Interior Lights

[Roddez]

One of the real issues that I have had with my car is the interior dome light. It is just so weak...

I have had a look at some other people who have installed LED lights and they are brighter, but still a little too directional.

I was sitting in my car last night, in the dark trying to do something and I turned on the map lights. This got me thinking, how can I wire up the map lights to work in parallel with the dome light? The objective is that when you open the door, the dome and map lights both turn on together regardless of the switch position of the map lights. Naturally, the map lights would need to still work independently.

So, the problems are:

1. Get a wire to from the dome light to the map lights.
2. Develop a wiring plan that will not result in a short circuit when manually turning both lights on.
3. Do this neatly.
4. Publish the instructions on here so that others could do the same.

So, any thoughts?

[subnub]

Someone who actually has some electrical knowledge will likely correct me here but, technically speaking, you could just run a wire from the powered side of the dome light to the powered side of the map lights, with a diode just before each map light (make sure they're the right way around lol). This should allow power to go from the dome light to the map lights, but not vice versa, and should still allow the map lights to be run independently. This assumes there's enough power in the dome light circuit to run all three, and to do it without blowing a fuse.

I'm thinking you probably won't have enough power in the dome light circuit to go around, so you might need to use the dome light to power a relay or something.

[Moi]

So, any thoughts?

I also wanted to do this until I came across this thread http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23139&page=6 and someone fried their Body Control Module (an expensive part!)

So if you know what you're doing and are confident then go for it.

Just don't say someone didn't warn you


Cheers
Teck

btw can someone confirm that post MY07, the map lights do come on with the dome lights? Maybe I just heard wrong.

[Arith]

Have you thought about installing the 24 or 36 LED lights to replace the dome? Not those puny little single LED replacements, but actual 3 or 4 rows of LED lights. They are considerably quite brighter.

[drndrn]

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23139

is that what you're after?

[blacknwhite]

Before you start mucking around with the wiring try the lights that Jim mentioned, the one with rows of leds Trieu gave me his when his white Lib went to the carpark in the sky, is a massive improvement over standard, so much so that I dont flick the maplight to read a map but use the interior light

[Roddez]

The stuff on LegacyGT looks like exactly what I am after.

I also like the idea of the LED bulbs for the Map lights and also the LED array for the dome light. Can anyone tell me where to get the array, and what brand/model bulbs you have used in the map lights.

Once I have done this, I will probably do the map light mod in the car.

Finally, I have an MY07 and I can confirm that the Map lights do NOT illuminate automatically when you open the door. However, when I finish my mod, they will.

[Moi]

I also like the idea of the LED bulbs for the Map lights and also the LED array for the dome light. Can anyone tell me where to get the array, and what brand/model bulbs you have used in the map lights.

I changed all my interior lights (map, dome, door and boot) to LED and got an array for the dome cos it was weak. It's very bright now although it does get very hot and the LED is pressed up against the plastic

eBay sell lots of LEDs but you have to be careful because they are only rated for 12V and when the car is on will put out more than this leading to diminished life span or failed LEDs. Some people either put up with it or run a resistor inline.

I got my LEDs from superlumination.com cos that was what was recommended in another thread on legacygt.com (and the dollar wasn't as low as it is now)

Good luck with the mod.


Cheers
Teck

[Roddez]

Sometimes in life, things happen that just freak you out...

For the last couple of days, my car has been getting a little hard to start. It just hasn't been cranking as fast as it usually does. Late last night, I went into the garage to put something back and I noticed that:

The interior dome lights was on!

I checked all the doors were closed, and they were. This must have been going on for some days now, but I haven't driven the car at night so I just haven't noticed. It would sure explain the slow cranking. So then I went upstairs and read some more about interior lights on the Legacy GT forum. The symptoms were the same as those people who had buggered up their body control computer! This was just too freaky! I turned the light off at the switch and went to bed.

I took the car to Subaru this morning to get them to look at the light, and also do the turbo oil pipe recall. They called me up to say that to fix the light a computer needed to be replaced and with the new computer goes two new keys... They have ordered the computer and I will need to bring both keys in with me next week to have the part fitted.

Can you say co-incidence? Either that, or the car has been reading my posts about the lack of interior light and got upset! So, on the basis of this, I will not be doing anything about the feeble dome light if this is what I can expect....

[smythie]

oooh bugger. good thing you caught it when you did

[Arith]

Freaky! It's a sign not to mess with the dome light.

[Moi]

Can you say co-incidence?

Murphy's Law...he always wins

[MH3.0R]

Guys,

I can understand why the Body Control Unit is getting upset when people start to play around with the wiring. I would not do the "Dome and Map simultaneous ON" mod as you get a 50/50 chance of feeding 12V directly into the Body Control Unit which is used to generate switched 0 volts or body earth. So, for me, I will not undertake such a mod without the use of a multimeter to ensure the polarity is correctly oriented before replacing the fuses. Most descriptions on the forums that I have read are very imprecise about polarity and it is crucial to the survival of the BCU.

So, what have I done? Simple LED conversion of the Dome light with a replacement festoon with 4 x LEDs (T11x31) which is a 31mm x 11mm 4 LED festoon, a straight replacement of the existing bulb. Done in seconds flat and reduced the power consumption from 8 watts to 0.6 watts, but with similar light level.

For Map lights, I got a little more adventurous and replced each bulb with a T11x2034 array (3x4 LED array). I am very happy now with the brightness provided by the Map Lights, really useful now in flooding each side of the front. Power consumption is still lower than the original 2 x 8W bulbs, probably a little less than 2W on each side, but twice as bright.

I am thinking about putting two of these T11x2034 arrays together (total of 24 LEDs) in a ganged array in teh Dome Light to replace the current 4 LED festoon, but sometimes the bright light at night to the rear seats is not wanted (young kids). At other times it would be nice (when they grow up!).

I found the LEDs by Googleing LED Lighting on the web and looking for local providers. Found one in Melbourne that provided the full range of LEDs for autos and all the adaptors in each kit, so I am currently in LED heaven! My supplier is Bright Light Auto Parts in Ferntree Gully and is open Saturday mornings (bonus).

Kind Regards,

Mark.

[jdm rsk]

this si what you need....

[blacknwhite]

this si what you need....

Yep Shane , exactly what I got , works really well