Interior Ambient LED Mod on Avensis T27 2018

[SB1500]

Hi forum, starting this thread a little early (upon placing the order for both of these China specials)...  Inspired by my time with the Mercedes CLA, I decided to give it a shot fitting some of those LED light strips to the Avensis. I've seen 80% bad jobs and poor quality parts for this, but the 20% of decent installs has me thinking I'll do this on my Avensis.  And, the heated seat install too. Eventually I'll post photos of the job and Avensis specific advice.

 The screenshots with the purple lines drawn on, that's where I plan to fit the light strips. They'll be wired into the car for when the ignition is on only. Issue I have is the start/stop cutting these kind of circuits out, but @2009joe is going to help me in disabling the start stop altogether - with wired in accessories the risk of draining the Battery is more pressing than any imaginary fuel savings. 

 

An alternative, if I can get an extra strip for the centre console, green lines: 

 

Here's the China special totally fake image of how it's supposed to look. Shows the kit: as far as I know, this isn't fibre optic, but an 'LED' strip that doesn't involve sliding a round plastic tube through a holder with a fin that squeezes between the panel gaps. This should be one integrated part - I've messaged to ask which this is and might need to cancel the order. Few videos on YouTube detailing the real cheap and nasty kind versus a new more improved solid consistent light line. 

There's a centre box and a bunch of sub-control boxes. Again, some of these are wirelessly connected - meaning installing them in each door without needing to route wires back to under the centre console box where I'll hide the main box. 

Some photos of a well-done job from UK based YouTubers on a BMW and VW:

 

Breakdown of lights to be installed:

- One large strip across the dash (left and right of steering wheel) (tuck into gaps)

- 2x front footwell lights (cable tie)

- 2x rear footwell lights (cable tie)

- 4x door handle LED spotlights (drill)

- 4x door bin LED spotlights (drill)

- 4x door metal trim strips of LED 

 

How they'll be powered:

A> If the is a single control box that everything must physically connect to, then a tap into the 12v lines under the centre console box. Wires can then move out under the seats, cable tied with slack and into rear doors, along the floor trim panels to the front door, and if I can manage, in through the proper pipe where the wiring goes for the door electrics. They will be fused at different points. Up through the dash on each extreme side tucked away to light the main dash line. 

B> Alternative, if they are all stand alone, then I can tap power from each door, under each seat (or from the centre console box near the seats) and the dash fuse box for the dash strip.  I hope this is the case as if any area fails, I can replace it separately without needing to dig up the wires. 

 

Panels to be tampered with:

- Each door trim piece

- Dash insert panels 

- Fuse box compartment / glove box area

- Under the two front seats

 

 

Any words of advice / warning / questions? I will post more once the parts come.  Let me know if projects like this are interesting enough to be posted regularly about 🙂

[2009joe]

2 hours ago, SB1500 said:

Hi forum, starting this thread a little early (upon placing the order for both of these China specials)...  Inspired by my time with the Mercedes CLA, I decided to give it a shot fitting some of those LED light strips to the Avensis. I've seen 80% bad jobs and poor quality parts for this, but the 20% of decent installs has me thinking I'll do this on my Avensis.  And, the heated seat install too. Eventually I'll post photos of the job and Avensis specific advice.

 The screenshots with the purple lines drawn on, that's where I plan to fit the light strips. They'll be wired into the car for when the ignition is on only. Issue I have is the start/stop cutting these kind of circuits out, but @2009joe is going to help me in disabling the start stop altogether - with wired in accessories the risk of draining the battery is more pressing than any imaginary fuel savings. 

 

An alternative, if I can get an extra strip for the centre console, green lines: 

 

Here's the China special totally fake image of how it's supposed to look. Shows the kit: as far as I know, this isn't fibre optic, but an 'LED' strip that doesn't involve sliding a round plastic tube through a holder with a fin that squeezes between the panel gaps. This should be one integrated part - I've messaged to ask which this is and might need to cancel the order. Few videos on YouTube detailing the real cheap and nasty kind versus a new more improved solid consistent light line. 

