LED interior trim lights

819 Views 5 Replies 6 Participants Last post by theglizzanater, 12 d ago

KunoMochi

Discussion Starter · 2 mo ago

Hey so I've been looking around for interior lights and found something that looked interesting.

My first search took me to some EL wire kits. While EL wires do look great, they are locked to just 1 color. They are pretty cheap and work well for the price, though.

The second option I encountered are Fiber Optic LEDs. They are multicolor but require a bit more setup than EL wires. The only problem with them are that they vary in brightness, depending on how far from the source that the fiber wire is. The other thing is that they tend to have "hotspots" on sharper bends and on places where the optic wire had been broken (fiber optics are brittle due to their glass-like nature). This option pretty much jumps up in pricing from the EL wire option.

The third ( and best) option I've found are literal thin LED strips that goes into the cracks of trims like the others. They are multi-color and can be cut to size and bent pretty sharply. Since they have individual LEDs in the strips, they are much brighter than the Fiber Optic solution. From what I've seen so far, since they are edge-lit, the light diffusion is much more evenly distributed than traditional LED strips. They cost about the same as Fiber Optics as well and install with about as much difficulty from the looks of it.

Amazon.com: Dreamcolor Acrylic Interior Car LED Strip Light with Wireless APP, RGB 10 in 1 with 175 inches 593 LEDs Fiber Optic Ambient Lighting Kits, 16 Million Colors Sound Active Function Car Neon Lights : Automotive

Buy Dreamcolor Acrylic Interior Car LED Strip Light with Wireless APP, RGB 10 in 1 with 175 inches 593 LEDs Fiber Optic Ambient Lighting Kits, 16 Million Colors Sound Active Function Car Neon Lights: Neon Light Kits - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I might try these out for some added interior flare. I also like the fact that they include 4 wireless submodules for the 4 separate light strips so you just tap into a power source for the doors and don't have to worry about routing wires through the door hinge.

Thoughts on these compared to the other interior lighting solutions?

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GlacialWhiteGT

· #2 · 2 mo ago (Edited)

An odd thing about Kia is that the forte GT (with DCT) has an interesting interior ambient lighting system - the "GT" in the dash along with panels in the front doors light up. You can choose between 7 different colors or you can let it change automatically to match the driving mode (red = sport, blue = smart, white = normal):

2022 Kia Forte GT Ambient Lighting Setup - YouTube

Car Vehicle Motor vehicle Steering part Automotive lighting

Another odd interior ambient light was found in the 2010-2013 Forte Koup SX. The door speakers had red lighting that you could turn on/off, make them pulsate, or have them flash in time to the songs on the radio:

Kia Forte light up speakers - YouTube

Automotive design Automotive lighting Vehicle Car Carbon

I had these on my 2010 Koup SX and at first I thought it was "kooky" - but they were fun while blasting songs when driving home from work after midnight...

Too bad Kia didn't include something like these on the K5!

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OldBlue

· #3 · 2 mo ago

I remember the Soul had the speaker lights when it first came out. Everyone thought that is was so cool. They had the hamsters groovin' to the music w/ the speaker lights pulsing in the back ground!

I'm still trying to figure out how to change the balance of my interior lights to LEDs without damaging anything!

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Reactions: 1

SirDirtyBird

· #4 · 2 mo ago

I had a friend back in 2010 who had the Kia Forte coupe at the time, and it had the ambience lighting on the inside that went with the music - was cutting edge technology at the time man.... takes me back LOL

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K5iFound

· #5 · 2 mo ago

SirDirtyBird said:
I had a friend back in 2010 who had the Kia Forte coupe at the time, and it had the ambience lighting on the inside that went with the music - was cutting edge technology at the time man.... takes me back LOL

My 2012 Mazda3 has that that goes with the music. I disabled it lol

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Reactions: 1

theglizzanater

· #6 · 12 d ago

KunoMochi said:
Hey so I've been looking around for interior lights and found something that looked interesting. My first search took me to some EL wire kits. While EL wires do look great, they are locked to just 1 color. They are pretty cheap and work well for the price, though. The second option I encountered are Fiber Optic LEDs. They are multicolor but require a bit more setup than EL wires. The only problem with them are that they vary in brightness, depending on how far from the source that the fiber wire is. The other thing is that they tend to have "hotspots" on sharper bends and on places where the optic wire had been broken (fiber optics are brittle due to their glass-like nature). This option pretty much jumps up in pricing from the EL wire option. The third ( and best) option I've found are literal thin LED strips that goes into the cracks of trims like the others. They are multi-color and can be cut to size and bent pretty sharply. Since they have individual LEDs in the strips, they are much brighter than the Fiber Optic solution. From what I've seen so far, since they are edge-lit, the light diffusion is much more evenly distributed than traditional LED strips. They cost about the same as Fiber Optics as well and install with about as much difficulty from the looks of it.

Amazon.com: Dreamcolor Acrylic Interior Car LED Strip Light with Wireless APP, RGB 10 in 1 with 175 inches 593 LEDs Fiber Optic Ambient Lighting Kits, 16 Million Colors Sound Active Function Car Neon Lights : Automotive

Buy Dreamcolor Acrylic Interior Car LED Strip Light with Wireless APP, RGB 10 in 1 with 175 inches 593 LEDs Fiber Optic Ambient Lighting Kits, 16 Million Colors Sound Active Function Car Neon Lights: Neon Light Kits - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I might try these out for some added interior flare. I also like the fact that they include 4 wireless submodules for the 4 separate light strips so you just tap into a power source for the doors and don't have to worry about routing wires through the door hinge. Thoughts on these compared to the other interior lighting solutions?

Have any pictures would love to see them. Also did you do put any lights across the dash? Would love to see if ya did.

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