Disclaimer: This guide is for reference purposes only. I am not responsible for any damage done to yourself or vehicle from attempting what is shown.
**Hate to do that but with electricity and removing trim, its necessary**
All my photo captions are for the photo below it.
Part 1: Hatch LEDs
Back in August my dad and I wired in new trunk LED lighting as well as blue footwell lighting. I ordered all of my parts from oznium.com. Took some pics(on my phone so mind the quality) but not a gazillion due to time constraints, but enough for those who can handle this amount of work to use. This is my first guide of this length, so go easy on me :blush 1:. If you find some critical gaps or grammar, etc. let me know and I try to fill in the gap or fix it. Parts list:
1. 2x Tri-chip LED Tube, 9-inch, White
2. 2x Linear light extension cable, 40-inch(Was just short by several inches, so I spliced in my own wire. Next size up is a 16 foot cable...)
3. 2x Mounting Clip(Each tube comes with two, but I wanted extra just in case i needed a third mounting location for stability)
4. 2x Pre-wired, Surface-Mount 12V LED : 5050 SMD
5. Pack of dome light dummy bulbs
6. Associated butt clamps and wire my dad had in our garage
Links to parts for further info:
Tri-Chip LED Tube - Amazingly bright & economical - LED Home Lighting
Linear Light Extension Interconnect Cable
Tube Mounting Clip
Tiny Prewired Super Bright Surface Mount LEDs - 12V DIY Plug and Play SMT LED
Pack of dome light dummy bulbs
So first things first, I began by removing all of the panels necessary to take the black vent trim pieces out as well as to pull the black carpeted trim enough to feed the wires through. Attached is an interior trim removal/rebuild guide I used, most likely from part of the factory service manual.
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After I removed the trim pieces, we began to modify the black vent pieces to mount the LED tubes. Some trimming of the plastic inside was required to use the mounts effectively. We ended up only using the two mounts supplied with the tube. The mounts are just clip in and the tube can rotate in the mount with s bit of force. Pics below shows an overall view of the inside as well as how and where we mounted the tube.
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TIP: Remember to rotate the tube so the LEDs face out before reinstalling the trim piece. Do this for both sides. Also, orient the tube so the extension cables can be connected with the most slack(Think of lining them up one after the other, now keep that orientation and move one to the opposite side of the trunk)
The next phase was putting in the wiring between the two tubes. The tube on the left will have a connector with nothing attached, this is OK. The lights work just fine with only one of the ends connected. We fed the extension cables behind the side of the hatch area(black carpeted piece shown below). This part was a bit tricky due to lots of obstructions but we eventually pulled it through.
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Underneath the foam layer where your tools fit was sheet metal and the gas door release cable. We decided to follow the path of the cable and use the clips to secure the wire some. Once everything was done, we used zipties to secure it more
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Did this for each side then realized the cables were a couple inches too short, even with almost zero slack in the wires. To overcome this, we cut the connectors and spliced in wire to bridge the gap and enough so there was slack in the wires.
![]()
The next part, once your tubes are connected to each other, is to wire them into the OEM bulb housing to draw power. Your supposed to take the adjustable festoon bulb and wire in to the red and black wires. They are super fragile and mine broke, but we did another fix using this bulb since I didn't want the yellow light and the white 5k lights together. We took the bulb and used a ring terminal on the left side of the bulb for power. This retains the switch function of the lights if you desire so they aren't always on when the hatch is open.
Ring terminal:
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The ground from the tubes goes to the white wire going into the plug for the OEM light.
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Overall view. The ring terminal goes to one of the wire for the tubes. The other wire from the tubes goes to the ground for the switch(white cable). Sorry for the messy wiring on this part. I originally had a single LED strip taped to the right underside of the vent before doing this. It is a result from the previous version.
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The two wires shown here are SEPERATE. Pic makes them look connected. Both feed up to the LED tube.
![]()
Lights are connected and powered after this. Test BEFORE putting all of the trim back on in case they don't work and then start troubleshooting. Final pics.(Again sorry about the random blurs. My HTC EVO has a microscopic scratch on the lens :argh 1
Very happy with how it turned out and it looks very clean since you can't see any of the wires or tubes. Also, for 6 LEDs on each side, the tubes put out ALOT of light.
