Foot-well LEDs, where to plug / wiring diagram ?

[NomisQc]

Hi !

I want to add white LED strips to the foot-wells of my 2nd Gen 6.
Ideally I would plug into the courtesy light wiring so the lights are only on when entering, exiting the car...

Anyone has a wiring diagram or know which wire I need to plug into ?

All I could find are wiring diagrams for the sound system...

Thanks !

[Mr.Smoke]

If you just want them on with the courtesy lights just open up one of the door panels and splice into the wires running to the light on the door.


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[NomisQc]

Yeah I thought about it but I wondered if anyone knew where that cable ended in the fuse box to avoid having to remove the panel...

Is it complicated ? On my old car it was a pain in the ass and I ended up with a couple of broken pins...

[Mr.Smoke]

Ive never touched a 2nd gen so i cant tell you how to remove it. Its pretty easy on the 1st gens though.


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[Byakuya]

Have you checked the kick panel by your pedals? I thought the 1st and 2nd gens had a plastic removable kick panel that had (most of) the interior fuses and relays drawn out for you with a diagram.

I could be wrong though but I know all the 1st gens have that panel.

[tommyz23]

I don't think you can tap into the fuse. It supplies constant 12 volts to the lights and the ground is connected to the bulbs via the BCM (Body Control Module).

I too would like to know where a good wire to tap would be. I would rather not have to one pull off the door panel and two have to run wires from the door back into the car.

Thanks,

[sonicblue6]

I did the led footwell to my courtesy light last week, I popped open the passenger side door panel from the bottom right corner (right by the door light) popped out the light socket ,looked at the wires (took a picture) put back the door panel. then removed the glove box, spotted the same wires coming out of the door and tapped it into that, just use a tester to see which of the two wires are + & -, I used the passenger side because there Aren't as much wires coming out compared the the driver side, hope that helped


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[NomisQc]

Thanks...that's a clever idea !
Did you connect the led strips in parallel ?
Do i need to add some kind of resistance to regulate the current ?

[Growe58]

Originally Posted by NomisQc

Thanks...that's a clever idea !
Did you connect the led strips in parallel ?
Do i need to add some kind of resistance to regulate the current ?

I tried to do the same thing as sonicblue6 and couldn't make it work...it SHOULD work, maybe I just had the wrong wires or bad connections or something. I ended up putting in some LEDs to use as dim footwell lighting when the headlights are on so I could just wire to the glovebox light. I convinced myself that I like that better than coming on with the courtesy lights although no reason I couldn't do both.

As far was whether to use a resistor and series versus parallel, it depends on what LEDs you are using. If they are strips designed for the car, likely they are already rated at 12 volts and you won't need a resistor - the packaging should tell you. I would wire in parallel just in case one goes out, the other will still work. Depending on how they're designed, there may be too much a voltage drop in series although that is easy enough to test before putting in the car.

If you're building your own LED array, then you will need resistors. Hopefully you know the specs of your LEDs and you can find what resistor to use - google online resistor caclulator. Resistors are cheap at radio shack, better to have one per LED although you can put up to three LED's per resistor if necessary.

[mmceorange]

If you tie into the courtesy lights, and also replace the courtesy light bulbs with 194 LED, and use LED lights for the footwell lighting, you should have zero problems with current draw. You probably wouldn't have a problem even if you left the incandescents in the courtesy light spot, since LEDs draw so little power.

If using all LEDs, and you experience some weird electrical things (like part of the dash lighting up when the door is opened) you may need to wire a small load resistor in parallel into the circuit. I think the circuit is pretty well contained, but just throwing that out there (had a similar issue when I changed all my brake lights to LED.. radio lit up when I stepped on the brake. Load resistor fixed issue)