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Ambient Overhead Lighting

DIY:
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18K views 29 replies 20 participants last post by  NoSloppy  
#1 · (Edited)
WARNING: The procedure I used to do this will work on non sunroof cars ONLY. Until I find a way to do it with the sun roof, your SOL. Sorry guys. Also this is on an 03 model. I know the 07 - 08 have different overhead units so it may not work you as well.

This is a DIY for giving the ambient color look that VW's and Audi's have. It looks OEM and on a scale of 1 - 10 of hardness for this DIY, I'd give it about a 4.
Examples:
Image

Image

Image


This will look A LOT better in person.

Tools:
Philips screwdriver
1/4" and 3/8" drill bit
Zip ties
Something flat to pry off the verhead light unit
Quick connects or electrical tape however you wanna splice it together
Wire strippers or splice connects
10mm pre wired diffused led - Need two but good to have extras for since they can be fragile
Red:
http://cgi.ebay.com/20-X-10MM-Red-D..._W0QQitemZ350265355123QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518d712b73
Blue:
http://cgi.ebay.com/20PCS-10MM-BLUE...26389577QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2c50563b49#ht_1245wt_941
White:
http://cgi.ebay.com/10PCS-10MM-WHIT...79171075QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2c537b9d03#ht_1288wt_941
Green:
http://cgi.ebay.com/20PCS-10MM-GREE...28452138QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2c5075b42a#ht_1029wt_941
Orange:
http://cgi.ebay.com/20-X-10MM-Orang...27054744QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item51911ea198#ht_1197wt_941
and Yellow:
http://cgi.ebay.com/20-X-10MM-YELLO...17861315QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item51909259c3#ht_1288wt_941

Procedure: ( I bought another overhead light unit to make a DIY with, but it was for a sunroof tib, I can't show exactly how to do it, but ill try my best to improvise.)

1.) Take the plat tool and gently pry off the over headlight unit. Once done, unplug it the wires to it.
2.) Next you'll want to remove every screw on there except the screws connected to the silver reflectors. There are 9 of them. One is kinda hidden.
Image

3.) This should pop right out:
Image

If you look at the unit, you'll notice, at least for us non sunroof guys, the two dummy switch spots. For sunroof guys, it sadly comes out since it's actual buttons for the sunroof. Here it is on a sunroof one w/o dummy switches:
Image

4.) This next part, I'm gonna have to just run you through with as much detail as i can. What you want to do next, is drill with the 3/8" some room for the led. When you look down the dummy switch, you'll notice it is a skinny slit that leads to the curve of the dummy switch. You're going to widen that slit to fit the led in. It will act as the led holder. Make sure not to drill to far tho cuz you want the led to fit snug and you dont want to drill through the curve
5.) Drill a 1/4" hole in the curve. This is where the light will come through to sine in your cabin. and since the led will sit above the hole, it will hide the led from sight to give it an OEM feel like how VW and Audi's have. You can drill anywhere on the curve. I did mine straight down but you can have point towards you or the dash instead if you want. It will look like this: ( I have a border around mine that i made. Completely un-needed, just looks clean)
Image

6.) Test the led for snugness and then test the led with 9 volt battery (works best and easiest) so see how it looks
7.) screw this back in place so it looks like:
Image

8.) Next you'll want to connect some extra wire to the posi and neg led wires. You're going to be running these down to your cigarette lighter wires.
9.) Run the wires over the headliner to the pillar where you would mount mutli gauges. You'll have to pry the pillar plastic off. grab the wires and run down under your dash.
10.) Put the pillar plastic back on and run the wire under the footwell area. Use zip ties to make sure the wire doesnt hang down by your feet. Remove the center fascia and pull the wire through. Notice the cigarette lighter wires. You'll want to splice the wires into those wires for power.
11.) put the overhead unit back in place and enjoy how it looks. :3_winkthu

Here is what mine looks like:
Off
Image

Image

On
Image

Image

This is kinda what your cabin will look like at night
Image


Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try my best to help. Sorry this isn't the best DIY but I know you guys can figure it out.
Feel free to give rep too :)
 
#5 ·
Re: DIY: Ambient Overhead Lighting

Arixsin said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is power going to the map lights, correct? Why not use that instead?
Click to expand...
When we did this DIY, if I remember correctly (we did this months ago), the map lights aren't constant. Meaning in order to get the lights to stay on, the map lights would have had to been on too.
 
#19 ·
Re: DIY: Ambient Overhead Lighting

Arixsin said:
The map lights can be turned on and off by pressing them, right? That means they act as a switch. There has to be constant power there somewhere.
Click to expand...
This. Then again you would also have to solder to the metal maze running to the map lights. If you have a sunroof, take an electric tester, find out which ones have the power, either do a diy on it or just let us know and be sure to link it in this thread
 
#7 · (Edited by Moderator)
DIY: Interior LED "mood" lighting

This was done on an 08 Tib with a sunroof.

