DIY: OEM style Illuminated Cupholders – Walkthrough

Detailed descriptions of how to do things to your Liberty.

DIY: OEM style Illuminated Cupholders – Walkthrough

Postby Hobber » Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:01 pm

While checking how to get the trim off to disengage the shift lock, I figured I’d follow up on a septic thread on LGT and investigate the cupholders. Although my model doesn’t come with illuminated cupholders, they certainly looked from the outside like they may have the key lenses in place, and having seen the (dodgy) job the Septics were doing at LGT I figured it was worth a look.

And what do you know? You could buy a kit from Japan for $250, or you can sort it out yourself for $10.

Japanparts:

Image

Hobber (and you?!):

Image

I apologise in advance –
• This is long as I decided to put in some long explanations and suggestions based on my experience and questions I saw on LGT in the walkthrough
• Not a lot of pics – I took more but they turned out crappy, and this taking photos for a walkthough is harder than it may seem!


Goal
• Create ‘OEM look’ illumination for cupholders in a non destructive way

Difficulty
• 2.5 out of 10. Extra 0.5 because you need to be careful with the trim

Time
• <2hrs work (optimal), however I’d allow an afternoon if not trim or electronics familiar.

Car Model
• 2007 2.5i AT -should work for any similar model with the clear plastic rings in the cupholders. (and yeah, whatever. At least I’ll never get a ticket for street racing :P )


Considerations

LEDs

• Brightness - I bought 3 different brightness LEDs and found one was clearly right for me. I didn’t want it pimped I just wanted an illumination for night time that looked good but wasn’t distracting. See materials list.
• Colour – I chose red rather than blue as I actually think it looks more OEM than the OEM (Blue is ricey :P ). Note if you change LED from the one listed here you may need to change the resistor as well. Use the LED resistor calculator http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz
• The long leg of an LED is the + ve.


When Do I Want Illumination?

1. Always on – wire to Accessory Power
2. On when Park or headlights are on – wire to Light circuit (what is this really called?)
3. On when lights are on and dim with instrument dimmer

I chose option 2. Option 1 is, for all intents and purposes, identical to Option 2 but just connects to a different wire on the harness plug.

Option 3 requires extra investigation to find an appropriate dimmer circuit. I did examine the connectors I encountered but found no dimmer circuit on them. There is a thread at Legacygt.com which discusses some of the power sources they have found including the dimmer circuits (using the Si drive / AT shift / Seat heater plugs) so if you don’t see the right thing in your car or are looking for a dimmer circuit they have some ideas – there are some differences in cabling and equipment between models, USM and JDM so it is hard to say what would work exactly for each model.

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.p ... lluminated


Subaru Voltage

PAY ATTENTION - YOU MAY BURN SOMETHING IF YOU IGNORE THIS
We all know the Accessory voltage in the car is 12V. Except it ISN’T. Testing with a multimeter confirms;

Engine off = 12V
Engine on = 14.2 V !

Should you change the LEDs from the parts listed here it is important you take this voltage into account and calculate which resistor you need.

A great calculator to do this for you is http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz

I have already taken the correct voltage into account in my materials list.



Materials

• 2 x 5mm Red LEDs 4000mcd (2V 50mA) (Jaycar part no ZD0154)
• 2 x 5mm LED Clips (Jaycar Part no HP1103 for a pack of 20)
• 1 x 220 Ohm, 1W resistor
• Wire (I use red, blue, black but suit yourself – about 1m each minimum)
• 2 x Male and Female Connect Tabs (you need 2 male and 2 female for your gauge wire)
• Electrical tape (black), heatshrink
• Optional – 2 wire taps


Tools

• Old plastic Credit Card or equivalent (to help remove trim)
• Latex gloves (to prevent fingernail scratches when removing trim, and proved grip!)
• Cloths to protect plastic trim ( I use some Chux for fine work and towels for area / heavy work)
• Flathead screwdriver small
• Flathead screwdriver medium
• 10mm socket wrench
• Phillips head screwdriver medium (magnetic, or blue tac will be required as well)
• Blu Tac if above not magnetic
• Soldering iron, wire cutters, strippers etc


Method

Though a very low risk, I accept no liability for broken things! Do it at your own risk! Etc etc.