![]()
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If I remember, I will update this with better pics from my iPod.
**Hate to do that but with electricity and removing trim, its necessary**
All my photo captions are for the photo below it.
Part 1: Hatch LEDs
Back in August my dad and I wired in new trunk LED lighting as well as blue footwell lighting. I ordered all of my parts from oznium.com. Took some pics(on my phone so mind the quality) but not a gazillion due to time constraints, but enough for those who can handle this amount of work to use. This is my first guide of this length, so go easy on me :blush 1:. If you find some critical gaps or grammar, etc. let me know and I try to fill in the gap or fix it. Parts list:
1. 2x Tri-chip LED Tube, 9-inch, White
2. 2x Linear light extension cable, 40-inch(Was just short by several inches, so I spliced in my own wire. Next size up is a 16 foot cable...)
3. 2x Mounting Clip(Each tube comes with two, but I wanted extra just in case i needed a third mounting location for stability)
4. 2x Pre-wired, Surface-Mount 12V LED : 5050 SMD
5. Pack of dome light dummy bulbs
6. Associated butt clamps and wire my dad had in our garage
Links to parts for further info:
Tri-Chip LED Tube - Amazingly bright & economical - LED Home Lighting
Linear Light Extension Interconnect Cable
Tube Mounting Clip
Tiny Prewired Super Bright Surface Mount LEDs - 12V DIY Plug and Play SMT LED
Pack of dome light dummy bulbs
So first things first, I began by removing all of the panels necessary to take the black vent trim pieces out as well as to pull the black carpeted trim enough to feed the wires through. Attached is an interior trim removal/rebuild guide I used, most likely from part of the factory service manual.
After I removed the trim pieces, we began to modify the black vent pieces to mount the LED tubes. Some trimming of the plastic inside was required to use the mounts effectively. We ended up only using the two mounts supplied with the tube. The mounts are just clip in and the tube can rotate in the mount with s bit of force. Pics below shows an overall view of the inside as well as how and where we mounted the tube.
TIP: Remember to rotate the tube so the LEDs face out before reinstalling the trim piece. Do this for both sides. Also, orient the tube so the extension cables can be connected with the most slack(Think of lining them up one after the other, now keep that orientation and move one to the opposite side of the trunk)
The next phase was putting in the wiring between the two tubes. The tube on the left will have a connector with nothing attached, this is OK. The lights work just fine with only one of the ends connected. We fed the extension cables behind the side of the hatch area(black carpeted piece shown below). This part was a bit tricky due to lots of obstructions but we eventually pulled it through.
Underneath the foam layer where your tools fit was sheet metal and the gas door release cable. We decided to follow the path of the cable and use the clips to secure the wire some. Once everything was done, we used zipties to secure it more
Did this for each side then realized the cables were a couple inches too short, even with almost zero slack in the wires. To overcome this, we cut the connectors and spliced in wire to bridge the gap and enough so there was slack in the wires.
The next part, once your tubes are connected to each other, is to wire them into the OEM bulb housing to draw power. Your supposed to take the adjustable festoon bulb and wire in to the red and black wires. They are super fragile and mine broke, but we did another fix using this bulb since I didn't want the yellow light and the white 5k lights together. We took the bulb and used a ring terminal on the left side of the bulb for power. This retains the switch function of the lights if you desire so they aren't always on when the hatch is open.
Ring terminal:
The ground from the tubes goes to the white wire going into the plug for the OEM light.
Overall view. The ring terminal goes to one of the wire for the tubes. The other wire from the tubes goes to the ground for the switch(white cable). Sorry for the messy wiring on this part. I originally had a single LED strip taped to the right underside of the vent before doing this. It is a result from the previous version.
The two wires shown here are SEPERATE. Pic makes them look connected. Both feed up to the LED tube.
Lights are connected and powered after this. Test BEFORE putting all of the trim back on in case they don't work and then start troubleshooting. Final pics.(Again sorry about the random blurs. My HTC EVO has a microscopic scratch on the lens :argh 1
Very happy with how it turned out and it looks very clean since you can't see any of the wires or tubes. Also, for 6 LEDs on each side, the tubes put out ALOT of light.
If I remember, I will update this with better pics from my iPod.