Sorry, it's a bit sparse on pictures, I wasn't planning on making a DIY, but I figured people may want to see how I wired this and where I located them!

Stuff you'll need:
A sunglasses holder (!)
A switch
Some electrical wire
Soldering iron and solder
Electrical tape
Dremmel and bits
Screwdrivers (phillips and flathead)
A very small flathead screwdriver, or knife
LEDs (I used an "interior accent" premade thing from walmart, pictured below)
A drill and drill bit

Image


This method works fantastic and looks OEM. I'm very pleased with the results and think you will be too!

To start, we are going to prepare our switch. Pull one of the "dummy" switches out of the space to the left of the steering wheel (you can pop off the fuse box cover, then pop out the side cover, and get a finger in behind it to push it out).

Hollow out the plastic behind it, and drill a hole through the dummy for your switch to go in. I did all of this with a dremmel. Be sure to wear your safety glasses!!!
Image

Image

Image


After you have that installed, we're going to pull out the sunglasses holder. First you remove the 2 screws inside the actual sunglasses holder compartment. Next get a small flathead screwdriver in the little space in the lens cover over the dome lights (on the side closest to the windshield). After you pop out the dome light lenses, you'll see one more screw in next to each bulb. Remove those, and the sunglasses holder will come out (held in by two tabs on the windshield side). Now take that whole assembly inside!

Remove the bulbs by twisting and pulling them out, and set them aside. Next remove the black plastic with all the circuitry in it and set that aside as well. It's just held in by two little gray tabs.

After that, we'll drill the holes for the lights to go through. I drilled them next to the buttons on the inside, under where the black plastic was before.

Image


This leaves a nice wall there to mount the lights on! Replace the black plastic.

Next, I cut the wires and stripped them so that I could tie the two pos and the two negs together. If you look at the circuitry of the black plastic thing while it's installed in your car with the wiring harnesses plugged in, you'll see that the big long strip of metal circuit that's closest to the actual sunglasses holder is the ground--it goes to the two black wires on the two wiring harnesses.

Take a spot of solder, and solder the tied-together negatives to this ground. I then attached a terminal end to the positives, so that I could remove and re-install the sunglasses holder without having to cut wires.

Image


After that, we're going to run a wire from the back of our switch in to the fuse box. I chose to tie in to one of the tail-light fuses, that way the lights come on with my headlights (although I can also have them permanently off using the switch I installed if I so choose). You can just pull the fuse out, stick the wire down in the hole, and stick the fuse back in. it'll hold it in place.

Image


Finally, we need to run a wire from the other post on the switch up to the lights. You can remove the driver's side A-Pillar by sticking a screwdriver between it and the headliner and carefully prying. It's held together in by like 4 tabs. The driver's side visor needs to be removed as well, and then you can pull the headliner down enough to run the wire over it. Refer to the suede headliner DIY for more detailed instructions on this. :)

After that, just finish connecting your wires, make sure everything is covered in electrical tape so you don't start anything on fire, and test it out!

Here's my installed pics:

Image

Image

Image


Night-time pics coming soon. :)
 
#10 ·
Re: DIY: Interior LED "mood" lighting

bloodycliff said:
i want to see a picture of how the light affects your car at night
Click to expand...
Yep! I'll take some tonight. It gives a very nice, unobtrusive blue glow--it looks JUST like the red glow did in my GTI.. except.. you know.. blue.

I'll take some shots tonight with my DSLR. I took a few with my cell phone and they just looked black.
 
#13 ·
Re: DIY: Interior LED "mood" lighting

Good idea!

I will not do this to my car, but this job has been done pretty well!

Good job!
 
#14 ·
#15 ·
Re: DIY: Interior LED "mood" lighting

caconman424 said:
Reminds me of a similar DIY I did awhile back.
http://www.newtiburon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180553&highlight=

Yours looks a lot better and is sunroof compatible :D
Click to expand...
Yep!! Yours gave me the idea. If you read mine it mentions that I know there's already a diy but that its for a different dome/sunglasses holder. My diy is mostly just to show where the lights can be positioned/wired in a sunroof newer tib.

The blue puts me in a sexy time mood. Too bad it doesn't work on my girlfriend.
 
#22 ·
Re: DIY: Interior LED "mood" lighting

Razz said:
very clean work, good job

EDIT: Damn i cant give you rep. Some one posi rep this guy!
Click to expand...
Done!!
 
#30 ·
Ok that's called raising a thread from the dead, something we don't do.
Start a new thread next time or PM someone.
For an answer, I offer this:
Do what I did and put pieces of LED strip inside the map light, above the actual map light bulb, and just run the wires around and down to inside your dash. Wire them to your lighter's light wiring. Done.
http://www.newtiburon.com/forums/4820642-post2.html
 
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