I saw alienprimes excellent trunk lighting DIY so I finally decided to post this here. This is on an 8th gen car. I have not seen the inside of a trunk on a 9th gen yet but hopefully it is very similar. If someone wants to get pics of the 9th gen trunk and make adjustments to this that would be great.
This is as easy as I can make it. No fuse taps, no running wires, no soldering, splicing, or otherwise. This uses the stock wiring, is completely reverseable, and you can solder/splice for a cleaner install if you wish.
Onto the project....
Tools: Small screwdriver
Supplies: Electrical Tape, Super Glue, LED strip, Jumper, Mounting Clips
Loctite Control Gel Super Glue. It grabs fast and doesnt run.
LED strip: FLB 30 series flexible LED light bar from superbrightleds.com
$12.95 for cool white color
http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/side-emitting/flb-x30-series-flexible-led-light-bar/125/
FLB30 Power jumper. This plugs right into the white boxes you see sticking up on the LED strip.
0.45 cents.
Mounting clips. Get 3-4. Only 0.25 cents
In the trunk, on the 8th gen at least, there is a single trunk light mounted in a plastic covering.
Pry it out from the left side with a small screwdriver.
Once out it should be hanging by a wire with a blue clip.
Disconnect the light from the clip. This is the black housing in the trunk. The whole thing removes.
You are now going to pull the black plastic part off. Its held on with push connectors. It's hard but just pull down on it.
This is the type of pin you are pulling out.
This is how my trunk looked with the housing out. The arrows show a metal ridge I hid the strip behind. The 9th gen trunk may be different so you may have to find another location to hide it behind.
Get your led strip. The mounting clips just clip right onto it.
There are jumper connections all along the strip. You can use any connection and it will light the whole thing. This makes cleaning up the wire locations easy since you can connect the power anywhere along it.
Jumper connector. Plugs right into the strip at any of the two pronged locations.
This is where your preference in connections, splicing, soldering, taping comes in. I just pushed one side into each side of the clip. With the clip facing "up" I connected the red side to the blue side and the black to the light blue.
I don't know what the connector in the 9th gen is like but the wire colors should be the same. You can always splice/solder. I just pushed them together, it fit great to my surprise, and I just taped the prongs to the clip.
Light blue positive + dark blue -
Test your connection and make sure it works.
Next I suped glued the mounting clips behind the ridge in the trunk. It has held for over 2 years now. It sets quick so be sure where you want to mount. The gel is nice because it won't run either. I don't know where the mounting point would be ideal in a 9th gen.
(If someone would like to update with 9th gen pics that would be great)
I used all 4 clips but I think 2 would have held just fine. This is looking into the trunk. The red circles show how little of the clip is sticking out.
Insert the LED strip into the clips and connect your jumper. If it doesnt light, reverse the red/black wires.
Light.
I just taped everything up to the black sheath housing around all the stock wiring. Its up out of the way and you can't see it just looking into the trunk.
Done.
Night shot.
Ok. So the wiring connection is ghetto but its super easy and requires no cutting or splicing. Just tape the wires and super glue the mounts. You can go back and make a proper connection if you wish. I did later. This is a nice quick way to use existing power wiring without having to run anything extra. Also you can use the jumper for testing and location of the strip. Once you are happy with it you could certainly cut off the pronged ends and make a better & cleaner connection. (t-taps or whatever you prefer.)
If anyone has a 9th gen and would like to have this done I would be more than happy to assist you with the install if you are anywhere near where I live. Hopefully someone can post up some pics of the 8th to 9th differences and this DIY can be modified. Thanks!
(I have more pics but limited to 20)
This is as easy as I can make it. No fuse taps, no running wires, no soldering, splicing, or otherwise. This uses the stock wiring, is completely reverseable, and you can solder/splice for a cleaner install if you wish.
Onto the project....
Tools: Small screwdriver
Supplies: Electrical Tape, Super Glue, LED strip, Jumper, Mounting Clips
Loctite Control Gel Super Glue. It grabs fast and doesnt run.
LED strip: FLB 30 series flexible LED light bar from superbrightleds.com
$12.95 for cool white color
http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/side-emitting/flb-x30-series-flexible-led-light-bar/125/
FLB30 Power jumper. This plugs right into the white boxes you see sticking up on the LED strip.
0.45 cents.
Mounting clips. Get 3-4. Only 0.25 cents
In the trunk, on the 8th gen at least, there is a single trunk light mounted in a plastic covering.
Pry it out from the left side with a small screwdriver.
Once out it should be hanging by a wire with a blue clip.
Disconnect the light from the clip. This is the black housing in the trunk. The whole thing removes.
You are now going to pull the black plastic part off. Its held on with push connectors. It's hard but just pull down on it.
This is the type of pin you are pulling out.
This is how my trunk looked with the housing out. The arrows show a metal ridge I hid the strip behind. The 9th gen trunk may be different so you may have to find another location to hide it behind.
Get your led strip. The mounting clips just clip right onto it.
There are jumper connections all along the strip. You can use any connection and it will light the whole thing. This makes cleaning up the wire locations easy since you can connect the power anywhere along it.
Jumper connector. Plugs right into the strip at any of the two pronged locations.
This is where your preference in connections, splicing, soldering, taping comes in. I just pushed one side into each side of the clip. With the clip facing "up" I connected the red side to the blue side and the black to the light blue.
I don't know what the connector in the 9th gen is like but the wire colors should be the same. You can always splice/solder. I just pushed them together, it fit great to my surprise, and I just taped the prongs to the clip.
Light blue positive + dark blue -
Test your connection and make sure it works.
Next I suped glued the mounting clips behind the ridge in the trunk. It has held for over 2 years now. It sets quick so be sure where you want to mount. The gel is nice because it won't run either. I don't know where the mounting point would be ideal in a 9th gen.
(If someone would like to update with 9th gen pics that would be great)
I used all 4 clips but I think 2 would have held just fine. This is looking into the trunk. The red circles show how little of the clip is sticking out.
Insert the LED strip into the clips and connect your jumper. If it doesnt light, reverse the red/black wires.
Light.
I just taped everything up to the black sheath housing around all the stock wiring. Its up out of the way and you can't see it just looking into the trunk.
Done.
Night shot.
Ok. So the wiring connection is ghetto but its super easy and requires no cutting or splicing. Just tape the wires and super glue the mounts. You can go back and make a proper connection if you wish. I did later. This is a nice quick way to use existing power wiring without having to run anything extra. Also you can use the jumper for testing and location of the strip. Once you are happy with it you could certainly cut off the pronged ends and make a better & cleaner connection. (t-taps or whatever you prefer.)
If anyone has a 9th gen and would like to have this done I would be more than happy to assist you with the install if you are anywhere near where I live. Hopefully someone can post up some pics of the 8th to 9th differences and this DIY can be modified. Thanks!
(I have more pics but limited to 20)
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