I found some red/orange bulbs in clearance at walmart...last pair...for my footwells. I was wondering if anyone has their footwells on all the time and if it is dangerous and can melt the encasing on the outside or anything. If you do have them on all the time, what do you have them wired to and is there anything I should be careful not to do? Thanks!

 

I hope this is figured out by someone as well. My wife loves the footwell lights in our VW Touareg.

Anyone?

Paul

 

Footwells on all the time should be okay. The footwell light is not in a closed space and the bulb is only 5 watts and not close to the plastic over it. If you are paranoid about heat or want a brighter light than stock, the flank LED 194 bulbs work very well in the footwells, available in amber, white, red, and other colors.

If you want power that is always on with the ignition, you can splice to the blue/violet wire in the harness at the back of the radio. However, if the footwell light is only connected to that, it will turn on with the ignition but not when you open the door. With a couple of diodes you can make them go on when the door is open OR the ignition is on. However I suggest you simply use an LED strip for a separate always-on footwell light. There is a lot of information about using LED strips in this thread.