Arjy

hey guys


i've put a few amber LED interior light strips in my car, under the front footwells and the back rear seats. it looks nice but i have a problem

currently i have them wired to a fuse in my front fusebox which works great it just stays on even when i turn off the car. because of that i had to put a switch on and as cool as the interior lights are its not cool that i have to reach under the dash and flip a switch every time.

I was wondering if there is a way to wire them so they come on every time i turn the engine on and turn off when the engine is turned off. im not looking to tear the whole dash apart to do this but if anyone knows a way if you could tell me thatd be great.

currently my plan is to try and find a way to wire them to the ignition but i dont know how to do that on my car. I've done it with my friend on his audi but we found an article showing how to online. cant find anything like that for the w204 however. any help is appreciated thanks.

hitokiri89

I don't know anything a bout wiring so I'm of no help but I would like to see how LEDs look by footwells ... If you have any pics post em .

tanktube67

Look into the fuse box for ignition control fuses, with a test light.

blue00r6

Any other key-on accessory would work.. I would try the cig lighter eh

Arjy

thanks guys i'll keep looking around, but if anyone else has any ideas id appreciate it.



here are some pictures i took of the lights in my garage.

romanservices

my c300 already has the lighting in the foot wells & door handles & just about everywhere. did you just add more lights or was that an option?

Arjy

my 2008 didnt have amber lighting anywhere but the doorhandles which are barely visible anyway. it had regular bulbs in the footwells that removed and put these amber strips in to match the doorhandles. i've heard in the newer models they added more amber ambient lighting, and i wanted to try and emulate that

C300Sport

Unless you plan on vaccuming more frequently, I would just leave it stock.
Seriously though, my 2008 lights up well enough to give it some ambiance but not be a distraction. Were your's simply not working? Now that you have me curious, I will have to go out tonight and check out exactly what kind of lighting I have going on down there.

Arjy

haha, yeah vacuuming is definitely needed. actually did it not too long ago but the salt and sand from a new england winter holds no mercy.



the footwell lighting in my car was just two regular halogen bulbs which only lit up barely, and i dont think they were on all the time. these leds are really bring and the light sort of spills nicely into the rest of the car, and give a better amber color to match the dash and door handle lights.

romanservices

Why cant you wire the strips up to the same power that the bulbs were on? that should take care of you needing a switch under the dash.

Arjy

that was actually my original thought, and the reason i no longer have those bulbs running additionally. when i hooked up the strips to the wires the bulbs were connected to, they fluctuated between being fully lit and barely lit on an interval of about 30 seconds, and stayed on all the time still. that baffled me, and was when i decided to screw it and just tap a fuse.

Peabody

Vacuum your carpets you animal. Letting the dirt clump in the creases is what wears the carpet bare. As far as the wiring, why not wire it into the already existing ambient lighting?

Arjy

yeah yeah i vacuumed it last night. anyone else have any answers to my actual question?