[How To] LED Footwell Accent Lighting - Genesis Forum: GenCoupe Hyundai Genesis Forums

Aerankas · 09-30-2010, 11:16 AM

So, there are a few threads on here about this, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a few pictures to go along with the explanations. This probably could have been easier than I made it, but I'm anal about not damaging the car and having stuff well hidden.

I started with really simple 6" LED strips from WalMart: Flex LED

The first thing I did was choose placement for the strips. On the driver's side, there is a little strip of metal that's close enough to center and fit the strip nicely:

On the passenger side, I actually ended up putting it right on the bottom of the glove box. It means it moves ever so slightly when you open it, but it's really not noticable and anywhere else it was either to deep and didn't glow out towards the seat enough, or the strip was actually visible if you bent down a little:

Next, I figured I would test my wiring plan first before I stuck anything anywhere and boy am I glad I did. For some reason, I wasn't thinking and was planning to run these things in series. I was going to run positive to the fuse box on the driver's side, then the negative from there to the positive from the passenger side (meeting in the console somewhere) and then to ground on the passenger side. Made sense to me at the time but I guess the voltage drop over the strip isn't enough to turn them on that way. Sooooo I wasted my time doing that only to find out that they wouldn't turn on. New plan, run them in parallel, using the cigarette lighter for ground, a fuse for power, and tying both power wires together (hoping they would reach each other somewhere in the console).

Next question was when do I want them to turn on? Couple options:

Tied to Dome Lights: Come on when you unlock or open the door, off when driving. Boo.

Tied to console: Come on when the key is in, stay on when driving. Con: on during the day, when they are kinda useless.

Tied to headlight: Come on with the headlights. Since I have auto headlights, I thought this was the best choice. I can always turn the lights on manually and have them come on. One problem, if I wanted to turn them off for some reason, I would have to turn the headlights off (Could add a switch for this if I want). ALSO... it seems the headlight fuses are under the hood, but tailight works just as well since it turns on and off at the same time. I went for this, you could also go:

Tied to fog lights: basically just a switch, if you drive with fogs on most of the time this might be for you. For me, until I get some whiter fogs, they stay off so as not to detract from the whiteness of the HIDs.

So here we go; remove the tailight fuse. I used the bottom one cuz for some reason it's 10A and the other is 7.5A... odd.

I just wrapped the wire over one side of the fuse and stuffed it back in. In the pic, the wire is running out the side, so I just stuffed the whole thing through and pulled it out in the footwell. [Edit: As suggested by Nemesis, and probably lots of other people, you should probably use a fuse tap for this, but I didn't have one...]

Then you get to pull your console apart. Refer to this DIY for instructions. It's really really easy and I'm paranoid about breaking things. The only thing I couldn't do was get the airbag plug off, so I just let it hang.

Remove Center Console

Now, have fun routing your wires however you like. I ran em deep in there, and it was not easy. Lots of time upside down. At one point I was using the cables from my multimeter to fish things through since the solid piece at the end made it easy to drop through, or push around stuff, for example:

I ended up having to extend the positive lead on the passenger side strip to reach the positive on the driver's side. (Don't mind the grounds tied together I just really didn't want them to fall back out and have to route them again lol)

Then I just cut the lead from the fuse to the driver's side LED strip and spliced in the passenger side lead: [Edit: Again, you could use a wire coupler to be cleaner but I didn't have any on hand]

Then I actually peeled the backing off the strips and secured them where I wanted:

Aaaand threw a little black tape on there to keep em in place. The rest of the length was pulled into the center console.

Now all that was left was to tie the grounds together and stuff em in the cigarette lighter slot and plug the console back in.

It works! (Look at the clutch)

Then I stuffed the wires back as far as possible and put the shift boot back on.

Finished product!

Off:

On with parking lights (cuz it turns on tails):

On with headlights (MAN my window is dirty):

Terrrrrrible night pictures but it looks really good I think. I still might cover one of the LEDs to make it a little more subtle.

Happy modding.

Aerankas · 09-30-2010, 12:21 PM

Question! Now that I've done that, I gotta order my DD interior (and plate) LED kit but I'm so TORN. Opinions welcome: With those footwell lights, blue or white dome lights? This is a GT (I'm from Canada eh) so red seats. Also, planning Stage 3 everywhere except Stage 2 dome no matter which colour. I kinda like the idea of hitting unlock and having the car glow blue, but I also like pure white, and how the domes would fade off and the footwell will turn on. GAH.

ManOnFire · 09-30-2010, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerankas

Question! Now that I've done that, I gotta order my DD interior (and plate) LED kit but I'm so TORN. Opinions welcome: With those footwell lights, blue or white dome lights? This is a GT (I'm from Canada eh) so red seats. Also, planning Stage 3 everywhere except Stage 2 dome no matter which colour. I kinda like the idea of hitting unlock and having the car glow blue, but I also like pure white, and how the domes would fade off and the footwell will turn on. GAH.

I like what you did but I don't see the point of having the lighting you installed being on with the headlights. I'm not saying I don't like it but I would have thought it would be better to have them come on/off with the dome lights when you open the door/unlock the car. I guess what I'm saying is I don't understand having them on while you're driving.

Don't know if this helps you or not but these are stage 2 blue domes in my car.

dannyboyayyo · 09-30-2010, 01:12 PM

nice DIY.

preston_nfs · 10-01-2010, 05:24 AM

Thanks for the DIY. I did this last night with 12" LED strips but I also used a fuse tap.

