Last year, I took a trip on the new Virgin America airlines. The very first thing that struck me when I entered the plane was the soothing music being played, and the "mood lighting". Everything was bathed in a soft, bluish-purple glow. Between that and the music, it was like taking a Xanax. A brilliant idea, especially for nervous and harried travelers.

So I thought, why not make give my car interior some mood lighting as well? I spend two hours a day commuting, and one hour of that is in the dark (for most of the year). I thought it would be fun to have it controlled by a switch, that way, I could turn it off an on at will.

I happen to really like the orange/amber glow of the dashboard in the BMW/Mini interior, and wanted to expand on that a bit. But, I also wanted it to be tasteful, and not look like Elvis owned it - I'm too old for strobe/flashing lights in my car!

Once again, Oznium.com was a terrific source. I had heard about them for other posts, and really liked the various types of LED lighting they offered - it clearly gave a lot of flexibility in what one could do.

I settled on the 9.5 inch flexible amber/orange LED lights shown here:

http://www.oznium.com/led-flex-strips

I ordered two, one for each footwell ($11.49 each).

In addition, I ordered a few of the orange LED pre-wired surface mount LED lights ($3.49 apiece):

http://www.oznium.com/prewired-surface-mount-led

I had some ideas about where I wanted to put the lights, but wasn't sure how many I'd need - so I got a couple extra just in case.

One thing that I really liked about these lights is that they are waterproof, and (in the case of the small LED surface mounts) they come with the resistor already attached, as well as 2 feet of wire! No soldering, no mess, no fuss!

The beauty of this is that you can choose whatever color/colors you would like, and there are many, many options as far as how many lights, where to put them, etc. Once you learn how to install them, then you know all you need to know, and can add them at will!

Keep in mind that LED lights use very little power - as such, for the smaller lights, there must be a resistor somewhere in the circuit, or the 12 volts from your car battery will fry the light!


THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

1. The LED lights of your choosing. It is much easier to purchase them
with any resistor, etc. already attached. They may cost a few pennies
more, but it is SO much easier than having to solder them on yourself!

2. A few feet of 18 gauge hookup wire - you can use black for the ground
wire, and either red or another color (Oznium sells many colors of
wire) for the "hot" wire - all at $0.32 a foot.

3. A wire stripper.

4. Twist-on connectors, or butt-type connectors. I use the twist-on, and
this project required one blue connector and two orange ones.

5. Electrician's tape, and perhaps some cable ties.

6. One "Add-a-fuse", or similar product. Also called "add-a line", "tap-a-
fuse", etc. I LOVE these gizmos!!! i already have two in my fusebox,
one for an accessory 12-volt lighter, and one for the illuminated door
sills (see my other thread - "(Poor) Girl's Guide to Illuminated Door
Sills"). They can be purchased at an auto parts store for $ 3 - 4
dollars.

7. One 2 amp fuse (see my later post in this this thread as to which fuse size to choose).

8. If you want to have the ability to turn on/turn off the mood lighting,
then you will need a switch. I got a round rocker switch (with amber
light) from Oznium for only $3.49. It is made really well, and was just
perfect for my installation.

http://www.oznium.com/rocker-switch

9. Depending on the location where you will be installing the lights,
you may need a screwdriver with Phillips head, as well as some
Torx bits of common sizes (i.w. #20).

10. If installing a switch: a power drill, a center punch tool, and drill bits
in varying sizes, from 1/16 up through 1/4 and larger. For the round
rocker switch, I used a 1/2 inch bit with a hole guide (brad-point will
do nicely) so that the bit would not skip around and ruin the knee
bolster. You will also need a round file, to smooth out/enlarge the
drilled hole to accomodate the switch.

11. Your favorite after-the-job-is-done vice; mine is usually a Heineken
Light, but today it was a Foster's.




STEP ONE:

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE - DISCONNECT THE NEGATIVE BATTERY TERMINAL!

Now, locate where you would like to install your mood lights. I chose to keep mine pretty understated, and opted for just some footwell lights, and two additional dashboard-area lights. I used the flexible 9.5 inch LED strip from Oznium for each footwell.

This part is really easy, since the light strip comes with double-sided tape.
All you need to do is figure out where you want to stick the lights.




You will need to remove the knee bolster, which is the plastic piece under the steering wheel mount. There are no screws in it - you just grab it just under the steering wheel mount, and give it a good downward yank! BE CAREFUL - if you have driver's lamps or other accessories installed (I also have a 12-volt accessory lighter mounted here) - you don't want to yank out the wires to these!

