How to install LED's in Footwell of VE Commodore
Hey man, I just inserted neon lights into the footwells and boot of my VE today (I know you wish to install LED's but its the same method regardless). It was fairly easy, but it took some time to get everything right and work out exactly how i wanted to do it.......
I wanted my Neons to turn on when I opened my car doors, as well as have a switch to turn them on or off at any time I please....Therefore I decided to sacrifice the courtesy light located on the roof in the front of the car, that turn on when you open the doors. It worked out well because now I just use the buttons (above you when you're in the driver's seat) that controlled those courtesy lights to control my neons, no need for hidden switches anywhere.
ok so here's how i did it...
DISCONNECT YOUR BATTERY FIRST!!!
1. Pull the courtesy light/sunglasses holder unit out of the roof. It comes out by wedging your fingers in between the roof and the unit and pulling down until it pops out a little bit. Once it has popped out just ease it out until it is hanging by the wires.
2. Remove the plastic panel that runs in between the passenger window and the windscreen, you only need to remove one screw with an allan key and then it just slides/pops out.
3. Remove the scuff panel on the passenger side that runs along the door-line.
4. Okay...now you have removed all the panels you need to. Get a piece of electrical wire about 2 meters long and run it from the roof where you pulled the courtesy light unit out, along the roof towards the passenger seat side. Once you have taken the wire all the way across, run it down along where the panel removed in STEP 2 was. There will be nothing to hold it up whilst the panel is off so a bit of electrical tape to hold it in place while you're working is a good idea. From memory, you may need to pull the roof trimmings up a bit and push the wires underneath in order to run them all the way to the passenger side. Remember to leave some wire spare at the roof end as you need to attach it to where the courtesy light bulb is later on.
5. Remove the cover of the fuse box located in the footwell of the passenger seat.
6. Take the wire and push it down towards the fuse box through the hole exposed by the removal of the panel described in STEP 2. This part was tricky as there's only a small gap that the wire can pass through when you're pushing it down towards the fuse box and may require two people (1 person feeding the wire down and another with a torch and their head in the passanger side footwell looking through the gap created by removing the cover of the fuse box directing the "wire feeder").
ONCE YOU HAVE GOTTEN THE WIRE THROUGH THE HARD PARTS ARE OVER!!
***This wire will now be referred to as "MAIN WIRE" to avoid confusion.***
7. Now that you've got the "MAIN WIRE" through, feed it in between the floor carpet the plastic below the gap created by removing the fuse box cover.
8. Now, its time to sacrifice your precious courtesy light. Remove the light bulb from the socket (twists out easily). And attach/insert the ends of the "MAIN WIRE" where the light bulb connected to. Make sure the ends are attached well.
9. Okay now you need to take all your LED lights and cut them close to the part that goes into the 12V cigarette lighter.
10. To make sure everything works form here on in you can now go and reconnect your battery. You are also going to have to cover your light sensor which is the circle knob in the very middle & top of the dash, as the courtesy lights do not work during the day time.
11. Position an LED light in each footwell, moderately close to where it will be fixed.
12. The wiring for the front passenger seat LED is hidden most easily as it is closest to the "MAIN WIRE". Connect the positive wire from the "MAIN WIRE" to the positive wire of the the LED light and connect the negeative wire froom the "MAIN WIRE" to the negative wire of the LED light. The entire wiring from this LED light can then be concealed beneath the carpet by pulling it up at the highest part of the footwell. **MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT CONCEAL WHERE THE "MAIN WIRE" AND LED LIGHT WIRES WERE CONNECTED. THIS CONNECTION AREA MUST REMAIN EXPOSED FOR NOW.**
If the connection has been done properly then the lights should be on if you press the light button located above your head if you're sitting in the drivers seat. Make sure your light sensor is covered also!
13. The Wire for the drivers seat led light can be run through the back of the column in between the drivers side and passenger side footwells. The gap is easy enough to find, just run your hand along the back left corner of the drivers side footwell and you will find it. Feed the wire through this gap and it will pop out on the passenger side footwell. Then continue to run the wire underneath the carpet by putlling the carpet up at the highest part of the passenger side footwell around to where all the other wires are. Now, Once again...Connect the positive wire from the "MAIN WIRE" to the positive wire of the the LED light and connect the negeative wire from the "MAIN WIRE" to the negative wire of the LED light.
14. The drivers side rear light wires are the most difficult to conceal and the only visible wiring for the whole system although there's only about a total of 2 cms of wire visible on either side of the middle armrest/console. Firstly Remove the plastic casing on the left side of the footwell. Now Feed the wire under all the metalwork of the seat (as you dont want to slice your wires when you adjust your seat). Now take the wire to the back of the center armrest/console and conceal the wire between the carpet and console. I cant remember exactly how I ran the rest of the wire from here to the area at the front of the passenger footwell where the LED light wires connect to the "MAIN WIRE", but they were concealed, im sure you can work this one out easily. Now....Connect the positive wire from the "MAIN WIRE" to the positive wire of the the LED light and connect the negeative wire froom the "MAIN WIRE" to the negative wire of the LED light.
