footwell led

[Troy]

Hi,
I know its been mentioned before but no one seems to wire them in the way i want, i want the footwells (both passenger and drivers sides) to come on with the dome light, is there a fuse that would do this? or do i run both of the dome light itself?

[Daytona]

Interesting - when I first read this post I thought, hey, I've done this!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tyron-d675/17837119809

But my current setup has LED's running off a center console light - it's not the same. It comes on when the interior lighting is on - not when the dome light is on. So when you dim or brighten the lights inside, those LED's change as well.

For what you want, a footwell light to come on when the dome light comes on, I think the easiest way would be to run another wire to the dome light. The actual switch is at the dome light, so that really determines if that light comes on or off.

Your idea is actually quite cool, I might have a tinker on the weekend to have a try. You'd need a couple lights and fittings and quite a bit of wire that runs up to the dome light. Although I do have the lights in the door when you open the door, I don't think they come on with the dome light, only when you open the door. If they came on with the dome light, I'd just run off them (in any case parallel).

I like my LED lighting, but it's really just ambient lighting, not meant to be intense. But having footwell lighting that comes on the the dome light would be really cool. I'd probably want to do the rear at the same time actually.

[Troy]

Thanks,

Yes want to to come on exactly the same as the dome, unlocking, and how it dims, also when I use the switch they come on to see the floor easier, thinking red led strip, the door card lights don't do what I want but probably slightly easier, thinking I will just trace up to the dome globe, also thought of doing rear but not sure it's good to run 4 strips of the dome.

I like the idea or neon strip for cup holders hooked to dash lights but mine is pre facelift so cup holders are weird shape

[Daytona]

Yeah, you'd have to run off the dome light if you want that manual control from the dome light switch. But you would then get the same dimming the dome light gets, just would be a little bit of a mission running the wires down.

I might actually leave mine for a bit and do it properly - I need to replace the carpet in my car at some point, and it would be a lot easier doing the wiring for the back with the carpet out, plus I've always wanted map lights by the rear seats too!

[bigBADbenny]

Just beware damaging the body integrated unit, before you proceed:
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=suba ... ent=safari
Iirc it's something to do with variable grounding for the dimmer circuit, so presenting the wrong polarity or loads can blow the biu...
This thread discusses overloading the dimmer circuit:
http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin ... pics/83167
This one how to do the map light mod and not fry the biu...
http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.p ... 23139.html

[Daytona]

Thanks a bunch for that Ben - appreciated.

Yeah, I was probably going to use T10 bulbs (prob x 4) and I would have ended up overloading the body integrated unit (and awesome, now I know what unit actually does all the work!). The current lighting seems to be fine, but they're just LED's so the load would be very minimal.

[bigBADbenny]

This is a basic footwell lighting how-to using fuse taps which are available online, eg from Selbys, eBay, jay car iirc.
http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.p ... 56919.html
And iirc there's an OEM footwell lighting kit available too, the car is pre wired for that.

[McDoof]

And iirc there's an OEM footwell lighting kit available too, the car is pre wired for that.

Probably on PostFL though right?

[bigBADbenny]

Going all the way back to gen3 iirc...
Anyway, getting creative with google helps, just change your keywords and sites to get specific info:
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=site ... ent=safari

The best one I saw was Brainys puddle strip lights off the dome light iirc. But he also had some issues along the way.
Just plan out the scope of your install, research what not to do to avoid frying the biu/bcm...

Google reveals its called a Subaru footwell illumination kit..
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=suba ... nation+kit

[Troy]

So do you think there is a chance of frying bcm by tapping two strips off it?

[bigBADbenny]

best to read the links, understand the implications, then proceed.

but generally as long as the load doesnt exceed what the biu can take (subaruforester thread) and the polarity etc is correct (legacygt maplight mod thread) you should be fine...

[Troy]

Okay so it seems if I have led dome globe I should be able to run 2 led strips off because the wattage is not too high

[Troy]

This is the end result, very happy

[bigBADbenny]

What method did you use?

[Troy]

Wired off the dome light, down the drivers pillar, used led strip with adhesive backing