Hey all! After months of fiddling I have finally figured out how to wire the fiesta footwells so that the lighting stays on even when driving!

How you may ask?

Well, I wired both of the light sockets to the ambient lighting led strip! (The strip that lights the area above the glove box)

All you do is wire the positive of the first socket to the positive of the led strip (cut wires and use cable connector), and then the negative.

Then wire the positive and negative of the second socket in to the same cable connector.

So you are essentially running both your footwells off the same wires that run the ambient LED strip.

The footwell lighting will now act in the exact same way as the LED strip for example; Fade in when car unlocked, fade out when car locked also. The LED strip is wired by Ford so that it will only light when the headlights are switched on (or sidelights).

!!!!Only use this method after installing LED bulbs (Red is best as doesn't effect night driving and blends with the cars general lighting very well)!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!The standard filament bulbs will overheat and melt the sockets and in some cases catch fire!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me know what you think of this guys, thanks!

I've been looking for how to get my footwell lights lighting up when the sidelights are in use but unfortunately I don't have ambient lighting

Jay

I would be really really interested in doing this to wire up some led bars which i have just got off a mate in the back (on the back of the front seats)

Originally i considered wiring into the sidelights but having them fully integrated is something i was chatting about last night

Having them fade in and out would be perfect

A few Qs tho:

Where have u tapped into the ambient lighting wiring

Is it possible to return to standrad , as if nothing was ever there? U mentioned cutting the wires..

And do you have any pictures of the work you carried out

Thanks in advance

RBJ

RBJ,

I would strongly recommend wiring in to the LED strip In order to get the best out of your footwells e.g: fading in and out.

1:

In order to do this you need to drop the glove compartment door (squeeze the sides and pull out).

You should now be able to see the fuse box and other wiring.

You should now be able to see the correct wires, they lead out from the other side of where the LED strip is fixed. (Note: The wires will be wrapped in a carpet type insulate)

Those are where you want to tap into.

2:

Yes you can reverse this completely, just use cable connectors to connect all the original wiring.

3:

I will upload some pictures tonight, I am in Uni until 5pm so I should think I'll get them uploaded by 7

Hope this helps, feel free to ask for any more assistance!

Jason,

That is unfortunate, just try and locate a source which will act in the same way as the LED strip, this might not be possible so you will have to tap into a permanent live (cigarette lighter).

Only problem with this is you sacrifice fading in and out.

Hope this helps

I was thinking interior light but then I'd Have to have that on all the RI.e, NP big deal its UV Blue as well or take out the led in the interior light and Just Have it as a switch, a quite like that idea, just don't fancy running wires down from that light

Jason,

I originally wired mine to the left side interior reading light and just removed the bulb. I didn't like this though as these lights do not light up with the cars locking system.

Also you have the problem of accidentally leaving them switched on after leaving the car. This happens because in daylight you will forget that the foot wells are lit.

Also there is no fading with those switches, maybe link them to the main interior light and remove that bulb? Then you will have exactly what I have but just no main interior lighting.

Thanks

That's what I meant. Use the the courtesy light as a Switch

Give it a go! Let us know how you get on :)

I do like my interior bulb lighting though, decisions decisions

Haha yes these are the decisions I faced before I used the ambient lighting trick! Just taken some photos so I will upload in a moment.

Also did you mention you had LED's in your courtesy lighting? How do they look and what ones do you have?

Thanks

Hi first time I've modded or done anything like this myself really nervous to do it cause I don't want to mess anything up like but how you described doing it I looked behind my glovebox in my new fiesta st and it seems the wires are too short and I couldn't seem to find where the wires are from the drivers side footwell lights could anyone help :/ 

Don't wire them to stay on whilst driving, its a distraction and therefore dangerous for yourself and other road users.

My ST has permanent footwell lights (plus door pocket, door levers & roof ambient lights) but they dim with the dash dimmer settings and being red they aren't distracting at all.

Sent from my SM-G930F

I agree about the lights not being distracting, though I would recommend using red as apposed to any other colour. Blue is certainly very dazzling.

Right for those who want to wire up LED footwell lights but have no foot well lights or glovebox strip installed from stock, this will work for any fiesta.

You will need to tap into the positive feed from the roof light. Ford actually use a weird system for there lights where basically they turn the interior light off by putting 12V on to its neutral. Be sure to use the correct 12V feed to the interior light (when the light is on it will be the only one putting out 12V)

The ways this works is that the 12V from the interior light will turn the LED strip on initially, which will mean that they come on when you unlock the car and when the ignition is off. When the ignition is on the both relays will activate and give the LEDs power from the switched live so they will always be on. The second relay is required because of the way the interior light negative works. The advantage of this system though is that the LEDs will fade in and out like the roof lights.

PS.

1) switched live refers to any circuit which only gets power once the ignition is on.

2) anything labelled "0v negative" can simply be connected to an earth point on the car but the "0v from interior light" must be wired to that negative specifically.

3) best place to tap into the roof light wires is through the loom in the passenger side A pillar.

4) this circuit is meant for people installing LED strips but could be used on the existing ford footwell lights. Just cut the wires going to the bulb holder and rewire they replacing "LED strip" in the circuit above. If you have the footwell lights from ford you can use the existing feed and neutral going to them instead of the interior light ones.

I can't seem to find the drivers footwell bulb wire on the left side can anyone show me a picture or video of the drivers side bulbs wire near the fuse box 

On 28 October 2010 at 2:03 AM, Harvey19 said:

Hey all! After months of fiddling I have finally figured out how to wire the fiesta footwells so that the lighting stays on even when driving!

How you may ask?

Well, I wired both of the light sockets to the ambient lighting led strip! (The strip that lights the area above the glove box)

All you do is wire the positive of the first socket to the positive of the led strip (cut wires and use cable connector), and then the negative.

Then wire the positive and negative of the second socket in to the same cable connector.

So you are essentially running both your footwells off the same wires that run the ambient LED strip.

The footwell lighting will now act in the exact same way as the LED strip for example; Fade in when car unlocked, fade out when car locked also. The LED strip is wired by Ford so that it will only light when the headlights are switched on (or sidelights).

!!!!Only use this method after installing LED bulbs (Red is best as doesn't effect night driving and blends with the cars general lighting very well)!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!The standard filament bulbs will overheat and melt the sockets and in some cases catch fire!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me know what you think of this guys, thanks!

I've done this but now they won't go off at all 🤔 Even when I lock the car 

1 hour ago, Kyle95 said:

I've done this but now they won't go off at all 🤔 Even when I lock the car 

Did you use both the live and neutral from the light strip? If you only used the live and earthed it to the car then it will not turn off for about ten mins after the car is locked.

On 1 August 2016 at 10:50 PM, CREED said:

Did you use both the live and neutral from the light strip? If you only used the live and earthed it to the car then it will not turn off for about ten mins after the car is locked.

Yeah I've sorted it now just wired one wire wrong they look really good though need some more interior mods to do now 😏 If anyone has any ideas

sorry, a year pretty much later, i really want to have this in mine. Would anyone know anyone able to do it all for me? i'm not too good with this stuff. 

Has anyone got a video how to do this ?