Note: When working with the trim, always use cloths on tools and on involved or adjacent trim to prevent scratches. I also use latex gloves for three reasons – stops fingernail scratches, gives good grip, and it freaks out the neighbors to see you sitting in the car wearing blue latex gloves !


Remove Park Brake Boot

At the front drivers edge of the leather boot, with fingers at the seam between the boot and the driver’s side plastic panel, pull firmly up. Either the boot may pop up or the panel should pop up a few millimeters (the boot may not separate from the side plastic panel yet).

• If required use the old credit card (wrapped in cloth) in the gap to help you pull up from under the boot

Image

• Using a combination of pulling from under the boot using the card to give leverage and pulling up on the boot as it starts to separate, it will eventually pop free at the front.
• Continue to pull the boot completely off the plastic trim – this may require some jiggling while pulling firmly up to release the tabs a few at a time.
• Once fully released, you can gently pull the boot entirely off the park brake lever (the leather is not attached to the lever, pull it gently off)



Remove Silver AT Ring (Got a Manual? – no idea – please advise!)

The ring pops straight up – there are 4 vertical tabs around the ring at about the 1:30, 4:30, 8:30 and 10:30 positions.

With the park brake boot off, you can use a (cloth covered) medium flathead screwdriver in this gap under the ring to gently lever between the horizontal plastic tab (indicated) and the bottom of the ring to pop this corner of the ring up. Note the black spongy underside under the ring – this is part of the ring and remains attached, don’t try to lever it off.

Image

You should be able to progress around the ring and pop up the other 3 tabs – I found it easier to keep the ring fairly flat (horizontal) and loop my fingers under the ring to provide even upwards pressure and limit the stress while pulling firmly up.


Undo Rear Retaining Screws

• Slide both front seats fully forward
• Jump in the back seat with your small flathead screwdriver, cloths and 10mm socket.
• Examine the scuffs your passengers have put on the console box. Sigh. Continue.
• There is a small plastic cover tab on either side at the base of the console box.

Image

• Use the small screwdriver to lever off the plastic tab revealing the two 10mm bolts.
• Undo the two retaining bolts and remove.
• Store all for safe keeping (Not in the console box dummy!)
• Check you should be able to lift the back of the console box up a centimeter. Good. Put it back. Get back in the front seat.



Free the Front of the Console

You could probably do this before releasing the rear as above, but I did it in this order so it’s what I’m telling you.

There is a black tongue and two white plugs holding the front of the console in place as indicated (one white plug is under the trim). The white plugs (circled yellow) release with a sharp upwards pull of the trim, the black tongue (circled red) is a little more finicky.

Image

Sitting in the passenger seat I put a cloth in my left hand and looped my fingers under the side trim in the gap where it meets the floor, right at the front of the console trim. (see hand position below). My other hand was in various positions as required on the driver’s side. Jiggling and pulling up (while keeping an eye on progress on the tab around the AT shift lever) I was able to release the console from the black tab and pull up firmly popping both white plugs.

Image

The console is now free, but you still need to disconnect a couple of harnesses before removing it.

Disconnect Aux In Harness (if fitted)

If you have the Aux In in the console box you will need to unclip the Aux harness before you can lift the console very far
• Gently lift up the console over the park brake and tilt back 30 degrees or so.
• Locate the Aux harness – it runs from under the AT lever at the front to the connector on the bottom of the console box. (next to the black and yellow Accessory Power)
• Undo the plug from the connector under the console box – the release tab is on the side of the connector you can’t see – but that’s okay, you can feel it – push the release down while pulling it gently; it should come out easily.


Disconnect Acc Power Harness

• Tilt the console all the way back until it is vertical. (careful not to scratch on exposed metal)
• Unplug the connector directly under the console box that supplies the Acc Power. Again, the release is on the side of the connector you can’t see, between the connector and the side trim – it is easy to feel, and it should unplug easily if gently pulling while pressing the release.

The centre console should now be entirely free. The whole process takes about 5-10 minutes the SECOND time you do it 

Take the console to your work area.


