Hi

I had some spare time over xmas, so set about improving the lighting of my Octy.

First job was to change every bulb in the car for white LED's

Then I fitted some white LED strips into each footwell, that come on/off with the main interior lights

Then I wanted to improve the lighting in my boot, now that winter is well and truly upon us, so I installed 2 LED strips (1 left side,1 right side)

The pics dont really do it justice, its so bright in the flesh (crappy N95 night shots with no flash )

In this next shot you can see the right hand side lightstrip tucked up under the plastic lip where the parcel shelf sits onto (I didnt want to fasten them to the parcel shelf as I need it removed now and again)

Then, taking inspiration from the SWMBO new fiesta, I fancied some ambient lighting.

I did this by using 4 small LED's spots, 2 in each footwell to give a nice gentle green glow that come on when the headlights are switched on

All that remained was to fit my xmas present off the missus. A Green LED gearknob that shows whatever gear currently selected. I love it, Thanks Michelle x

Hope you like

Cheers

Damian

Edited 18 January, 200917 yr by damo :-)

How difficult where they all to fit, especially the gear knob? The ambient lighting looks good too.

On the gear knob I can not quite decide if I like it or not but was wondering how it worked. Is there a sensor for each gear position?

I like that, but unsure of the gearknob. The glow out of the corner of my eyeline would bug me quiet a bit, especially as it looks quiet bright compared with the rest of the lighting.

The gear stick looks great and is not very distracting, to me anyway, when i was sat in the passenger seat. The mrs liked it and wants one on her car now.

The lighting looks absolutely spot on in the flesh and has re-ignited my interest in doing similar to mine now...... I'm just weighing up whether to have a crack myself with LED footwell lighting in the front and rear connected to the interior light coming on/off....... Or to let the mrs buy me the professionals to do it for me as a birthday pressie in March.

As i've said in the other topic it makes a change to see some great looking interior mods other than HU's. :thumbup: Only thing is it's costing me money as per usual.

Cheers

Dave.

great idea about the leds in the boot, im always searching around for stuff in there int he dark. where did you wire them up to?

and where did you get that gearknob? never seem one of those before!

Gear shifter looks like this one: INDY-CATOR - Willkommen. Manual for it here: http://www.indy-cator.de/download/anleitung.en.pdf

Edited 18 January, 200917 yr by Oli

looks great mate, where did you get the led's from as im thinking about changing the blue look in my car for white. on the front interior lights the two side like bulbs in there are they normal or coloured as this was the only problem with mine the blue ones werent that bright.

Certainly given me some inspiration for doing my footwell lights at some stage

I'll have to do my boot with some extra light strips like that under the side shelves as the stock lights just don't cut it.

Hi

The gearknob is an indy-cator as Oli mentioned, sourced off ebay germany with a little online translation

Here is a link

Indy-Cator shiftknobs, Type 1

It comes with a small black controller box, which has sensors in, that learn the selected gear, after you initially set it via a teaching mode.

I removed my old gear knob and installed the new one, sat the control box hidden away under the gaitor on a flat surface (as explained in the instructions and is essential) and all that needed doing was getting power to it.

In the past on my older cars, I have done a bit of wiring, but I didnt want to touch it on this one, so I decided to take it to a local professional ICE garage, so they could run cables to where I needed power.

It is wired so it only comes on when ignition is on position 2. As the cig lighter is perm live that wasnt an option, so its actually wired to the A/C feed.

Its not that bright tbh, and it does have a 2 stage internal light sensor that makes it brighter in the day/less so at night.

As for all the other bulbs it was a case of just replacing them all with white LED's, and to answer smstext, I got all my bulbs off Ebay, the front ones are not coloured, just white, but do give a slight blue tinge to them and are so much brighter than standard.

All white LED's have a slight blue look IMO anyway.

The ambient lighting has been the biggest pain tbh. A green LED strip would have been too bright I thought and possibly too distracting, so I bought a 4 pack of green LED's from Halfords for a fiver

At first, I positioned them so they were just shining down, one in each corner of the footwells, but as they were spots, the beams were too concentrated for my liking.

To overcome this I bought a couple of sets of green indicators for a Mk3 Golf off Ebay to diffuse the light to a more discreet glow.

To install these I had to remove the lower section of the dash, cut out some holes and attach the indicator casings. Then it was just a case of attaching the LED into the cases through a small hole drilled into the side of the original bulb holder, to eliminate the spotlight effect and diffuse the light off the reflective inners.

Here is a pic of them installed (you cant see them from normal seating position)

and the finished effect was much better

@sms, All the LED light strips can be sourced off Ebay cheap enough @£10-15ish

again I just got the local ICE garage to wire me a power source that comes on with the normal boot lights, and then it was a case of attaching it to the strips and they are self adhesive so just fasten them to your chosen location.

