Installing Under-dash colored lighting
 

In my 96 Chevy I installed red "side marker lights" under the dash, which cast a cool red glow at night in the driver and passenger foot areas. It was easy to hook 4 of these lights up off the wire (and ground) that ran to a light into the ashtray. So it came on with my driving lights at night.

My question: How to wire this in the MP5?

The underdash area is much smaller than in my old Chevy, so even attaching the side-marker-lights is going to be a challenge. Can anyone tell me what underdash wire would be best for me to go for to pull this power? I'd like it to come on with my front lights.

Thanks for any direction here!

I would probably hook them up to a fuseblock on the fusebox that works your
driving lights or fog lights.

I used computer case cold cathode to do that and it look really good...

They have different colour and I paid 30$CDN for them .. and I solder a PC plug under the dash ... I power the cathode with ignition wire (I know I sould not do that, bit I was too lasy to connecto to battery and put a relay and ... and ... and ...) It's working just fine.

For the installation I user tie wrap and tie rapped everything near the edge of the dash, the cathode isn't visible and will not blind you... on the driver side I had to put black electric tape on the part that light upside in the dash, because the part you can remove to access the underdash will leak light.

I hope it's clear enough and help you...

Good luck

MageMinds

I'm going to respond to my own post for anyone interested in where I came out on these underdash lights.

I was unsure how to proceed based on the responses (above) that were of a more technical nature. I'm sure they were correct, but I don't have the skills to apply those solutions.

Here's what I did. I took my MP5 to an Auto Sound store here in Austin, and for $30 they tested and found the wire that drove my headlights and dash lights. Then they hooked a wire to that, and dropped one wire each on the drivers and passenger side.

I then was able to get the $2 12v side-market lights and hook those up myself, grabbing a ground from whatever metal I could find under the dash. Not surprisingly, the wiring was easy, but finding a place to firmly attach the side marker lights to throw light in the right direction was challenging. It can be done, and I now have a cool red glow at night in the footwells, but you can get a headache quite fast trying to work upside down under the dash!

Best of luck if anyone else tries this, but for $34, I think this is "good value for the buck" mod.

Thanks.

I went to walmart and bought a set of two 6" L.E.D. strip lights that are connected to one sig-lighter plug with a switch in the end of it.

Attached the lights with double sided tape under the dash. ran the wires from each side towards the center consol and ran them behind the ash tray.

Under the ashtray is a hole that leads into that srorage space. I ran the plug through that hole and plugged it into the lighter socket.

Push of a button and I have a blue glow that complements my balck & blue inrterior.

I plan to rewire the lights into the interior lights so the blue LED's come on when the doors open or I turn on the inside lights.

I also want to put some more blue lights under the front seats facing back to light up the back seat area when the dorrs are opened. Then another light in the hatch that comes on when you open the hatch. Wire it into the light that is already there.

Just my $0.02

I put 12" yellow neon tubes under my dash and under each from seat. ITs actually a "wheel well kit" from Lite glow (One of my sponsors...so i had to plug them! LOL) IT lites up the floor SOLID at night too. Theres light from the back seats all the way to the dash....NO dark spots at all. You cant see any of the tubes either so its VERY clean. I used yellow to match the underbody kit. Heres a couple pics of them installed....

http://www.streetsourcemag.com/uploa...151PM63491.jpg
http://www.streetsourcemag.com/uploa...232PM96081.jpg

Hey,
Always wanted to put lights in the interior of my Blue Mica P5 but was always scared to rewire stuff. Went to the LA Auto Show yesterday and saw some cool stuff so I had to do it! Read your quote and that gave me the idea and the guts to do it since your way means no re wiring. Went to Target and got some 9" blue lights for like 25 bucks. Took me a few hours to hook it in (I'm really picky about how it looks) but the final result is pretty impressive. The cig lighter adapter doesn't look that bad. You can't see it at night and during the day, it blends in. Thanks for posting and thanks for the idea.