I know many people have complained about the poor interior lighting in the Prius C. I felt the same when I bought mine a month ago. After reading some of the posts here, I went to buy some LED replacement lights for the existing fixtures, but two local auto parts stores were out of the ones to fit my car. But the second store, Pep Boys had a large supply of LED products and I walked out with a package of two LED strips in Bright White. They packages had a battery and a switch built-in so you could test the lights before you buy. They seemed plenty bright to light up our car. So I bought them. Installing these lights were sooo easy. I would highly recommend them. They have 3M double sticky tape on the back of them with a wire coming out one end. They are designed for 12 volt car systems. So looking into my mounting options, I started with the rear hatch light. I supported one end under the trim for the middle seatbelt storage area and drilled a hole in my headliner the appropriate distance away. I made the hole oval shaped similar to the shape of the lighting strip and passed the wires through. I removed the backing off the double sticky tape and pushed the wire end of the LED strip into the hole and pressed the adhesive to the headliner. I popped out the trim pieces that were in the way leading to the hatch light and fed the wire though. I soldered these wires to the wires leading to the regular hatch light and put everything back together. Time spent was less than 30 minutes. The second strip LED light I decided to install mid-cab. I picked my location and drilled a second hole into the headliner. I removed the front light by pushing on the metal tabs holding the light figure in place. I removed the microphone for good measure too. I taped the wires to the end of a long stiff rod and passed them through the hole to the front with little difficulty. I used the adhesive to adhere the LED strip to the headliner with this LED only being supported by the hole on one end. (We will see how long it last.) Being a little indecisive on how I wanted to wire this light and thinking I may add a separate switch later. I decided not to do anything permanent and twist the wires around the strips of conductive metal on on regular light. I covered them with electrical tape. I chose to come off the drivers map light to allow the passenger to turn on his map light without disturbing the driver as much. I put everything back together and spent just over an hour total time. The results are amazing! This is the lighting Toyota should have had in the first place.
nice job. did you use any resistors for the LEDs? or do they tap directly to the +/- wires from the front interior light?
most if not all those type of led strips are 12v which means they will work by just connecting them to a 12v setup
Hyper_PriusC: Yes indeed. These are designed for 12 volts and tap right into the existing wiring. Kenmce: They do have multiple colors and lights that change color with a remote. I just wanted something for lighting and choose bright white.
They sell these lights in reels on Amazon and ebay. I have used them for many projects at home (under cabinet lighting, kids bedroom, etc.). They are bright and I have been considering adding them to my c2 for a while. Thanks for posting, it gave me some ideas.
i also used the strips to place in the footwells. they are only in the front right now but ill be adding 2 to the rear row. excuse the mess
Kingnba6 - Are those white only or did you use RGB? I am thinking two separate setups. White to add to the poor interior lighting of the dome lights. And RGB in the footwells so I can set them based on mood.
Kingnba6 - Are those white only or did you use RGB? I am thinking two separate setups. White to add to the poor interior lighting of the dome lights. And RGB in the footwells so I can set them based on mood.
this is fantastic! I've always hated how dark my car is... it sounds simple, but I have no experience doing this kind of stuff... did you have to remove the headliner altogether? i'd assume so since you had to fish the mid-cab light to the front light? when you said you had to "drill a hole" did you just leave the headerliner on and drill straight up ? since your tapping the existing lights, I assume it turns on/off with the rest of the dome lights? and how did your wiring work exactly ? (sorry, I don't really understand this)- you simply twisted the two wires to metal in the interior dome housing in the front?
I left the headliner on. I just drilled into the headliner and fished the wire through with the metal rod shown. For the back I did pull down the corner of the headliner to help feed the wires. Yes. They come on and off with the existing lights. Yes for the front lights I did twist them around the metal in the light housing. I did this on a temporary note in case I wanted to change it. But it has been fine so far.
I changed all the lights in my van to LED and it really brightened up all the lights. I would like to point out that when you park in sketchy places (any street at night). Someone pulling on door handles might light up inside so they can determine the risk/reward of breaking in. So turn off courtesy lights, I think that is what they are called. Brian
As far as I know, no cars will light up the inside (or outside) when the doors are locked and someone pulls on the door handle.
if somebody does pull the handle and the lights turn on, then that means that the car is unlocked lol
Thanks for the tips. Is the headliner difficult to pull down? What do you need to do exactly? For the front - twisting the wires around the metal in the light housing - is that 'secure'? Any concerns with electricity things ? And out of curiosity, why does twisting it around metal make it work? I also assume there's no positive / negative ends? The backlight - you said you soldered the wires to the back one - is there another way to do that? I don't know how to solder wires Thanks!!
