Cargo light replacement in the v - additional rear dome light?

Not a Prius v (it's a lowercase v for the Prius v wagon, not an uppercase), but see here for ideas.

 

UPDATE: The OEM dome light assembly will not work, I should have checked before ordering it. The headliner indents where the OEM one is, and it is not designed to be installed in a cutout. I looked at the post in the Subaru forum, and that one looks like it will work, so I ordered it, and will return the OEM Toyota one. As soon as it comes in, I will post pics and instructions for install.

 

Sorry it didn't work out. Was there clips or something preventing the installation?

 

It is designed to fit inside the indentation in the headliner, where if I cut the headliner, it would not fit flush against it because there is a ridge all around it, and it would not look factory
The

 

Ok, all finished! The Subaru light works great! What a difference! I took pics of the install for anyone who wants to do this excellent mod. As far as installing the light itself, just follow the directions on the Subaru install which is linked in post #11 of this thread. As far as connection, I connected it directly to small cargo light located on the driver side of the cargo area. I also replaced the lamp in the cargo light to a 12 panel LED. I removed the screw that holds the bottom part of the panel on the driver side, and I also removed the access panel for the tail lights as well as peeling back the middle panel just below the headliner, and part of the headliner itself in order to access the wires to the cargo light, and to feed the wires through to the new dome light location. I used wire taps to tap into the two wires to the cargo light. I did not bother with the electrical components that came with the Subaru dome light, so I do not have the use of the on/off switch on the dome light. If you want use of the on/off switch, I'm sure that there is a way to do it. So, the install was pretty simple, just feed two wires through the hole you will cut in the headliner to the cargo light, connect them to the wires going out of the cargo light, and thats pretty much it. I used 2 48 panel LED lights in the new dome lamp (Amazon link to this product is on post #16 of this thread), and I highly recommend that because the lens of the Subaru dome lamp is tinted, and doesnt let 100% of the light through. The 2 48 panel LED lights that I put in the new dome lamp puts out about the same amount of light as the one 48 panel LED light that I put in the OEM dome lamp. I spliced the 2 48 panel LED light wires together, and connected them to the 2 wires that I fed through to the cargo light, and thats pretty much it. Take a look at the pics, and let me know if anyone has any questions. Overall, I love the result of this mod, and it took me a total of about 2 hours to do start to finish.

 

Native2ps, You are awesome!!!

I been trying to find a Toyota Prius repair manual for 3-gen or prius v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon, not an uppercase v), (I don't think there're out) so I can look up how to take the headliner off for 2 reasons. #1 to do a wire from the center dome light, and #2, to look at where I can drill for permanent roof tracks (to make sure I don't drill into the curtain and side air bags. The closest thing I can find is 2002-2012 manuals and this FREE ONLINE. Maybe helpful for some of us.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Toyota has gone to online manuals probably integrated with their diagnostic computer as other manufacturers have. Another manufacturer only rents their computer and it is staggeringly expensive which results in reducing drastically the number of independent mechanics who have access thus giving advantage to their dealers.

 

As far as feeding the wires through, I just took a section of coated copper household wire that I had and fed it through the small hole that I made in the headliner before I did the cutout, and it fed through pretty easily over to the side of the vehicle where I peeled back some of the paneling below the headliner. Then I taped the wire that I used for the connection to that wire, and pulled it back through. I used 22 gauge wire by the way. As far as that went, the lower panel is held together by a screw that you will see, and tabs that connect it to the upper paneling. The upper paneling is held to the car with plastic pieces that snap into holes in the frame, they also pull out pretty easily, and everything snaps back in with little difficulty. In one of the pictures, it shows the wire I used to feed through.

I was thinking about connecting to the center dome light, by feeding a lead wire through just like I did for the cargo light connection, but I decided against it because I didnt want the new rear dome light to go on when the doors open, just when the hatch opens so thats why I connected to the cargo area light

 

That is a good point

 

I intend to put a string of LED SMDs in the headliner much like I did in a Kia Soul. Soldered wires to the strip and ran it to the only cargo light in the left rear - same as Prius v. I used some strong nylon twine and a curved sewing needle initially, but then used insulated wires and twisted it around the strip. It would look better if I mounted the strip onto a piece of plastic before securing it onto the headliner. Despite its looks, it provides a nice shadowless light. My strip has 3528 SMD LEDs with some silicone type waterproofing stuff.

eBay has 3 types of LEDs. High Quality DC 12V 5M 300Leds SMD 3528 5050 5630 Flexible LED Strip Light | eBay

 

Well, finally got it done yesterday with a strip of 45 LEDs almost 30" long. The 3M adhesive actually stuck to the headliner, unlike the Soul, but I used bare wire to secure it to the roof through the exposed side. Because the cargo area is so deep, I could not secure it from the back side, unlike the Soul. Also I tried to disassemble the back panels, but decided that after I creased part of the headliner, it just was not worth the effort. Works well, shadowless light and just wrapped the tinned wires to each end of the cargo festoon bulb.
nice hump in the middle

2 part moldable gray epoxy hides wires
another view