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Map Lights on with Dome light Mod


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No problems here.. it's been months. Happy since the day I did it.

I enlarged the (grey plastic) bezel opening behind the clear lens for the drivers side, but not the passenger side. This way the passenger can navigate using the map light without disturbing the the driver.

 

Scott

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Yes. wire it to the appropriate terminals onthe dome light switch....

 

i re-wired the map lights to the switch so they turn on and of with the dome switch but they still work individually....

 

 

jic/fyi....i wired it to the middle 'blade' off of the switch.... just like the diode, you have to gob some solder on there to get it to stay...

 

 

stealth car exiting FTW!!!11 :spin::lol:

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This mod is just what I've wanted since the first time I drove the car at night. But... I'm dangerous with tools in my hand and would certainly screw this up or get it half way and not be able to finish. Are there people/services/businesses that are good at things like this?

 

P.S. No thanks to Subaru for leaving the front compartment dark (really dark in the wagon).

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  • 1 month later...

Just did this Mod tonight. Took about 4 hours but 2 of that was finding the fuse that blew. If you aren't getting any cabin lights that would be on if the doors are open and your nav, sterio, and heat controls dont work

check the 20A backup fuse under the hood.

 

I switched the pins inside the clip instead of cutting the wires (more difficult in poor lighting)

 

Also I skipped the diodes becasue I like as much light as possible and don't care if all the lights turn on with one switch. I wound up soldering the wires directly to the switch leads.

 

 

Thanks for posting instructions. I know I'll enjoy this one a lot!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for the awesome mod mwiener2! Just completed it and it works like a champ. This was the first thing I noticed about my LGT that i didn't like.

 

I didn't find the the wire for the rear dome in the front also, so tapped in at the dome.

 

Thanks again and happy holidays!

Yo Han

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This is an awesome mod. It is so nice to have light when I get into the car in the dark. The only problem I had was I have an aftermarket moon roof and I couldn't fish the wire from the dome, so I ended up finding the brown wire in the right "A" pillar. If you tap into the brown wire there, I would suggest disconnecting the battery since the front side air bag is also right there. I could just see something happen and have that sucker go off. I also put a plug in-line so it would be possible to disconnect everything if needed. Again this is an easy and great mod, thanks a ton!!

________

Ship Sale

Edited by mcsquish
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As others have stated, this is a great idea and anwer to an annoyingly dark forward cabin. I have performed the mod as stated here, switching the wires in the terminal and attching the wires at the bulbs (without soldering). After putting everything in place, my lights will not turn off AT ALL with the dome switch in the "door" position. I have now pulled everything off, essentially putting the car back to stock (other than the maplights' wire terminals still being switched) and my dome light still will not turn off. It will turn off with the switch in the "off" position, but when switched to "door" they stay on. Anyone have any input or help? I wonder if I could have fried the control module for the illumination somehow? When I first hooked everything up I had the wires to the maplight hooked up to the opposite side of the bulbs from the switch. They didn't illuminate that way, and I then switched them to the proper sides. I wonder if that was enough to fry the module? I thought the worst I could do was blow a fuse, but maybe not. Anyone else doing this, learn from me, pay close attention to how you hook things up.
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motorob, now I'm not trying to be a smarta$$, but are you sure all of the doors are closed. Believe me, I went nuts untill I noticed the rear door on the other side was cracked open......... Also, where did you tap into the brown wire? I'm no where near an expert on wireing of Subies, but if you would have fried the control module, I would think you would have had to realy mess something up. Good luck

________

ST1100

Edited by mcsquish
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I didn't think about maybe melting the dome light switch, I'll try bypassing it with a jumper or something and see if that's the problem. I kinda doubt it, it turns off and on, it's just that the "door" position is the same as "on" now.

 

mcsquish - You're not a smarta$$, I'm a dumba$$.. I checked the doors etc about 1000 times. I tried to do this whole job so that it was as reversible as possible, switched wires in maplight terminal instead of cutting, and mounted wires on the ends of the bulbs instead of soldering. Actually, I did something kind of cool there that I was going to tell everyone about, but I've kind of lost my enthusiasm for it now that I screwed the whole thing up. Instead of twisting the part of the wire that goes on the end of the bulb in a loop I mounted a small ring terminal there, it gets sandwiched between the end of the bulb and the light terminal. That's actually the root of my problem, that works so well that I was able to put the terminal and bulb in place from the "front" side of the maplight assy. I was not really paying attention to which side of the bulb I put the terminal on at that point (excited about gettting the job done) and put them on the wrong side. I then got in the back seat, put the dome light terminal in place and stared stupidly at the maplights for 5-10 seconds while I tried to figure why they weren't lighting up (while the auto-dimmer happily melted, I now suspect..) At the dome light, I put a terminal between the bulb and "door" terminal (middle blade off switch) so that the maplights would turn off with the dome light switch. I then went and rechecked everything and figured my problem.

 

It's too bad, my installation is really clean, the way I did it is essentially plug-and-play other than switching the maplight power and ground. You could make up the harness I have and sell them that way (hint hint to some enterprising soul... another hint, if someone does this, be sure to put a strong disclaimer in the box for the moron who connects it backwards and fries his dimmer...)

 

On the plus side, as I said, everything was easily removed and there's no trace of it now. I'll probably just go the dealer and let warranty clean up after me. Too bad my brain's out of warranty!

