Adding the LED Accent Lights to Prime Plus & Premium

Thanks for sharing. I finally finished mine last week, took me about 6 hours. I looks awesome!

 

im too chicken to take the light assembly apart! But ill give this a stab on the weekend once i face my fears! I love how it looks. good job on taking on this task!

 

Thanks OP. Ordered from ebay.

 

Actually, the 5-way female connector already has the 12V +ve and ground (black) available, all you have to do is add a pin (I used 2 staples, straighten it) to the connector and connect your LED +ve connection to that pin, and connect the -ve to the black wire (I solder the wire to the circuit board inside the Light module). This 12V is controlled by the day time running light switch, so that's perfect.

Female 5-way connector has the 12V+ input controlled by DRL by citiprius posted Nov 5, 2018 at 2:33 PM

Use 2 staples as pin to connect to the female connector by citiprius posted Nov 5, 2018 at 2:33 PM

 

Where is this? I just did this last month and not being able to turn them off is annoying me, was thinking of adding a relay to the DRL light switch but this would be easier.

 

This is the same 5-way harness that connects directly to the LED module

It is the connector (and the only one) from the front LED turn signal module. The male (attached to the module) has has 2 wires from the module. But the female (attached to the car) has 4 wires, one with 12V is controlled by the DRL switch on the steering wheel turn signal rod. see the picture below. I believe the 4th wire might be for the fog light. But can't test it since my Premium model does not have the fog light switch on the dash panel.

5-way harness connector from the front LED turn signal module by citiprius posted Nov 7, 2018 at 10:27 PM

 

Thank you! I know what I'm doing this weekend!

 

question for future repairs...i have a 2018 PREMIUM PRIME.
if someday i get some front end bumper damage, and its time for repair/replacement.
and if the light is damaged (likely due to placement)
would it be a good time to order the light module from the ADVANCE trim ?
my guess is it would be a simple swap, only difference would be harness connector that should just plug right in?
might even be able to do fog light retrofit while everything is apart... i'm sure parts are all on 1 page of the bumper assembly.
but i'm mostly interested if the ADVANCE light would be instantly compatible??
insurance claim for bumper repair would cover most of the costs, just have to pay difference for the upgraded lights...
i havent had a claim for bumper repair in 25 years, but good idea to be prepared if it happens.
i was waiting to fix a fog light on my benz for 15 years!!! accident never happened, just sold the car...
this could benefit any unlucky souls whos bumpers get damaged, they could end up with a sweet upgrade for little extra cost.
i dont know if any custom shops are doing this DIY upgrade yet, but if they would it would not be cheap, 4-6 hours?? i'm sure it would be expensive.

 

after looking up the difference in parts, i see that the fog light is part of the main lamp housing, all one big plastic housing.
so you would need the black trim panel with the cutout for the fog light. thats it.
and thinking about it, since the plus or the premium dont have a fog light switch,
likely easiest fix is to splice the wire for the fog into the DRL powered wire as mentioned above.
then accent lights and fog lights are always on if you have the DRL on.

 

So because my Prime is blue, I swapped in 5 blue interior LEDs:

1) Both vanity mirrors
2) Both front door safety lights
3) Rear trunk

I know it may not make the *most* sense not make these bright white, but I’m a male & rarely have to check on my makeup. Lol. The GF was like “what the heck?” when she inevitably pulled down the sun visor and slid the mirror open and saw the blue light. But she said it’s bright enough.

I just think it adds a nice yet more subtle touch than white, and you can sort of drive with them on, I guess. I mean for a bit. They don’t mess with your outside vision:



I swapped in super bright white LEDs in the both map lights & center dome light so I wanted a little variety.



^^ Ok so this blue one for the trunk *probably* would have made more sense being a super bright white like the rest of the interior lights being it’s a large trunk and the white would allow me to see better, butttttt it’s okay for now.

Every bulb is now an LED including the exterior reverse lights & license plate bulbs - all bulbs except for 1: the glove box light, but I’ll eventually get to it:

 

Awesome write-up. Thank you for taking the time to create such a detailed procedure. This will help me out greatly in the thought process for how I’ll add fog lights to my Prime XLE.

 

What about an led strip on the back
how do you access the wiring for the rear lights, blinkers, stoplight?

 

So for my Mazda MX-5, a few aftermarket companies make the LED strip kit. It was $70 but can be done much cheaper if you assemble the parts yourself. It was not hard to install at all, especially since it came with a wiring harness, which basically just tapped into the parking light wire going to the driver's side tail lamp. The strip comes on when you turn the parking lights on. I would imagine it would be the same in the Prime. Now since I got a kit made specifically for my vehicle, the LED strip was the exact length of the under side lip of the rear trunk (see photos) and it came with a wiring harness to snap into the driver's side rear parking light wiring. I suppose if you got an LED strip you would just tap into that wire in the Prime and then ground the other?

Actually one of the most difficult things is to deal with with this modification is BLEED. Light bleed, that is. It will happen unless you do certain things to stop it, many who also own my make and model have gone thru great lengths to do so. Now my MX-5 is red, and the rear LED strip comes in red, so there's a whole lot of red going on. Notice the before & after -


after:



Here's the difficult part:

1) Figuring out WHERE this would go on the rear of the Prime

2) How long / short it should be

3) Color

4) And making sure it stays put. My kit came with 3M tape already on the inside of the strip:



^ Of course that's how it looks when the parking lights are on & you pop the trunk. Normally you can’t see that. But there is light bleed.

I would love to put an LED strip on the rear of my Prime as well. I think to be legal the color would have to be something similar to mine above. I don’t know if a color that really stood out would fly with the cops. Notice mine “sort of” looks OEM - it’s basically connecting one brake light to the other like Porsche used to do. Most people unfamiliar with my car just think it’s from Mazda.

We would just need to figure out the best location and find an LED strip that was as close to the correct length as possible. I’d be willing to assist looking into it.

And oh, if anyone HAS done a rear LED strip on their Prime or reg Prius and have pics would love to see them.

 

HI citiprius was wondering if you could help me. I hit a parking bumper i couldnt see and had to replace the passenger side bumber cover. After i removed everything and was able to paint it I went to install the turn signal lights into the bumper cover. I remimbered the two screw twords the center of the car but the other side of the turn light there dont seem to be anything to lock it in. I do see two wedge like climps but nothing that would keep it locked tight to the bumper cover. do you know how it goes together. I have most of my fix done but that. also was looking for a book or something for pruis 2017 advance or premium.

 

Have u check out William T Roney III's first post on this thread? THere is a pdf file attached (https://attachments.priuschat.com/attachment-files/2017/06/127356_Adding_the_Accent_Lights_to_a_Prius_Prime_Plus_or_Prius_Prime_Premium.pdf). I remember (but I might be wrong) there were 3 screws holding the light module, one of them is really hard to reach. I can't see it but I can touch and feel it with my hand. You will need a short philips for it. (I think the left and right side module are slightly different, one of them is much harder to install but I forgot which one. And then on the left side of the module, there were couple of tabs to which you slide towards the front bumper and lock it in place. Feel feel to PM me and see if I can help further.

 

Put these in. Got on eBay like a set of 10 for cheap. Since my car is blue - just trying something different:

 

Is it possible to retrofit universal fog lights to the base model of a Prius prime?

 

anyone thought of the mod with 5 leds (turn signals) that can go white and orange + 3 bottom ones to be white. Would look cool I think