The interior trunk light uses a really small instrument panel light bulb and is really dim. I bought a couple of the brightest T5 (74) LED replacements I could find on eBay, and they do not fit in the socket. The socket for the glass bulb is way too wide for the LED circuit board to make contact.
Thanks, adding an LED strip is a little involved. I was looking for a particular LED bulb that is a known fit. I will study the mods more carefully before deciding whether to proceed on this leased car.
Be EXTREMELY careful with this; if you decide to do it then give careful consideration to pulling the deck in the passenger compartment so you can get to the wiring and installing a small-value inline fuse in the positive side of the feedwire.
Several people have reporting damaging the rear BCM via a momentary short on this circuit; it apparently is insufficiently protected against this risk internally and the fuse for the BCM will not blow first. I have a pair of LED strip-lights mounted up high and forward in the trunk (invisible from the outside but they illuminate the entire trunk when on) and I took great care to wire loom everything AND install secondary fuse protection in the feed for exactly this reason.
Thanks for the warning. I have already blown the 15A "Room" fuse changing out dome lights and the car would not start, unlock or anything.
I am very inexperienced with any wiring changes, plus I want to be able to get the car back to stock before the lease is up. A single LED change would be ideal, but obviously my 3 LED T-5 (74) bulb does not fit the current socket, just too narrow.
I just use a bright LED that I had bought a while ago. It's not bright bright as you might want it to be, but it was way better than stock and looks nice too.
I used a LED white strip, got at Pepboys Alpena Diamondlite.... not the Pilot. put the 2 leads on the trunk bulb and plugged it back in . looks great lights up and ez to do. Ill get some pics up.
Could someone elaborate why I can't just do an LED swap with a compatible bulb? I don't know anything about fuses or wiring, I figured I could just pop one in the trunk and be okay.
Bit of a thread update here. The trunk light in these cars is abysmal. Clearly something had to be cut from the design budget and trunk lighting was it, haha.
To improve it I started by replacing the 74 bulb with a high output LED 74 bulb from Superbrightleds. The light was certainly bright, but it just didn't put out enough and still had a severe lack of coverage. Next step was to source a trunk light kit from Diode Dynamics with a 20" LED light strip: https://www.diodedynamics.com/store...an-trunk-light-led/category/568/#!prettyPhoto
Installation was super easy, just plug in the 74 adapter and attach to the LED light strip. The strip has has 30 SMDs, a weatherproof seal and is self-adhesive. Let's just say this is the kind of lighting every trunk needs. I don't have a pic yet, but it is literally night and day difference. It is expensive at $22 shipped, but the light output and coverage make it worth it imo.