working on making a pre-wired harness (front only) for those that want instant gratification of getting the parts and istalling them right away no building required. I will post some pictures later.
 
#58 ·
Awesome, glad to hear yet another person successfully was able to add the ambient footwell lighting. Glad I could save you about 250 + dollars and end up with a superior finished product ;-)
 
#59 ·
Can I ask you how you spliced into the existing red and black wires for your =/-ve feeds. We have something called a scotch-lock that I have used previously. (A plastic clip with a "guilotine" that bites into the wires)

Thank you.
 
#61 ·
I calculated 180 ohm resistors for each oh of 2 (presently) and potentially 4 parallel circuits. Unfortunately I calculated based upon 12 V supply but I think that is nominal and varies to 13.5V which would mean I should have used 220 ohm resistors. I also keep reading that the LEDs burn out faster with calculated resistance values and that higher resistance should be used. But it was too late I had already bought my 4 resistors for $0.50 so it was too late to start over.

Anyway instead of splicing into the hot and ground as shown in the picture I used the "Scotch Lock" (I didn't know they had a name) that GlennR asked about.

It looks great at night and it is all pretty neat and tidy (not that you can see it since it is all tucked away and covered up).
 
#64 ·
OK. Looms Made. Almost ready to cut in, but how do you remove the footwell mouldings that house the LED installation. I can see the large plastic dome head fasterners but can't work out if they are threaded or will pop out. Don't want to break anything!!! Thanks Again.
 
#65 ·
the mouldings are quite flexible. the clips are xmas tree types that pop out, but need a bit of coaxing. I found it easier to try and pull the whole panel down with the clips on it. get as close into the clips as you can when doing this though.
 
#66 ·
Excellent. Really appreciate the advice. Now, the final question, how did you approach connecting all the +/-ve's. I'm thinking of running a single + & - wire(s) (ie conecting a single + & - to the gear selector LEd 12V) then branching out to do the fwd left and right LED's. I would then connect to the same single wires braching out to do the rear LED's. I was wondering if this is easier than trying to connect 4 wires +ve and 4 wires -ve to the gear selector 12V. Is this how you did it?
 
#67 ·
That's how I did it.

I pre-built the wiring so at the end all I needed to do is solder single wires to the vehicle wiring that feeds the cup holder lighting.

On the positive wire, I then soldered in two parallel resistors in a "Y" arrangement. One resistor for the front LEDs, and one for the rear LEDs. Then to each resistor, I soldered two wires un a "Y" each feeding an individual LED.

On the negative wire, I soldered 4 individual wires to 1, and soldered the 1 to the vehicle wiring.

I used heat shrink tubing on all the soldered connections, except where I spliced into the vehicle wiring. There I had to use good quality electrical tape.
 
#68 ·
Thanks for the info. Much appreciated. I tried the LED's off an old 12V battery. They seem quiet green although the LED spec says green/blue. Would you say they appear more green than the existing ambient light throughout the cabin?
 
#70 ·
For 4 Led's I used a 120 Ohm resistor. I placed the resistor on the positive wire just where I connected to the car wiring under the gear shift. I ran 2 wires from that to a 8 pin plug. 4 neg and 4 positive. The car wire ran to 1 of the + sockets, then I ran a link to each of the other 3 sockets. Did the same for the + wires.
The problems I had were that the Led's were polarity sensitive, and when I switched them on for the first time, only 1 lit. A swap of the polarity to the others soon showed all lighting up. Tip: Dont fully connect the wires until you test. If the led does not light, swap the wires.
 
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