Interior Neon Lighting
 

I want to buy neon lighting for under the dash (foot well) and I don't want to pay to have someone install them for me. I am a n00b with wiring so can someone explain to me how I could install some of these lights in my foot wells with a switch to turn them on and off? My friend on the other hand bought some crappy neons from his local Target that plug in to the cig. lighter and has wires running all throughout his car... looks REALLY bad... makes the neons look rice. If the wiring were done correctly it would look awesome.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

i can't help you with the installation but go to streetglow's website and take a look at their products. the installation doesnt look too hard to do and i know a few people who have done it themselves with no problems. streetglow i feel is the best in the business and no one compares to them. just my $ .02

I wanted to do the same thing, flawless... so far i just bought 1 9 inch tube from Discount Auto Parts (one of the thinner ones, not the big bulging ones)... i dont remember the brand. Ill buy one more when i get the chance. Yea but so far my plan is to get my hands on a switch bar, where i can just clip the wire at the cigarrette lighter point, and match the wires... what ive done so far is used double sided tape to stick the tube on the very front/bottom of the drivers seat, and have the wires running up the side, and then i tucked them under the silver pannel piece, and then one more wire jumping over the panel and into the arm compartment... i then used some regular scotch tape (because im not sure if htis is how im going to keep it), to run it UNDER the groove for the sliding arm rest. and i dont know if the rest of u noticed, but theres a tiny little gap that allows access into the back compartment... so i then took the transformer box and mounted THAT to the side of the compartment, and the lighter straight into the socket... im only planning on doing one more light for now in the passenger's side seat, and if i measured out and did my wiring meticulously it would barely be noticible. my only concern is the switches location. it will require me to open my arm panel to flip them on. other option is to do what mikeb did and tap into the dome light under the seats. a friend is finding out about that for me soon. if its only a 50 dollar or so install, ill probably have them do that and mount a switch in the dummy panels next to the DSC. hope that helps. wow this is a long post.

Edit*** Oh yea and it lights up the entire leg area up till the bottom of my steering wheel in my car. it looks AWESOME in my opinoin. switch position or plugging in/out is my only problem with it.

Re: Interior Neon Lighting
 

Just to provide an alternate opinion - the wiring doesn't make the neons look rice, neons in the interior ARE rice (whether the wiring is messy or neat). :( Aw hell, neons anywhere on a car are rice. :p

Regards,
Gordon

lights
 

IMO I think interior lights make the car look nice whether it's rice or not... anyways... Kushballah do you think you could post a pic of the 1 tube you have installed at the moment?

my interior footwell lights are not rice
they look nice and didnt cause all the problems the mazda footwell lights caused from install

what type of footwell lights do you have and could you post a picture please?

the pictuer would be a problem cause i lost the cable for my digital camera-computer... i can take one with my phone camera, but it wont be the BEST quality ever. gimme a few days. exams this week, so time is quite limited. im hoping by the end of next weekend to finish my switch and second light install, as well as putting in my third light decal. cant seem to get a hold of D Menac though. ill take pictures of all as soon as i get em done. Oh... and mine arent rice. it requires someone to be standing outside the door and in front of it while its open in order to see the tube on the seat. it looks like footwell lights. i happen to like it.

I just bought two ten inch audiobahn red lights, one for the passenger and one under the driver seat

Just in case everybody didn't notice but the 8 is a Japenese car. Therefor its going to be considered rice.
Just my $0.02

Professionally installed neon is to Target neon as Costly waste of money is to cheap waste of money.
I would think the neon lights could be powered by any 12V source. You should splice into any current power source.
I've seen neon light wires that illuminate when power is going through them. If I was going to rice my car I would get the neon wires and tap into the power source for the driver's side door lights. They would illuminate when the car door is open like the other interior lights.

i would consider cold cathode over neon....IMO

so true

yes it is true... as far as cold cathode, ur probably right as well. i just went with the last tube they had over at discount auto parts. discount my ass though. i piad 23 for it. i might as well have got a pair for 17 at target. lifetime warranty my friend tells me. n i dont remember the maker of my bulb. and Bubble, in that case one could simply get the footwell lights from mazda... thoguh theyve had problems and are more expensive. still nice i hear.... but the reason i wanted to do the wiring myself or tap into a continued source is because i like them on when i want. not just when the doors open.

Re: Re: Interior Neon Lighting
 

A light is a light, be it neon, incadescent or LED, it's the placement of and appearance that makes a difference whether it's rice or not.

