Ambient lighting project for Momentum

Faults and Technical chat for the Volvo XC40
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agilefrog
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:13 am

Post by agilefrog »

The rear of my Momentum is a bit of a black hole at night, so finished a project to add some LED's in the rear door cards, rear central console, and front console under the USB socket. Fairly straight forward. If you want to copy here's what I did:

LED's (white for rear & blue for front console I got from ebay. Just search for 12v led's with mounting holder. I used some inline wiretaps that I got from Amazon to make the connections.

Rear door cards come off with three bolts (two in base of card, one under door release, then card lifts up. Reach behind and release door release cable & unplug electric window switch. Wrapped behind the card in a foam bag is a spare connector that has both earth & ambient light connections (I used a cheap meter to find the right two wires). I tapped into these for the white LED. Drilled a small hole under the armrest and mounted the LED. These LED's will dim with the ambient light brightness control.

Rear console pulls off towards rear of car. 4 metal clips. Needed a tug, but the clips are solid and wont break. Drilled a small hole in the top of the dished area where the USB socket is and mounted the LED. Tapped into the USB power for the connection. This one wont dim with the ambient light, but wasnt a big issue for me.

Front console - the section with the USB socket on pulls down easily. Again drilled small hole underneath in the middle, mounted LED and tapped into wires for lighter socket. Again this one wont dim, but the blue LED I chose (to avoid glare) isnt overly bright anyway, so all good.

Photo's below. I think it looks much better. In reality the lights arent as bright as they appear in the photos, and give a nice level of ambient light.

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XC40 T3 Momentum Auto + Winterpack

tjj5495
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon May 31, 2021 6:22 am

Post by tjj5495 »

Nice I like that and useful info on how to do it, well done
Ex Lexus Hybrid, Honda, Mitsubishi now have a leased XC40 T4 Recharge Inscription May 2021 Black added a few extras myself
mss911
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2018 9:11 pm

Post by mss911 »

Hi @agilefrog,
Quick question - when you removed the door cards to expose the 'foam bag' with the connector in. Do you recall how many wires went into this connector ?

Just wondering if I could try an RGB or RGB+W Led.

Nice work BTW.

Thanks
agilefrog
Posts: 12
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:13 am

Post by agilefrog »

Hi mss911 - Thanks, yes, I think there were 3 or 4. I think there was a 12v live, an earth and the live that varied voltage from the ambient light dimmer feed. It took a bit of probing with the meter to find which one dimmed! There was one other there that just gave a constant 5v or so, which I guessed was canbus so I left it alone! I think you could do something with one of those colour change LED interior light kits from ebay that have a small remote control (there is plenty of space in the armrest accessible once the electric window switch is popped out), but you would need a kit with a remote to change the colour, as threading a control cable thru the door harness into the car would be a total nightmare.
XC40 T3 Momentum Auto + Winterpack
lfpcorreia
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2019 11:53 am

Post by lfpcorreia »

agilefrog wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 3:11 pm Hi mss911 - Thanks, yes, I think there were 3 or 4. I think there was a 12v live, an earth and the live that varied voltage from the ambient light dimmer feed. It took a bit of probing with the meter to find which one dimmed! There was one other there that just gave a constant 5v or so, which I guessed was canbus so I left it alone! I think you could do something with one of those colour change LED interior light kits from ebay that have a small remote control (there is plenty of space in the armrest accessible once the electric window switch is popped out), but you would need a kit with a remote to change the colour, as threading a control cable thru the door harness into the car would be a total nightmare.
Great project!

Any will to do the same in the ceiling?
T5 Twin-engine Momentum Plus
ChrisLF
Posts: 1346
Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2019 8:21 am
Location: Heart of England

Post by ChrisLF »

Much better than the manufacturer installed ambient lighting, that's a joke!

Chris
2023 B4 Plus Dark FWD in Silver Dawn. Tinted Rear Windows. Spare Wheel & Tow Bar dealer fitted.

Gone - 2019 T4 R-Design FWD in Bursting Blue. Winter & Convenience Packs, Power Seat, Front Park Assist, Rear Camera, Spare Wheel & Tow Bar.
Alex_O
Posts: 88
Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2020 5:47 pm

Post by Alex_O »

That looks really good. Nice work, and thanks for the detailed description!
michael123
Posts: 168
Joined: Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:14 am

Post by michael123 »

Nice! How front console led was mounted?
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