Extracting the Cupholders

Note you probably can (and maybe should) do some more hard core disassembly of the console box to make the extraction and insertion of the cupholders a little easier than what I did below, but at a bare minimum, you need to do all the following.

• Lay the console box upside down.
• Undo the 9 screws that hold the cupholders and the trim together, circled in red below

Image

• With the above screws removed, you will notice you can’t just lift the cupholder out, it is still wedged under the screw mount circled in yellow below.

Image


• Split the side trim from the top trim by lifting up from the front (that’s why we removed the two screws there)
• Move the split towards the middle where the yellow indicated mount is
• While pulling the side trim up to give a bit of room over the mount, push the side trim outwards to displace the mount sideways clear of the cupholder – it is quite thin and bendy plastic and with a bit of effort you can push the trim far enough to pull the cupholder out with your other hand
• Once the cupholder is released you can easily release the cable-tidy clip holding the black and yellow Acc Power cables from the cupholder.

Lifting the cupholder out entirely, you should see the two clear plastic illumination rings sitting in the console. Leave them there, we don’t need to touch them.

Examining the cupholder itself, in two corners you can see the two small holes our LEDs will poke through.



Wiring the LEDs

The picture below shows the location of the LEDs and a diagram showing how they are mounted relative to the clear plastic rings

Image


Lets tackle the wiring first.

Notes

• Make sure you work with the cupholders to determine wire lengths as you go. (My wires are longer than they appear in the picture above – follow the instructions for wire length).
• We will put in one connect tab on the +ve end of our circuit and one connect tab on the Earth end so we can easily connect and disconnect the LEDs from the harnesses if we ever need to do more work or change the circuit.
• Use heatshrink or electrical tape to insulate the connections as you go along. No bare metal!
• I trimmed about 1cm off each end of the resistor and trimmed the LEDs a little – If you do this KEEP THE LONG LEG OF THE LED LONGER THAN THE OTHER ONE


The LED circuit diagram

(Don’t let this scare you – the steps are below in English!)

Image


Steps in English

• Have cupholder sitting loosely in console in front of you so you can measure the wire lengths as you go.
• Cut 1cm of wire off each end of the resistor – keep these offcuts!
• Start with the Red wire – cut to length to reach from the harness plug at the console box to one LED mount corner with some spare
• Put Male connect tab on one end of red wire
• Other end of red wire connect to + ve leg of LED 1
• Blue wire connect from –ve leg of LED 1 to +ve leg of LED 2
• Black wire connect from –ve end of LED 2 to the resistor
• Black wire connect from resistor to a second male connect tab – make wire long enough to reach back to the harness plug with some to spare.




Mounting the LEDs.

The previous diagram shows how to assemble the LED and LED Clip into the cupholder. When you try to do this you might find the LED Clip can wiggle back through the hole. Either;
• Use a small piece of tape with a small hole cut in it stuck to the inside of the cupholder to add that little bit of fill (see above diagram) or
• Glue it carefully in place (Bit too permanent for my liking – I used the tape)


Important: The LED must protrude the least amount possible into the cupholder as there is almost no space between the edge of the cupholder and the illumination rings. Ideally, the entire LED would mount outside the hole and just shine through – but there is enough leeway for us to get away with this.



Tapping the power for the LEDs


You can either use wire taps to tap the required wires, or make a short lead with a prong and poke it into the back of a connector. The car harness connector has many earth connections, a Light Circuit and Acc Power. The console box connector only has Acc Power and earth available.

Code: Select all
+-----------------+----------------+----------------------------+---------------------------+-------------+
|   Option        |      Tap       |   Connect Red Wire to      |   Connect Black Wire to   |  Tap at     |
+=================+================+============================+===========================+=============+
|1 Always On      | Acc Power      | Yellow with Silver stripes | Black with Silver stripes | Console box |
+-----------------+----------------+----------------------------+---------------------------+-------------+
|2 On with Lights | Light circuit  | Purple with Silver stripes | Black with Silver Stripes | Car harness |
+-----------------+----------------+----------------------------+---------------------------+-------------+
|3 Dimmer         | Dimmer Circuit |                            |                           |             |
+-----------------+----------------+----------------------------+---------------------------+-------------+