Jeez Gord, you are so narrow minded sometimes. (eyes rolling)

I am considering doing the footwell lighting myself and would probably do either in neon (cold cathode) or hyper LEDs.

OK guys. One of my past hobbies is a computer case modder. These use a 12 volt power just like a car. When you buy for a car, they tend to jack the price up on the exact same cold cathode tubes that go into one of these cases. My favorite most trustable and cheapest place to buy stuff like this online is this place: SVC.com They have all sorts of cold cathode kits and all you would have to do is cut off the power supply connectors and wire them up to the 12V supply on your car. If they say out of stock, just wait a short while, they will have them back in shortly.

I'll see if i can do something with those cold cathode tubes... If it comes out good i'll post pics and/or instructions.

ok...how in THE HELL is lighting RICE?..WTF??!! some people have the wrong interpretation of rice...I'm a strict form=function type person but interior lighting COME ON!...or lights for that matter are serving a function...aren't they?...maybe i'm just old school and the definition of rice has expanded beyond what it was when we used it 10 years ago...

we used undercarriage lights on our show cars and I do find it funny on cars driven on the street (which is illegal anyway) but not rice...

If done tastefully, lighting is not rice in my opinion. It is rice when on a car with underbodies, the tubes show. It is rice when with interior lighting, the car looks like it belongs in a midway. My opinion of rice is overdone, gaudy, or poorly done additions to the car.

-JiM

Re: Re: Re: Interior Neon Lighting
 

Nah, not narrow-minded, just opinionated. ;) Didn't ya notice the smileys in my post? I wasn't the one who originally used the word rice in reference to interior neon, I was just pointing out that the quality of wiring doesn't make the difference between "rice" or "not-rice".

Opinions vary on the desirablity or appreciation of "lighting mods", that's all!

Regards,
Gordon

I'm Asian, so it can't be any ricier than it is now.

I think it's rice to have someone put a bunch of stickers all over their car, with little/no modifications to their car. Pretty ricey there.

Yep i think im with Outlaws... Rice to me is going for the racer look without any performance modifications, having a virtually non racer car. the reason i think stickers and lights have become dubbed rice is because they were the mark of a racer, yet since they are cheap modifications, they are being used left and right on cars with no mods... or ricers. there was a webpage from the old tl forum... all bout ricers. if i find it, ill post.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Interior Neon Lighting
 

OK Gordon, sorry about the narrow minded comment...:eek:

I think it matters now what type lighting is used but more so how it is used. If it's tasteful and hidden, it's definately decent, not rice. If it's neon green, blatant or sticks out like a sore thumb, it's distasteful but that is, as you pointed out, an opinion.

Perhaps we should not offend others by using the "rice" reference and call it for what it is, gaudy.

Does anyone have any offense to the word "gaudy"? :D

..Isn't footwell lighting a factory/dealer option?

It's probably much more expensive to have it installed at the dealership, but at least you can be sure that it will be a clean installation and the shade of glow will match the rest of the car's interior.
I've been considering jimmying something up to turn on some glow sticks in the footwell whenever the running lights are on, but then I thought about how upset I would be if the glow wasn't the same shade as, for example, those lights that illuminate the window switches at night.
Alas, I am leaning towards getting the Mazda accessory lighting installed.

Speaking of rice: I think it would be ricey only if the light was so intense your face glows red through the windows whenever they're on. That, or if people can see the tubes from outside.

Can anyone post pictures of what this type of lighting would look like?

As for form/function.....explain to me how the RX-8 is served by installing tube interior lighting....

I just wanted some neon-type lights around the footwells that I can control. The reason I don't like the factory ones is because
a) They fuction with the door
b) They aren't as bright as I would like them to be

I'm going to see if I can mess around with some cold cathode tubes and get them installed.

yep. i wanted to get mine installed like mikeb's... he has them wired to the dome light and on a switch next too the DSC... i dont know if i will take thet iem to get them professionally done, however. but i definately need them controlled.

I am think about hooking up red noens in my front and rear footwells. In my dad's 745i, there are are LEDs in the doors and footwells, and all over the place for that matter. They constantly are on, and look amazing. If you ever get a chance to be in a 745i or 760i at night; you will be overwhelmed at the interior.

would it be hard to have neons under the front seats (for the rear footwells), and somehow wired in the front footwells. Or should I get it done professionally? If so, how much would that cost?

