Another Interior Ambient Lighting Thread

[mazdazoom]

Hi!
New here, been reading a lot since getting a 2010 Maz3 5 Dr GT w 6 Speed Manual in Copper Red. Have been enjoying the posts for the last 6 months and have just recently joined.

I have a professional background in electronics, mostly on the bench performing component level repair. I have been reading about all the interior lighting mods since I became interested in doing some mods in this area.
To add my 2 cents on previous posts on the other interior lighting thread, (great stuff by the way) as for the overhead blue led, it can be swapped out to any other color. Can the LED be aimed more towards the controls? The way the board holder and case clips in really makes it go in straight, how ever a slight bend on the LED might yield the effect you’re looking for. For me I stayed with the blue but made the peep hole bigger which increased the lighting effect.
Below is some how to’s on some interior lighting mods I’ve made ( so far…)
I haven’t replaced any of the over head map/spot/dome/trunk lamps yet as I think I still like the idea of “real light” when you need it
This is my very first post with pics ever so If I screwed up sorry...

Rear Over head lighting
I removed the rear over head light dome fixture from the head liner and disconnected the 3 lead cable that goes to it. WARNING: I was only able to re-install the dome light because I have a moonroof. READ ON There is a free floating centering/lock plate that the dome fixture clips into, on the back side of the headliner.
If I didn’t have a sunroof, and were able to squeeze enough of my hand between the closed shade and the headliner to hold that plate in place, well I don’t know how I would have gotten it back into place!
100_5813.JPG

There was only enough room to add an LED, and a switch to the outer portions of the dome fixture, the center is where the bulb and selector switch is housed.
I had to trim some of the headliner in the corners of the hole where the dome fixture goes to allow room for the switch and led assembly. After re-install it looks almost factory
(save for the pueh button color)
This is important, its best to locate the LED above the peep hole as opposed to flush or protruding…it creates a really nasty glare from a point of light as opposed to a soft glow. If you attempt this, whatever you add can’t be higher that the dome fixture is…..the moon roof and sunshade pass over top!

Factory Foot well lighting.
I kept the blue but have modded the leds to larger rectangular high brightness LED’s. The lamp holders come out with a simple twist/pull, the drivers side is in a white plastic plate and the passengers side is in the upper well cover.
Here’s the tricky part with the LED modules….the outer purple casing comes off but you have to release the locking tabs on BOTH sides before it will slide off…I used two sets of tweezes and it almost takes 3 hands!
Tricky part PT 2…The parts in this assembly are NOT soldered, they are “Spot Welded” if you will, and are also Lead free. To remove the LED, you need to cut the lead away from the tab, I have full flush cutters for this but an exacto blade used as a wedge between the led lead and the housing tab hit with a screwdriver should work, but NO amount of heat from a soldering iron will remove this LED!!!
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Any LED bigger will not fit into the hole but it will sit on top. It won’t get in the way of anything so this is not a problem. I ended up using a rectangular led over the round 5mm you see in the pic, the one in the pic made a super bright spot on the floor about the size of a cd and not much else, the rectangular led spreads the light out over the whole floor.

Door Pull Lighting
There is this simple mod you can do. The leds used in the door handle are the same units used for the foot well but these have a rubber boot over the top to diffuse the light out put.
Remove the clear lens from the door handle as you would any other dome lens cover…..pops right off, Use a mirror to help see behind the door handle
you can feel the rubber boot on the led, use a pair of tweezes or needle nose pliers to pull the boot off…instant light increase!

Secondary Foot Well Lighting
I really wanted “ on demand” foot well lighting and after much thought I decided not to hack into the factory harness or existing lighting systems, as it can be done, but it is tricky and a PITA because the foot well lighting uses “event” pwr, which is IC circuit related and not off the battery via a relay. Besides, I wanted to use 2 colors and a stand alone system was the easiest route to go.

I decided that I would take the same approach as the factory foot well system, a wire harness with led assemblies with connectors, so if I later deicide to change colors or need
to access the led holders for any unforeseen reason it makes it a simple matter.

I again used the Blue rectangular high brightness leds, and after testing found that matching red leds were not bright enough so I went with 5mm round, clear casing high brightness ( 880mcd) types. They were a bit like a spot light so I frosted the led with flat clear coat to make the emitted light diffuse.

For the assembly pictured below I used a chrome led holder, removed the rubber stop at the bottom, soldered the neg leads of the two led together, so now there’s 3 leads, placed vinyl tubing over the leads leaving ¼’ bare at the ends and passed them through the led holder which has hot glue placed into first. As soon as you push the leads through start removing some of the glue off the leads while its still soft and separate the three leads before it fully hardens. If that happens it’s just more work with an exacto knife to scrape them off….don’t get too caught up on this because as soon as you go to solder the lead the glues will melt off anyway. I had some left over connector sets from an old project and used them here. I stripped off 1/8” insulation off the wire coming out of the
connectors, and soldered them in line with the led leads assigning a color to each lead, to maintain polarity over the entire led assemblies and harness. I used small shrink tubing over each wire then large shrink tubing over the whole length between the led holder and connectors. I made two of these side by side.
Attachment 955
As for the wire harness, I used matching connectors, spliced them down ( using shrink tubing) to 3 leads, one common pos for the 2 blue leds, one common pos for the 2 red leds and one common neg for all 4 leds. Just after the connector on the passenger side and the drivers side are four 1K ohm ¼ w resistors. One for each Pos lead for each led.
The passenger side wires pass through an opening around a cross member tube that runs behind the center console, then over to the led assembly which is mounted next to the factory foot well led housing.
The driver side led assembly is mounted to the same plate the factory foot well led housing. And the harness is tie wrapped along the way for a neat install.

