Very nice write up and they look great. I'm officially jealous. I might have to get up the nerve to do the same thing.

 

Great write up. The best ov seen and I have researched this a lot. Awesome photos. Right now I took the easy way out and just covered those map lights with electrical tape.

Don't know if I'm going to try it or not yet but if I do I will us this as a guide.


Sent from my iPhone using JeepGarage

 

Great write up. The best ov seen and I have researched this a lot. Awesome photos. Right now I took the easy way out and just covered those map lights with electrical tape.

Don't know if I'm going to try it or not yet but if I do I will us this as a guide

Thanks, yeah the job would be very easy if it wasn't for that flat ribbon cable. I'm still trying to think of an easier way to do it, but I can't really see anyway around having to use that existing ribbon cable.

 

Great write up. Those are the same ones I used. I soldered mine differently then you cause I accidentally broke the connection at the circuit board. Flipped the board over and stuck new led to that.

 

So have you guys tackled the front footwell LED. You won't know it's there unless you look for it, I found it when I was changing out the other footwell lights. This front LED is so faint even in complete darkness you can't even tell its there. I was thinking getting something a little bright and maybe blue to match the other accent lights. I know it's on a small board so i would guess it would have to be done in a similar way of the the map lights.

Maybe even the LED lights you had a link for earlier in this thread and just splice into the wires there?




Sent from my iPhone using JeepGarage

 

I have not done that as I am happy with the stock ones. I actually like the faint glow instead of brighter obvious light. But yeah it would be fairly straight forward. You have the front footwell lights, rear footwell, and the overhead console has one aiming down as well. The overhead console light is on the center circuit board shown above.
All is very doable, but I will not be messing with though.

 

Thanks to James for this write up. Did my overhead console last night. Let me tell you it was a PITA!!! You have to have a lot of patience. That ribbon cable is not easy to work with. I must have gone from my Jeep to my work area 20 times - trying the console to see if the lights work before I reassembled it. At one point I had both map lights working so I reassembled the console and installed it. I closed the door and all the lights went out except for one map light. I said WTF. Then I remembered, hey there's a switch to turn those off. Works perfectly now.

 

Hey guys I decided to replace the map lights today and after hooking everything up, the new LEDS come on but will not go off at all. I waited and waited and nothing, I even turned the car on went through all the light setting with the dial and even after turning the engine off the new LEDs will not go out. I even after hours of trying connected the ribbon cables back to the factory LEDs and now same thing with them, they come on and will not go off with the other interior lights. I even tried switching the connections and when I did that the new LEDs don't even come on so i know the polarity is correct. Any ideas on what I did wrong here or how to correct it? thank you in advance.

 

I'm trying to think of what the heck could cause that. The only thing I can think of is you messed up the connections somehow. Are you 100% confident in your solder job? Are the leads by any chance touching each other? As you know the connections are going to be extremely close together and you have to make sure they aren't touching whatsoever. After I made my connections I basically covered them in hot glue gun. This basically made it so that there will be no movement at all and kind of seals it up.
What LED are you using?

 

Just to cover all the obvious:

- dimmer dial is NOT turned to full on
- can dimmer dial turn them off ?
- map lights have separate on button in the overhead console. Are these off ?

Next step may be to check that the soldering has not gone across multiple tracks unnecessarily

 

found my issue, ribbon cable connection was not soldered correctly. I cut them all off and re soldered all 4 connections, all fixed and all working correctly now.

 

thank you guys! I couldn't let this go through the night! LOL now I can sleep tonight.

 

:arms::arms::arms:

 

JT I need your home address so I can send you my housing for replacement.

 

nice! why didn't i think of this

 

It looks like if I am a total noob to soldering that I shouldn't make this my first project.

 

Yeah even though it can be done, these are VERY small connections and you are also dealing with a very thin and fragile ribbon cable.
Id you are a NOOB, what I would recommend doing is maybe buying a second overhead console. They seem to be readily available used on ebay for pretty cheap in new condition. That way if one gets messed up you have the original to go back to. Just a thought if you think you wanna give it a shot.

 

Ok so with the help of a friend who works at a business who does soldering I completed the LED swap. The difference in person is nothing short of amazing:
Before:

After:

 

^^^VERY nice!! Looks awesome.

 

Thank you. I also did the vanitys and lift gate while I was at it. When you see the leds right next to the sock lights you can really appreciate the difference:

 

Ok the bulbs OEM are TS-14v1CP34 and their SBled replacement is mocdel F30 part number 847781011623

 

I did this project successfully today, below are a few of my takeaways.

