Map Lights on with Dome light Mod

don't over engineer a light bulb.

 

Don't get me started. No, wait, too late.

 

um, just go to radio shack and get some moderatly sized ones. Most of them are rated 120v for 30watts or something, so on a car they're good for alot more than 30watts at 12v

 

I think the point is that 30watts at 12v is a LOT more current (amps) than

30watts at 120v. Since diodes don't really dissipate any energy to speak

of, the relevant numbers are current and reverse breakdown voltage, with

the latter number irrelevant to a 12v system. So, if your maplight

bulbs were somehow dissipating 30watts, that'd be 2.5 amps - which could

fry some diodes. But, anybody who's car-geek enough to do this mod is

gonna have LEDs in there, drawing nothing approaching an amp.

 

I know this is old and I'm late to the party, but I wouldn't be giving out instructions for people to mod their cars wiring if you don't know what you are talking about.

 

His overall point, that it'd be very tough to find a diode that would NOT

be suitable for this mod, remains. And since you're late to the party,

you might consider a little more tact, especially regarding someone who

came up with a pretty cool mod. Sure, anyone with a rudimentary

knowledge of electronics, who located or stumbled across the relevant

wiring diagram, could have come with such a mod. But he did so, and

published an outline for all of us to use (and modify). May your next

post be as helpful.

 

But I'd wager that 30 watts is also 2x-5x more than our interior LEDs are drawing.

 

I'd wager a little more. Check out my measurements in post #190.

Edited March 28, 2009 by RustyShackleford

Wow, 50-60ma is nothing. Interesting, thanks.

1. 25 LED High-Powered SMT Array in "warm white" (wired to a 31mm

festoon). Current draw is about 50ma. In my dome light; it's nice and

bright, but not quite as much as I was hoping for lighting things up nicely

for car camping. The 6-LED below seems nearly as bright and a lot cheaper.

 

 

I wanted to relay a positive customer-service experience I had with the

autolumination.com folks, regarding this part.

 

Unfortunately, the wiring harness (from the festoon fitting to the LED

board itself) is pretty stiff, and the second or third time I removed and

re-installed the thing (while messing with this mod) the little socket on

the festoon fitting broke off.

 

They sent me a new one, free, no questions asked.

 

Be careful with that wiring though ...

Why don't we use just one diode on the wire coming from the dome lamp? I'm going out to do this mod as I speak, should work with one.

 

 

Edit: because both map lights come on when one is switched on:)

 

But, I only used one diode on the drivers lamp so when I push the passenger lamp the rear lamp lights up. So often someone in the back needs light and I hate fumbling behind me with the dome switch, so now I just click the passenger lamp and the front and rear passengers get light.

 

I used 13 led block units, BRIGHT!

Edited April 4, 2009 by GTTuner

Because you usually can't just buy one and two is less stress on each part than just one.

I wanted to relay a positive customer-service experience I had with the

autolumination.com folks, regarding this part.

 

Unfortunately, the wiring harness (from the festoon fitting to the LED

board itself) is pretty stiff, and the second or third time I removed and

re-installed the thing (while messing with this mod) the little socket on

the festoon fitting broke off.

 

They sent me a new one, free, no questions asked.

 

Be careful with that wiring though ...

 

Lucky you. Autolumination.com sent me a defective array and wouldn't take responsibility for it. They put the onus on me, as if I caused the damaged. I returned the defective array along with an extra light I hadn't ordered (they included it in the original order by their mistake) but still had to pay most of the cost for a new light.

 

They generally have good products but I wasn't very happy with autolumination.com service.

I’m keen to do this mod, I’ve read this and other threads, I know how to solder and I’m fine with wiring etc. However I’m terrified of frying my BUI, I tried to find the fuse but the 20amp no8 in the engine bay does not power the dome light on my 2005 UK model Outback 3.0. So, I would be happier disconnecting the battery which leads me to my question – how much of a pain is this? Does it reset everything including sat nav and stereo? What about the alarm? I used to have a Volvo V70 and disconnecting the battery was a real PITA with all the work you had to do when reconnecting. Any opinions/advice?

Ignore my last question (yes I know I should have searched the forums before asking). I found the right fuse and went for it, works perfectly. I was determined not to solder anything, mainly so that in case of any problems I could put everything back to normal and go back to the dealer with an innocent shrug. I pushed the diodes under the metal strip and held them in place with washers under the adjacent screws, then used terminal blocks to connect. Also I swapped the power wires by removing the pins from the connector. If anyone wants to see a pic let me know.

However I’m terrified of frying my BUI ...

 

You should be - although I wonder if actually repairing the BIU is an

option for some of the folks who've fried it. Probably just one easily

replaceable and obtainable (once you get the BIU out) component.

 

Anyhow, I think the key to not frying your BIU is to make sure you never

connect 12v directly to the "brown wire", the one that leads from the

"door" side of the dome-light switch to the BIU. This wire is "pulled low"

by the BIU when a door is open, and apparently has no current limiting.

This is why you reverse the wires going to the map light; however, the

wiring diagrams show the wires to the maplight being hooked up the way

they are AFTER your reverse them, so if Subaru started wiring them to

agree with the schematic, then reversing the wires would be bad.

Capische ?

 

You might consider putting a 10-ohm or so resistor in series with your

connection to the brown wire, until you make sure you have it right.

