How to: Interior Footwell Lights with a bit of a twist

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Goblin
B1
Posts: 56
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2015 8:35 pm
Passat model: '12 Avensis Est
Location: Rochdale

How to: Interior Footwell Lights with a bit of a twist

Post by Goblin »

Hi guys, I've lurked on here for a while since getting my Passat but never really had anything of interest to post. I'll be doing a separate thread for by B5.5 Estate, but I thought I'd start with a how to guide for footwell lights.

Yeah I know foot well lights have been done before, the difference with these is that I've got them wired up to the map lights, so when the car is unlocked / main dome light on, everything lights up. But, if you turn on just the map light, it'll also light the corresponding foot light as well.

It's not a desperately hard mod to do, it just requires the right tools and a steady hand with the soldering iron.

NOTE: This mod works with a normal dome light too, but I put a W8 light in mine so I'll be using that for reference. If required, I can also guide how to do this with a normal interior light, just ask :) Also the usual spiel about how all mods are undertaken at owner's own risk and how I won't be held responsible for anyone making a hash out of it etc etc :D

So, here's what you'll need! I used:

Two lengths of 5 amp cable (I used red and black for reasons that you can probably guess)
Wire cutters / Wire strippers / SHARP knife
Solder
Soldering iron
Crimps / crimp tool - I used male and female spades for quick and easy connection. You can solder together or choose termination methods of your choice.
Fish wire - not 100% required, but makes routing cables a hell of a lot easier.
Insulation tape
Lights - you can use 12v lights of your choice for this, I used OEM VW lights (as found in the bottom of your doors) and they came with connectors too to keep it OEM looking.

Stage 1:

So the first thing you'd need to do is cut four lengths of wire, two live and two earth. I cut them about two inches a piece. You then need to crimp a male spade onto an end of each one as per the photo

Image

You then need to tin the other ends of the two earth cables with solder to make it easier to solder to the light unit, and with the two lives, join the two open ends and tin with solder

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Stage 2:

This is where it gets a little bit more tricky, there are a couple of ways to do this next stage, I couldn't find the mutimeter so went with trial and error in the car. You only require on live feed for this job, it's the negative which makes the magic happen in this instance. I've included a picture for reference of where to solder to on the W8 light, I'm willing to provide the same for a normal light too, but it's always good to check before you solder. I did this by following the track around carefully, plugging the light into a 12v source (you can just plug it back into the car, but expect to blow a fuse!), and with a steady hand, work out where you need to solder up to. The picture shows where I've soldered to, follow this and you'll be alright, but check first!

Image

Stage 3:

Once you've soldered the leads to the light, you now want to crimp female spade connectors onto the lights.

Image

Once you've done this, you can plug the light in and check it again. It seems like there's a lot of checking, but it's easier to check after every step rather than retrace your steps - been there, done that, shrunk the T shirt in the wash! Hopefully these images will give an idea of the concept of the lighting too.

Entire light unit on:
Image

Map light on:
Image

Stage 4:

Okay at this point the pictures may (well, they do) dry up. I was running short of time and just carried on. This'll be a lot easier if you haven't got curtain airbags, but I do and it wasn't too hard. You can choose whether you want to run the cable down both pillars of just one. I run the cabling for reverse camera and bluetooth mic up the N/S A pillar, so I opted to run both lots of cable down the O/S A pillar - there's plenty of space there, especially with Halfords 5 amp cable. To do this, you'd need to pop the trim off, it won't come all the way off due to the top clip, but this isn't an issue. This is where the fish wire is handy, I always find it easier to do cable runs in sections. Start by feeding the fish wire from the corner where the A pillar trim meets the head lining, and then out through the light enclosure. *At this point, I'd advise you keep the cable on the roll, and only cut it when you've pulled it through* Attach the live and negative wires (do a side at a time so you're only pulling two through, not four), and pull through. You may find it a bit tight, if so, pull down slightly on the edge of the head liner and it'll pull through. At this point, open the drivers' door and remove the fuse panel cover, and feed the fish wire up through there to the A pillar. Reattach cable, and keep pulling.

At this point, you can decide whether you want to do passenger side first and get it out of the way, or drivers' side. With the passenger side, to do it properly, you want to remove the glove box. 7 Torx 20 screws and it's out, don't forget to remove and unplug the glovebox light either.

To route the fish wire, I found it easier to push through from the drivers' side above the foot rest, and then keep pulling the length of the fish wire all the way through until you get the other end. Attach the cable to it, and you guessed it - pull. Make sure you're happy with the length on it, and then crimp male spades onto the end of the foot well lights, and at the dome light end, cut the wires, again leaving adequate length, and terminate with female sleeves.

Repeat the routing process for the drivers' side, the cables will need routing above the pedals and when using the lights I used, there's a cut out above the pedals which the light clips into perfectly (though oddly, not on the passenger side?!) Terminate the cables again in the same manner, though at the roof light, leave an additional inch or two length on the live cable, to reach over the light to the connection point.

Now this is done, connect the footwell lights, connect the dome light back to the car, and check again. Everything should work without issue!

Stage 5:

On the passenger side, there was no precut hole for the light. As the glovebox was removed, I thought it best to cut the hole into it whilst it was already off the car. I took a template of the hole on the drivers' side with masking tape, and transferred and stuck onto the desired location on the glove box base. Remove the insulation on the base of the glovebox first, and then take a deep breath, and cut a hole (I found a dremel was best for this). Cut the insulation to accommodate this, and you should end up with something like this:

Image

Image

Stage 6 (almost there!):

Now you need to put the glove box back in without the light in situ, pull the cable through, and then plug the light in. Also plug the light in on the drivers' side. And check. Everything should still be working. Once sure everything is working, tidy up the wiring down the A pillar making sure if doesn't interfere with the airbag, and replace the trim. Finally, you can put the light back into the headlining. With the new wires, it may be a bit tight, but with some gentle persuasion, it will go back in.

And finally, the finished product!

Whole light unit switched on:

Image

Passenger map light:

Image

Driver map light:

Image

Both map lights:

Image

And that's it. Any questions feel free to give me a shout :)

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