CX-5 Ambient Lighting Project

[RichardCX5]

I'm creating this thread about my ongoing project to add some ambient lighting to my CX-5. I feel it's something which separates standard vs luxury cars and I've wanted to add some since I bought my CX-5. Bear in mind I'm not the greatest DIY'er in the world so it'll be a learning experience as I go along!

I had imported the JDM overhead console with ambient lighting but found it far too bright and I wasn't a great fan of the white light. My previous car, an Audi A4 had red overhead lighting which was very subtle and surprisingly useful at night, so my first mod aims to replicate that in my CX-5.

12v 5mm wide-angle flat-top LEDs picked up from eBay

As I'd already messed up this trim piece from the overhead console fitting the JDM LED I don't have to worry too much about being neat. Two 5mm holes drilled and the LEDs glued in place.

Finished and ready to fit. I would have liked to have recessed the LEDs with a nice taper but the plastic piece is only about 3mm thick, perhaps for version 2 I'll work out a way to do that unless anyone has any bright ideas? Once I've come up with a final idea I'll replace this trim piece and do it all as neatly as I can.

Fitted and testing! As I said it'd be nice not to be able to see the LEDs but luckily they're not too distracting. This is on the first fit and at first I thought they were too bright, like the JDM light (which in this picture is the oval at the front being lit up by the red LED). I had a look online and saw a great tip to scuff the surface of the LED with sandpaper to diffuse/dim the light which worked like a treat!

Very difficult to picture but you get the idea. I much prefer the red light to the white of the JDM, more in keeping with the orange LEDs of the pre-facelift models and more suited to the idea of warm-coloured 'comfort' lighting.

Next I might try out another LED in the compartment forward of the gearlever depending on how easy the trim pieces around there are to remove, another JDM accessory I'm going to rip off!

 

[RichardCX5]

Next step in my ambient lighting project is an LED in the storage in front of the gearlever. Not much in the way of functionality with this one, it's more of a cosmetic and 'wow factor' mod

Some (dis)assembly required. Actually it wasn't that difficult, unscrew the center console and slide it back an inch, undo a few screws under the gearlever panel and a few trim clips later this lot can be removed.

So my plan was to install an LED somewhere in this storage area, probably at the top but I didn't know where the best clearance in the dashboard would be so it took a trip back out to the car with this to work out where it would fit - at the top is fine though there isn't a huge amount of space between the top of this unit and the bottom of the climate/aircon unit.

Back inside and I taped an LED (5mm flat top 12v wide-angle) in to see what it would look like. Nice!

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Measured halfway across the box, and drilled a 5mm hole. I chose to put it as far back as possible.

Test fit once I'd drilled the hole, all good so far.

I also removed the glovebox and trim panel to get better access to the fusebox area.

Cable run from center console and tapped into the ambient lighting loom mentioned above, useful as it's seperately fused.

Test run!

And all fitted back into the car. Once it's dark I'll have a look and see what the final result is.

 

[RichardCX5]

...and a few pictures in the dark

This one shows the cumulative effect from the overhead lights as well as the cubby LED, pretty nice!

 

[HARVEYtheDOG]

Looks awesome!! (10)

I'm diggin' that cubby light, that might be my next project

 

[tibimakai]

Nice. Eventually I will do something like this myself.
You should add some around the foot well areas as well. Maybe at the back foot well areas as well.
Maybe, you could add a top layer( a strip) of another plastic piece, to cover the "mess" and the same time you would have some thickness.

 

[RichardCX5]

Nice. Eventually I will do something like this myself.
You should add some around the foot well areas as well. Maybe at the back foot well areas as well.
Maybe, you could add a top layer( a strip) of another plastic piece, to cover the "mess" and the same time you would have some thickness.

I did think about gluing a second piece of plastic to the panel, it is curved which makes things more awkward but not impossible.
I was also tempted to add red LEDs to the footwells when I did the cubby light, but thought I'd live with it as it is for a while and decide from there, it's much easier to add more later than start taking it out again! Plus I've already got two white LEDs in each footwell already for entry illumination

 

[tibimakai]

Heat up the plastic and bend it into shape.