There's a centre box and a bunch of sub-control boxes. Again, some of these are wirelessly connected - meaning installing them in each door without needing to route wires back to under the centre console box where I'll hide the main box. 

Some photos of a well-done job from UK based YouTubers on a BMW and VW:

 

Breakdown of lights to be installed:

- One large strip across the dash (left and right of steering wheel) (tuck into gaps)

- 2x front footwell lights (cable tie)

- 2x rear footwell lights (cable tie)

- 4x door handle LED spotlights (drill)

- 4x door bin LED spotlights (drill)

- 4x door metal trim strips of LED 

 

How they'll be powered:

A> If the is a single control box that everything must physically connect to, then a tap into the 12v lines under the centre console box. Wires can then move out under the seats, cable tied with slack and into rear doors, along the floor trim panels to the front door, and if I can manage, in through the proper pipe where the wiring goes for the door electrics. They will be fused at different points. Up through the dash on each extreme side tucked away to light the main dash line. 

B> Alternative, if they are all stand alone, then I can tap power from each door, under each seat (or from the centre console box near the seats) and the dash fuse box for the dash strip.  I hope this is the case as if any area fails, I can replace it separately without needing to dig up the wires. 

 

Panels to be tampered with:

- Each door trim piece

- Dash insert panels 

- Fuse box compartment / glove box area

- Under the two front seats

 

 

Any words of advice / warning / questions? I will post more once the parts come.  Let me know if projects like this are interesting enough to be posted regularly about 🙂

led looks class boss i was looking online and came across this about maybe doing away with start stop did you do any research into if it can be dont im not sure how to do it i was wondering can it be done boss . i came across this might be a interesting read Shane 

 

[SB1500]

4 minutes ago, 2009joe said:

led looks class boss i was looking online and came across this about maybe doing away with start stop did you do any research into if it can be dont im not sure how to do it i was wondering can it be done boss . i came across this might be a interesting read Shane 

 

Interesting discussion there.  But nothing to say it can be disabled. Maybe it can't be, I haven't looked into it too much to be honest. Would be interested in plugging the car in and seeing what it has listed to be honest?  Too risky?

[2009joe]

1 minute ago, SB1500 said:

Interesting discussion there.  But nothing to say it can be disabled. Maybe it can't be, I haven't looked into it too much to be honest. Would be interested in plugging the car in and seeing what it has listed to be honest?  Too risky?

well if you want to try my techstream you can but tbh myself with me i only did stupid small things threw my toyota techstream. my last vw group car i pulled off the egr pipe off it which put on the light on the dash which did not affect the car just stopped the dirty air going in threw the intake but with the vagcom software i had which i did research online i turned down the egr values which turned off the check engine light on the dash lol. was a great job until i sold it on 11 years after i had it. dut i did research online how to do it 

[SB1500]

Well, I debated it. For a long time I decided it wasn't worth the hassle. I gave up on the heated seats. But the ambient lights came on Thursday last week, and I was itching to give them a shot. Here's how it went...

 

The installation:

Began with one of the rear doors. A screwdriver gets the door cards off. The came off easily. Popped out the switch to the rear windows, came out easily too. Toyota uses decent plastic, no broken clips etc. Popped out the little metal balls from the door handles and locks on them too.  There's a black and white wire, which is a keys in ignition live, and a black one for a ground going to the window switch. This is what I used to wire them in each door (front and back). We spliced into them and soldered / electrical taped them together. Each door has a little sub control unit which is wirelessly coded to the main one, and powered locally inside each door with just a red and black wire.  The main one is linked to the fuse box under the passenger side dash / glove box. Using the Nextbase hardwire kit (and I've ordered another fuse jumper for the dash cam itself).  We also found a tracker wired in and tucked well away... if it wasn't an ex-lease car I'd have been concerned at that! lol  

Then, the LED strip was tucked into the top of the grey fabric. Screws behind the handles were taken out, so it would move a bit, and be stretched just enough to route the little plastic connector through to the back of the panel. We drilled holes on the door handle and door bins for the little LEDs and diffusers to pop through there. They are all sitting in place perfectly. Thankfully, no dark spots on the LEDs either. 

