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Installing LED Strips - Inside and Out!



ZanderMichaelJason

ZanderMichaelJason

Hi guys, this is my first post so I thought I'd make it a good one!

I've not long bought my 2nd Clio (also my second car) - I got myself a nice '05 Silver 1.2 Clio Expression!

What I'm looking to do is get a really nice look to the car, I've already installed an aftermarket head unit which is blue, so I decided to go with that as my car's colour theme (going to get some blue seat covers etc.) - It just so happens that for Christmas my mum got me a blue LED strip to go in a car! So I've managed to install that into the passenger foot well which I personally think looks great, but I just wanted to check to see if I've installed it right - I'm feeding the power from the interior light but I've run speaker wire from the interior light down the passenger side pillar which then connects to the LED strip - Now I did this because I saw a lot of people suggesting this was a good setup but what I want to know is if speaker wire is safe to use for this? If it's not then what's the best priced (cheapest but safest) alternative?

Secondly I'm looking to put LED strips under the rear seats to match the front (once I've put the drivers side strip in) - What I'd like to know is if anyone has done this before and it so where/ how did you attach it to the seat and then where did you run the wire? I was thinking of running the wire under the door seal then up the pillar again?

Lastly for now, I'm looking in the future at putting some LEDs on the outside of my car BUT what I don't want is any unwanted attention from the police - I understand that you're not allowed 'under-car lighting' whilst driving - All I want to do is to wire the lights so that: 1. They ONLY come on when the interior lights turn on from doors opening and the car unlocking but NOT when you turn the interior light on via the switch - Is this possible?
2. I can turn them off if I don't want them to do this - Although I'm sure that's just a case of fitting a switch to the positive wire

Sorry for the long post but like I said, I wanted my first post to be a goodun'
Thank you very much in advance for any input,
Regards,
Alex!
 
matt911

matt911

Ive got footwell leds in mine mate, used cheap halfords speaker cable and its fine they have been working flawless for about 6 months ish now.

Edit: mine only come on with the doors though.

Are you wanting yours on all the time?
 
GTXMike

GTXMike

I connected mine through an on/off switch so i could turn them on of when i want.

dabypuve.jpg
5u9ata9a.jpg
syqymuny.jpg
 
ZanderMichaelJason

ZanderMichaelJason

PlayStationMike said:
I connected mine through an on/off switch so i could turn them on of when i want.

dabypuve.jpg
5u9ata9a.jpg
syqymuny.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow, looking at yours they're really bright! How many have you got there, how are they placed and are they like a special brightness?

ThomasBrentnall said:
Sorry?...


It's about the current, not the voltage mate.






I did a guide for installing LED's in the footwells
Click to expand...


Oh that sounds helpful! :) Where could I find it? (I did have a look on your profile but couldn't spot it)


matt911 said:
Ive got footwell leds in mine mate, used cheap halfords speaker cable and its fine they have been working flawless for about 6 months ish now.


Edit: mine only come on with the doors though.


Are you wanting yours on all the time?
Click to expand...


Nope, I'm wanting to do the same - Glad to see I'm not the only person using speaker wire, got worried after the first reply!
 
McGherkin

McGherkin

Macca fan boiiiii
ClioSport Club Member
Yes, but as posted earlier, if shorted it'll have quite a few amps going through it until the fuse melts. It's just good practice to have the main wiring rated to the same level as the system protection. Burnt/molten wiring behind dashboards etc isn't great.
 
Owen92

Owen92

  Mk4 Mondeo Estate
I agree with McGherkin on this one. Use cabling that is rated the same, or slightly greater than the fuse. For the slightly increased cost to start with, you save the risk of your car going up in flames.

I've dealt with a burnt and melted dashboard in a truck where the driver wired in an aftermarket fridge with wires that were nowhere near capable of handling the current. Do it properly or not at all!
 
T

ThomasBrentnall

Owen92 said:
I agree with @McGherkin on this one. Use cabling that is rated the same, or slightly greater than the fuse. For the slightly increased cost to start with, you save the risk of your car going up in flames.

I've dealt with a burnt and melted dashboard in a truck where the driver wired in an aftermarket fridge with wires that were nowhere near capable of handling the current. Do it properly or not at all!
Click to expand...

He will need a 1 amp fuse speaker cable is FINE.

0.75mm cable can handle 6amps. Led's draw fack all current!

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...01&langId=-1&productId=202545&catalogId=10151
 
McGherkin

McGherkin

Macca fan boiiiii
ClioSport Club Member
What about a direct short when your mate accidentally kicks something? How much current does that draw? What the LEDs draw is irrelevant.

Putting an inline fuse in, as you have suggested, is fine though.
 
ZanderMichaelJason

ZanderMichaelJason

Right, just been reading through everything you guys have been saying...
The bottom line seems to be that a high grade speaker wire or the 'right' ampage wire is okay for installing the LEDs and you guys also seem to think I need to fuse the wire, so I'll look into doing that...But how do I actually do it? Should I use an existing fuse or do I put my own fuse into the wire & if so do I need to put a fuse into every bit of wire (there will be 4 in total, 2 front, 2 back) or what? Because at the moment I have one LED strip installed in my passenger footwell which is connected to speaker wire that is directly connected to the interior light, no fuses etc. - Is that bad?

Sorry for all of the questions but I'm pretty new to all of this!
Thank you to all of you guys for all of your help, I really cannot thank you enough! :)
 
T

ThomasBrentnall

ZanderMichaelJason said:
Right, just been reading through everything you guys have been saying...
The bottom line seems to be that a high grade speaker wire or the 'right' ampage wire is okay for installing the LEDs and you guys also seem to think I need to fuse the wire, so I'll look into doing that...But how do I actually do it? Should I use an existing fuse or do I put my own fuse into the wire & if so do I need to put a fuse into every bit of wire (there will be 4 in total, 2 front, 2 back) or what? Because at the moment I have one LED strip installed in my passenger footwell which is connected to speaker wire that is directly connected to the interior light, no fuses etc. - Is that bad?

