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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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#5 ·
Nice man! Hmmmm, I've got quite a few leds lying around....... :D

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 
#9 ·
looks great and very clean! I did this with my previous ride (Acura TL) and considered doing it with the jeep. Is there an easier place to tap "light" power to keep from tearing apart the console?
 
#12 ·
looks great and very clean! I did this with my previous ride (Acura TL) and considered doing it with the jeep. Is there an easier place to tap "light" power to keep from tearing apart the console?
I know I already answered your question via PM, but if anyone else was wondering it is sooooo easy to get to this 12v source that I used. That center console piece literally just pops right up. Takes no time at all, nothing is at risk breaking, and its easily accessible all while sitting in your seat (compared to being upside down in a footwell or whatever). Just open your center console lid and pull up at the most rearward section and it comes right up.


Brainfry,
Yeah I have been contemplating the SRT8 pedals so I may very well be purchasing those.
 
#11 ·
+ Rep
 
#96 ·
G'day Mate, Jeep addicted,
I'd like to take you up on the offer of making a front and rear footwell ambient lighting kit......I have just bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 2014....Just let me know how much the kit will cost me including postage and I'll deposit the funds directly into your account.....I'm in Sydney Australia

cheers
Faez
 
#15 ·
It was cake. Just pry the lower chrome trim piece downwards, then pull the metal clip out and the shifter slides right up. Took 30 seconds to do, and the center bezel lifted up in another 10 seconds. Very easy interior to work with so far.

James
 
#18 · (Edited)
What you see there is nothing more than a plastic sheet that I cut to shape and used as a mounting plate to add a little rigidity to the area. I used hot glue gun to attach the plastic sheet to the footwell cover panel, then more hot glue to secure the LED in place.

Also, for those that are considering doing this, I also modified the LED bulb to disperse light more. I sanded down the tip so it was flat, then I lightly sanded the rest of the bulb so it had a frosted look. Now the light is completely spread throughout the footwell, where as if left untouched, it would have a fairly focused beam of light. This part was pretty easy though I used a dremel and the bulb sands down very quickly.
 
#20 ·
LOVE IT!! Which I was a bit more "technically savvy" or that you lived a little closer! :lol:
 
#22 ·
Just sand down the LED to give it much better light dispersion. I used my dremel with a sanding bit, works great. You don't have to do this part, but I think if you don't the light would not fill out the entire footwell.
 
#27 ·
I like what you have done. In hindsight, would you still select the same locations to mount the LED's ? i.e. Would you possibly get a better result in another mounting location or are you satisfied the one's selected are ideal.
Also, would you consider rear seat installs as well?
 
#28 ·
Very satisfied with the locations and if I were to do the install again I would use the exact same spots. As for the rear footwells no I personally would not bother. That would be a lot more work for results I would never see, and rarely if ever does anyone sit in the back. Would be very difficult to mount the lights back there anyway.
 
#33 ·
Here is a link to the LED's I bought:
http://www.superbrightleds.com/more...3mm-led-18-degree-viewing-angle-4000-mcd/308/

Please note though, unfortunately as far as I know they do not sell these pre-wired. Meaning that all you get is the LED. So you will have to add a resistor to each LED for it to work. I happened to have a ton of pre-wired LED;s laying around so it was easy for me to just transfer the resistor from one of the other pre-wired LED's I had laying around. If you hook up a LED with no resistor to 12v power it will probably fry it.
You might want to emal them to see if they can offer that cyan colored LED pre-wired so you dont have to bother soldering in a resistor.

James
 
#37 ·
Yeah, like I said in my posts they dim perfectly with the rest of the interior lights. Thats why I chose the power source that I did so that these footwel lights dim with the rest. It works and looks great!
Last night was the first night I drove the Jeep with the new footwell lights and it looks incredible. As weird as this may sound, it adds a whole different interior feel at night. Jeep really should have done this from the factory.

James
 
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