My Fiesta Mk7 Interior Lighting Project (Picture Heavy)

[tunne1rat]

Some of you will remember from the how to section that last year I decided the single light in the roof of my Zetec S was inadequate for interior courtesy lighting so after some careful thought, embarked on an upgrade project.

To recap, I wired in and fitted Red LED Bulbs to the footwells, I swapped the interior light for the Titanium version and wired the submarine lights:

I brightened the interior by adding Electroluminescent Wire to the roof lining:

...and around the edges of the rear floor mats:

and recently I have also added logo puddle lighting to the doors:

I probably should have stopped there, but no.

I wanted ambient lights.

So, this is still work in progress, but so far I have added light to the centre console:

The dashboard...

The rear footwells...

The door handles and pockets...

...and custom designed cup holder bases:

I Still have more work planned for the rear seat side pockets and front footwells.

But wait... there's one more thing...

I can change the colour...

to any colour....

or brightness....

or even an animated slow fade between all of the colours....

or when i'm sick of it - just turn it off!

[Jwsturner]

Hi, we did you buy the electroluminescent wire from?

[Bladerunner]

Hi Steve, looks very impressive, this might seem a daft question but does all of this make it easier to see in the back of the car as we have never had such a poorly light up car interior before, we have two dogs that have safety belt restraints fitted and we have to use a torch to see.

Cheers.

Martin.

ps. I fitted led red under footwell lights soon after we got the car which looks very good.

[AJ_sXe]

I had one thought when I saw your lit-up bottle holder - NukaCola Quantums!

Oh and I really want to copy your headlining strips but doing the wiring scares the hell out of me!

[b1g_dav3]

\out of curiosity, what bulbs go in the submarine light?

[bigmunkynutz]

\out of curiosity, what bulbs go in the submarine light?

In particular what bulb did you use for the centre of the overhead bulbs, in the facelift they show as w6w but I can find any of that type available anywhere. Tried a w5w to no avail and I seem to have knackered the centre light as it won't come on with any bulb combination. Any thoughts?

[b1g_dav3]

Might have mucked up the switchlike I did. My advice - restore to original and go to Ford saying it won't work :P

As for W6W, never heard of it, got a picture?

[bigmunkynutz]

Might have mucked up the switchlike I did. My advice - restore to original and go to Ford saying it won't work :P

I was thinking this, though I do wonder why that light is a 6w w5w/501 style bulb, is it possible to get led/smd alternatives as I can't find anywhere and it seems daft to only change the map reading ones :-(

[b1g_dav3]

Seems to just be a 6W T10 bulb, so in theory a T10 LED should work fine, strange.

[Stoney871]

For some reason the fuse for the courtesy light is very sensitive in Ford's.

I have blown a couple changing courtesy light bulbs.

Seeing as LED Bulbs are polarity sensitive a lot of people fall foul of this and get bemused when their lights don't work.

Btw Bunny, love the Fallout 3 reference. :d

[bigmunkynutz]

For some reason the fuse for the courtesy light is very sensitive in Ford's.

I have blown a couple changing courtesy light bulbs.

Seeing as led bulbs are polarity sensitive a lot of people fall foul of this and get bemused when their lights don't work.

Btw Bunny, love the Fallout 3 reference. :d

Cheers Stoney, any idea which fuse it is? and is it seperate from the other bulbs? as the handbook is as much use as a chocolate fire guard.

[bigmunkynutz]

Seems to just be a 6W T10 bulb, so in theory a T10 LED should work fine, strange.

Dave, I presume that you mean even a 5w w5w/501/t10 should work?

[AJ_sXe]

For some reason the fuse for the courtesy light is very sensitive in Ford's.

I have blown a couple changing courtesy light bulbs.

Seeing as led bulbs are polarity sensitive a lot of people fall foul of this and get bemused when their lights don't work.

Btw Bunny, love the Fallout 3 reference. :D

I'm glad somebody else got it....

[tunne1rat]

To answer some of your questions:

Submarine lights are LED.

All filament bulbs were replaced with 5 SMD T10 LED.

The roof lighting was added because my children couldn't see to buckle themselves up at night. The Aqua Neon glow from the EL wire is surprisingly bright.

All parts can be found on eBay.

[b1g_dav3]

Dave, I presume that you mean even a 5w w5w/501/t10 should work?

I'd have thought so, probably had a fuse go if it won't work at all.

[tunne1rat]

For some reason the fuse for the courtesy light is very sensitive in Ford's.

I have blown a couple changing courtesy light bulbs.

Seeing as led bulbs are polarity sensitive a lot of people fall foul of this and get bemused when their lights don't work.

Btw Bunny, love the Fallout 3 reference. :D

When fitting or changing a bulb, disconnect the light unit from the wiring.

The twist in bulb base contacts are wide enough to short circuit the positive and negative contacts on the light unit when locating the bulb causing the fuse to blow.

Incidentally, from memory I don't think the interior lights are fused on the mk7 Fiesta - they are driven directly from the GEM which has built in short circuit protection.

[Preee]

Lights look really good Steve , and even better that you can change the colour

[tunne1rat]

Thanks Preee,

The cup holders are my favourite part - even though they took the longest to perfect.

[b1g_dav3]

When fitting or changing a bulb, disconnect the light unit from the wiring.

The twist in bulb base contacts are wide enough to short circuit the positive and negative contacts on the light unit when locating the bulb causing the fuse to blow.

Incidentally, from memory I don't think the interior lights are fused on the mk7 Fiesta - they are driven directly from the GEM which has built in short circuit protection.

Also don't do it just while waiting for the other half to finish her shift in the dark, think that was my mistake :P

[bigmunkynutz]

When fitting or changing a bulb, disconnect the light unit from the wiring.

The twist in bulb base contacts are wide enough to short circuit the positive and negative contacts on the light unit when locating the bulb causing the fuse to blow.

Incidentally, from memory I don't think the interior lights are fused on the mk7 Fiesta - they are driven directly from the GEM which has built in short circuit protection.

Also don't do it just while waiting for the other half to finish her shift in the dark, think that was my mistake :P

Cheers guys, I have checked all fuses and they are fine, the centre light isn't working but the two either side are so I'm not sure where to go from here, perhaps a trip to the dealers with all Originals back in place and a claim of "it's not working only noticed the other day when I went out at night" :-P

[tunne1rat]

Cheers guys, I have checked all fuses and they are fine, the centre light isn't working but the two either side are so I'm not sure where to go from here, perhaps a trip to the dealers with all Originals back in place and a claim of "it's not working only noticed the other day when I went out at night" :-P

Try removing the centre switch and bending the contacts inwards slightly.

[DanGersFord]

Love the cup holder logos where did you get them from?

[bigmunkynutz]

Try removing the centre switch and bending the contacts inwards slightly.

Cheers mate, this solved the issue and it works again even with my smd bulbs!

[tunne1rat]

Love the cup holder logos where did you get them from?

The cup holder bases started life as a perspex disc, which were then covered in layers of reflective and non reflective material to channel the light from a single LED to the outside edges, creating the desired halo effect.

Whilst I was rummaging around in my parts cupboard I found some stick on aluminium wheel centres and thought they would look good as decoration for the bases.

[xenium12]

Great set up Tunne1rat, I love it!

I'm curious, how tricky was it to install/wire the rear footwells? I would love to know where you got all the parts and how you managed to do it so well!