Sorry for all of the questions but I'm pretty new to all of this!
Thank you to all of you guys for all of your help, I really cannot thank you enough! :)
Click to expand...

Yes it is bad as the interior light fuse is a 10 or 20 amp IIRC, however I never fused mine.

You can use an inline fuse holder like this. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/2808...ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=95&ff19=0

I would just use the one fuse for the lot mate
 
matt911

matt911

ZanderMichaelJason said:
Right, just been reading through everything you guys have been saying...
The bottom line seems to be that a high grade speaker wire or the 'right' ampage wire is okay for installing the LEDs and you guys also seem to think I need to fuse the wire, so I'll look into doing that...But how do I actually do it? Should I use an existing fuse or do I put my own fuse into the wire & if so do I need to put a fuse into every bit of wire (there will be 4 in total, 2 front, 2 back) or what? Because at the moment I have one LED strip installed in my passenger footwell which is connected to speaker wire that is directly connected to the interior light, no fuses etc. - Is that bad?

Sorry for all of the questions but I'm pretty new to all of this!
Thank you to all of you guys for all of your help, I really cannot thank you enough! :)
Click to expand...


Ok well what you should be doing is taking the + POS straight from the battery to a fuse, then to all your SMD/LED lights. Right?

Then wire the negative from the interior light to the bulbs which will then switch them on once the light comes on.
 
T

ThomasBrentnall

matt911 said:
Ok well what you should be doing is taking the + POS straight from the battery to a fuse, then to all your SMD/LED lights. Right?

Then wire the negative from the interior light to the bulbs which will then switch them on once the light comes on.
Click to expand...

No, the positive should be switched, not the ground!

No need to take it straight from the battery however if you did it would be done by using a relay. Pos+ & Neg - between battery and relay, then a postive feed from the light to the relay however current draw is so little this is not necessary
 
matt911

matt911

ThomasBrentnall said:
No, the positive should be switched, not the ground!

No need to take it straight from the battery however if you did it would be done by using a relay. Pos+ & Neg - between battery and relay, then a postive feed from the light to the relay however current draw is so little this is not necessary
Click to expand...

I did this to start with mate and when the interior light goes off, the positive stays on from the interior light and its the negative that looses connection.
Thats why i did it that way for me.
 
ZanderMichaelJason

ZanderMichaelJason

ThomasBrentnall said:
No, the positive should be switched, not the ground!

No need to take it straight from the battery however if you did it would be done by using a relay. Pos+ & Neg - between battery and relay, then a postive feed from the light to the relay however current draw is so little this is not necessary
Click to expand...


Sorry, not understanding you both there...Are you saying it doesn't need to be fed from the battery?

ThomasBrentnall said:
Yes it is bad as the interior light fuse is a 10 or 20 amp IIRC, however I never fused mine.


You can use an inline fuse holder like this. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/2808...ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=95&ff19=0


I would just use the one fuse for the lot mate
Click to expand...


Sorry, not too great with the lingo :L What does 10 or 20 amp IIRC mean?
What are the risks of not fusing them? Are the risks only to the LEDs or to other parts of the car as well?
And how can you use one fuse for all of them?
 
Owen92

Owen92

  Mk4 Mondeo Estate
ZanderMichaelJason said:
Sorry, not understanding you both there...Are you saying it doesn't need to be fed from the battery?




Sorry, not too great with the lingo :L What does 10 or 20 amp IIRC mean?
What are the risks of not fusing them? Are the risks only to the LEDs or to other parts of the car as well?
And how can you use one fuse for all of them?
Click to expand...

You can take the feed from another 12v feed already in the car.

10amp/20amp/5amp are all ratings of fuses. So this is the amount of current the fuse can take before blowing.

If you don't fuse the circuit, you risk damage to other parts of the car aswell. As for fusing all four lights, google "fusing a parallel circuit".
 
ZanderMichaelJason

ZanderMichaelJason

Owen92 said:
You can take the feed from another 12v feed already in the car.

10amp/20amp/5amp are all ratings of fuses. So this is the amount of current the fuse can take before blowing.

If you don't fuse the circuit, you risk damage to other parts of the car aswell. As for fusing all four lights, google "fusing a parallel circuit".
Click to expand...

Ahh okay, fair enough - Where in the car is there usually a 12v feed out of interest?
And sorry, I should've made myself more clear, I wasn't too sure of what IIRC meant?
And okay, I'll Google it! :)
 
Dink

Dink

  Polo + Micra
fuses have a sole purpose of protecting the cables in a circuit

as for what type of cable to use there all pretty much the same, the CSA is the only thing to worry about
 
Owen92

Owen92

  Mk4 Mondeo Estate
Seriously? A car is powered by a 12v battery. Therefore almost all feeds are 12v, except stuff like ABS sensors. Use a multimeter to test for a 12v feed.

But please don't put blue LED strips on the outside of your car.
 
ZanderMichaelJason

ZanderMichaelJason

Owen92 said:
Seriously? A car is powered by a 12v battery. Therefore almost all feeds are 12v, except stuff like ABS sensors. Use a multimeter to test for a 12v feed.

But please don't put blue LED strips on the outside of your car.
Click to expand...

Alright buddy, no need to get funny about it! I know a car is fed by a 12v battery but I don't own a multimeter so I was interested to know what you or anyone else had used to feed their LEDs for this kind of project
 
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