So I have a 2013 crv exl no NAV. When I have the cargo cover pulled over the back the small cargo light (on the ceiling) of that back area doesn’t reach the floor of the cargo area.
I tried a stick on led with a motion sensor but no good. Fell right off and became a nuisance with things in the back moving around at times. I found some decent led lights that are courtesy lights, three diodes, all encased meant for a boat or RV but would work perfectly for this.
I know by using a multimeter, that small trunk/cargo light fixture has two small metal prongs on the bottom side, that are accessible with the plastic diffuser off the light. I checked and it is positive toward the front of the car and negative on the backmost prong. The prongs are setup in their housing and arranged perpendicular to the car, so one is forward (the positive prong) and the second one closest to the back of the car is the negative prong. I figured I could just solder two wires and run them up through the light fixture, down along the headliner on each side, and then I’d be perfectly set to just drill the one hole for each light and then they have two screws on each side from the back plate to mount.
Because the lights are led, and I’d be tapping into the trunk/cargo fixture, do I need to add a higher amperage fuse to the “interior light” fuse? Plus all my other interior lights are all led chips already. I was planning to mount two of these lights. One right side and one left. I want this setup like so because I want these to turn on with the hatch opening and turn off when closed. The switch itself for the Honda is setup as On-Door-Off. And when I tested everything with my multimeter, I was getting about 12V with on and door, and it was zero when switched to off, and this was just by touching those two prongs.
Any thoughts, tips, feedback? I want to make sure I’m set about things. It makes a huge difference to have the light in that lower area of the cargo part of the car, but the dinky little ceiling mounted lights don’t do much. Even after I swapped them all for led’s. Any suggestions are welcomed!
How many amps (milliamps) do these lights draw?
I can’t imagine it would be a problem.
Fuses are meant to protect a wired circuit (to keep wires from overheating and burning). I wouldn’t go to a higher amp fuse since you are using existing wiring. CSA
Forester has a place where you can stick the light into but if you don’t have it, you can just cut the headliners and put it there. No need to fiddle with the fuses. This Forester light is to be connected to similar light fixture you explain.
Absolutely nothing sticks to the headliner. When I tried to install my dashcam. I had to drill a hole through the dashcam holder and two screws in, it is holding well for last 3 years now.
Or you can just replace the dome light bulb with a drop-in LED panel:
I got a set of lights like those for the dome lights in my MR2. It’s fantastic. Bright, white light whenever the door’s open instead of that old yellow dim light that didn’t help you see anything.
Just make sure you know EXACTLY what’s on the other side of what you are drilling into! I’d suggest using small machine screws with a nut on the backside of the trim, if possible to mount the LED’s as sheet metal screws into plastic interior panels tend to come loose with road vibration.
You are on the right track. Agree with @common_sense_answer, the wiring is what is being protected by the fuse, not the light so DON’T install a bigger one! With an LED you’ll be fine.
I also have a CR-V and I know exactly what you are trying to fix. With the roll-up cover extended the light from above doesn’t get to the lower compartment. It’s just remarkably thoughtless, and Honda is generally pretty good about not doing things like this.
Thanks for the feedback everyone! Just as an FYI, I have watched a bunch of YouTube videos on my same model and year crv where people had removed the bottom trim panel in the back trunk/cargo area to install trailering lights. I plan to remove the panels to precisely mark, align, and cut the exact size hole I need. The led’s themselves have two small screw holes on the backside to drill through whatever it’s being mounted to. I’ll put the link for the lights below. Is it better to have a certain gauge wire for adding these lights into the trunk light switch? I bought a spool of 20 or 22 gauge wire at Lowe’s and bag of loom to encase the wire when I run it down the sides.
I was planning to have the solder connection to the light switch tabs and then loop the wires uncovered up through the light switch fixture (again this is the trunk fixture right at the backend of the crv) and then cover it with loom and run two strands. One to the right side and one to the left of the car. They’d probably be somewhere around the wheel well area of the lower inside trim panel of the crv. Just want to make sure it’s below the cargo cover so the light is illuminating that area. Just want to make sure it’s a relatively flat portion of the trim and then it should be pretty easy to mark and cut the holes I need. Otherwise, anything else I should be doing? And I should not need to change anything for the “interior lights” fuse? I know on my model year that particular fuse is a 7.8A fuse.
Here is the amazon link for these lights. They look really nice. Works with the tan/beige interior with the chrome look.
I recently installed a 12 volt LED for my Corolla dome light b/c the oem come bulb has never been nearly bright enough. I see no reason why the interior lighting in cars shouldn’t be nearly as bright at daylight. Why not? We drivers need to read stuff inside the car from time to time. And find out lost dimes, etc. I’ve tried various schemes over the years to brighten the Corolla’s interior lighting, mostly using off the shelf individual white led’s used for flashlights. Never got quite the results I wanted. One problem is the individual LED’s are very directional, so hard to illuminate the whole interior without using several of them. This new led - bulb I used is ins’t nearly as directional & much brighter than the flashlight led’s I was using before, and much, much brighter than the old incandescent bulb. The new one is not quite daylight, but close. I bought this new bulb at a hardware store that was going out of business. Don’t know what it was originally intended for, other than for 12 volt lighting applications. Rated 20 W brightness, but only 5 W power draw. I think the original price was $15. I paid much less due to the sale, but even at $15 it’s worth it. This particular bulb isn’t really meant to fit where I have it, so I had to make some mods to get it wired it in, but not a big deal. The circuit is still fuse protected of course, by the same fuse that protected the oem bulb. Runs cooler than the oem bulb too. The only problem is that it is a little too bright to comfortably look at directly. I have to remember that when looking in the rearview mirror, if the bulb is on.