 

Thanks for your help, and I'll let you know how it turn out.

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Did this MOD today, the lack of light had always bothered me, this is perfect. Not that hard to do really, took me about an hour. Now if there was a way to include the rear cargo light in the wagon that would be nice. Also, some ambient lighting around the shifter area would be nice.
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Now I have to say again that I am no expert on the Subie wiring, but I would think if you ran a wire from the brown wire back to the rear light and attached it with a diode to the same location on the rear light, (I don't know the correct color of wire in the back) it would make the rear light turn on when you opened/unlocked the doors. But adding three extra bulbs to the module might be too much.? I know it turns on when I open the hatch, but I have never noticed though if mine turned on or not when I unlock the doors. Hmmmmmmmmmm

________

EASYVAPE REVIEW

Edited by mcsquish
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  • 2 weeks later...

All good reading so far guys - just wondering if anyone has combined this with some LED replacement "globes" ?

That would also take any load of the control module & I was wondering if the LEDs might do the job of the added diodes by themselves(as they ARE a diode)?

Also not sure if the LED "globes" will behave ok with dimming etc. :icon_conf

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All good reading so far guys - just wondering if anyone has combined this with some LED replacement "globes" ?

That would also take any load of the control module & I was wondering if the LEDs might do the job of the added diodes by themselves(as they ARE a diode)?

Also not sure if the LED "globes" will behave ok with dimming etc. :icon_conf

 

 

I did the mod a while ago and recently replaced the incandescent bayonet bulbs with LED ones. The fadeout works and does so at the same rate.

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So, with this MOD...can you turn on the main cabin dome light without turning on the map lights? My daughters like to read in the car when we are driving at night. Sorry if it was already stated and I missed it.

 

Cheers,

Mike

 

Yes, the mod has both front map lights come on with the dome light when the door is opened, and then all fade out together after the door is closed, as well as allowing the the dome light to be switched on independently from the maps lights.

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  • 2 months later...
Sorry to be so long getting back to you guys. I did indeed fry my BCM (Body Control Module), master control for lots of the car's functions. Without warranty, this would have been an expensive repair ($600+) I pulled all of my stuff off, wnet to dealer and plead ingnorance. "My dome light won't go off and I don't know why." BE CAREFUL how you hook this mod up, the original instructions are great, don't go getting too creative with them. I suspect that if enough of us screw this up, Subaru will start to instruct dealers to be on the lookout for this failure and deny warranty coverage for the repair.
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I did the mod a while ago and recently replaced the incandescent bayonet bulbs with LED ones. The fadeout works and does so at the same rate.

 

 

what type of LEDs did you use for the replacement? im interested din some LEDs but i don't know where to get them and how they go in.. thanks

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what type of LEDs did you use for the replacement? im interested din some LEDs but i don't know where to get them and how they go in.. thanks

I got them from Autolumination.com and used the Super White color, which goes nicely with the electroluminescent gauges.

 

For the map lights I'm using 31mm "6 LED Super High Flux" festoon bulbs.

 

For the the dome and the front door puddle lights I put in the 31mm "12 LED Two-Face" festoon bulbs. The dome enclosure has an opening in the top to allow heat to dissipate so I turned that bulb into a vertical position so that the output of half of the LEDs wasn't wasted illuminating up into the hole and the inside of the headliner. In the door lights the indirect light off the backside fills out the lens nicely.

 

In the trunk I used the 194 "5 LED Matrix" wedge bulb but they've since come out with a 194 "SMT Super High Flux Tower" that would put out more light.

 

I've ordered a few times from them and they have reasonable, quick shipping.

 

Here are some not so great shots, but you get the idea...

 

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/TRS60586/Misc%20Legacy/DSCN0060.jpg

 

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/TRS60586/Misc%20Legacy/DSCN0058.jpg

 

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/TRS60586/Misc%20Legacy/LED_interior_lighting.jpg

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Did this mod a few weeks ago and love it. It did take me two tries, however. The first time, I just could not get the diodes soldered correctly and also wound up damaging one of the map light switches. It still lights but the button doesn't click into the "on" position and stay there. I also blew the 20 amp fuse.

 

The next try, all I did was solder wire onto both ends of the diodes and wedged the wires' exposed ends between the terminals and switches. I wonder if I can get a new switch, or will I have to buy a whole new map light assembly?

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How does one find those bulbs on their site? How did you find them in the first place and know they were good replacements? Their "Automotive Lighting Lamp Replacement Guide" takes you to a Sylvania site and its search results didn't list the bulbs you used.

 

I got them from Autolumination.com and used the Super White color, which goes nicely with the electroluminescent gauges.

 

For the map lights I'm using 31mm "6 LED Super High Flux" festoon bulbs.

 

For the the dome and the front door puddle lights I put in the 31mm "12 LED Two-Face" festoon bulbs. The dome enclosure has an opening in the top to allow heat to dissipate so I turned that bulb into a vertical position so that the output of half of the LEDs wasn't wasted illuminating up into the hole and the inside of the headliner. In the door lights the indirect light off the backside fills out the lens nicely.

 

In the trunk I used the 194 "5 LED Matrix" wedge bulb but they've since come out with a 194 "SMT Super High Flux Tower" that would put out more light.

 

I've ordered a few times from them and they have reasonable, quick shipping.

 

Here are some not so great shots, but you get the idea...

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