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!

Just wondering if anyone has added wiring to the front doors of a mk7 (2010) Fiesta eg to run upgraded speaker cable, and which route you took or if anyone has any ideas how I can get a 6 core cable to the doors!

 

Looking at the door post electrical connector, there are a few spare holes, so pins could be bought and wired, but I would rather leave this alone and find another route.

It looks like I could squeeze a flat ribbon cable down the side of the door post connector but there doesn't seem to be an obvious way of getting it from there through the door rubber tunnel grommet and keeping everything water tight. 

 

There is also a grommet above the door connector on the door post and another on the door (covering the mirror bolt) so I could run my new cable between those grommets although it is going to look nasty and could get trapped if not careful with positioning.

Any ideas appreciated!

 

This guide shows how to fit the upgraded interior light with map lights and submarine lights (and all without an IDS session),
The light unit I used has the part number 8a6a-13k767-bb34x1 printed on the side. The light is plug and play but to get the submarine lights working, one wire needs to be added, connected to the dash illumination circuit.




Now everything can be re-assembled and tested.

A scotchlok could be used instead of a T-Tap at your own risk. Personally I think they are the work of the devil and are responsible for many electrical problems and have even been known to cause vehicle fires. The T-Tap provides a much more secure connection and can be easily disconnected when no longer needed.
Another product I highly recommend is a Posi-tap but these are harder to find in the UK.

When all done, the submarine lights should come on when your lights are switched on and should look something like this:

As most of you know, the mk7 dash has a hidden storage area under the radio. I have no idea why Ford decided not to use it, but it's not too difficult to make use of.
I have seen some people fit a latching catch here, but the problem I see with this idea is that it is difficult to fit and as the door has to be pushed in to unlatch, so when the door is closed it always looks slightly open.

My alternative idea is a lot easier to fit.
All you need are some self adhesive magnetic pads - the type which have an A & B pad are best as they are designed to lock together accurately such as these: http://www.ebay.co.u...=item53ddbf903e

Firstly you need to remove the door panel. This can be done by inserting a plastic trim tool into the gap and levering to release the clip.
To stop the door permanently closing, simply remove the metal clip from the dash or cut the plastic pin off the door.



This makes a great hiding place for iPods or portable sat navs.

I may have mentioned this before, but the Zetec S interior lights are pants!

To add insult to injury, I also have no wiring for the foot-well lights.
So as part of an on-going interior light upgrade, I decided to wire my own.
This guide is primarily for the Mk7 Fiesta but could be adapted for any car.

I got the bulb holders from a certain auction website which fit neatly into the holes provided by Ford.
I took the power feed from the roof courtesy light centre bulb so that the foot-well lights come on with the courtesy light but can also operate on demand by switching on the roof light. This suites my requirements as I have no intention of having them on whilst driving, but can manually switch all interior lights on with just one switch.

To connect my new power feed I soldered the wires directly to the light cluster. I also used a small plug and socket (usually found inside a television) so that my circuit can be disconnected if I need to remove the light unit in the future. I could have used some crimp on male/female terminals or a choc block type connector, or even attached the wires directly to the bulb holder.

Anyway, here is the guide:





I have purposely made this project expandable and the next project is going to be to improve the lighting for the rear seat passengers.
Watch this space!