Oh… and I also mounted a toggle switch so I can easily turn them on and off. I'll try and post up some pictures tonight.

preston_nfs · 10-01-2010, 03:05 PM

Toggle switch

Aerankas · 10-04-2010, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ManOnFire

I like what you did but I don't see the point of having the lighting you installed being on with the headlights. I'm not saying I don't like it but I would have thought it would be better to have them come on/off with the dome lights when you open the door/unlock the car. I guess what I'm saying is I don't understand having them on while you're driving.

Don't know if this helps you or not but these are stage 2 blue domes in my car.

I dunno, I just wanted them on while I was cruising, but only when they are actually visible (aka night). It would be nice if they came on with the dome lights too, but stayed on if the headlights were on but meh.... I might try to rig that up.

Thanks for the pics... still lookin around

Quote:

Originally Posted by preston_nfs

Thanks for the DIY. I did this last night with 12" LED strips but I also used a fuse tap.

Oh… and I also mounted a toggle switch so I can easily turn them on and off. I'll try and post up some pictures tonight.

Nice job, they look bright!

Red Raspberry · 10-04-2010, 02:25 PM

I couldn't handle the blue LED dome lights. Had to go with the white.

Aerankas · 10-05-2010, 06:40 PM

Yeah I'm leaning towards white now, for practicality mostly and that I still think the bright white glow will look really good with the red seats.

Question though: do the LEDs fade out like the halogen domes? Or do they just switch off? I would guess they dim but maybe shut off a little before the halogens would (like below a certain threshold votage/current).

ManOnFire · 10-05-2010, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerankas

Yeah I'm leaning towards white now, for practicality mostly and that I still think the bright white glow will look really good with the red seats.

Question though: do the LEDs fade out like the halogen domes? Or do they just switch off? I would guess they dim but maybe shut off a little before the halogens would (like below a certain threshold votage/current).

They fade out like the halogens do. I'm not sure if the fade lasts longer or not but the LEDs take less voltage to light them up than the halogens. After you install the dome light LEDs, at night you will notice that they never fully shut off when the ignition is on. There's a very faint glow that comes from them, I believe someone else explained this in another thread and it's completely normal. Has something to do with the fact that there is always power at the socket because of the multiple modes for the domes.

UCFGolfer23 · 10-13-2010, 03:13 PM

Advance auto parts had a sale for the 24" strip so I decided to go with the red to match the seats. Overall very happy with the results, though I did not have to remove the center console for the install. Got a stage 2 dd led kit that shipped out today so I will post pics of those when they come in as well. The first picture is from outside the driver side and the second picture is the passenger side to show how for out the light for the 24" strip goes (pics were taken in garage).

ByByCavalier · 10-13-2010, 03:47 PM

F'in right on! I was thinking about this earlier today, and here it is! I don't know if I want red or blue though. Car is silver so I think blue is best. A bathhurst black coupe would look mint with red. IMO, I want them only on when I open/unlock the doors. If I get around to it I'll post pics.

UCFGolfer23 · 10-13-2010, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ByByCavalier

F'in right on! I was thinking about this earlier today, and here it is! I don't know if I want red or blue though. Car is silver so I think blue is best. A bathhurst black coupe would look mint with red. IMO, I want them only on when I open/unlock the doors. If I get around to it I'll post pics.

Well my car is a 2010 genesis coupe silverstone 2.0t track so thats probably as close as it would look for your car until you install it

ByByCavalier · 10-13-2010, 06:00 PM

Awesome, I'm doing it for sure this weekend, well maybe, if I get around to it, once I get other stuff out of the way, probably wont get to it, don't have time...

gencoupe123 · 10-13-2010, 09:36 PM

i just did it on my black 3.8 with blue and did not have to remove center console any questions please ask

iammarkus · 10-14-2010, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ByByCavalier

F'in right on! I was thinking about this earlier today, and here it is! I don't know if I want red or blue though. Car is silver so I think blue is best. A bathhurst black coupe would look mint with red. IMO, I want them only on when I open/unlock the doors. If I get around to it I'll post pics.

I as well want them on only when opening and unlocking the doors. I am planning on doing this over the next day or two. Just got the LEDS and now just need the time.

ByByCavalier · 10-14-2010, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iammarkus

I as well want them on only when opening and unlocking the doors. I am planning on doing this over the next day or two. Just got the LEDS and now just need the time.

Lets see some pics when your done. I hope I will be able to it this weekend. Make the car look more epic. WRX STi's and Speed3's come with footwell lighting as an option from the factory, wish the GC did too.

jjashaa · 10-14-2010, 01:25 PM

i spliced mine to the dome lights.. did this a few months ago to two cars.. haha

Aerankas · 10-15-2010, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gencoupe123

i just did it on my black 3.8 with blue and did not have to remove center console any questions please ask

Where did you ground them? Where did you run the wires from the passenger side? Just curious... I didn't mind removing the console, I wanted to get to know the car a little better in the process so getting comfortable with that was nice, but I can see how lots of people would prefer to leave the console in place.

WildCat27 · 10-15-2010, 11:55 AM

Nice write-up. I did this in my Maxima, but it was a much cheaper and ghetto version. I got the flexible strips from Checker, with the cigarette lighter adapter on the end. I got a 1-to-4 adapter as well, and mounted the switch box in the center armrest console, and just tucked all the wires. Had on-off switches for each of the 4 outputs of the box, and looked just as good. Way to do it correct though lol.

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