Sometimes I put a wallet or cellphone on the parcel shelf or center console cubby, and forget to take it with me when I leave the car because I didn't see it in the darkness. So I've added lighting in those areas:



I used 3 prewired white Superflux LEDs from Oznium (http://www.oznium.com/prewired-superflux):


For the parcel shelf, I mounted one LED at the top right rear corner, and at the top left rear corner. They are the white dots at the rear of the shelf in these photos:

A 3/8" drill bit was a good size for the Superflux LED. The LED fits in but doesn't fall through. I secured the LEDs in place with epoxy.

For the center console cubby, I fitted an LED through one of the slots in the upper cover flap. The Superflux LED is just the right size and fits snugly when pushed in. No tools, glue or drilling required!


The wire is pretty easy to fish up along the left side of the console stack, to the drivers underdash area. Here's the cubby flap closed up with the LED:


In the underdash area, I connected the LED wires to the drivers footwell light. The LEDs come on only when the dome and footwell lights are on. Overall this is a useful and pretty easy electrical mod.



The Superflux is a very bright LED, and makes the lighted areas much brighter than the footwells (and I'm already using brighter bulbs than stock in the footwells -- flank LEDs from VLEDS). To better match the brightness levels, I could add a resistor to dim the Superfluxes slightly, or I could have used instead less bright 5mm LEDs (also available prewired from Oznium).

Coming soon: lighting for the cabrio.

 

Pretty cool idea.

I put an LED in the cubby area too, but this is for if I'm in the car at night and want to light up the cubby to reach for something. I bought an LED key ring, battery operated so no wiring needed, from Eastern Mountain Sports ( I saved the box giving the website of the manufacturer ) and snipped off the keyring part so the housing is only about the size and shape of a nickel and sticky velcrod it in the cubby below the toggles. The LED is in 'demo mode', so when I reach in and press it, it lights up for 6 seconds...enough for me to glance in while I'm driving and see what I'm looking for.

 

This is something I have been thinking of doing, but using red LEDs. Sure would like to get a Parcel Shelf. Looks like it would provide some nice storage.

Enjoying my MCS and NAM more all the time. Like all of the information on NAM and must do more searches and spend more time before I'll feel like chiming in on things.

 

Good photos and description. Will tie my LEDs into the door lights although the one under the switches would be nice to turn on when needed. Thanks for the info on doing the modification.

 

I did this, but I tied them into the dash lights and I used amber LED's that match the dash lighting perfectly. It looks great at night and is not too bright. You can get them newministuff

 

I love how LED crazy we are, this is also a good idea, cause i also forget stuff when its down there.

 

LED's rock.

Finally finished my LED fit-out - replaced all interior and license plate and front parking incandescents with white LEDs - MUCH nicer. Oh yeah - still have to wire my new rear footwell lights...

I like the parcel shelf LEDs a LOT - I'll probably do this at some point...

 

Great idea rkw. A question now: I already have an LED strip wired to the driver's side footwell light. If I were to connect two of these prewired LEDs to the same light, would there be too much draw on the circuit? I suspect no, as LEDs don't use much power, but I just wanted to check.

 

Turcicus, LEDs draw so little current that there is no need to be concerned about power. Besides, if you pulled out any of the stock bulbs when you installed your LED strip, you are actually now using much less power than originally.

 

I was just recently thinking about replacing the 2 very dim amber lights that light up the cup holders with something much brighter. i would want it to be on all the time too. Reasoing behind this is because I put my phone or wallet down there and at night it takes a bit of fumbling to get it in.

 

The information you need is right here: http://www.gbmini.net/wp/2005/04/ins..._switch_panel/
You'll need good soldering skills (surface mount technology).

Edit: well, the link only addresses making the LEDs brighter. For something that's on all the time, I'm sure they can be modded to do that but it will take some engineering investigation. Should be much easier to add your own supplemental lighting hooked up to power from the cigarette lighter.

 

Are you sure. I believe there are 2 very dim lights that are on all the time. I'll double check next time I go out.

 

Rkw..
I'd like to do the same for my parcel shelf and cubby... I have a cabrio. Can you show me (us) (I'm electrically challenged, but not afraid to try) .. how to wire the new lights into the footwell lights as you did?
Thanks!

 

It's difficult to know how to reply without knowing more about your understanding and comfort level about electrical things.

I'll make a few comments and you can ask more specific questions. First of all the prewired LEDs from Oznium don't come with long enough wires for this project, and you have to extend their length using additional wire. Radio Shack should have some suitable 2-conductor hookup wire for this purpose. The wires should be long enough such that you can pull out the parcel shelf and sit it on the floor, and the wires from the LEDs will reach to the footwell light.

I suggest that you pop out and examine the footwell lamp. Pry the lamp out of its hole, then pull it off from its connector for a better look. You'll see two metal pieces holding the bulb. Those two metal pieces also carry the electrical power for the bulb. You basically want to connect the two wires from the LEDs to the two metal pieces that make up the bulb holder.

Hope that helps to get you started with some understanding about what needs to be done. Ask more questions if this wasn't clear.

 

I just did the Parcel shelf tonight with the 5mm LED's...they are perfrect and match the brightness of the other LED's.

I also put two of the Superflux LEDs in the Housing for the Ultrasonic Sensor for the OEM alarm. It really lights up the Boot area nicely.

I will have pics in the next few days when I get my digital camera back.

 

Excellent idea for the LEDs! I wish I had a parcel tray!

 

I did my project with Superflux LEDs, but if I had the choice again I would use 5mm LEDs. You can see in photos that the Superflux light up the areas much brighter than the footwells.

The funny thing is, even with all this extra lighting, sometimes I still forget and leave things behind on the shelf or cubby . I think I just get distracted or in a hurry when I reach a destination, and don't even look down.

I have a cabrio, but LEDs in the alarm sensor seems like a great idea for a hardtop.

 

Here are some pics of the Superflux LED's installed into the Ultrasonic Sensor Housing. Don't mind the clutter in the back...it's been a long week!

Also note the LED Dome Light I got from Moss Mini