Red LED's as ambient lighting

[Tone-Dogg]

So back in the day, College, I had an 89 White Cutlass pimped out,(rims, tints, big speakers) had the Blue neon plate frames under the blue seats and wired a switch to run them, it was cool for college. Soft blue glow. Ever since I missed the lighting. Then when I got the B8, I found out you could enable the ambient lighting via VAG COM. I totally love this feature, you can set the brightness through the MMI and it all just runs off the existing floor lights. They get super bright when a door opens. Only down fall is they are on all the time, not really a big deal as they are LED's and they will probably outlive the car.

This gets me thinking about doing this for my B6, I enjoy the nice red cockpit, why not add to the floor. So I picked up 4 red LED strips and installed them last night, mounted one under each front seat for the rear foot wells and mounted one under each foot well for the front. Wired everything to the switched power lead in the cig lighter and bam... Entire job took about an hour.

Here is a pic of the led strips I used.


Unfortunately, I don't have pix yet of the finished product, I will host as soon as it gets dark tonight. (My wife had the camera in her purse and was out)

One question I have for anyone who has done this is, I'm trying to think of ways to "tone" down the brightness. I underestimated these strips, I suppose I could get use to the brightness, but I all I could come up with is a dimmer switch and or blocking/taping off some of the LED's to make it less bright.

Any thoughts? TIA

[Scrwedtxboy31]

Interested to see how it turned out! I would go with a dimmer for sure. And if blocking or taping some of the LEDs to make it less bright would be visible ( as in you can visibly see the LED strips and thus the tape on them) then I say don't do it, and see if the dimmer solves the problem as a whole. GL Subscribed to see final outcome!

[Tone-Dogg]

Thanks Scrwed, the only way you could see the LED's is if you tipped your head upsidedown and looked under the dash or rear of the front seats. Dimmer sounds like the way to go, cleaner install.

[Tone-Dogg]

Well I finally got around to snapping some shots...
Rear seats, (its way brighter than this, I couldn't get a good shot of the rears)

Frt driver, better shot and more realistic brightness

Another

Rears again, not a good shot

Frt Pass, better shot


At first I thought they were too bright as, all I had to go off of was the B8 and the brightness of the ambient lighting; however, after driving at night for a few days it has grown on me and I'm very happy with the brightness. I'm going to just leave it alone...

[bigblue]

You could put a resistor in line with the power to each led strip. I think I have a mk4 dimmer switch laying around somewhere I could sell ya?

[Tone-Dogg]

You could put a resistor in line with the power to each led strip. I think I have a mk4 dimmer switch laying around somewhere I could sell ya?

Are you offering because I mentioned the brightness? So I could dim the lighting correct?

[bigblue]

Correct. I just gotta dig through my stuff I put away in the garage the other day if your interested. You could run the wires to all the leds to the switch. You could cut out a hole somewhere thats the exact size of the hole for the switch and it has the metal retainer clips to hold it in place. You could put the switch under the arm rest in that little tray. Plus I think it lights up red as well since its from a mk4

Edit I found it. The hole you'd have to cut would be like an inch tall by an half inch.

[Tone-Dogg]

Correct. I just gotta dig through my stuff I put away in the garage the other day if your interested. You could run the wires to all the leds to the switch. You could cut out a hole somewhere thats the exact size of the hole for the switch and it has the metal retainer clips to hold it in place. You could put the switch under the arm rest in that little tray. Plus I think it lights up red as well since its from a mk4

Edit I found it. The hole you'd have to cut would be like an inch tall by an half inch.

Hey man thanks for the offer on the switch, I have now lived with the brightness where it's at and love it, I honestly think it's perfect now, the likelyhood that you are in total darkness is rare and it's perfect. Thanks again for looking...

[a4darkness]

Pics of the Cutlass or VTB.

[villan]

Hey Tone-Dogg, your lights look great. I was in a rental car this past week (Mecury Mariner SUV) and it had this option. It had a button where you could pick from an assorted array of colors too. I thought it was pretty cool and thought about doing this to my B6. Great minds think alike man! How much did this install run you if you don't mind? Great job btw!

[Tone-Dogg]

Pics of the Cutlass or VTB.

I will look for some, it was a pretty cool car for it's time. 89 Cutlass Supreme, White with Blue Velore (Spelling) interior, all electronic gadgets, controls on wheel, digital dash that you had to wack to get to come on sometimes, digital climate control... over all it was a great car till the trani started slipping big time. I had to sets of wheels on it, 16" Neeper Syncro's CHROME (This was big for the 90's) and the stock 15's with Raised white letter BF Goodriches. She had 20% Tint all around which made it look like a black stripe as the rear window and rear sides connected nicely, it was a coupe. ICE was Pioneer Premier with Cliff Designs all around, 5.25 in doors with 1" tweeters, same set up on rear deck with 2 12" SVC in a sealed Black Laminate Box, that I had a cabniet maker build. Security was Clifford. It was sweet, the amps were imbedded in the box and were a nice violet color. The saying among friends was: "Party in the BLUE Light" I pretty much spent every dollar I earned on that car. I'll hunt for pix...

