Rear Hatch LED Lights

Finished Product

Before & After

 

Been meaning to to this mini project for a while, after seeing someone else post with a similar setup. The LED strips shine down when the trunk is open and illuminate the trunk contents and the surrounding area behind the car.

 

   

Rough wiring diagram

 

Stock cargo light internals & where I tapped in

 

I tapped into the rear cargo light so that I could use the existing cargo light switch to control whether I wanted the light on, off, or to go on/off with the door. I also added a switch mounted on the door so I could easily turn on and off the extra lights while the door was open. This switch is hard to see in the pictures but it’s just a generic toggle switch installed in the door where my friends hand is in the 2nd picture. I bought the LEDs a long time ago but I think they are pretty muchthese. These LEDs honestly seem super shitty and I think they’ll be the first thing to fail, if I were going to buy them again I’d probably go for something more durable like these. I have, however, had very good luck getting the sellers of these cheap amazon LEDs to send me more if they fail, since they cost the seller next to nothing.

 

 

LED placement (you can see the second switch I added just to the right of the panel in the lower left hand corner of this image)

 

Routed the wire in some unused wire clamps on the driver side of the hatch