Thanks,

Troy J.

listen all the people saying that the 8 is a ricer is a misunderstanding a ricer from the street racing culture is a CHEAP car with no performance either one or all of the above... stickers, fart cans (loud exhaust) chrome hubcaps, huge wings,

just because the 8 is a j'spec car (japanese) does not mean that it is a "ricer" i happen to know that many show and street racing cars that hold much credibility at the races have neons and stroblights inside their cars such as supra's 3000gt's subaru's mustang's camaro's even classic muscle cars that have them not flaming you just providing info thats all

and as to your ? it is fairly simple to connect your self if you are familiar with electricity i have preformed many installs on honda's mustang's even my own i have 2 strobelights under my dash one on the pass side n one on the drivers side

there are ways to pull the power off the internal part of your cigarette lighter but the best way i think is to run a power line from your battery to a rocker switch n then to your lights i am not familliar with the firewall on the 8 yet but be assured there are holes to run wires through if you live in ny and you want to get it done without paying more than $20 let me know n ill meet up with you n take a look ok? if not i can ask one of my friends to draw out plans n ill scan them n post.....

Alright, let's leave the "rice" discussion out of this.

---jps

where are the pics? i wanna see

i insatlled red street glows in the foot wells as soon as i got my 8... they're on a switch i put in the little tray to the left of the wheel, so i can turn them on and off.... i did this before even knowing that you could get this as an accessory from the dealer

I did the same thing and posted pics months ago

I love this mod ^^^^

Interior footwell lighting
 

I have read the entire thread and have searched a lot without finding any information on where and how the stock footwell lights are connected. Can anyone post instructions and pics on how Mazda does the job? I am not really keen at the idea of doing it differently unless Mazda's way is also a mod (vs plugging into some socket already there for that purpose).

I was thinking about getting some highluminosity LEDs but the neon idea would work the same. On all the time? Not sure if I want that, probably better to have them on when the door is open... but a possible mod could be a toggle switch so you can always decide afterwards.

Any suggestions?

O.K. Look, I'll sum up the the easiest way to Light up your footwells!
Get some 19" neon tubes - $17 to $19 dollars at autozone, advanced, etc...

While at the store, pick up some wire, two colors; black and preferably yellow or red, some line tap connects, two accessory outlets, cigarette lighter type, like the one in your center console, a small rocker switch, and some connects for the back of the rocker switch!

I bolted the cigarette lighters to the underside of the footwells, descretely placed.

The panel that houses your accessory outlet can be removed by prying at the tab opening directly underneath your accessory outlet.

Just above the accessory outlet is just enough space to mount the rocker switch sideways, you have to do some cutting, but it's on what has to be the cheapest part of the car!

I found scoring with an exacto knife the easiest way to cut to the correct size!

Using the line tap connects, tie into the two wires comming off of the accessory outlet, Green is positive, Black is negative. Connect these wires directly to the rocker switch. Then from the rocker switch, through the center console, into the two accessory outlets you previously installed!

Mount your neon tubes directly behind the stearing wheel and behind the glove compartment, you want the light to shine away from you so that the tops of your feet are illuminated! USE ZIP TIES, NO HIDEOUS DRILLING, OR STICKY TAPE! This way you can place them with a much tighter "adhesion" so they never "rattle", or come loose unless you cut them.

Plug the neon tubes into the accessory outlets with the switch in the on position so that the tube would be, theoretically on all the time.

And voilla, turn on the switch in the center console and you should have illuminated foot wells! This is the method I used, and it turned out great, plus I have a total of 3 accessory outlet within the car!

Any questions?:D

P.S. I'm working on pics!:(

Thanks for the detailed description. I actually went to a computer store and purchased a couple of blue cold cathode tubes 6 inches long. They both operate off the same circuit board and are probably even too bright. I cut off the computer connectors and installed a polarized molex connector. All I need to do now, is install the lights where you suggested and find the wires coming from the door lights so I can tap onto them (I will install the mating molex connector here so I can connect and disconnect the mod easily)... although I'd rather find a way where the modification could be removed with virtually NO damage or change to the car's electrical circuit... so I was wondering whether hunting for the right connection in the fuse box could be a way to go.

Does anyone have any information on the looks (colors) and position of the wires that go to the door lights? Anyone have an idea whether I could use the fusebox as my connection point? If so, which fuse? (Sorry I haven't taken anything apart yet, I may be asking questions with an obvious answer).

Last question... how does Mazda consider this mod? Do they make any fuss in terms of warranty coverage?