Okay so I saw a How-To for installing LED's in the cup holders, and as cool as I thought that was, I figured I'd do something a little different, and it turned out to be easier. I placed 3 LED lights in the center area right under the HV/AC controls where the inlet is around the 12v cig lighter. This is quite the simple modification. (And it's pretty inexpensive too!!! )

And trust me, it's gonna look HOT!!!

NOTE: THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST!!!!! Seeing as you're going to be tapping into the wires for the cigarette lighter, you NEED NEED NEED to wire these to a switch so you can turn them on and off. Otherwise they will always be on because for some reason the cig lighters are constantly on.

TOOLS/ITEMS NEEDED
3 LED lights
2-pronged On/Off toggle switch
Quick Splices (2)
Extra speaker wire
Wire strippers/cutters
Electrical tape
Drill with two hole-drilling bits (One depends on size of LED, one I know a 3/4'' will work).
Patience
Finesse

TIME
45 Minutes - 1 hour depending on your wiring ability and patience.

DIFFICULTY
On the harder side of moderate, once again, depends on your patience and capabilities with electrical wiring.

Let's begin...


STEP 1
Obtain some sort of LED lights, I got a 3 pack of Pilot High Intensity LEDs for $7.99 at the nearest Pep Boys. You need 14-16 Gauge Quick Splices, and you also need that switch. I got my switch from Pep Boys, it's the Pilot racing style switch with a flip cover. Try to find one with two prongs, not three, and some extra speaker wire isn't totally necessary but it will help and you'll see why...

Before you do ANY OF THIS, you'll want to double check and make sure all three LED's work. Just take a 9v battery and tap the exposed wires to the battery terminals (USUALLY black = (-) and red = (+).

STEP 2
Take apart your center console. It's all snap-in, so don't worry about screws or anything of that nature. Start by pulling up back by the E-Brake, then taking the E-brake handle off (requires a good tug). After that comes up, the area near the shift know needs to come off, but BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL because the cig lighters are plugged in here.

You'll need to disconnect them by pinching the tab behind them and pulling the wiring harness out GENTLY.

Now, you have your center area where you're going to mound the LED's, as shown.








STEP 3
Take a drill bit big enough to fit the LED snugly, and drill your three holes. Just three simple little holes. Make sure your LED's fit into the holes snugly and be very careful because the wires right near the bulb are sensitive (I went through a full set before I did it without breaking one!!!

STEP 4
At this point, you need to drill for the switch, you'll need to make a slightly larger hole, seeing as you need the whole switch to fit. The easiest spot to locate this switch is on the left side of the E-Brake, closest to the driver's seat. Drill your hole in the center console and make sure the switch fits through it, but then there's that stupid nonsensical plastic behind it.

Just drill or cut as much of that out as you can, until the whole back of the switch can fit with a little wiggle room.



Now insert the switch and admire the fact that it looks like it more or less belonged there from the start.

STEP 5 (HARDEST STEP)
Here's the fun part, you need to make all the wires connect. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION BECAUSE THIS ISN'T AS STRAIGHT-FORWARD AS YOU THINK!!!

Strip off about 3/4 of an inch of the wire on all three of the grounds (usually the black wires) and twist them together nice and tight. Now take them and use the quick splices to splice them onto the BLACK wire of the cigarette lighter plug.

NOW HERE'S THE TRICKY PART.
You need to wire up the swtich. This is where the extra speaker wire comes in, or if AND ONLY IF you have enough extra wire, you can cut some power wire. Take the three red wires, strip off 3/4 of an inch, twist them together, and feed it through one of the prongs on the switch. Twist it together securely and cover it with electrical tape just to make sure it's secure and won't touch any other wires.

Now take your extra wire and splice off 3/4 of an inch from one end, feed it through the other prong, twist it together and cover it with electrical tape.







At this point, the black wires should be secured, as should the red wires. Leaving only this extra wire that I made you use. Here's what you've got to to do. Take the only available end of the wire, strip off 3/4 of an inch, and use your other quick splice to tap into the red wire of the cigarette lighter. At this point all of your wires should be connected in this order:



LED grounds - Cig lighter ground
LED powers - Switch
Extra wire - Cig lighter power

STEP 6
Toggle that switch to the "On" position and make sure it works. If it lights up you're golden.



STEP 7
Reconnect the cig lighter harnesses, and reattach the center console in the reverse order of how you took it apart.

STEP 8
Wait till after dark and go for a cruise. Celebrate, admire, and don't forget to turn the switch off when you get out of the car!!!



Thanks for reading and ENJOY!!!

 

cool

 

Thank you.

 

check out mine mods,i was thinking of doing this but i think i already have alot of lights.

 

^^^^^^^ very nice

 

looks nice

 

Those LED's would take weeks to kill your battery, if ever.

 

wow thats pretty cool, nice writeup

 

how did you do the hvac? I epic'lly failed when i tried mine lol

 

u couldnt find a better place to wire those to? perhaps the fuse panel.....and one of its empty spots...wow. did u do this to your turbo g6 to? or how bout the g8? or any of your other rad cars?

 

how did you get the cup holder radio and hvac controls blue?? really liking the looks

 

you can take stain glass paint and paint the bulbs.

 

where would one buy stained glass paint?

 

I know how to do the HV/AC lights but how do you do the steering wheel? the cup holders would be cool to know how to make like that too.

 

everything on the dash that has light is mostly a led.I jsut replaced it with blue =oi even changed the radio lights

 

how do you replace the steering wheel lights though?

 

take a key or flat head screwdriver and just pop the inserts out.

 

That makes sense, I never thought about doing that

 

Nice! I like the cup holder lights.. never thought of that.

 

thankx bro

 

I would like a sweet security light... since your in the bcm what wire is the dash security wire? (the one that flashes when you lock the doors. I have flashing blue and red led's that I would love to incorporate into the dash to ward off ********.

 

You should make a thread showing how you did this, thats really nice!

 

Hey i wanted to do somin lke this but put the leds in the back because thers no light back ther and sometimes at night light is needed...ne suggestions on wer to put the lights in the back?

 

Yeah, I actually did this, what you do is you get the LED strips from like Pep boys or whatever, they have 2 wires running out of them, adhere them under the front seats, near the back though, then they'll light up the rear footwells (the floor near the back seats). Wire the two wires, power and ground, and use the same wiring process to wire them into the cigarette lighters, but make SURE you wire them to a switch becuase for some reason our cigarette lighters don't ever shut off.

 

You, Sir, are my hero.