inv4zn
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2016
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- Location
- Vancouver, Canada
- Vehicle(s)
- '16 Touring
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- #1
Soo. Much to my dismay the glove box is pitch black at night.
I wanted to wire one in with as little damage to anything factory, with as little effort as possible.
This method is hooked up to the interior illumination lights. They will be always on if your interior lights are on. There is no "switch" to only turn it on when the glovebox is opened. FWIW, Honda used exactly this system from the factory on my 2007 Accord, so it's not uncommon/shady.
First thing I did was throw in an LED work light into the glove box at night and shut the door - there is no light leak, which is good.
Standard disclaimer - do EVERYTHING below at your own risk. In terms of difficulty it's not very high, but you are taking apart a new vehicle. Be careful, and take your time. Use common sense.
Things needed:
- A light source; I had some of these LED's lying around so I used the panel.
- Some wire; I had a random bit of 18 gauge wire so I used that. The + cable is only about 3 feet long so you can use higher gauge (thinner) wires
- Tools: 10mm ratchet/wrench, philips screwdriver, wiretap/t-tap, heatshrink, wire stripper, needle-nose pliers, plastic-trim pry tool.
- These instructions:
http://www.bernardiparts.com/Images/Install/2016_CivicSedan_IlluminatedDoorSillTrim_AII02278-10.pdf
Steps:
1. Unhook battery; just the negative will do. You'll need a 10mm wrench.
2. Remove interior trim pieces outlined in steps 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 from the Illuminated Door Sill instructions. No need to go further. You'll need the phillips screwdriver, plastic pry tool, and optionally a 7mm or 8mm (can't remember) ratchet to remove the bolts from the bottom of the glovebox, as they're in awkward locations.
3. Driver's side should look like this now:
4. To the right of the OBD port, there are 2 connectors attached together, A white and yellow one:
5. MAKE SURE BATTERY IS DISCONNECTED. As far as I know yellow connectors are air-bag related, so don't take chances. Although I may be wrong about the airbag. But seriously, if you haven't done so yet, disconnect your battery. Unplug the yellow connector by pulling down on the black tab.
6. Then unplug the white connector:
7. The wire we will use is the gray one, top-right of the unplugged white connector (credit goes to user kered424 for helping me find this).
8. Use wire-tap to connect your wire to the gray wire. You may need to pull a small bit of the tape/loom off to expose a bit more wire. It's very tight down there, be warned. Needle-nose pliers are necessary due to the very limited space. Regular pliers won't give you the accuracy you need to avoid damaging other wires.
9. Route wire creatively, avoiding any mechanically moving parts such as the steering column. I used electrical tape to tape the wire on the inside of the plastic shield. No pictures because it's impossible to take them lol.
10. Proceed to run wire behind climate controls/infotainment. You can tape your wire to a straightened coat hanger to make it easier; I did fine without.
Note 1. My LED's were modular with a 2-pin connector. Benefits of this is that it's easy to reverse polarity of the bulb itself, and that if for whatever reason the bulb burns out it's easier to replace.
11. Cut the wire; use judgement to see how much wire would be enough, and add about 3 inches to it. The placement of the glovebox and its openings will add more distance to the total wire length.
11. Connect the wire to the + wire of the female 2-pin connector. I didn't solder them, but wound the strands together and heatshrinked. Use proper technique/common sense.
12. Cut a shorter piece of wire, again using judgement, connect one end to the - wire of the female 2-pin connector.
13. Connect other end to the ground point visible. You should use a ring terminal if you have one; I didn't, and wound the wire around the metal ring of the vehicle ground wires:
14. Plug the white and yellow connectors back in the driver's footwell.
15. Reconnect battery.
16. Connect LED, test to see it works:
17. On the back of the glovebox there is a wire hole you can feed your wires/light through. Tape the wires on the inside of the box, so when you put the glovebox back, you can still see your wires. I learned this the hard way by putting the glovebox back and realizing I couldn't find the wires lol.
18. Replace glovebox.
19. The bulb I had had some exposed circuitry on the back of the LED panel. I covered that with electrical tape just in case:
20. Then added 3M double-sided tape:
21. Attach to the inside top of glovebox:
22. Test light again for good measure.
23. Put everything back together.
Note: the "aspirator hose" in Step 8 of the Illuminated Door Sill instructions may have been pulled back into the car. You can pull this hose out pretty far without damaging anything, with a bit of wiggling. It's impossible to reconnect without pulling it out a good inch or so. Just be careful.
