Interior Dome Lights

[southwales1977]

Evening.

I'm in the process of changing the interior bulb colours and am having difficulty accessing the interior rear dome lights.

I've successfully changed the fronts but the rear is putting up quite a fight. The tinted plastic piece came straight out but the larger fitting to access the bulbs is stuck fast. I can get a tool around most of it and noted there are two clips which can be pushed slightly to allow a slightly more free movement but I'm reluctant to apply too much pressure and break something.

Any advice especially with diagrams would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[ncorrell]

Interested in how you changed the front dome light colors? I'm trying to do the same and I contacted deautokey about it and they said it cant be done because the lights are integrated into a circuit board...not sure if they were talking about the front or back (or both)...any info you can give me would be awesome!

 

[southwales1977]

It wasn't a kit or quick job, I improvised as I went.

Indeed it is an LED on a PCB as a lot of the GTI internals are.

I gambled and purchased some SMD LED's of a similar size, cracked the lighting case off, removed the existing lights, removed the plastic round lens thing, the bit you see from the outside, this was attached to the old PCB so I've used a little glue to keep them in the same hole so it looks stock from outside otherwise you'd just see through into the workings.

I also used a little glue to secure the new PCB's in place and slotted it all back in. The original PCB had one LED, the replacements have six but are nowhere near as bright. Essentially it provides no beam of light but a gentle glow. I wanted red to match the door and sill strip along with my modded red footwells.

Trouble is I can't see a break-free way of getting the rears out.

 

[southwales1977]

Here are the originals minus the lens and the SMD I replaced them with.

 

[southwales1977]

Here's the effect.

 

[southwales1977]

And just to say I'm by no means technically minded and am cack-handed, it's a simple enough job if you're either mildly skilled or just plain determined.

 

[ncorrell]

That looks great! Exactly what I'm trying to do...any chance you have a link to the LED's you bought? Thanks!

 

[deAutoLED.com]

We would be interested also, if people are actually willing to do this we can get brighter white red and blue LEDs for everyone.

Post more info on the LED and we can custom make one and start a group buy, we did not do this as we felt people would not want to solder and connect anything to their OEM lights.

We are not sure what you did, but are you able to go back to OEM white if you want to?

 

[bbjwvr6]

Evening.

I'm in the process of changing the interior bulb colours and am having difficulty accessing the interior rear dome lights.

I've successfully changed the fronts but the rear is putting up quite a fight. The tinted plastic piece came straight out but the larger fitting to access the bulbs is stuck fast. I can get a tool around most of it and noted there are two clips which can be pushed slightly to allow a slightly more free movement but I'm reluctant to apply too much pressure and break something.

Any advice especially with diagrams would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

The rear dome light has a locking mechanism. Essentially a plastic bar at the rear of the dome light slides back and sandwiches the headliner. Before trying to pry the dome light out of the headliner you need to disengage the locking. There are two tabs at the center of the rear of the dome light that need to be pushed forward. To do this you need to push down the tabs at the bottom of the small outer holes also at the rear, while pushing the center tabs forward. Once unlocked, you can easily pry the dome light out of the headliner, but you need to pry it down from the back edge, where you unlocked it. The front edge sandwiches the headliner, so you need to drop the back edge first.

 

[southwales1977]

The rear dome light has a locking mechanism. Essentially a plastic bar at the rear of the dome light slides back and sandwiches the headliner. Before trying to pry the dome light out of the headliner you need to disengage the locking. There are two tabs at the center of the rear of the dome light that need to be pushed forward. To do this you need to push down the tabs at the bottom of the small outer holes also at the rear, while pushing the center tabs forward. Once unlocked, you can easily pry the dome light out of the headliner, but you need to pry it down from the back edge, where you unlocked it. The front edge sandwiches the headliner, so you need to drop the back edge first.

You sir are a gentleman.

 

[southwales1977]

Sorry I can't find the link but it's a simple plug and play with CANBUS LED's. I used a T10 fitting.

 

[deAutoLED.com]

Sorry I can't find the link but it's a simple plug and play with CANBUS LED's. I used a T10 fitting.

Good info, we can manufacture the led chip board, but what t10 fitting did you use, if you post more info we can get a custom set up - we can send you to test and compare next to your setup to see how it looks.

Thank you

 

[ncorrell]

Good info, we can manufacture the led chip board, but what t10 fitting did you use, if you post more info we can get a custom set up - we can send you to test and compare next to your setup to see how it looks.

Thank you

I'd definitely be interested in a custom setup like this from you guys...I have several of your products and am very pleased with them.

For the time being, I've simply put some red lamin-x film over the plastic housings that surround the single LED bulbs. It gives a similar effect, albeit with slightly reduced light output. I'm trying to complete the "red" look inside.

The plastic housing doesn't seem to get hot so I'm not worried about melting or anything like that. I'll try to post pics when I'm done.

 

[southwales1977]

I'd definitely be interested in a custom setup like this from you guys...I have several of your products and am very pleased with them.

For the time being, I've simply put some red lamin-x film over the plastic housings that surround the single LED bulbs. It gives a similar effect, albeit with slightly reduced light output. I'm trying to complete the "red" look inside.

The plastic housing doesn't seem to get hot so I'm not worried about melting or anything like that. I'll try to post pics when I'm done.

Time for Plan B, I've removed the rear domes and it's a world of pain, I've not a chance of changing this set up.

I'm interested in your Lamin-X method. What's the color like? I have some red plastic sheeting, not unlike that you have around a toffee apple, I tried that and it shot a pale pink into the cabin which was not what I was after. What's your projected colour like and is it just the one layer of Lamin-X you've used.

I'm happy to try less costly products as a trial and error but at £23 or so for 12 square inches it's a costly gamble.

 

[deAutoLED.com]

If we can get more info on what was used as that will give us size and adapter, we will make a custom plug and play set.

We can get you a free set for your help any color you'd like and lumen output.

Thank you