The sub control units are tucked into a void inside the doors and double sided taped down to not rattle. Each light has a connector that goes into the four slots on the sub control unit. A, B, C and E.  ABC are all the same primary colour of LED, the E is a complimentary / different one. So, some presents might be like purple lights above, on the door handles whereas the under seat lighting and door bins will be purple or some other complimentary or contrast colour.  

The strips, being tested before cut. They look well! Uniform colour and can be cut to length.

Examples of the complimentary colour presets, the odd one out (in my case, the door bin, was plugged into the 'E' slot on each LED control unit. 

The front doors are identical really just a bit more to the wiring of the drivers door due to all the window controls. 

The centre console was taken apart to route wiring underneath it from under the glovebox to under the storage box and out to the two front seats, there's a footwell light under each seat and in each front footwell. I plugged these into the 'E' port on the sub controllers so they match the colour of the lower door bins and contract with the LED strip and door handles. 

The dashboard was a tricky one. The large 1.1m strip is for the dash and has a connector on each side, as it can be cut into two strips. That's what I did. 

One little neat strip here for the drivers side. The trim pops off, and is very very tight. The wire routes along the right, and into the side panel that pops off each side of the dash board. The drivers side uses the included extension wire and goes to the main control unit which I put in the void on the passenger side inside the panel that pops off at the side of the dash. It's cable tied above the footwell and through the back of the dash. 

Initially I let the main strip on the dash curve.... Notice how the footwell is a darker blue, this is the complimentary colour.

First impressions of the finished job on Friday evening. 

On Saturday I found this part popped out, and the trim piece not in place. It wouldn't go back in, this gap cannot take any of the LED strip.

I bought a few £ pair of cutting pliers and cut this, I think it looks better / neater without the curve. 

Some shots of how it looks during the day at full brightness around the cars interior on the green setting. 

 

But I've gotta tell you all, this doesn't come alive until you see it at night. It's every bit as immersive as I remember the Mercedes CLA 220 premium I had last year when you sit inside. That didn't even have the strip on the rear doors, just the handle and bins. Now us Toyota owners are one-upping the Benz guys 😉  It's like driving around in a Miami nightclub from the 80s (or at least, what I stereotypically imagine that era to look like!). The brightness can be reduced, and I'm sure I will reduce it once the novelty wears off.  Let me know what you guys think. Not bad for a £55 mod from AliExpress. I can replace each unit, or light if need be if one should fail easily enough.

Let me know what you think. If anyone here wants to give it a go, smaller kits are available and they've just released a 22 in 1 which is this, but with a disc light to go inside the speaker grilles too. Happy to assist anyone here with it even over a video call if like me, you're hell bent on doing this and doing it well with no 12v sockets, exposed wires etc. I think it's pretty cool! 

[SB1500]

A little trouble tonight... I was double checking all of this and as I did, one of the rear doors (left / passenger side) stopped working. Took the card off and tested, the wires we got the power off are no longer providing power...  

To correct the above, we used a white and black cable as the earth, and then the red wire for power.  Turns out that red wire is for the LED on the window switch button.  That red wire is no longer delivering power, and sure enough, the LED is off.  Yet, the switch works, so does the speaker and door locks. The fuses are all fine to all doors. 

And funnily enough, the passenger door in the front has the window switch regulator LED lit at all times for some reason... I need to pull this off and check it tomorrow in case something has shorted or broke or is making contact where it shouldn't. 

Anyone familiar with how this whole little network of wires works, your input is appreciated. The wiring diagram is attached. Does the rear door on the left depend on the front left door's electricity supply / switch? I won't know more until I strip it down tomorrow. But I'll share updates as I go.

32.pdf

[SB1500]

Another update for whoever is still following, so no power is coming from the red wire to the LED lights (or to the LED on the window switch on the rear left door). So that wire goes from the window motor itself, to the switch assembly (it doesn't come from the fuse or on down the loom).  

My window motor is working fine, as is the switch, except for the little blue LED on it which has no power. I tore down and removed the motor itself, there's a circuit board in there so I'm not sure if I'll be able to fix it or just replace that part of the window motor assembly.

