Overhead Console Lights Mod

I was also annoyed by the buttons hiding up there in the dark. It took a lot of work, but I now have them backlit with 3 LEDs powered off the compass. They are lit up enough @ night to easily find the LAMP and MODE buttons without being distracting. I was able to do this w/o drilling or hacking into any of the plastic housing, etc, so you see no external difference from the original look, except you can now see an outline of each button @ night. :up:

I also looked at back-lighting the 3 Homelink buttons. Because these 3 buttons are part of one long and thick rubber sheet, I can't see a way to backlight them w/o serious mods to the plastic or rubber.

If I had a digital camera I'd post pics. If any one is interested, I can post instructions later. Don't have time now....
 
Looks like Mercury listened to us on this one. The '04's have little green lights built in. Don't miss my '03 at all.
 
A small flach light helps me

I inserted a small flash light wrapped with a little velcro between the passenger side seat and the console. With a little twist the ceiling becomes bright enough to see the bottons.
 
I actually am working on the setup to use micro LED's to side light all the roof buttons. Should be pretty easy to do. Wire it in the running light feed so they come on with the rest of the lights. I have the parts, and am working on the engineering to make it easy to do and work with existing parts. I am pretty sure I can get it all to work and not look or function any different. When I get it done I'll post the full tech article and pictures.

The dark buttons are a big pain for me as most of my driving seems to be at night....
 
vegasmarauder said:
I actually am working on the setup to use micro LED's to side light all the roof buttons. Should be pretty easy to do. Wire it in the running light feed so they come on with the rest of the lights. I have the parts, and am working on the engineering to make it easy to do and work with existing parts. I am pretty sure I can get it all to work and not look or function any different. When I get it done I'll post the full tech article and pictures.

The dark buttons are a big pain for me as most of my driving seems to be at night....
Click to expand...


Thanks vegas— I knew you'd come through! :banana: :beer:
 
drgnrdr33 said:
I was also annoyed by the buttons hiding up there in the dark. It took a lot of work, but I now have them backlit with 3 LEDs powered off the compass. They are lit up enough @ night to easily find the LAMP and MODE buttons without being distracting. I was able to do this w/o drilling or hacking into any of the plastic housing, etc, so you see no external difference from the original look, except you can now see an outline of each button @ night. :up:

I also looked at back-lighting the 3 Homelink buttons. Because these 3 buttons are part of one long and thick rubber sheet, I can't see a way to backlight them w/o serious mods to the plastic or rubber.

If I had a digital camera I'd post pics. If any one is interested, I can post instructions later. Don't have time now....
Click to expand...

Thanks drgnrdr! I wonder how your solution compares to vegasmarauder's.
 
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