Final Result!!
I wanted to wire one in with as little damage to anything factory, with as little effort as possible.
This method is hooked up to the interior illumination lights. They will be always on if your interior lights are on. There is no "switch" to only turn it on when the glovebox is opened. FWIW, Honda used exactly this system from the factory on my 2007 Accord, so it's not uncommon/shady.
First thing I did was throw in an LED work light into the glove box at night and shut the door - there is no light leak, which is good.
Standard disclaimer - do EVERYTHING below at your own risk. In terms of difficulty it's not very high, but you are taking apart a new vehicle. Be careful, and take your time. Use common sense.
Things needed:
- A light source; I had some of these LED's lying around so I used the panel.
- Some wire; I had a random bit of 18 gauge wire so I used that. The + cable is only about 3 feet long so you can use higher gauge (thinner) wires
- Tools: 10mm ratchet/wrench, philips screwdriver, wiretap/t-tap, heatshrink, wire stripper, needle-nose pliers, plastic-trim pry tool.
- These instructions:
http://www.bernardiparts.com/Images/Install/2016_CivicSedan_IlluminatedDoorSillTrim_AII02278-10.pdf
Steps:
1. Unhook battery; just the negative will do. You'll need a 10mm wrench.
2. Remove interior trim pieces outlined in steps 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 from the Illuminated Door Sill instructions. No need to go further. You'll need the phillips screwdriver, plastic pry tool, and optionally a 7mm or 8mm (can't remember) ratchet to remove the bolts from the bottom of the glovebox, as they're in awkward locations.
3. Driver's side should look like this now:
4. To the right of the OBD port, there are 2 connectors attached together, A white and yellow one:
5. MAKE SURE BATTERY IS DISCONNECTED. As far as I know yellow connectors are air-bag related, so don't take chances. Although I may be wrong about the airbag. But seriously, if you haven't done so yet, disconnect your battery. Unplug the yellow connector by pulling down on the black tab.
6. Then unplug the white connector:
7. The wire we will use is the gray one, top-right of the unplugged white connector (credit goes to user kered424 for helping me find this).
8. Use wire-tap to connect your wire to the gray wire. You may need to pull a small bit of the tape/loom off to expose a bit more wire. It's very tight down there, be warned. Needle-nose pliers are necessary due to the very limited space. Regular pliers won't give you the accuracy you need to avoid damaging other wires.
9. Route wire creatively, avoiding any mechanically moving parts such as the steering column. I used electrical tape to tape the wire on the inside of the plastic shield. No pictures because it's impossible to take them lol.
10. Proceed to run wire behind climate controls/infotainment. You can tape your wire to a straightened coat hanger to make it easier; I did fine without.
Note 1. My LED's were modular with a 2-pin connector. Benefits of this is that it's easy to reverse polarity of the bulb itself, and that if for whatever reason the bulb burns out it's easier to replace.
11. Cut the wire; use judgement to see how much wire would be enough, and add about 3 inches to it. The placement of the glovebox and its openings will add more distance to the total wire length.
11. Connect the wire to the + wire of the female 2-pin connector. I didn't solder them, but wound the strands together and heatshrinked. Use proper technique/common sense.
12. Cut a shorter piece of wire, again using judgement, connect one end to the - wire of the female 2-pin connector.
13. Connect other end to the ground point visible. You should use a ring terminal if you have one; I didn't, and wound the wire around the metal ring of the vehicle ground wires:
14. Plug the white and yellow connectors back in the driver's footwell.
15. Reconnect battery.
16. Connect LED, test to see it works:
17. On the back of the glovebox there is a wire hole you can feed your wires/light through. Tape the wires on the inside of the box, so when you put the glovebox back, you can still see your wires. I learned this the hard way by putting the glovebox back and realizing I couldn't find the wires lol.
18. Replace glovebox.
19. The bulb I had had some exposed circuitry on the back of the LED panel. I covered that with electrical tape just in case:
20. Then added 3M double-sided tape:
21. Attach to the inside top of glovebox:
22. Test light again for good measure.
23. Put everything back together.
Note: the "aspirator hose" in Step 8 of the Illuminated Door Sill instructions may have been pulled back into the car. You can pull this hose out pretty far without damaging anything, with a bit of wiggling. It's impossible to reconnect without pulling it out a good inch or so. Just be careful.
Final Result!!
, etc.