Pins in Connector method:

• Grab a 10-15cm piece of both red and black wire.
• Remember the 1cm leg we cut off the resisitor? Solder one onto the red wire. Solder the other to the black wire.
• Crimp a Female connect tab to the other end of each wire. You should now have two short fly leads.
• Go to the car harness in the car. Take the cupholder with the LEDs fitted along to test before reassembly.
• If doing Option 1, you can insert the pins into the back of the connector on the console box. If doing Option 2 you need to attach to the car harness. Insert the 1cm pins from your short fly leads in the hole on the back of the connector where your required wires enter.
• Once pushed in place, tape your fly lead to the harness a couple of centimeters from the connector to secure it and stop it shifting around.
• Connect up the quick taps on the cupholder to the fly leads – red to red, black to black.
• Turn on the car (turn on the lights) and check the LEDs light up.
• If all is good, cover the exposed LED rears with a little bit of electrical tape to stop any light leakage.
Reassemble the cupholders in the centre console. Getting the cupholders back in under the mount (that yellow circled screw mount) is finicky – a bit of effort and patience will get it done.
• Ensure the cupholders are seated properly.
• Screw everything back in, put console back in car, connect up harnesses (and our quick taps).

Done!


Image

Image
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Postby blacknwhite » Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:21 pm

Although I have said cupholder lighting, a fantastic walkthrough, many thanks for that, a lot of time and effort obviously went into that
Great stuff
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Postby smythie » Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:23 pm

Great job. Lots of information in there :good:

On the accessory voltage, it isn't that surprising. Alternator delivery voltage is usually up around the 14V number. Much more than yours or less than about 13V and I'd be looking into a charging problem
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Postby Deluded » Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:44 pm

wow!!!

Best walkthrough I've ever seen...
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Postby Arith » Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:59 pm

Wow, great walk through Hobber! Very detailed with lengthy explainations. Excellent!

Didn't know the 2.5 and such didn't get illuminated cup holders! How freakin cheap does Subaru have to be? I'm sure it's not that much! But the great thing about this mod is that you get to select your own colour. I'm kinda annoyed the factory has red for the head unit, dash, and door. While the cup holders are blue! WTF? How about some consistency here Subaru!

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Postby Hobber » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:14 pm

Thanks - it actually took a lot longer to write than to do! I did a lot or research so figured I'd chuck it all in there and people could pick out the stuff they needed.

Yes I was suprised the cupholders didn't illuminate - in fact I have the brochure for MY07 and it is listed as a feature and isn't labelled as model specific...

I never liked blue in cars - I was looking at the Mazda 6 when shopping for this car but the blue lights on the console drove me nuts.
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Postby Ric » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:15 pm

This is going straight to the pool room! :D
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Postby Mano™ » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:24 pm

While we got the little sliding door :lol: niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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Postby gumbyy » Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:28 am

Wow this is how a walk-through should be! Very nice stuff mate.. I'm sure it will be very useful 8) You get an A+
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Postby Zoo Tv » Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:38 am

great work Hobber. My question is I have an 05 RB and am curious if the current spec cup holders / console is able to replace the 05 version. Then I can have lights!
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Postby Hobber » Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:57 pm

Steve;

Did you check out the LGT link? They have inserted LEDs into those sort of cupholders - they are not quite as OEM though...

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.p ... lluminated
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Postby adam » Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:31 pm

Ric wrote:This is going straight to the pool room! :D


totally agree...
is the processs much more simple if you just want a colour change on your existing ones as i'm not very good at this sort of thing :lol:
I spend most of my money on booze, fast cars and women, I just waste the rest...
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Postby overl0ad » Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:05 am

extremely well done!

i've been playing with the idea of change my buleones out to red to match the rest of the car...
tangcla wrote:I didn't have to. I have girly Asian hands :lol:
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Postby XRC15T » Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:10 am

Wow, nice writeup as everyones says! excellent for the my07/08 owners and red looks so much better.

p.s goes faster too.
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Postby WhiteGTB » Sat Jan 17, 2009 10:36 pm

Awesome walk through matie, well done!!!
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