I had completed all this as I had yet to decide where to get pwr from and where to put the switches, but neither one made a difference to how the leds and wire harness went in so I worked on that while mulling things about.
The pwr was easy; I decided to use the cig light fuse point, as it only comes on when you turn the key to acc or past to start the engine.
If the light is switched to on, it comes on as the factory foot well led goes out. When I turn off the car the light goes out as the factory lighting comes on….

The next big decision for me was about switches. To be honest mounting a switch in plain sight or somewhere just under the dash is asking for a tech to notice it and as I don’t trust dealer ships they will void your warranty repair for any reason they can find.

Here is what I came up with…
Attachment 951
The 2 blank switch covers to the right of the ASF and DSC switch are no longer button blanks but fully functional push button switches, one for the blue leds and one for the red leds and they operate independently.
The switch covers did require a lot of modification in the trim and fit department and I had to lower the guide tab stand offs to achieve the vertical travel required to cycle the switches. All of this will mean nothing if you don’t take one apart.
This required a complete disassembly of the switch unit, down to the removal of the PCB, its rubber switch membrane and modification of the lower switch housing plate to allow for the addition of the new switches.
Attachment 952
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The ground lead coming from the led assemblies run to a ground bolt by the fuse box.
The 2 pos leads from the led housing are spliced to the pos leads coming from the switch, one for each color/switch and the last pos lead, (which is jumped to both switches) coming from the switch runs to the fuse box, then soldered to the Cig lighter terminal on the back side of the fuse box ( if you remove a fuse, one side is hot the other goes to the intended protected item)
The switches simply open/close the +12 to each led.
So the leds are in parallel to each other but have series resisters on their pos leads.
Use of resistors is imperative and is called current limiting resistors for a reason; if you let the smoke out they won’t work any more!

Pic of Rubber diffuser boot used over door handle led
Pic of handle w/o boot and upgraded factory well lights
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[twowings]

That's good information....thanks for posting ! Could you please enlighten me how to change the HID display (non-Nav) to red to match the rest of the interior lighting ? I'm tired of having to turn it off during nighttime driving.....why they didn't allow you to color match it to rest of interior, I can't know.......

TIA

[mazdazoom]

You mean like this?
100_5861.JPG

[Scooby]

is it just me or do none of the pictures work?

[allme1021]

pics arent loading??

[dunston]

I cant see the pics either, but you have to click on the red X to make the pics load. Nice write up, how do you get the MID to display in red?

[warlord]

Originally Posted by twowings

That's good information....thanks for posting ! Could you please enlighten me how to change the HID display (non-Nav) to red to match the rest of the interior lighting ? I'm tired of having to turn it off during nighttime driving.....why they didn't allow you to color match it to rest of interior, I can't know.......

TIA

+1

[mazdazoom]

You'll be disapointed to know how I changed the color of the MID, its smoke and mirrors really.
Its a piece of clear plastic coated transparent red, and I simply prop it in front of the MID for night driving. There's a little groove where the bottom of the MID Panel meets the top of the dash, holds it nicely. You could use any clear piece of red plastic, make one from colored cello or perhaps a professional lighting gel would work. I like this method as i can remove it for daytime diving and stores just about anywhere.
100_5867.JPG

[Anderfrank]

Originally Posted by mazdazoom

You'll be disapointed to know how I changed the color of the MID, its smoke and mirrors really.
Its a piece of clear plastic coated transparent red, and I simply prop it in front of the MID for night driving. There's a little groove where the bottom of the MID Panel meets the top of the dash, holds it nicely. You could use any clear piece of red plastic, make one from colored cello or perhaps a professional lighting gel would work. I like this method as i can remove it for daytime diving and stores just about anywhere.
Attachment 963

What are the dimensions on that piece of plastic?

[mazdazoom]

3"X4" 1/32 thick

I had a 8.5 X 11 sheet of LEXAN and a can of clear red spray paint from my car model hobby.
The spray turned out to be a good approach as the first one I made was too deep red and with the head lights on and the display in "dim" mode it was so dark you couldn't read the display. So it took a process of a slight coat and check, apply another coat and check again. The one I am using now is 2 light coats.
If you try this you can get the paint at any well supplied Hobby shop, they should have the plastic too. Best part is if you lose it or it gets scratched, you can make several more at no further cost.
The paint is water based and dries quickly. It is not cheap and is of high quality. Should be about $6 a can. The part number is TS-74 CLEAR RED. Testors may make a clear red but I have never used and can't speak about how it will look optically. The sheet of plastic I used had a clear film protectant cover on both sides. After cutting out the 3X4 piece I needed, I left one side covered with this film which you remve after the paint has cured and this is your viewing side, crystal clear. Lay the proteced side down on a sheet of white paper, and make sure the color is even as you spray...also look at how the paint is laying by looking at it from an angle, in the hi lights, stop as soon as the ripples go away... this will keep the optic quality and keep in mind it will look more pink over the white paper, if you try to deepen the color to a deep red then it will be too dark for the MID at the night setting.
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