I went for the side shelves as I needed shelf removal too often to have it fixed permenently there.

All in all, Im well happy with everything, and would recommend this upgrade to anyone.

The improvements, especially the changing of all bulbs to white LED's are phenominal.

Cheers for the comments, and I hope I answered all the questions posed.

Regards

Damian

Edited 18 January, 200917 yr by damo :-)

nice one mate, who was the seller you got the interior bulbs from (like to use recommendations) and how many leds in each bulb (so i can get a bulb thats not too dull).

Cheers

nice one mate, who was the seller you got the interior bulbs from (like to use recommendations) and how many leds in each bulb (so i can get a bulb thats not too dull).

Cheers

I used this guy for the interior festoons

WHITE LED INTERIOR LIGHT SKODA FELICIA FABIA OCTAVIA VR on eBay, also Lighting Customisation, Lights Lighting Accessories, Car Tuning Styling, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 21-Jan-09 22:17:05 GMT)

and for all others, I used this guy

2X4 LED Xenon white HID T11 501 W5W Sidelight bulbs UK on eBay, also Bulbs Lenses, Lights Lighting Accessories, Car Tuning Styling, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 18-Jan-09 21:05:10 GMT)

Regards

Damian

cheers damo!!

I have a quick question....... The description for the festoon bulb says 42-44mm and also mentions Fabia in the title but my interior light festoon is a 41mm. Is the OEM festoon you took out 41mm or 44mm??

Cheers

Dave.

I have a quick question....... The description for the festoon bulb says 42-44mm and also mentions Fabia in the title but my interior light festoon is a 41mm. Is the OEM festoon you took out 41mm or 44mm??

Cheers

Dave.

Dave

IIRC I measured it at 42mm

If you remember the bulb retainer holders are tension loaded so a slight variation in size wouldnt matter too much

Dave

IIRC I measured it at 42mm

If you remember the bulb retainer holders are tension loaded so a slight variation in size wouldnt matter too much

Cheers mi dears..... Just wanted to make sure they weren't 44mm.

Going through the process of selecting units to revamp my LED's at the mo seeing as they've been in over 2 years now. Even found some 360 degree 501's for in the boot... So might fit another OEM boot light on the opposite side rather than go for light strips as there doesn't seem to be many suitable places for strips in a furby boot.

Did you bother replacing the red lights in the door??? And if so is there much difference with them too?

Cheers

Dave.

Damo what size strips did you use? They self adhesive or fitted some other way?

Dave, I didnt bother doing the puddle lights in the door...yet

Not sure how much difference they will make tbh, as they dont actually shine in the car

Oli, mine are 12" self adhesive strips, but you can get longer ones

Regards

Damian

Dave, I didnt bother doing the puddle lights in the door...yet

Not sure how much difference they will make tbh, as they dont actually shine in the car

Oli, mine are 12" self adhesive strips, but you can get longer ones

Regards

Damian

Damo...

Cheers mate..... To be honest i was thinking the same hence me asking.

Oli...

I found these on ebay whilst looking for LED strips yesterday..... Can be cut to any length.......

5cm White SMD LED Strip on eBay, also LEDs, Components Supplies, Electrical Test Equipment, Business, Office Industrial (end time 26-Jan-09 12:21:59 GMT)

Cheers

Dave.

Dave, yeah they look ok.

Mine in the boot was a 12" strip, which got cut in half to have one on each side

Cheers

Damian

well ive ordered the bulbs, might stick the blue ones that currently in the car into the boot.

Nice bit of work there mate! I was thinking about installing LED's before christmas & now you've set me off again .

All looks great and yet again i too might be tempted to change all

Thanks Damo:)

excuse the ignorance, but how/where do you wire the footwell ones. I assume the boot ones are simply spiced into the existing boot light, but would be too scared to do this to anything in the centre console i reckon. Are there particularly 'safe' (i.e. easily replaced) sections that are suitable, in case i cut too deep?

excuse the ignorance, but how/where do you wire the footwell ones. I assume the boot ones are simply spiced into the existing boot light, but would be too scared to do this to anything in the centre console i reckon. Are there particularly 'safe' (i.e. easily replaced) sections that are suitable, in case i cut too deep?

Hi.

Im not sure where they accessed the power for the footwell lights from,

I would suggest taking it to an autoelectrician or ICE garage like I did, if your not 100% confident in undertaking a job like this

Regards

Damian

I hope you can sleep at night Damo knowing how much you've just cost us lot who's eye's have lit up (pardon the pun) at the site of your latest mods.

Cheers

Dave.