I'll take it to an auto electrician and if they give it any interest might be able to fix it or find out why this happened. So far I've unplugged both rear light setups, the front still works fine and looks more purposeful with both sides of the rear off. 

Today I convinced myself to remove them but driving as the sun was setting gives off that CLA 220 vibe and it feels pretty cool so anything I can do to keep em I'll try! 

[2009joe]

1 hour ago, SB1500 said:

Another update for whoever is still following, so no power is coming from the red wire to the LED lights (or to the LED on the window switch on the rear left door). So that wire goes from the window motor itself, to the switch assembly (it doesn't come from the fuse or on down the loom).  

My window motor is working fine, as is the switch, except for the little blue LED on it which has no power. I tore down and removed the motor itself, there's a circuit board in there so I'm not sure if I'll be able to fix it or just replace that part of the window motor assembly.

I'll take it to an auto electrician and if they give it any interest might be able to fix it or find out why this happened. So far I've unplugged both rear light setups, the front still works fine and looks more purposeful with both sides of the rear off. 

Today I convinced myself to remove them but driving as the sun was setting gives off that CLA 220 vibe and it feels pretty cool so anything I can do to keep em I'll try! 

looks class shane u did a lot of work on that and a really class lob looks great i was looking at you speakeron your door and well i am nearly sure its the same as my toyota speaker system i had in mine until i upgraded my speaker system was a huge difference also tbh those crappy toyota ones are no good . sound is not bad but could be better if you take off your front door speaker and look behind it and see how !Removed! the speaker is you will think yep im going for the mod lol .you will see in these pics compared to the toyota back magnet compared to the alpine  ones there the best 

https://www.fanaticaudio.com/posts/toyota-avensis-t27-kaiuttimien-vaihto/

[SB1500]

20 hours ago, 2009joe said:

looks class shane u did a lot of work on that and a really class lob looks great i was looking at you speakeron your door and well i am nearly sure its the same as my toyota speaker system i had in mine until i upgraded my speaker system was a huge difference also tbh those crappy toyota ones are no good . sound is not bad but could be better if you take off your front door speaker and look behind it and see how !Removed! the speaker is you will think yep im going for the mod lol .you will see in these pics compared to the toyota back magnet compared to the alpine  ones there the best 

https://www.fanaticaudio.com/posts/toyota-avensis-t27-kaiuttimien-vaihto/

That's a good shout, I might do that next. Need to get this rear door thing sorted though.  Only videos that are breaking down the Avensis door looms are in Hindi 😕 

[2009joe]

1 hour ago, SB1500 said:

That's a good shout, I might do that next. Need to get this rear door thing sorted though.  Only videos that are breaking down the Avensis door looms are in Hindi 😕 

It's out of my league doing. That. Wiring like that the Speakers were enough for me to do 

[SB1500]

I think I have a solution.  I will wire into the power going TO the motor earlier up the loom, one of the thicker live wires. If I put an in line fuse on the spliced in wire that should stop it from blowing anything else.  I will also run a wire from this one to the LED in the switch which previously had power to it, I'm not sure what size of fuse would be suitable for just an LED of that size though? 

Crude diagram but in my head this is how it looks so far: 

[SB1500]

For anyone still following, the solution I have put on the back door where the originally chosen wired stopped outputting power was to put a new wire coming from the window switch Live IN (brown wire) with an in line barrel / glass fuse to prevent further shorting of the cars factory electrics. 

The LED strips on two rear doors are also showing like a constant red and yellow along the strip, and one door bin light is showing the wrong colour.  I have requested a replacement from the seller on AliExpress, they should be easy enough to replace - the wiring is the hard / tedious part of this job. Everything is modular so long term maintenance of these lights should they fade or break should be simple, and pretty low cost at a few £ a part. Just waiting for the 3-4 week shipping from China is a bit of a pain, but there's no rush. 

The Avensis is now ready to do my biggest road trip in it yet to Liverpool / Manchester / Chester this week. Then back here and down to Dublin  for the end of the week. Let's see how Toyota's motorway cruiser does on a solid motorway cruise now. 

