Pat, where did you take the feed for the footwell lights from?

 

I split the feeds i'd already used in the courtesy light unit and ran wires down to each footwell. I already have the smaller version of those lights fitted in the courtesy unit hence having the feed already there. You just splice the wires in to those

 

Good stuff. A challenge - illuminate the handle area for when the remote unlocks the door handles

 

I can do that Arsie - it just means running a wire through the doors linked to a dim LED - the hardest part about that is tracking a cable through that awkward rubber grommet between the car and the doors.

You mean the outside door handle don't you ... that's still not impossible. The above is far simpler to wire up .... however you could take the feed off the central locking pulse in each door using a simple timer circuit to leave the LED powered for 5 or 10 seconds.

That's one to think about over the winter months

 

Sometimes I swear this forum is telepathic. When my car needs new tyres, a 'What tyres' thread appears. I've been thinking recently about interior lights and followed a few thread in the US, then...bingo, this appears!

Loving your work! I might have a go at this?

If I was feeling brave i'd like to put a LED into the interior door handle 'scoop' so that it would light up the grab handle for passengers to see it as EVERYONE scrambles around with their hand trying to find it in the darkness! Anyone ever seen this done?

 

Did it to the interior locks on my previous car - dead easy there as it already had illuminated window switches. All you need for the interior ones is a power feed that goes live with the ignition - plenty of those in both doors.

 

Wow, easier than I thought then. Do you recall what type of LED you used? i.e, did it sit flush behind the handle or was it more pronounced?

 

The internal one i simply used varying resistors to get the right brightness. LED was countersunk into the handle cover behind the inner handle. If you sand the surface of the LED it turns it into more of a glow than a direct bream which gets the look you need but doesn't make it too bright. A 14V LED works best but some of the better 12V ones come with built in regulators so they don't burn out.

 

Good advice, thank you. IMO this would have been a nice (and cheap) touch for Honda to do at the design stage to give the interior a more 'premium' feel. I will post pix when I get this installed. Ta.

 

If you do use resistors to get the brightness down, just be aware they can get HOT so you really need to do some testing to ensure you're not going to set fire to stuff