Footwell glow (nay) turns into 3rd Brake light LEDs (yay)

[Souls]

Hey Everyone,

first sorry for the huge pics, I thought I shrunk them down... whatever - I'm still getting used to posting on TM3....

So I've read about footwell glow and the OEM lights that can be put down there. I did this like 9yrs ago in my former VR6's. I thought heck - why not do it again? so I go thru my box of doodads again and fab up my own LED strip...

spare LEDs/resistors


I cut and used a large zip tie as my strip mount, again drilled to fit the 3mm 45degree LEDs


made connections


test lighting


test in the dark, seems bright enought for footwell glow


it was tricky sliding that shrink wrap in the strip


woot-woot! strip made


then I tested it in the footwell using drill battery, and seriously I disliked it (booooo....)

then the 3rd brake light came to mind! Yay!
test in the dark and upside down on my workspace


another shot, straight on, since they are 45 degree angle LEDs the light blends better


then I held it up at the back of the car in the dark. It seems like it'll work well, so I made a 2nd strip. I tested with both next to each other and it looks wicked. But I think I'll remake them with some of the brighter LEDs in my junkbox (8000mcd), but those have a narrower beam.... if I get more time, I'll fab them up. I'll add pics of these ones above once I get in installed.

[m_bisson]

cool beans

[PCLoadLetter]

Nice. Post updates!

[Souls]

OK, so I finally put it in. I also put a LED in the side rear reflectors, wired the to the lic plate lights. And I put 2 each in the rear lower reflectors and wired them to the brake lights.

Look TOTALLY bitchin' will post pics as soon as I can get the camera off my wife.

[Ogata]

OK, so I finally put it in. I also put a LED in the side rear reflectors, wired the to the lic plate lights. And I put 2 each in the rear lower reflectors and wired them to the brake lights.

Look TOTALLY bitchin' will post pics as soon as I can get the camera off my wife.

Nice! Can you PM me how you added LEDs on your reflectors?

[Souls]

Nice! Can you PM me how you added LEDs on your reflectors?

LOL I was going to make a DIY, but didnt' have a camera to take pics. It's super easy. pop one off you'll see a post thingy, I cut 1/2" off, drill out the LED size, and hot glued it in, ran the wires to the plate light.

Wife can't find the camera... will havta get a co-worker with one of those phancy-dancy cellular telephone things with a camera built in to shoot one for me.

[Souls]

Alrighty!! wife found the camera... here's the pics. I ended up making a 2nd strip for the 3rd brake light

Rear reflector LED... I was going to try to light up the whole piece, make it glow, but opted for the quick and easy way out. Beside I think it matches the single LED from the side of the tail light


close up of rear "4th" brake light LEDs in lower reflectors. Here I has made a strip of 6 (per side) and was gonna have 3 light up as tails and 3 brake lights... but after 3 days of fudging it, I couldn't get the strip I made to fit flush inside the back of the reflector so I scrapped it and kept it simple


3rd brake light LED. I used 2 of the strips I made from the DIY above


Enjoy!

[Souls]

bump for new members lookin' for DIY mods

[Souls]

Bump again as there's many more noobs to TM3 lookin' for cheap mods

[TheMAN]

looks good
for a second there, I thought your footwell lights messed up and turned into brake lights!

I'm pretty sure using LEDs instead of light bulbs prevents the fade out feature to work though

[Souls]

looks good
for a second there, I thought your footwell lights messed up and turned into brake lights!

I'm pretty sure using LEDs instead of light bulbs prevents the fade out feature to work though

They were gonna be footie glow, but I didn't dig it, so I reused them