jakenbake wrote:I used these LEDs from SuperBrightLEDs. I removed the dim puddle light from the drivers side and replaced it with the same one as the passengers side.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... -led/1141/

ok cool. I was thinking of replacing the drivers side one, and adding this to the passanger side:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... ight/1494/

Did you drill a hole in the passenger side and try to flush mount the light, or did you just prep and stick it on?

I looked at that one but I think it might be too long...There is only about a half an inch or so behind that trim piece. I drilled the hole and flush mounted it...used epoxy to hold it in place.

jakenbake wrote:I looked at that one but I think it might be too long...There is only about a half an inch or so behind that trim piece. I drilled the hole and flush mounted it...used epoxy to hold it in place.

Ok, thats good to know. I would have trimmed the bolt down if needed, but knowing about the lack of room will help a lot. Now I have to find time to work on my car.

jakenbake wrote:I looked at that one but I think it might be too long...There is only about a half an inch or so behind that trim piece. I drilled the hole and flush mounted it...used epoxy to hold it in place.

Quick question, that would be answered when I actually get a chance to dive in, but with adding the puddle light on the passenger side effect the mirror from being able to fold in and out?

I ordered the LEDs today so I will be performing the install in the near future, along with another custom lighting upgrade that I'll keep wrapped up until completed.

CustomLowz wrote:

jakenbake wrote:I looked at that one but I think it might be too long...There is only about a half an inch or so behind that trim piece. I drilled the hole and flush mounted it...used epoxy to hold it in place.

Quick question, that would be answered when I actually get a chance to dive in, but with adding the puddle light on the passenger side effect the mirror from being able to fold in and out?

I ordered the LEDs today so I will be performing the install in the near future, along with another custom lighting upgrade that I'll keep wrapped up until completed.

No...It will fold just fine.

jakenbake wrote:
No...It will fold just fine.

Awesome. I figured it would be located in the base closer to the vehicle and not towards to pivot joint, but just wanted to double check.

Im looking forward to performing my upgrades. Pics will follow

I had some extra LEDs from my projects so I added them to the cup holders and center console just like my Lexus had.

My projects slowed down a bit as I got busy with work and school. But I finished my lighting by adding the purple accents to the footwells in the back and I added white LEDs to the rear footwells as well to work in conjunction with the dome light. I also switched out all the of the interior lights (including glove box and ash tray) with LEDs.

My biggest change though...I finally got rid of those fugly aftermarket rims and crappy tires. I found some take-offs from Infiniti of Peoria and they gave me a great deal on the set. They tires and wheels only had 20 miles on them but are techinally used. Good news for me! Also, the drive is amazingly better. I didn't think the car drove bad or was noisy before...but after the new tires, my car is smooth with almost no road noise and handles so much better. Before and after pics below.

Before..


After..

jakenbake wrote:My projects slowed down a bit as I got busy with work and school. But I finished my lighting by adding the purple accents to the footwells in the back and I added white LEDs to the rear footwells as well to work in conjunction with the dome light. I also switched out all the of the interior lights (including glove box and ash tray) with LEDs.

My biggest change though...I finally got rid of those fugly aftermarket rims and crappy tires. I found some take-offs from Infiniti of Peoria and they gave me a great deal on the set. They tires and wheels only had 20 miles on them but are techinally used. Good news for me! Also, the drive is amazingly better. I didn't think the car drove bad or was noisy before...but after the new tires, my car is smooth with almost no road noise and handles so much better. Before and after pics below.

Before..


After..

Very nice!

I didn't think that the aftermarket rims looked that bad, but the OEM rims are a huge improvement .

Awesome!

Thanks guys! :-)

man we have the same car, same exterior and interior color.

My most recent project was quick and easy.... I swapped out the halogen bulbs for 5000k LEDs from VLEDs. http://www.vleds.com/shop-bulb-numbers/ ... -pair.html I think they look good plus they are way brighter! Although, I almost never turn my fog lights on at night. But My fog lights do run as DRLs and I like the look with the LED much better.

Whoa!. Did you change the low beam headlights for LED? (H11).

I wonder how they compare to the HID kits.

They say the morimoto HID are 3200 Lumen and the LED are 2800.

No...I have the factory HIDs with AFS. I wouldn't mind converting from HID to LED but they wouldn't work with the AFS. On VLED's website, they have a couple other options that produce more lumens...But they're a little pricier...$200 and $250. Here is a link to the H11 bulb. If you go that route I would get the $250 dollar set since they produce more lumens than an HID bulb. http://www.vleds.com/shop-bulb-numbers/ ... s/h11.html

Thanks.
I already have Morimoto HID installed for low beams. I thought I could upgrade to LED, but don't think it's worthy to do it.

Those LED look great!!

jakenbake wrote:Haha...I am from Phoenix originally so I kind of remember what I am in for. But this will be my first summer in a while. Eeks.

Aluminum pedals would look great with the lights at night. I left my OEM foot well lights though so when the interior lights are on all you can see is the incandescent light. I also thought of changing all the interior lights to LED but decided that with the brown leather the incandescent looked better.

