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Been meaning to do something like this for a while now. After sitting in a beautiful red B7 RS4 last weekend and having noticed it's footwell lights, I thought I'd get my butt into gear and do it.
I wanted them to come on and go off with both the central locking and opening/closing the doors. Wasn't bothered about being able to manually switch them on/off.
I linked into the rear interior light mainly because of not wanting to tempt fate in taking down the front interior light and sunroof rotary control panel. I've seen SO many of those broken over the years. Best leave as is.
The interior light at the rear easily clips down, just push it towards the drivers side and pull the passenger side down at the same time and out it comes.
I needed to determine which live I needed, that being the switched live from the central locking and the door switches and not the permanent live that is there for switching the light on at all times. Didn't have my multimeter at hand, so just used a spare LED I had. Opening and closing the door allowed me to find the two wires I needed.
Those being the black/green and the black.
Obviously, linking the two new bulbs in series would dim them down too much, so I wired them in parallel, that meant having to run double the amount of wire, but no big pain really.
Wire used was standard speaker wire.
The opening for the rear interior light is close to the rear trim, four screws removed from said trim and pulled down off it's press stud fixings and it drops away.
Wire routed from the light opening behind the rear of the headlining to the passenger side, tucked in behind the rooflining trim and off towards to the front of the car. Once at the A pillar, the wiring is passed through the headlining trim to the felt inner door seal and behind this all the way down the A pillar and by the side of the dash. Then it's passed through into the space above the trim behind the glovebox.
I chose to use the passenger for both runs of wire because on the drivers side A pillar I have wiring coming up for the auto dim rear view mirror and also wiring for the microphone for the bluetooth handsfree integrated into the Becker headunit.
Both lights aren't Audi (shock horror) they are footwell lights from an MGF of all things. I was going to order Audi version from the A6 or A8, but a chance quick search of EBAY for "footwell lights" brought these up. Bid, got them for 99p, but was ripped on the postage of £5. Anyway, they came in the trims used in the MGF, (REALLY crappy plastic I might add) but the lights themselves are neat little units.
I used the trims they came with to mark out the hole in the trim where I wanted the lights.
Now for something totally unexpected, the tray under the parcel shelf already had a hole in it, "exactly" the right size
, just next to the little removable hatch my model has to gain access to an airbag connector.
So only needed to cut a hole in the trim panel behind the glovebox.
I'll let the pictures explain the rest. Will try and nab a couple later when it's dark.
I wanted them to come on and go off with both the central locking and opening/closing the doors. Wasn't bothered about being able to manually switch them on/off.
I linked into the rear interior light mainly because of not wanting to tempt fate in taking down the front interior light and sunroof rotary control panel. I've seen SO many of those broken over the years. Best leave as is.
The interior light at the rear easily clips down, just push it towards the drivers side and pull the passenger side down at the same time and out it comes.
I needed to determine which live I needed, that being the switched live from the central locking and the door switches and not the permanent live that is there for switching the light on at all times. Didn't have my multimeter at hand, so just used a spare LED I had. Opening and closing the door allowed me to find the two wires I needed.
Those being the black/green and the black.
Obviously, linking the two new bulbs in series would dim them down too much, so I wired them in parallel, that meant having to run double the amount of wire, but no big pain really.
Wire used was standard speaker wire.
The opening for the rear interior light is close to the rear trim, four screws removed from said trim and pulled down off it's press stud fixings and it drops away.
Wire routed from the light opening behind the rear of the headlining to the passenger side, tucked in behind the rooflining trim and off towards to the front of the car. Once at the A pillar, the wiring is passed through the headlining trim to the felt inner door seal and behind this all the way down the A pillar and by the side of the dash. Then it's passed through into the space above the trim behind the glovebox.
I chose to use the passenger for both runs of wire because on the drivers side A pillar I have wiring coming up for the auto dim rear view mirror and also wiring for the microphone for the bluetooth handsfree integrated into the Becker headunit.
Both lights aren't Audi (shock horror) they are footwell lights from an MGF of all things. I was going to order Audi version from the A6 or A8, but a chance quick search of EBAY for "footwell lights" brought these up. Bid, got them for 99p, but was ripped on the postage of £5. Anyway, they came in the trims used in the MGF, (REALLY crappy plastic I might add) but the lights themselves are neat little units.
I used the trims they came with to mark out the hole in the trim where I wanted the lights.
Now for something totally unexpected, the tray under the parcel shelf already had a hole in it, "exactly" the right size
, just next to the little removable hatch my model has to gain access to an airbag connector.So only needed to cut a hole in the trim panel behind the glovebox.
I'll let the pictures explain the rest. Will try and nab a couple later when it's dark.
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