[Tone-Dogg]

Hey Tone-Dogg, your lights look great. I was in a rental car this past week (Mecury Mariner SUV) and it had this option. It had a button where you could pick from an assorted array of colors too. I thought it was pretty cool and thought about doing this to my B6. Great minds think alike man! How much did this install run you if you don't mind? Great job btw!

Thank Villan, yes so cool that you could change the colors, the new A8 that has all LED outside and in has the same feature, you can change the ambient lighting colors to your taste. The LED strips were 3.99 each and I bought 4 of them, so I did the entire job for under $20. For the rears, I didn't have to add extra wire, but on the front I did in order to reach my switched power lead to the cig lighter. (Honestly, I hate the location of the cig lighter, I wish it was like the B7 in the ash tray or like in my B8 I have an Aux in the arm rest and the lighter in the ash tray, my own little beef, I don't smoke so it's pointless to have it located right in the middle of everything)

Here is the link for the LED's (I'm 90% sure this was the one I bought)
http://www.virtualvillage.com/24cm-r...02510-062.html

[BlackB6quattro]

Hey Tone-Dogg, your lights look great. I was in a rental car this past week (Mecury Mariner SUV) and it had this option. It had a button where you could pick from an assorted array of colors too. I thought it was pretty cool and thought about doing this to my B6. Great minds think alike man! How much did this install run you if you don't mind? Great job btw!

Ford has actually been doing this for quite a while now. I think they started in like 2003. Couldn't believe it when I saw it for the first time in a Ford.

[Tone-Dogg]

Ford has actually been doing this for quite a while now. I think they started in like 2003. Couldn't believe it when I saw it for the first time in a Ford.

No Kidding, looks like perhaps Audi has been behind the curve...

[jbsarra19]

I literally was just going to post a thread about this lol

[AudiA4Turbo22]

That looks great!

All you need is a set of Audi's new illuminated floor mats to match(logos are illuminated)

[a4darkness]

I will look for some, it was a pretty cool car for it's time. 89 Cutlass Supreme, White with Blue Velore (Spelling) interior, all electronic gadgets, controls on wheel, digital dash that you had to wack to get to come on sometimes, digital climate control... over all it was a great car till the trani started slipping big time. I had to sets of wheels on it, 16" Neeper Syncro's CHROME (This was big for the 90's) and the stock 15's with Raised white letter BF Goodriches. She had 20% Tint all around which made it look like a black stripe as the rear window and rear sides connected nicely, it was a coupe. ICE was Pioneer Premier with Cliff Designs all around, 5.25 in doors with 1" tweeters, same set up on rear deck with 2 12" SVC in a sealed Black Laminate Box, that I had a cabniet maker build. Security was Clifford. It was sweet, the amps were imbedded in the box and were a nice violet color. The saying among friends was: "Party in the BLUE Light" I pretty much spent every dollar I earned on that car. I'll hunt for pix...

Oh man, we gotta see this. Hope you can find pics.

[a4darkness]

Oh and Tone, I love this look. Wanted to swap my floor lighting with red LEDs.

[nein-reis]

Your car looks like a dark room. If only you could find a film chemical smelling air freshener.

[a4darkness]

^^ that's funny, just took me back to high school (Journalism track + yearbook, shot + developed our own images)

[fla4sline]

Oh yeah, looking good.
Used to have a 04 Sentra SE-R that i put blue leds in just like that. LOVED it. Miss it now, keep wondering if I should do it with the Audi. Sometimes when I'm in Autozone getting something, I'll see them and think about doing it. Maybe someday.

[Tone-Dogg]

thanks for all the comments, I thought of going the route of replacing the interior lights with the red bulbs, but figured this was a better route, again the photos don't do it justice, it looks way better in person and I'm not a camera guy so I'm not going to get into that. Although I bet I could put the Cannon on "night" setting, would that be better?

I'll dig for the pix of the Cutlass, I don't think I have any of the Blue light inside...or of the System. I'm going to look.

[Tone-Dogg]

Your car looks like a dark room. If only you could find a film chemical smelling air freshener.

ROFL

[nein-reis]

Oh yeah, looking good.
Used to have a 04 Sentra SE-R that i put blue leds in just like that. LOVED it. Miss it now, keep wondering if I should do it with the Audi. Sometimes when I'm in Autozone getting something, I'll see them and think about doing it. Maybe someday.

No one else see's anything wrong with this?

[Scrwedtxboy31]

No one else see's anything wrong with this?

Hahaha ROF