15. The passanger side rear footwell neons wires run from under the seat, under the metal work as mentioned above and can be immediately concealed by tucking the wire in between the carpet and the scuff panel along the door side....now...Connect the positive wire from the "MAIN WIRE" to the positive wire of the the LED light and connect the negeative wire froom the "MAIN WIRE" to the negative wire of the LED light.
16. That is all the wiring done, and all of the lights should be functioning if the light is switched on. Remember the light sensor must be covered with tape or else the lights will not function during the day and you will have no way of checking whether your lights are connected properly or not.
17. Fix all the lights in their final and permanent positions.
18. Make sure all wires are concealed properly.
19. Put in all the removed panels and parts.
20. YOU ARE DONE!!!
NOTE: 1. You will find that the courtesy light turns on when you unlock your car during the night/when it is dark, and therefore your LED's will light up when you unlock your car, which i think is pretty cool.
2. I disconnected the globe in the rear overhead light also beacuase i wanted my car to glow from the footwells only when the neons turned on. I recommend doing this, it looks much better.
3. It took me about 5 hours of the day with a lot of trial and error. Shouldn't take as long if you follow instructions and know what you are doing.
Hope that helped??
Sweet write up, some pics of the outcome would be cool! Well done
06' VZ Commodore
Yeah, some pictures of the finished product would be great.
Great write up. Would you be able to take some pictures of where exactly you mounted the LEDs? Like which part of the plastic under the glove box and near the pedals. Also some pics of the finished product would be great. And how did you attach the main wire at the courtesy light end? Did you solder the wires to the bulb socket or did you solder where the power wires attach to the socket? Cheers.
hey mate trying to do this on my ve, would you be able to post up some pics so i can see how you did it
thanks jake
Just a few things
U can wire your leds in parallel with the dome lights and hence keep your dome working,
I used all green to suit the green buttons in my omega looks sick.
i used these in the footwells
GREEN 24 CM LED 12V NEW PVC STRIP CAR LIGHT BULB (eBay item 190484765097 end time 28-Feb-11 04:22:32 AEDST) : Cars, Bikes, Boats
And these in the domes back and front
2x 194 168 T10 5-SMD LED Green HID Light Wedge Bulb New - eBay (item 250753665600 end time Mar-08-11 10:34:57 PST)
hey mate, great write up,
but was removing the dome light necessary? am i able to just tap into the power cable, and negative cable, then just run that cable straight to the LEDs?
will that do the same thing?
correct me if im wrong, im just trying to find a way to do it without sacrificing the dome light
cheers
Hey i would now recommend using these led strips
Green 30cm Flexible Under Car 12-LED Strip Neon Light (eBay item 140562078024 end time 08-Jul-11 19:23:41 AEST) : eBay Motors
I have redone mine in all the footwells and in the boot, check my thread
My Omega Mods
Oh and Mysterious-VE you don't need to remove your dome light just wire it up in parallel
Check out my VE Commodore My Omega Mods
Wire up the negative wires that are connected to the bulbs in the dome light in parallel, and chuck the positive terminal of the LED lights onto any constant +12v wire and should work fine.Originally Posted by Mysterious-VE
No need to run the lights off of the positive wire in the dome, as it's just a constant +12v wire. The dome lights turn on when the switch flicks the relay, closing the negative ground circuit, allowing the lights to turn on. Therefore if you run the LED lights off of these negative wires, then it works great.
Just Commodores NSW
Did this mod in my VY but I paralleled the dome light wires down near the drivers B Pillar so no roof removal le was required.. and just got a LED for the dome to suit the footwell colour
trying to do this in my VZ...
found the interior light power cable assuming that this is orange with a black trace? then connected the LED strip to that then the negative to the BCM and lights dont work in sync with interior lights there just on all the time....
what am i doing wrong?
Donating Member
Stupid question, but how think of wire do you use?
Thin as hell because LED's use stuff all power. You could use speaker wire if you have any lying around. just wire the lot up in parallel and as long as you replace your dome lights with LED's too you should be fine.
Check out my VE Commodore My Omega Mods
Donating Member
Thanks mate!
Well, ordering the bits shortly he still has to get back to me with proper dome light colours. Ok so the taking the battery off with stop my airbags from blowing in my face yeah? and i might to to jaycar and some wire. From what i've just read, you run one wire from the light down to the passenger side and then run 4 wires from that? is that correct?
I have two wires running from each terminal ether side of the dome light and then all the LED strips, like this
A little crude but you get the idea. and yes disconnect the battery and you should be all fine.
Check out my VE Commodore My Omega Mods
Would this work? If i just hooked them up in paralleled with a switch, then i could have the dome + neon's on all the time with the switch to the earth.
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