I remember a few years ago, I wanted "submarine lights" from the W8 Passat in my Scirocco. A few years later, on my Golf Mk7, I finally had them. And now on my Leon, I had them again.. but this time they collided with all the RGB ambient coloring in my car... so I had to find a way to turn the 2 red dots in the ceiling to something more colorful....
So I took 2 small RGB LEDs, and cut off the original 2 red LEDs, and put them in place like this (I lined them up a bit nicer, and glued them in place on top of the "lens" after taking this picture and put black some insulation tape on top of them to prevent any light bleeding).
And this is what it looks like during the day (it's nicer at night, but never distracing or not too tacky, in my opinion
). Here's a picture of me switching to blue. For those who've read my blog: yeah, I still need to update the color palette. (read more about that here:
https://www.drive2.com/l/566377681994648900/ ). The user interface on the screen is my own custom version, I've enabled texts for all the missing zone graphics. like door handles and "feature 1" (default images in the firmware for these two are very wide, but fully transparent). Also, the font is from Seat MIB3). I'm adding graphics for the door pockets, roof, center console/armreset area and door handles in the upcoming weeks when I find some time to do so
)
The source of these LEDs is an Aliexpress ambient lighting kit for Passat. It wasn't the cheapest, but it came with a bunch of LEDs that could be set to be controlled on multiple zones. (
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001387725795.html) I got this one:
The LEDs in the upper right corner are pretty cool, they are like a scaled down version of the footwell LED units. I coded my BCM so they can be controlled as a center console group, and added the units to several spots in the center console. I don't have any picture of that right now, I'll make some when I'm in the car and it's dark outside. The LEDs in the ceiling unit are the ones in the middle. note: I think the LEDs are waaaaay overpriced, but they function like OEM, and are still much cheaper than what a similar OEM set of RGB LEDs would cost. Plus they come with OEM-compatible connectors, and a harness that plugs into your existing RGB footwells.