That would limit the current to an amp or so, even if you have it

wired wrong, and simply make the lights dimmer (that resistor WILL

get hot and probably fry itself, unless it's a big 'un, if you have it

wired wrong).

Help! I've read over this thread in detail, however I'm still stumped as to what happend on my end. I have an 04 Legacy GT Wagon. I installed the mod correcly, I think, however my set up looked nothing like the pictures posted here. I soldered two diodes with the cathode pointed away from the map light on the light side of the map light switch.

 

When I popped the dome light off I found that there was no brown wire, there was a blue, white in the middle, and black. After testing them, one was ground, one constant 12V, and then one that would dim(that being the white one). I then hooked everything up and tested it out.

 

When I opened up the door the map and dome would light up, but very dimly, when closing the door the first time, the lights dimmed, but on the 2nd time they would stay on. Worried about the dimness, I disconnected the mod and now I can't get the dome light to come on when set to door. All other lighting in the car seems to be working fine. Did I fry something??

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

it doesn't make sense because you have a 2004. This walkthrough was done using a 2005+

yeah, thats the same result I got in my 05, when the wires i used were cut by the switches and shorted the BIU.

(poor wiring choice)

but now the "dimmer" just stays on unless i turn it OFF but is dimmer than if I turn it to "on"

Sounds like a busted BUI

Damn! I wish I knew what I had done wrong, but it sounds like I was drawing way to much current and loading down the system too much, thus the dimness. Everything else in the car is working just fine.....any ideas on where I can get some prices on a BUI? I assume, I'll spend a ton just to get a dimming dome light back...so I'm probally gonna have to live with it. But any other suggestions you guys have would be great!!

 

UPDATE: Found a new BIU for 95 bucks!! Score! Looks like I won't be trying this mod again as I can't seem to get it right. Does look like an excellent update, however!

Edited May 13, 2009 by shiner555

Works as originally posted with the install modification of Placing the lead from the diode under the strip connector for the bulb. No more dark front cabin is all I care about and it was easy to do! I also did not splice the wire for the map lights I wound up taking the "E" cover off of the connector instead and used a mini flat head screwdriver to unlock the pins. I swapped locations for the pins and all done. No solder in cabin soldering. Edited August 2, 2009 by GoonersBlueWagon

I'm trying to limit mods to the inexpensive ones for now (and install the ones I already bought but don't have on the car yet) as I save up for the IPT 5eat valve body upgrade...then I'll be ready for W.I.

 

The autolumination web site isn't the easiest to navigate. Here's what I currently have in the cabin:

 

Start HERE, then scroll down to 6 LED Super High Flux for the map light bulbs ($9.99 x 2). Next, scroll to 12 LED Two-Face for what I'm using in the front door puddle lights ($11.99 x 2). Finally, scroll to 25 led High Powered SMT Array for the dome light ($24.99). Use the 31mm size for all of them. Total would be $74 for all 5 of them shipped.

 

It looks like the fastwrx dome light has a plastic piece you install inside the lens to position the LEDs. I just used a piece of foam tape behind my LED array and used a small flat blade screwdriver to get position it exactly where I wanted it as I snapped the plastic lens back in place. The foam keeps the LED board pressed against the inside of the lens with some light pressure so it doesn't move.

 

Thanks for the directions! So these are all basically plug and play? No modifications to the wiring?

My dome light is out and I just want to replace everything with LEDs.

^bump anyone?

All were plug-n-play.

 

One thing was some bulbs were polarity dependent so if they didn't light up as first installed I just reversed them. Also the festoon bulbs I used in the map lights were a little longer than the space between the two contacts. Those clips have some flex in them so I got the LED bulb in there by inserting one pointed end into one clip and pushing the bulb in that direction to widen up the gap enough to get slip the tip on the other end of the bulb into the other contact clip.

 

Since the quoted post is from at least a couple years ago Autolumination.com has probably changed their offerings of festoon type LED bulbs somewhat but all of my LED bulbs I got from them are still working so I have no complaints about quality.

Awesome, thanks. I should have read the entire thread, would have found the answer to my question. I'm trying to decide on whether to go with the blue or white LEDs.... Has anyone experimented with different colors? I want to get what ArcTec34 has for his puddle lights in his pics back on pg. 9, they are white but they have that blue tint...not sure which color that is on the website.

You'll want the Cool White/Super White.

 

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/TRS60586/Misc%20Legacy/LED_interior_lighting.jpg

mwiener2

 

It's up to you if you'd like to add this link to the front of your thread or not but below is a link to a thread I helped make with a few others on the board about one solution to the BIU problem that is sometimes seen after wiring in the map lights. Do with it as you see fit.

 

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79918

So according to the Haynes manual, all the light lenses just pop off? Does that apply to the door lens also? Or do I have to take the door panel off? I'd hate to start prying and break something...thx

they just pop off, theres a little slot where you can put a flat head screwdriver, and gently pry. nothin to break!

Installed them today, holy hole in a doughnut I'm glad I found this thread! Definitely love the new LEDs.

Uhh.. so am I the only person concerned about frying a BIU after all of this? It sounds like everyone is going heck yeah! It's awesom..omg it broke.

 

$200/$500+ is enough of a reason not to do it!

Pay to play.... you don't want to pay, so go away