Well your first idea was not a bad one, you just need to prep the area better to use an adhesive. If you revisit the first and simplest idea I would reccommend buying some 3M Velcro Tape. The Velcro Tape needs no instructions however your prep may. You need to use a good degreaser like Castrol Super Clean or some Carburetor cleaner spray or Acetone… Apply whichever agent you are going with to a rag and be sure to thoroughly clean the adhesive area. Similarly prep the light as well…apply the Velcro Tape Halves to the vehicle and the light and see what you get. That Tape adhesive is extremely strong as well as thick and pliable, so with proper prep it will not fall off, if it does…it goes back to preparation and or the weight of the light you are using. But believe me the stuff is extremely strong in every way that matters.
The other idea of hard wiring an LED based light source is easy enough but you do not need to go to the dome light on the ceiling to find power… There will be adequate wiring to tap into behind the plastic panels behind the rear cargo area of the car… just find a suitable one and go from there…don’t worry about any fuse changes as the LED’s will not add sufficient load to whichever circuit you choose… and don’t forget to have fun as well !
@common_sense_answer Even if I solder the connections and add my own wiring from the light fixture prongs, and then add wiring that goes down both sides (right and left, for each light of the two I’d install) would that still be ok? I didn’t think the LED lights would draw much current and etc, but I want to be sure of things before I go and start soldering and adding lights.
I’m happy with the drop-in replacement LED for the cab of my pickup. I can even read comfortably at night. It uses less power than the incandescent it replaced. I bought them super-cheap on eBay (I got a spare). I had to discard the diffuser because it had gotten nearly opaque with age. Find out how much current the LEDs you want draw. I’ll bet you don’t need additional wiring for sufficient light. For a long area consider those tubes, strings of LEDs in plastic tubing.
That might be easier said than done. Those prongs are often made of a metal – maybe it is aluminum – whatever it is, it is nearly impossible to get solder to stick to it. I used miniature alligator-type clips for the led bulb install I described above. Drilling through the prong and attaching the wire with a small screw is another idea.
Just letting everyone know; these are the led’s that I got:
My thoughts are I’m going to try and use some alligator clips to connect to the prongs, probably just buy a pack of them at harbor freight or etc. I got some good wire from Lowe’s I’ll use and solder it to the ends of those to the alligator clip and then heatshrink some tubing around the connection.
Because I’m connecting two lights, I thought I’d make one short connection with the + and - wires, just to pull the wire up through the fixture and above the headliner and then split that to each light by routing it down across the headliner to the back sides of these interior body trim panels. Each led is going to be on the inside of the trunk/cargo area just below the cargo cover. I think I’m going to mount them near the rear seat folding hand-levers on both sides at least for now.
Another question I came to was if I want to split the wires coming off of the prongs, would these wire connectors do the job?
My thought was that this should work because I’d basically have one wire connected to both LEDs and then use that connector to splice the single wire connected to both LEDs, and link that up with the single pair of wires coming off the prongs for power. What do you guys think? Good/bad/any other suggestions? I know at least the ends of the connecting wire linking both LEDs, those I plan to solder to ensure solid connections but I wasn’t exactly sure how to divert the power from the fixture’s prongs in “the best way”. Just want to be sure I don’t have too much wire that’d need extra protection or etc since this is just off of the cars 12V fixture. Don’t want to strain the system. This whole setup is to just allow these lights to be powered when the lift gate opens and turn off when it closes.
Thank you so much for the feedback! I think the weight of the light I have was too much. It was a great two pack of Duracell led lights from Costco I got many years ago. They run on six AA which makes them hefty. One pothole and kaboom it just slipped right off the heavy duty command strips. Being in New England (Massachusetts) is not a good place for well kept and cleanly paved roads
I was really looking toy ap into the cargo area done light because I want these LEDs to turn on and off with the tailgate opening and closing. A bit harder to do if I tap into a random wire back there that isn’t part of the interior lights but I totally get what you’re saying. I could tap into the trailering harness, but it’s not really tethered into the interior lights like I’d want these to be.
I’ve actually already swapped every interior light in my Honda to LEDs already. I used these auxito bulbs and they are super bright. It comes in a pack of ten bulbs. Totally worth every penny for how bright they are.
I was just concerned about setting up these extra LEDs by drawing power off the same circuit that the led bulb is in. I’m just trying to make sure I’m doing everything as cleanly and professionally as I can because I’m tapping into the circuit to run wires down to both sides of the cargo area of my crv so it’ll have that extra illumination below that cargo cover when it’s closed. This way when the back tailgate opens, these lights and the dome light in the cargo area all go on together, and then they all shut off together once that tailgate closes.
