My wife requested that I put in footwell illumination lights into her Fit like I have done with my other cars, so I decided to also try out the ambient light kit…..well I didn’t like where the instructions told me to place them since the drivers seemed too far into the footwell, while the passengers would be further out and most likely visible. The color of the light modules are also more of a dark teal than 470nm wavelength blue, so I modified and also put some lights in the gloveboxes.

Well it came out better than I expected so I thought I'd share:

Footwell Illumination (door open/unlock)


Ambient Lights (parking lights or headlight switch on)


Ambient Lights (parking lights or headlight switch on) + upper glovebox open

Ambient Lights (parking lights or headlight switch on) + lower glovebox open


Ambient Lights (parking lights or headlight switch on) + both gloveboxes open


All open/on



Since I didn’t like the light module placement and color of the ambient light kit, I used flux leds dimmed with 5.6kΩ resistors mounted inside the recessed area instead so that they’re completely hidden from view and angled better.

Circuits for the Flux LEDs


Flux LED


Flux LED leads through 4 holes


Completed passenger side




Also reused one of the light modules from the kit as the lower center cup holder area light.

Off center hole


so that this



fits into this hole


The glovebox lights are also wired to the parking lights

Upper glovebox



Lower glovebox



The switch was cut and bypassed for now so that the ambient lights & glovebox are always on with parking lights. I figured that if the blue bothers me enough I can use a switched audio potentiometer to turnoff and dim the ambient lights.

Cut and bypassed switch connector



The switch itself was rewired to the footwell illumination with a diode. This enables the driver to turn on the footwell lights without turning on the domelight. This is for times when you need to look for stuff on the floor but can’t/don’t want to open a door, similar to the domelight switch: 1N4748A Zener shown (mistakenly grabbed from my parts bin, 1N4001 50v peak Diode is what I actually used)


Here’s the original ambient light kit harness


Modified harness with glovebox light and center ambient


Added footwell illumination wires


G5/G7 are the pink(+12V) and blue(GND) pins on the dome light connector in the fuse box that comes from the MICU marked below. So the footwell lights will fade out and come on just like the domelights with unlocking/locking from the keyfob and opening/closing doors.


Rear footwell illumination wires




Underside of driver's seat


Underside of passenger's seat


how the LED module is mounted in the seat




Finished rear footwell illumination


From a lower angle


Doors & Hatch open


Sources for parts used:
superbrightleds.com for LEDs and modules
cheaphondaparts.com for Ambient Light Kit
Norvac/Fry’s/RadioShack for everything else

 

damn, nice work!

 

Excellent work! Thanks for posting...

 

I like those footwell lights. great job! +rep

 

Excellent write-up. Looks awesome! Love the color temperature. Welcome to FF! +1

 

Very Very Nice, Clean Work!!!

 

You're a DIY ninja. My old car had a sunroof so the backseat was always dark (no dome light) and I just stuck one of these in there, lol. Amazon.com: Sylvania DOT-it Self-Adhesive Bright White LED Light, Black: Home Improvement

 

So....where is the DIY guide?

 

BRAVO dude.... thats 1337 status.

 

Wow, that's one comprehensive install you got there. Pretty much covered all the angles! Kudos!

Would love to do the same to my GD1. Right now my CCFL footwell lighting just comes on only when the doors are open - a much simpler but less versatile arrangement than yours.

 

nice, clean, good

 

Great Job!

Any chance you could list the part numbers for the lights you used? I checked the superbrightled website, and they have a bewildering array of choices.

Also, now that you have had it for a while, is there anything you would do different? More/brighter lights, etc?

Thanks!



John

 

nice job man... i like lite on your glove compartment!

 

Damn, that's some fine work you've done there.

Hell, all I could come-up with for the glovebox is something like this...

 

Awesome work! Do you have anymore detailed instructions for those of us that are noobs to wiring?

 

Hot damn, that's freakin' sweet!

Uncle Gary's seal of approval on that installation.

 

+ rep, nice job, good write up.

 

awesome job, now i just have to stop being lazy and finish my car

 

Wow, looks good.

 

Nice clean install; looks like it came that way. +Rep for the DIY. Looking forward to future DIY's from you.