[2009joe]

5 hours ago, SB1500 said:

For anyone still following, the solution I have put on the back door where the originally chosen wired stopped outputting power was to put a new wire coming from the window switch Live IN (brown wire) with an in line barrel / glass fuse to prevent further shorting of the cars factory electrics. 

The LED strips on two rear doors are also showing like a constant red and yellow along the strip, and one door bin light is showing the wrong colour.  I have requested a replacement from the seller on AliExpress, they should be easy enough to replace - the wiring is the hard / tedious part of this job. Everything is modular so long term maintenance of these lights should they fade or break should be simple, and pretty low cost at a few £ a part. Just waiting for the 3-4 week shipping from China is a bit of a pain, but there's no rush. 

The Avensis is now ready to do my biggest road trip in it yet to Liverpool / Manchester / Chester this week. Then back here and down to Dublin  for the end of the week. Let's see how Toyota's motorway cruiser does on a solid motorway cruise now. 

Looks class Shane I hope u get all sorted buddy .that's a great trip for the car I was going 2 drive to bottom of England Kent but my aunt died never got 2 go with all this COVID sxxte she didbt get to come home for 2 years well she never got 2 come home at all .I bought this for my car incase u run into a flat tyre great job I fixed my tyre already with one great job easy fix 2 .maybe handy 2 buy and keep in your car for a emergency with a jack and wee air compressor to pump tyre up again 

 

Look at this on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TYRE-PUNCTURE-REPAIR-KIT-Car-Van-Motorcycle-Emergency-Heavy-Duty-Tool-Kit-UK-/223617604535?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

[SB1500]

November 2022 Update / 3 months into the LED Ambient mod on the Toyota Avensis T27

So the opposite / right rear passenger door lights failed a few weeks ago. I requested a new sub-control unit from AliExpress and they sent it (about two weeks for delivery). It turns out that the issue was the same issue as the first / left rear passenger door back in August / September.  

The issue being that we actually tapped each of the four doors at the little red power cable FROM the window motor TO the switch (directly for the LED inside the switch to be precise). This is a fragile / assumably very low powered and low, steady electrical trickle to power that little LED on the switch. It has now blown the light, which I don't think is replaceable since the switch unit looks a one piece wonder job. 

The alternative (as done on the other rear door) was to wire it into the cable that delivers power from the cars wiring loom into the window motor, and this time with an in-line barrel fuse holder / fuse in place should anything blow or behave irregularly to protect everything else from breaking. 

What I have learnt about the way the Avensis is wired is, a main break-off from the wiring loom reaches out into the door.  This splits off down to the speaker for its power and signal and purpose placed big green glass test-tube looking fuse.  The loom continues on and splits off to go into a sensor in the door (crash / airbag sensor?). The loom then continues on and splits off to go to the window motor assembly. It then continues on to its final end point which is around the door lock / handle and relative parts of that system.  

What's interesting to me is, it breaks off once for the motor.  It is within the window motor which moves the glass up and down, that the signal is interpreted and FROM the motor assembly, some wires come out directly and into the switch unit. That is assumably, power for the LED, signal up, signal down and interrupt, plus earth (apologies if I am not 100% on point on that part).  That's where we incorrectly tapped power from, and as initially we didn't use a fuse, the LED on the switch is dead. If anyone knows how to fix this, let me know, but we probed the red wire coming FROM the motor assembly, and it isn't delivering power. So I suspect something inside the motor assembly might be wrong for that to have happened, and more costly to replace (and debatably not worth doing for what it's worth). Though I personally would love to have the little blue LEDs working again for the sake of the car being right. 

The lights now work, and so far no issue tapping from the loom power line which goes directly to the window motor. The new Chinese sub-control unit is in place, and they seem to have coded it to automatically pick up to the main one inside the dash. The only issue now is, there is a whine sound when the ambient lights are on, and the brighter I put them, the louder it is. If they are set to fade, the sound increases in line with the fade. I have mentioned this to the AliExpress folks, hopefully they will send a new one out which lacks this issue.  It sounds a bit like interference with the speaker in the door, but then when the speaker is off, or I set the balancer to the front only, it still happens.  It doesn't happen with the others, even the door with the exact same wiring, so it must be a defective sub-controller unit.

