Rear interior light

[Coulomb]

When I use the wire taps, how do I know which wires are positive and negative please (or does it not matter with LEDs?)

I can answer this part (only). LEDs are very much polarity sensitive; polarity should be marked on the LED "tape".

The wire taps will be positive; car chassis will be negative.

 

[N2STY]

Been looking to do this for ages and finally taken the plunge. Can I ask a few questions for those of you who paid more attention in physics lessons than I did please?

Should I be disconnecting the 12v battery before starting this work?

Presumably there's two sets of wire that I could clamp on to - one for the drivers side map light and one for the passenger side map light. Do I want the drivers side ones?

When I use the wire taps, how do I know which wires are positive and negative please (or does it not matter with LEDs?)

Can I pop out the central map light unit by going in under the roof lining from the edge of the sunroof or do I need to lever it out from the cab?

Thanks

Read up on post 47 (Black is earth white and black is positive)

 

[SparkyEV]

Read up on post 47 (Black is earth white and black is positive)

Thanks N2STY, is that on the leads from the LEDs or from the navigation light? Presumably we connect positive to positive and negative to negative?

It’s in and working - waiting for the sun to go down.
I used the double wire taps which worked great.
One thing that made things easier was to use credit cards at the forward sides to release the side clips of the console unit.

Thanks @N2STY for the pointers

I had 1m 20 left out of 5m. Will divide into 30cm strips to put under seats into a 5A switched fuse bridge.

https://amzn.eu/d/ftsca03

https://amzn.eu/d/9UTN7UV

View attachment 12909

Hi Scoobeesnac,

It looks like you've attached this to the passenger side light - is that correct or am I just misinterpreting the picture (I've not yet got into the unit to have a look at it myself but trying to get organised so that when I do, I've got a vague idea of what is going on...)

 

[scoobeesnac]

Hi Scoobeesnac,

It looks like you've attached this to the passenger side light - is that correct or am I just misinterpreting the picture (I've not yet got into the unit to have a look at it myself but trying to get organised so that when I do, I've got a vague idea of what is going on...)

IIRC the tap is on the 12V input to the cluster rather than the individual light outputs, so using the on/off buttons make no difference - only the strip comes on with door opening and go off when all doors are closed.

 

[Philekent]

OK It very tight to pull out I got in from the side to get good grip on the back very tight it's just 2 very strong proper clips at the back it's is just brute force in downward from the back goes back a lots easyer

`Those Clips are a NIGHTMARE !

Theyre all around the boot-door panelling too
Evil things

The clips your fightingView attachment 12792

Thanks N@sty - Ive been trying for 1/2 hr to. get the console out - now `i know where those EVIL catchs are !

 

[fred12345]

This is something I really want to try, for the time being I got 2 rechargeable LEDs for rear seats, not connected to anything... Scared to pull the panels off and fiddle with wires, in old days with old cars, wouldn't think twice ....