For the driver's side, I picked here:



You just remove the backing to the double-sided tape (provided with the light) and stick it on the light strip, and then expose the other side, and stick it into place:





There is a slight downward deflection in the plastic if you choose this spot - this is not anything that will matter, however, in the end.


For the passenger side footwell, I chose this spot just under the glovebox:




Here is the strip installed - another downward dip in the lightstrip, but nothing that will show in any way...




You will want to run the wire from the strip towards the driver's side, and do so as inconspicuously as possible. But, I also did not want to have to disassemble my entire center console area to do this - so i located a spot
where the wires can be run. They will come out in the footwell are of the driver's side, and can then be tucked behind the trim, where no one will see them.












STEP TWO:

Next, I installed the pre-wired surface-mounted LED lights. I initially chose a spot under the center of the speedo-tach stack. But, after seeing it lit up, I realized that the upward glow and shine against the chrome would be too distracting. So, i moved it to the TOP of the stack instead, facing upwards.






STEP THREE:

The next surface-mounted LED location was in the center console area. I was not interested in taking apart the console any more than I absolutely needed to - but also wanted the wires as ''invisible" as possible.


This is the spot I used:




In order to run the wires towards the driver's side, I needed to get access to behind this panel; the panel simply hinges downwards, but to be able to open it, you will first need to remove one #20 sized Torx screw:







This is the route that the wire will go, towards the driver's side and back up behind the knee bolster area (this is the same path that the wire coming from the passenger side footwell LED lightstrip takes):





STEP FOUR:

If you are interested in being able to turn on/turn off the mood lighting, you will need to install a switch.

I chose to install the switch on the right-hand side of the knee bolster, below where the ignition is. To be able to drill a hole in the bolster, I needed to first remove the wires going to the switches that were already in place - namely the driving lamps switch and the accessory 12 V lighter I had installed a couple of years ago.


Here is the wire-free bolster:




Here is the round rocker switch I used, showing the diameter - I wanted to drill only a 1/2 inch-sized hole and then file the rest, so that i could ensure a tight fit.




First, make a mark in the bolster with the counterpunch tool:



Then, using successively larger bits, drill through the bolster. It is hollow in the middle and easy to drill through. This kind of 1/2 inch bit is very helpful:



Then, file the rest of the hole with a round file. Work slowly and carefully so you don't make the hole too big. You want to have to push hard to get the switch through the plastic, for a tight fit.

The finished product:




View of the bolster now from the front:



And from the back:





STEP FIVE:


Now, you will want to wire everything up. This is REALLY not as daunting as it sounds! I don't have any electrician-type background, and I got everything up and working perfectly on the first try (well, actually the second...) While the surface-mount LEDs have the red and black wires, the LED lightstrips have silver and copper wires. I initially made the assumption that the copper wire was the equivalent of the ''red" wire and the silver wire was the "black" wire. After I connected everything, and everything but the lightstrips lit up - I re-did the connections, making the copper wire the black one, and the silver one the red one, and everything worked great!

Basically, you do this:

1) Group all of the black (ground) wires coming from the LED lights together (remember, the copper wire of the lightstrips is the ground wire), and join
them to the black wire coming off of the switch - twist the ends together. Then, take a separate piece of black 18 gauge running wire and connect
one end to these wires by using an ORANGE twist-on connector.

2) Group all of the red wires coming from the LED lights together (the silver wire of the lightstrip), and join them directly to the red wire coming from
the outer pole (the accessory lead) of the switch by an ORANGE twist-on connector. If the ends of the wires are too far from the switch, use a
separate piece of red 18 gauge wire and connect one end to the LED wires, and the other end to the accessory pole of the switch.

3) Connect the red "power" wire of the switch to a separate piece of red 18 gauge red wire using a BLUE twist-on connector.

4) Connect the free end of the black 18 gauge wire from 1) to the ground screw.

5) Connect the free end of the red 18 gauge wire from 3) to the red wire coming from the "Add-A-Fuse"



I took a diagram from the Oznium.com page and photoshopped it to show exactly how I wired these lights. I used two LED lightstrips (diagram of one is shown), and two LED surface-mounted lights (represented by the gray polygonal shape):


Here are some photos of how the wiring looked:



this is how the wires look with the knee bolster returned to its position, just before the final two connections:



the ground screw connection (the other wires are from two previous installations - the sill lights and the accessory lighter):






THE END RESULT


A photo of the newly-installed orange-glow rocker switch on the bolster:






All of the following photos were taken with the white dome light off - so what you see is the actual lighting in the dark of the cabin - in actuality, the lights look a bit brighter than the photos are able to convey:



The speedo-tach stack (shot from above), lit with one orange surface-mounted LED:







another view of the same, taken from a different angle:





The driver's side footwell (lit by one orange 9.5 inch flexible LED lightstrip) and the center console (lit by one orange
surface-mounted LED:






The center console:





The center console and the passenger side footwell (latter lit by one orange 9.5 inch LED lightstrip):






And finally, the entire cabin area:





Hope that was helpful - I enjoyed the project - next step are lights installed in the engine bay!