The DRL is pretty easy if you are a handy person. Here is my sketch of how I wired it. Not sure if it will make sense or not but I will try and make a step by step later for you.

hi, I'm a pretty handy person but with almost zero electrical knowledge...did you have to add additional wires to connect any of the existing components?

ycao421 wrote:

jakenbake wrote:Haha...I am from Phoenix originally so I kind of remember what I am in for. But this will be my first summer in a while. Eeks.

Aluminum pedals would look great with the lights at night. I left my OEM foot well lights though so when the interior lights are on all you can see is the incandescent light. I also thought of changing all the interior lights to LED but decided that with the brown leather the incandescent looked better.

The DRL is pretty easy if you are a handy person. Here is my sketch of how I wired it. Not sure if it will make sense or not but I will try and make a step by step later for you.

hi, I'm a pretty handy person but with almost zero electrical knowledge...did you have to add additional wires to connect any of the existing components?

Same here. I would love a how to on this. I am a fan of the Fog Lights being on when I drive. Currently I drive with all my lights on, but i love how it looks when just the fogs are going.

Yes...The only components that are already in the car are the BCM (Body Control Module) and the IPDM (Inteligent Power Distribution Module). The relays all have to be added and the lines are wires that were added.

The IPDM is located next to the battery and you make 4 connections inside of the IPDM. 2 for the fog lights, 1 for the parking light (this turns off the DRL when the lights come on), and 1 connection to the Big white wire which is the constant 12v. You then run the 4 wires into the passenger foot well. There is a big rubber grommet just above the battery that opens into the foot well which makes it easy to run the wires.

You only have to make one connection at the BCM...This is to turn on the lights when the ignition is on.

The rest of the connections are done with the relays.

Originally I wired a cut-off switch so that I could turn off the DRLs if I wanted but I since took out the cut-off switch and wired it so that the DRLs are only on if I am in gear. The DRLs turn off if I am in park or the headlights/parking lights are on. I could draw a new diagram of how to do this if anyone is interested. It requires a third relay and a connecting in the center console at the shifter.

I am not likely to make a detailed write up since i really dont want to take everything apart and put it back together again...but if anyone has questions, I am happy to answer.

I will try and be better about making write-ups when I do things in the future.

jakenbake wrote:Yes...The only components that are already in the car are the BCM (Body Control Module) and the IPDM (Inteligent Power Distribution Module). The relays all have to be added and the lines are wires that were added.

The IPDM is located next to the battery and you make 4 connections inside of the IPDM. 2 for the fog lights, 1 for the parking light (this turns off the DRL when the lights come on), and 1 connection to the Big white wire which is the constant 12v. You then run the 4 wires into the passenger foot well. There is a big rubber grommet just above the battery that opens into the foot well which makes it easy to run the wires.

You only have to make one connection at the BCM...This is to turn on the lights when the ignition is on.

The rest of the connections are done with the relays.

Originally I wired a cut-off switch so that I could turn off the DRLs if I wanted but I since took out the cut-off switch and wired it so that the DRLs are only on if I am in gear. The DRLs turn off if I am in park or the headlights/parking lights are on. I could draw a new diagram of how to do this if anyone is interested. It requires a third relay and a connecting in the center console at the shifter.

I am not likely to make a detailed write up since i really dont want to take everything apart and put it back together again...but if anyone has questions, I am happy to answer.

I will try and be better about making write-ups when I do things in the future.

darn, complicated enough for me, I'll have to take some time to actually study this. Thanks for the reply.

Bump

Jakenbake can you post what wires you tapped into to wire in the amp? Did you use a line out converter, or just cut rca's, splice them in then connect to amp?
Thanks in advance

I didn't use a line converter. Just spliced the RCA and tied into the factory wiring.

Here are a couple options of where to tap in. This is for a 2009 with Navigation, Bose, and Around View Monitor. Not sure if it is the same for other years and option packages...But this is what the repair manual specified.

This is if you tap into the harness going to the subwoofer. The signal is low voltage as the subwoofer has its own aplifier built into it. I initially wired it this way but this signal comes from the Bose amplifier and not from the head unit.
Pin 4, Gray, Amp turn-on signal.
Pin 2, Green, Sub Signal +.
Pin 1, Red, Sub signal -.

This is if you tap in at the Bose Amp. The Bose amp is located under the floor board in the very left/rear of the car. This signal is direct from the head unit. I wired it this way as it seems to have a slightly more full range.
All the wires below are in the 23 pin harness.
Pin 31, White, Amp turn-on signal.
Pin 18, Pink, Front LH +.
Pin 32, Blue, Front LH -.
Pin 19, Red, Front RH +.
Pin 20, Green, Front RH -.

Did another little fun project to my car the other week.

When I had my BMW I liked how the door handle cups lit up. So I took the doors apart and did this same thing to the EX. It was a little bit pricey because I had to buy new handles for the back doors since they are not hollow. But the other advantage to this was that I wired the new back door handles so that I can now lock/unlock the car with the intelligent key from any of the doors instead of just the front doors.

jakenbake wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 28, 2015 2:36 pm

I had some extra LEDs from my projects so I added them to the cup holders and center console just like my Lexus had.

Sorry to bump this old post.
Wondering if Jakenbake can tell me how he removed the cup holder to wire in the leds, and where you tapped into for powering them?

Also for the puddle light on the passengers side, where did you run the wiring and where did you tap in for that?

Thanks!