I've wired up footwell LEDs in my previous vehicles but only to standalone on/off switches but I wanted to try something new and make the turn on and fade out when doors open/close like the dome lights. I also want the individual sides (driver/passenger) to turn on when their respective dome lights are manually clicked on.

I'm sure I can find the info I need around these forums about which wires to tap into to do what I want to do, but I've never worked with OEM wiring before and I was wondering if I should take out the fuse to the dome/map lights before splicing into their wiring.

If so, where is the fuse for the dome lights? Maybe I was looking in the wrong place in my owner's manual but I couldn't find it there. I looked in the fuse box beside the dead pedal as well as the one next to the battery and wasn't able to find it.
...or maybe I was looking right at it the entire time and my beer told me that wasn't it.

2003 350z Performance

 

There's a diy on here. Is that what you're talking about?

https://my350z.com/forum/audio-video...ng-how-to.html

 

Ah yeah okay he just disconnected ground from the entire battery instead of taking a fuse out. Thanks DrummerGirl.

I wonder why he ran his speaker wire up through the headliner into the dome lights and back down the A-Pillar instead of just tapping into the dome light wires that are already in the A-Pillar.

 

This is how it's done, of I do say so myself:

https://my350z.com/forum/body-interi...different.html

You'd never know it wasn't OEM.

 

Yeah I've looked at your post there a couple times, dcains, but it doesn't show in too much detail how it's done. Like I said, I've never touched any OEM wiring before. All I've done previously is hook led strips up to a cig lighter adapter and install switches for them.

I took a look at the wiring behind the A-Pillar for the dome lights. Coming out of the dome lights themselves, there is a red wire, a black wire, and a pinkish wire. But when I look at the wiring in the A-pillar, there are 2 red and black wires and a pink wire.

What I want to do is just splice some 18 gauge wire into the 3 wires in the A-pillar to be able to easily run them down into the footwells.

I don't really trust myself to solder anything in my car either. The only things I've ever soldered are ps3 controllers and I fried a couple of them haha.


EDIT: I'd also like some verification in regards to resistors. I'm fairly certain that the flex strips I have already have built in resistors but I'm not completely sure.
http://www.alpena.ca/Product.aspx?id=1004

 

I wanted to be able to manually control the footwell LED's, just like the dome lights, and wiring them directly to the switches in the dome light panel seemed like the only way. If that's a feature you can live without, I'm sure there's a way to tap into the wires in the A-pillar. As for the soldering, the dome light panel just snaps out, and the soldering can be done on your dining room table (when your wife is out). Running the wires from the dome light area across the top of the top of the headliner to the right side of the car was done with a coat hanger. Took only a few minutes, and then you can continue them down the A-pillar.

Not sure about those LED's you referenced. The specs state "Use only with 12 V DC power adapter", while the car's electrical system can run at 14 volts or maybe even slightly higher, so you might need to be cautious in buying those without first asking if that's a problem.

 

I would like to have them come on with the dome lights...I guess you're right in that soldering would be the only way to accomplish that. I don't suppose there's too much risk involved in soldering onto the leads in the dome lights since I won't actually be soldering onto a circuit board.

 

By manual control, I mean that if I'm driving and the dome lights are off, I can turn on only one or the other dome light, and the corresponding footwell lights come on with the dome light. For example, my wife is in the passenger seat, and drops something on the floor - she can turn on the dome and footwell lights only on her side, while the ones on my side stay off.

If you wire the footwell lights to the wires on the A-pillar, they will come on as you open the door, or turn off the ignition key, but that's the only way. If you turn one one of the dome lights manually, the floor lights won't come on.

 

Yeah I would like the added feature of being able to turn them on individually while driving so I'm gonna try my hand at soldering right onto the dome light leads.

Will 18 gauge suffice?

 

Sure, but I just used some old, spare speaker wire, since it was easier to fish the wires across the headliner and also into the footwells and across for the driver's side LED's.

 

Do you happen to have a pic of where you ran your wires through/behind the console?

 

This is what my map lights look like.



(Picture taken and posted from my phone so I'm not sure if it posted correctly)


If I'm looking at your picture from your post correctly, your 2 middle wires are soldered to the same strip which are to the same wire (the black OEM wire). If that's the case, I should be able to splice into that wire from the A-pillar and have the same effect. (Assuming I splice into the red and pink respectively as well)

EDIT: How easy was it to get the solder to adhere to that flat metal surface?

 

First, it was very simple to solder the wires to the metal traces. Just "tin" the wires first, as well as the spot you want to solder to, and then tack them down. I used a small pencil type soldering iron from Radio Shack.

Second, I'm just about certain you need to solder the wires across the traces I used in the dome light panel. Basically what you're doing is wiring the footwell lights in parallel with the bulbs (or LEDs) in that panel. I don't think there's any way to do that with connections to the wires in the A-pillar. You could get the footwell lights to switch on/off with the doors, but not manually control them with each individual dome light. As far as I know, one of the A-pillar wires is a constant hot, one is a switched hot, and the other is a ground. There isn't any connection to each of those manual switches.

 

No pic, sorry. I just fished the wires from right to left up near the firewall. Just took a minute, or so.

 

If you look in the A pillar, you'll find the plug for the map light wiring harness. They plug into 4 wires. I'm not a master electrician, but that could possibly be 1 hot, 2 switch, and 1 ground.

I guess it doesn't matter though, I'm going to solder to the leads anyway. It seems easier that way.

 

Oh, you may be right about the number fo wires, but I'd still bet none of those wires is controlled by either switch in the dome light assembly. Either way, though, what I did was just the easiest method I could come up with, and since it works exactly as I had hoped, I'm good with it. Having footwell lights really is a nice upgrade. I've actually stolen several little ideas like this from my wife's Acura TL-S, although even that car doesn't have manually-switched lights like my Z now has.

 

My 2010 mustang had footwell lights, cupholder lights, the whole nine all built in and I could change them to any color whenever (including gauge faces and border color). It was pretty sweet. I think all the newer fords have that feature, not sure about other makes.

 

A friend of mine had a Roush Mustang, and I remember him telling me about that a few years ago. I think the Fords have a central light source with fiber optics to send the illumination to various locations.

 

This.

If you want your footwells to have both functions you'll need to tap at the dome light. The dome light is powered by two separate circuits. The one that activates when the doors are opened and the one that activates when they are manually switched on. These two circuits are separate for a reason. Otherwise, when you manually turned on your domelight it would also trip your door sensor and activate the other interior lights.

There's a number of ways the circuits might be constructed but I seriously doubt there is a signal wire from the dome light switch running along the A pillar. That would make absolutely no sense since nothing else is powered besides the individual domelight when it is manually switched on.

 

I successfully wired footwell lights individually into my map light function. I also spliced into my trunk light and put an LED strip under my rear strut bar.

All I need now is something to light the area between the seats and the trunk (to be seen through the quarter glass) that comes on when unlocked or when doors open (like map lights). Basically, I want my whole interior to light up when doors are unlocked/opened.