CooperSmith
Just thought I'd drop a little post about a cheap retrofit that I've just done.
If anyones ever owned a german car that has the ambient lighting package you'll know how nice it is to have that deep low-level red lighting. Not the 'in your face' lighting that you'd expect from installing LED's from eBay or Halfords, as it's more subdued.
Having done this in the past of previous cars I knew that it can be a very cheap retrofit by buying the diodes of Ebay by using the search term 'Audi ambient lighting' which will return both centre roof consoles and the actual diodes themselves. To by new you'll be looking at around £25-£35. But if you just search for 'Audi roof console it should return a load of consoles that are cheaper and may include these diodes. I got mine as a buy it now for £11 delivered. The image below shows what I bought and where the Ambient diodes are located
The diodes
The tools you'll need are below and include some cable, Crimp connector (2 x Splice and 2 x straight connectors) Crimper, T25 torx driver,
On my caravelle I chose to locate the diodes on an empty compartment that simply pulls of, with reveals 2 T25 screws that pretty much hold the entire roof console up. This reveal a plethora of cables that you'll have to remove. Think there were about 7 connections from memory.
One you've identified where you're going to fit them then you need to drill the holes. I practiced the drilling on the audi console that I had just bought just to practice and see what the best method was to get the cleanest hole. It turns out a 9mm wood screw is cleanest and centre punching the position first is best. Otherwise you may end up have two drilled holes which will play havoc with your OCD forever and a day because they're skewiff.
Once drilled I then positioned the diodes and glued them with a hot glue gun. I did think about using a stronger glue like plastic epoxy but thought 'just in case...' which served me well as the beam to both diodes are slightly angled and I found the driver side was better positioned when it was turn 90 degree as it was lighting up the dashboard instead of the lap area.
After you've driven the hols you'll then have to wire it up. Obviously it's just two cables, as power and earth. The ambient lighting on all Audi's are connected into the same lighting circuit of the illumination of the interior buttons. Just find the main wiring loom that feed the roof console buttons and there you'll see eight cables. The big thick brown one is the earth and the Grey with a blue tracer is the power. Just splice into these and connect your diodes up with enough cable that will allow you to take the cover over without any faffing about. It's a good idea to use the bullet connections that will allow you to remove it.
The connector to the wiring loom that feed the buttons. This is on the console side. We need to tap in to the other side of this connector.
The spliced connectors in the roof
It's a good idea to test that it works at this stage. If it doesn't then make sure that the cables are the correct way around as LED's have a funny way of working. But once in place it should look like this
I did try to take a photo of the lighting at night but it just turned out too dark. But it looks something like this, without the white lighting.
Total cost of this mode was roughly £15 and took roughly a leisurely hour to do. Saying that I did take my time in researching the best drilling method whilst seeing to the washing and other chores. But a well worthy mode for any diy'er
If anyones ever owned a german car that has the ambient lighting package you'll know how nice it is to have that deep low-level red lighting. Not the 'in your face' lighting that you'd expect from installing LED's from eBay or Halfords, as it's more subdued.
Having done this in the past of previous cars I knew that it can be a very cheap retrofit by buying the diodes of Ebay by using the search term 'Audi ambient lighting' which will return both centre roof consoles and the actual diodes themselves. To by new you'll be looking at around £25-£35. But if you just search for 'Audi roof console it should return a load of consoles that are cheaper and may include these diodes. I got mine as a buy it now for £11 delivered. The image below shows what I bought and where the Ambient diodes are located
The diodes
The tools you'll need are below and include some cable, Crimp connector (2 x Splice and 2 x straight connectors) Crimper, T25 torx driver,
On my caravelle I chose to locate the diodes on an empty compartment that simply pulls of, with reveals 2 T25 screws that pretty much hold the entire roof console up. This reveal a plethora of cables that you'll have to remove. Think there were about 7 connections from memory.
One you've identified where you're going to fit them then you need to drill the holes. I practiced the drilling on the audi console that I had just bought just to practice and see what the best method was to get the cleanest hole. It turns out a 9mm wood screw is cleanest and centre punching the position first is best. Otherwise you may end up have two drilled holes which will play havoc with your OCD forever and a day because they're skewiff.
Once drilled I then positioned the diodes and glued them with a hot glue gun. I did think about using a stronger glue like plastic epoxy but thought 'just in case...' which served me well as the beam to both diodes are slightly angled and I found the driver side was better positioned when it was turn 90 degree as it was lighting up the dashboard instead of the lap area.
After you've driven the hols you'll then have to wire it up. Obviously it's just two cables, as power and earth. The ambient lighting on all Audi's are connected into the same lighting circuit of the illumination of the interior buttons. Just find the main wiring loom that feed the roof console buttons and there you'll see eight cables. The big thick brown one is the earth and the Grey with a blue tracer is the power. Just splice into these and connect your diodes up with enough cable that will allow you to take the cover over without any faffing about. It's a good idea to use the bullet connections that will allow you to remove it.
The connector to the wiring loom that feed the buttons. This is on the console side. We need to tap in to the other side of this connector.
The spliced connectors in the roof
It's a good idea to test that it works at this stage. If it doesn't then make sure that the cables are the correct way around as LED's have a funny way of working. But once in place it should look like this
I did try to take a photo of the lighting at night but it just turned out too dark. But it looks something like this, without the white lighting.
Total cost of this mode was roughly £15 and took roughly a leisurely hour to do. Saying that I did take my time in researching the best drilling method whilst seeing to the washing and other chores. But a well worthy mode for any diy'er
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