 

Great DIY writeup!!

Results look pretty cool to.

 

thanks!!

 

Wow!! Great write up!!

 

I'd like to correct something in the tutorial above. I changed the fuse size used in my installation from a 5 amp size to a 2 amp size.
A helpful poster on the Oznium.com forum site showed my this information, which is an excellent guide to determining which fuse size to use:

http://www.oznium.com/forum/topic15761

Anyone doing a lumination installation should refer to these charts to determine what fuse size to use!


Melanie

 

Great write up. I wired mine into my footwells so they turn on when the car unlocks etc. But i haven't seen a writeup for one controlled by a switch. Nice job.

 

A couple of small nits.....

If you buy one of these to make the holes you don't have t file, just be careful you don't go too far.....



Second, where you have your ground wires looped under the screw, why not crimp on a ring end so they'll look right and fit correctly, plus make good contact?

 

Very thorough write-up. Love all the detailed pictures. Thanks for doing that for our benefit.

 

Which fuse did you put the add a fuse into? What all do you do concerning the add a fuse?

 

Add-a-circuit is easy, Cigarette lighter is a common fuse to put it in. Since MINI Cigarette lighters are only receiving power with the ignition/accessory on. If you don't want to install a switch, dome light is another good one to tap into, especially if you have replaced your lighting with LEDs. That way there is no risk over stressing your wiring.

All you have to install an Add-a-circuit is unplug the fuse you wish to tap into, Plug that fuse into the "old circuit" slot on the Add-a-circuit. Then put a fuse the correct size for your usage into the "new circuit" slot, and begin wiring.

 

Are the lights in the footwells visible in the day time or did you find a way to conceal them?

 

They are controlled by a switch. That way, I can put them on whenever I want to. I used the fuse position for the dome light, and installed the "Add-A-Fuse" there. As said above, you take out the original fuse from the fuse box, and insert it into the part of the "Add-A-Fuse" that is NOT inline with the red power wire - then insert the 2 amp (or whatever) fuse into the second spot (the part that is directly in line with the red power wire). Then plug the "Add-A-Fuse" into the original slot on the fuse box. If things don't work, try turning the "Add-A-Fuse" 180 degrees and re-install it. It seems in most instances that the "Add-A-Fuse" needs to be positioned so that the red wire is running away from the fuse box for things to work, like the pic below (photo is taken from this other DIY thread I posted)
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...t-lighter.html




Melanie

 

That's pretty cool.

 

If you mean are the wires, etc. visible during the daytime, the answer is no - they are tucked up underneath the footwell bolsters, and the light in the center console is not visible unless you put your head waaay down to look for it...

 

so they give a glow rather than direct light...

 

Does anyone know how I could wire this up so that they only come on with my headlights turned on?

Thanks!

 

Looks awesome! I have done my door pockets with some LED's that match our amber perfectly. They only come on with the dome light tho, and they fade on and off too.

Another great place to add a soft glow is in the door handle, the cup thingy under the chrome. I have been wanting to do it for ages but im lazy i guess...

 

Mallor, any pics?

 

Looks a lot better in person tho..
3 LED's. 1 at each end of the silver tubes, wired up to the footwell light, while i was in there i also did puddle lights using red festoon type LED bulbs. At the time i didnt know they came as on option on some models so i purchased the trunk light fitting and used that.

 

Looks awesome! I am wanting to do mine in blue

 

WOW... awesome job

 

jeez gerldoc! you should wear a cape around town w/all these DIY you got because your my hero!

 

I will be doing this to my mini cooper next day off I get. Thanks for the great tutorial. I will post pictures when it's all done

 

This is great!! I found a roll of water proof LED strips online along with a remote IR controller. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate a sound controller so that the LED's change to music when i want by having a separate switch for the "sound" controller. I'm still working out the details. as soon as I have it figured out I'll post some pix and maybe a detailed guide for you guys too

 

just bought about the same setup but im putting one single under each front seat so it shines on rear ppls feet. installing tom will throw up some finishing pics.