Glove Compartment - adding lights?

[JTNY]

I find it annoying that my glove compartment has no lights in there. Anyone have ideas as to what the best way to get some lighting in there? I am guessing some LED hooked in to a 12v source in the fuse box?

 

[garyd9]

You'd probably want to have some kind of switch that only turns on the LED when the glove compartment is open (or when you manually turn it on.) So, 12v (from the fuse panel) to the switch, to the light source, to ground.

For the light source, you can either use an automotive 12v LED strip, or wire in a standard socket for a festoon or other standard bulb type (such as a 194.) A socket would be more work to install cleanly, but you'd be able to easily swap bulbs (LED, incandescent, color, whatever.) A LED strip would probably be much easier to install (just stick it in place) and could generate more light over a greater area, but would be much more difficult to replace if the strip becomes damaged.

 

[cjecpa]

CX-5 seems not to be the only vehicle without glove compartment light, here is a DIY for reference http://www.subaruforester.org/vbulletin/f85/how-install-glove-box-light-diy-255106/

 

[pt00323i]

I added a led strip and a mercury tip sensor, mount the tip sensor on the glove box and center box so when open it will light up. 12V I just used the cig ligher plug and wired it up, so I don't need to spice factory wires.

I did the same for the rear trunk area like other posts.

fairly easy to do.