Question? I had the interior Blue LEDs installed at the port in jacksonville for my car, and the foot well LEDs are not the same shade of BLue as the cup holder LEDs. Is it like that on every tC, or should i take it back to the dealer and complain? Does any one else have this problem?


The cup holder LEDs are a Purply Blue and the Foot well LEDs are a nice bright Blue.

Also, does anyone know of any good links on here, on a good way to hide the foot well LEDs, i hate the cheap job the dealer did, having them show, with white plastic tiewraps,,, its so ugly!!! The drivers side one can esily be hidden, but to hide the passenger side, i think i would have to either cut or remove that plastic cover!!! Well anyone who has hidden them can you please let me know how you placed them?

Thanks,

 

Well- i don't have the factory installed footwell lighting, did mine custom with cold cathodes made for PC cases. I did of course notice its much easier to hide the drivers side, but for the passenger side I just tried to get it as far back as possible (which made it much closer to the console, due to the wire length), and then attached it using some wire tie mounts and ties. If you really put your head down in there you can see it, but from sitting/standing position its nearly invisible.

 

This might be a stupid question but what kind of ties did you use and where did you buy them,,, i never actually bought any before, but ill have to cut and remove the dealer installed ones and use some new ones. Is there any store in particular you recomend, and maybe a specific type of tie wrap that works best? Im guessing whatever they sell at Walmart should be good enough!

Thanks,

 

Yea you know i just bought a pack of like 100 assorted lengths and colors for 3.99 from Autozone. They work just as well as any other ones..

But i did buy the tie mounts (plastic dealies that have adhesive on the back so you can create a spot to attach the ties) from Radio shack- they had two sizes, and the small ones seemed to work well enough for me.

Hope that helps!

 

Great! thanks alot!!! im off to radio shack!!! and thanks for the idea about puting the passenger side LED far back in the foot well.... before i was thinking of permently removing the plastic cover and kind putting it inside well somewhere!!!

Now i just need to find out, if everyone has the same LED problem as me where the colour blues do not match!!! or if it is just my problem!!! This is kinda rediculous cause you pay the dealer the extra money to do a good job in a product they provide, and the Blue LEDs dont even match in shade color !!

 

I don't know if they're supposed to be that way or not, but since you're off to radio shack you can solve the LED issue too. They sell inexpensive blue 12v LEDs that you could use to replace all of yours, such that they'd all be the same shade.

 

yeah.. most of the time the cupholder leds don't match exactly. it's not uncommon.

also.. the way they installed it is exactly how it's supposed to be... with zipties and riveted or screwed in mounts (factory instructions call for rivets which suck) and the footwell tubes being where they are.

there's not much you can do at the dealership if you complain.. they won't really be of much help because they can't really do much. they did exactly what they were supposed to do, and they light up and work.

best to fix your issues yourself. if you need help in doing so... i'm just a pm away.

 

Yea same here- but i've never seen a factory hookup, just the custom jobs like mine. What does the plastic cover look like/do/

 

For the annoying tubes, a little strip of ABS just makes them disappear..


Held in place with 3M trim tape.

I'm the only tC owner in America (apparently) with amber LEDs, and the tubes and cupholders match perfectly.

 

I just pulled apart the area where the cup holder LEDs are and pulled out the bulb,,,, its the bulbs that are different colours,,,, Anyway on the way home from work i stopped at a custom Car shop, i had a guy look at my interior, and he said he would add LEDs to the upper side but under the door handles, where they are not visible, add LEDs in the rear part of the door pockets,(hidden of course), add LEDs the back cup holders,,, convert the front tubes to custom tubes that run along the contour of the center piece,(shift box, cup holder area), add brighter LEDs taht are hidden to light up the foot wells,,,, and Put an LED in each of the Side air vents (2 per side), he said he would do all this for $225,,, so i think that is a great price and i am smacking myself in the face for ordering the LEDs from the Dealer!!!! If everything goes well i should have it done next friday!!! Ill post some pics hopefully they dont damage my car!!!! but in all the areas im getting the LEDs installed i can remove them and you would never know anything was there (for when i sell my car), except of course for the rear cup holders.

Anyways thanks guys for your help!

 

Well- 225 is probly a good price for all that, but if you DIY, you'll pay only for the parts.. which might run 50-70$ total if you wanna do all that you mentioned.... not a sermon just a thought. post pics when its all done!

 

NAH, you're not the only 1. i've got amber also. one thing i did do is NOT use the crappy zip ties. for some stupid reason they give you a black bulb base, a clear rod, and WHITE zip ties. on a casual glance this sticks out like a sore thumb against the dark grey background of the interior and floor mat and causes a double take becuase your eyes are like...what the hell are those little white things? ...like if you are looking into the car during the day with the door open. change those to BLACK zips (i got them at rat shack) and the casual daytime glance makes it invisible.

although i do like what you did with the abs as an extra shield. i may look into doing that as you can see the rod lightsaber when it's on. i drive with my seat pushed all the way back so from my vantage point i can see the rods when lit and would prefer not to. did you do that on the drivers side also, and where did you buy it?

 

Oh, the white zip ties went right in the bin. Black zip ties and stainless rivets with backing washers.

The ABS strips were leftover bits from making radiator plates.

 

so pretty much something like this-




this really isn't all that hard to do. run a couple wires here, some butt connectors there, throw some electrical tape and zipties in there sometime and voila you've got a lit up interior. total cost is like 130 for everything from leds + cathodes, to wire, fuse holder, and switches.

 

That looks amazing!!! so are you saying you did it yourself and it cost you $130 or you went to a custom shop and they charged you 130?,,, cause i just got off the phone with my friend and he was telling me that 225 was way to much since LED lights are so cheep and that probably close to $200 was the cost of labour and the for the LEDs is prob around $25,,, SO he was saying i should work the guy down to about, at least $175!, but at the same time you dont wanna go too cheep cause then the person will do a ____ty job!!! and he will not care what goes wrong wit your car!,,,,, what i also heard looks really good is to add a white strobe lights behind the blue LEDs in the right and left airvent!!!, so i am thinking of trying this out, and of course having a separt switch to control it..... my car is gonna look like a club inside,,, hahaha, ill just invite all the girls there,lol!!!

 

I wired and installed everything myself. that $130 is the cost of materials only.

that strobe idea sounds cool, though I would hide them under the front seats and under the dash so it strobes the footwells.

 

can someone show me a pic of the inside of the center cup holder where those leds are? Ive been wondering how they were mounted for a few months now.

 

strobes in the vents does not sound wise. you'd want strobes outside of your direct line of sight or your eyes will go nuts.

 

top view-


underneith-


drill a couple of holes in the cupholder, and then feed in the LED wires through the hole from the top. try to make your hole slightly smaller than the led itself so the wires can fit, but the led won't. Once the led is in place, use some silicone sealant to hold it in place. easy!

 

interesting - only thing is - when i put a cold drink in there some water (from the coldness) goes down there - i dont know how smart that would be for me to do this mod. how does scion do it from the factory? i figured toyota would have popouts already there since they seem to like to do their installs like that.