It's all par for the course with these cheap parts, the kit was something like £60 delivered max. Even with the hassle - which is mostly me learning how these cars and their wiring work - I'm still glad I did it.

I hope this is interesting to people across the internet looking to do this mod themselves, maybe without the in-depth electrical or car experience and explained in layman's (or rather, idiots) terms. Especially to be on a UK / European spec car as all I could find were a lot of American cars having the mod installed, some Indian tutorials in a different language or a few UK based channels which kindly omit the need-to-know technical details (I presume to convince you to just pay them to do it at their garage). Anyone on here or reading this, do feel free to sign up and give me a message and I'd be happy to advise or share my knowledge gained if you wish to do this mod. 

And any comments or tips please post, very keen if anyone can inform me more about restoring the little LEDs on my switches. 

[SB1500]

The latest with the LED Ambient Light installation on the T27 2018 Avensis saloon was that the rear driver side door had a loud, high pitched coil whine. The brighter the lights, the louder the whine. It's been over a month now and no other issues other than the sheer annoyance. But it hasn't faded away and when the car goes quiet at traffic lights, it's an obstacle to a clear mind... 

Other issues...

I *think* I'm hearing some kind of rattle when the car is building power / rattle that then disappears once smooth. It sounds like it's coming from one of the nearside doors - I can't be sure - and shaking the door doesn't exactly reveal much either. I presume my meddling with the panels and putting loose items inside (the LED sub control unit and wiring dangling) is the cause. Until I solve this, I won't look for other problem areas. I also ideally would like to know, for my own peace of mind, that this is all in place securely and looks like a factory job and not an amateur job.  However, it's a good thing I didn't do that from day one with all the revisions needed. 

The solution...

1. To tackle the interference, I'm going to re-wire each doors sub-control unit FARTHER from the looms break-off for the speaker... I'm led to believe that this is what is causing the interference. Only one door is badly affected. I think the others have a nearly unnoticeable, but still existent whine which also needs fixed. ...the Mercedes didn't make a whine and that's the Germans. So we must overcome it!!! 

2. I'm going to fit noise suppression clips (similar to that which came with my Nextbase hardwire kit) on each cable, little thin 3mm ones. Question is, which wire (ground or live) should this wrap around... and does it need to be tight-tight to work? It can't do no harm anyway, right? 

3. Insulate with electrical tape. This is already the case, but I'm going to make sure all previous solder points are extra secure and neatly done to perfection. 

4. Protect with loom tape. This will keep it neat and make the lines more sturdy. I will go over the poor quality Chinese loom tape from control unit to each light. It'll look like a factory loom when I'm done, maybe a little thicker and less fragile too. 

5. Fasten to the door with little self adhesive clips that stick to the back of the panel and hold it securely in place to stop any movement. Cord clamps I believe these are called.

6. Fasten to existing looms / plastic sheet with cable ties. But they'll still be easy to separate should a strip, LED or something need replaced due to failure in years to come. 

7. Dress sub-control unit in anti-rattle butyl / foam layer. Recommendations for parts welcome for this. But it will stop the unit from rattling around, so far, a little bit of it's surface area is stuck to some albeit very very sticky tape on a round moulded back of the door trim cards. This foam, if I need to, I will pile up and make contoured to fit the shape of the panel, and ensure it is stable and stuck well one. This will eliminate shaky rattles and hold it in a dedicated place. 

 

So no more coil whine, a messy looking job made clean, no wires rattling, no control unit rattle... everything insulated, protected, with anti-rattle fabric like surface or foam.  It's all automotive stuff, so fireproof. 

Am I missing anything? We're planning to do this before the New Year.  Time to think it through until then. 

[avensis_2018]

great job look awesome !!!

this car have a lot of rattle noises, i had to fight each in the end i won.

if you wish for super quiet drive, you need  sonex + dynamat + silicon on some points (some plastic parts).