I used these in "cool 6000k" and they matched my Philips T10/194 bulbs very well.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-wired-bolts/little-dot-smd-led-accent-light/639/

1) Although the disassembly is relatively straight forward (only 4 parts) take pictures as you go along - it will make reassembly easier.

2) If you don't have a high quality, high temp soldering iron, get one. It is important to have high enough heat (but not too much) in order to desolder (and not break) the two tiny wires. I used this since it is a 3 in 1 tool and it is cordless.

Bernzomatic ST500T Auto Ignite Butane Torch-335258 - The Home Depot

3) If/when you break one of the wires, it is relatively easy to strip back the fragile ribbon. First, use a new, sharp razor blade and split the wire in two in order to separate the two leads. Then, "fillet" or skin the white coating off of the wire. The wire is relatively strong, if you don't get all of the white plastic removed, you can use the tip of the soldering iron to burn the plastic coating off, leaving the wire behind.

4) Before soldering the connection, put a little solder on the led wire and soldering iron tip first. This will eliminate the need for a third hand and you can touch the two wires together, bring them into the flame and still have a strong joint. ***minimize the amount of time on the iron or you will melt the ribbon wire*** thus why a hot iron is important...

5) Instead of using hot glue to cover the connections, I used heat shrink tubing to cover the connection. Be sure to place the tube on BEFORE you solder the connection and be VERY gentle with the heat as you could melt the ribbon cable. While hot glue will hold the connection together, I was concerned on how I would remove the glue if the connection came apart...

Notes:

TEST the soldering connection BEFORE you put completely reassemble the console.

Polarity DOES MATTER the negative on the ribbon cable is the side with the blue (or black) writing on it. Connect the black (negative) color to the ribbon with the writing on it.

I used the double sided tape on the LED to attach to the board, it is surprisingly strong and the LED shouldn't fall off over time.

 

One thing to make a note of. The guy that did my job had such a problem soldering to the ribbon cable (one led would flicker) he instead soldered the new leds right to a solder joint on the actual board. The connect is much more stable like this. With the RVT sealant over the connection those wires aren't going anywhere.

 

Thank you for the write up, I followed it almost to the T but used DoubleJSTL polarity configuration and it works perfect. Only took 30-45 min once new LEDs arrived. The only thing i did different was pull the original LEDS off with needle nose so i could mount the new ones directly over where they should be then i just soldered the connections directly to the board without removing the ribbon cable using the polarity configuration DoubleJSTL used. Thanks JTS97Z28, DoubleJSTL and to all others who contributed to this awesome mod.

 

The pics now just show an X. I am REALLY wanting to do this, any chance you could repost the pictures or e-mail them to me? Thanks

 

I found out the hard way that this is not a good project to teach yourself to solder... But I got it done, and replaced both of the map lights as well as the center light that aims down. The center light doesn't receive enough power to really tell a difference(see pic). Finding a place for the wires was the most difficult part, I ended up having to use my dremel to cut a spot for them. Thanks for the instructions!

 

To anyone that wants to do this, its not as hard as it seems. What I did, instead of soldering the wire of the new LED to the existing factory ribbon wire, was pull the LED off and use the two leads that go into the board, right where the ribbon wire connects to the board. wipe the surface clean, twist your wire slightly, get some solder onto the wire, lay it over the correct lead, and heat it up until the solder melts. I put hot glue over the wires and connections after I was done and tucked the wires away nicely. It looks so much better than the ugly yellow.

 

Has anyone tackled the small circular (1" diameter) rear map lights in the 2017s? They look like the front map lights discussed in this thread but you push the circle to turn them on. Just to be clear, the 2017s have gone away from the lights in the handles on the roof liner. The handles have been relocated to the B pillar. You can sort of see them here. I've been able to replace all the interior bulbs with LEDs except these.

Found a better picture.

 

Has anyone tackled the small circular (1" diameter) rear map lights in the 2017s? They look like the front map lights discussed in this thread but you push the circle to turn them on. Just to be clear, the 2017s have gone away from the lights in the handles on the roof liner. The handles have been relocated to the B pillar. You can sort of see them here. I've been able to replace all the interior bulbs with LEDs except these.

Found a better picture.

Did anyone ever figure out how to upgrade these to cool white LEDs?