Last night i was working on my car doing my door trims. I looked at the front of my roof and i've got the two courtesy lights at the front the middle lights on the roof and i thought wow there are no lights on the back. I was thinking of putting a set on the roof in the back above the back seats? Do you think its possible?

i rekon it is possible, but it will require you to remove the roof material and wiring it up to the other lights. so you only have lights near the rear view mirror? i have some in the back, i thought all did?!

i've got the ones above the rear view mirror. The ones that turn on when you open the door in the center of the roof. I was thinking of putting some in just above the rear window. like directly above the back seats.

i've got the ones above the rear view mirror. The ones that turn on when you open the door in the center of the roof. I was thinking of putting some in just above the rear window. like directly above the back seats.


ahhh sounds nice..i like your thinking.

like CCFL tubes like my underdoor (http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1018697#post1018697) lights? what would be sick is some downlights on dimmer settings. anyone with some electrial know-how would do it and it would be SO sick haha! controls near the driver, blind the passengers lol

you could always just put the C Pillar lights into the back of the car

give it extra light and the like.

wire it up correctly, and they will come on when you unlock the car and when any door is opened (just like a rada / normal interior light)

might have to make your own wires/ loom to go where it needs to go. (wherever that is!?)

the factory look C Pillar lights are much cleaner IMO

does a TJ 2002 have the loom for the C pillar lights?

ahhh sounds nice..i like your thinking.

like CCFL tubes like my underdoor (http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1018697#post1018697) lights? what would be sick is some downlights on dimmer settings. anyone with some electrial know-how would do it and it would be SO sick haha! controls near the driver, blind the passengers lol

lol for blinding passengers. I will blind them and take them out to a forest and steal there mitsu parts :P jks.

C Pillar..ok what is the c pillar lights, ive never really heard of one?

Also man those underdoor lights are so awesome were they hard to make?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v146/doddski_03/P3270004.jpg

C Pillar lights!

Doing it this way, would require Verada C Pillar trims of course and the lights themselves - could get them from a wrecker i spose?
as to the wiring them up to make them work - im not sure on that... search around here on AMC - there have been a couple of threads about C Pillar lights / adding them
all i know is, my car has them so that makes me happy :)

also - if a rear passenger decides to turn on one of the lights (to read etc at night) the light isnt that annoying in your mirrors either which is good :)

that is awesome definitely a step up from what i was thinking. the parts seem they'd be next to near impossible to find.

that is awesome definitely a step up from what i was thinking. the parts seem they'd be next to near impossible to find.

hey man, i just bought the lights from a guy in NZ, including the verada map lights at the front (do a search if unsure) for about $40 I think?

this is a pic he sent me, obviously the lights are on the right hand side

if you want his details, PM me
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=508968e062&view=att&th=1213e300520582fe&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_fup6och70&zw

this guy TW how do you know him?

just started talking to him on trademe.co.nz, he's sent me paras and a grille already, that gear is on its way

also blake, he's only got that one set of handles atm, email him if you want him to let you know when he gets more in

EDIT: i believe he owns a wreckers in wellington

cheers sending a PM now!

Also im just wondering how the wiring would work for these lights....

im doing new lights in my roof atm. lights arrived last week, and ill start fabricating the new mould to house them this week before i retrim the roof.

ill be fitting a new center light, and 2 lights firing at the 2 front seats. havent decided 100% on now im going to switch the lights yet, but if i cant find some fancy switches to house in the roof beside the lights, ill be housing some buttons in the power window panels on each of the front doors.

the lights will be wired so that only the center light is turned on when a door is opened, and the 2 other lights are manually operated.

Also im just wondering how the wiring would work for these lights....

not sure on that myself, was hoping to find out somehow

not sure on that myself, was hoping to find out somehow

Yeah. I was reading through the car workshop books and i found nothing on it! So i'm hoping someone out there knows.


im doing new lights in my roof atm. lights arrived last week, and ill start fabricating the new mould to house them this week before i retrim the roof.

ill be fitting a new center light, and 2 lights firing at the 2 front seats. havent decided 100% on now im going to switch the lights yet, but if i cant find some fancy switches to house in the roof beside the lights, ill be housing some buttons in the power window panels on each of the front doors.

the lights will be wired so that only the center light is turned on when a door is opened, and the 2 other lights are manually operated.

Be sure to keep me posted id love to see more of that mate!

Wiring for C-pillar lamps?? has been covered here before in at least a couple of threads and not that long ago, either.
Some members favoured two basic approaches to the wiring, either way is quite easy.

IF you use the SEARCH function as has been suggested, all info will be revealed to you.

here's a free tip: "C-pillar lamps" could be a search term, or "rear reading lamps" or "rear courtesy lamps"

Here's another free tip: if you go to the "3rd Gen" Forum from main page, you might have the option of searching from within the 3rd Gen forum alone - save you wading thru hundreds of posts about rear lamps in 1st Gens, or rear lamps in 2nd Gens, or rear lamps in 380's.

EDIT: A final free tip. If you uswe the factory C-pillar lamps, they have capability to be manually switched (requiring a constant 12V power source), or to come on with other interior lamps as controlled by door switches and BEM (body electrics module). Search will disclose where to find these miraculous sources of power. You Earth each courtesy lamp into the metal of the C-pilar BTW. AND, base-model cars will not have the loom for the rear courtesy lamps, get the lamp units and a bit more loom (including he matching plug-connector) if you can.

thanks. now i feel kind of stupid.

No need to feel that way. Nearly all of us have asked a question which has been answered before, so its not the end of the world.

Search function can bring back heaps of utter crap you need to wade thru, in order to find good info hidden away!!
No doubt there are members in these Forums who can use Search far better than I.

Sometimes, when you are in a hurry (eg: pulled something apart and have stray bits left when you've put it back together -oops!).... using Search seems like a hassle - BUT there is a real goldmine of Info in AMC.

On the downside, we may start a thread, then side-track into something completely different - SO occasionally the best info surfaces in threads whose titles in no way suggest that thing you are wanting to know. Best idea is to try to think what search terms will bring up what you want, and the more uncommon the term (you hope) the less extraneous info will pop-up in Search results.

With the lamps and wiring tho, there HAVE been discussions with lots of good info within the last 6wks, and more within the last 6 months. Give it (Search) a try and see how you go!

Its a good idea to try at least a basic search before asking commonplace questions, cos other members are likely to have discussed already. Check out the "menu" of Forums, too - it may give you ideas of where is best place to Search, or best place to post up.

Also look for "STICKY" threads in the various Forums - these are only "sticky" cos they are deemed to be useful and full of info of use to others!!

the most useful post i could find on wiring

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showpost.php?p=951768&postcount=28

No need to feel that way. Nearly all of us have asked a question which has been answered before, so its not the end of the world.

Search function can bring back heaps of utter crap you need to wade thru, in order to find good info hidden away!!
No doubt there are members in these Forums who can use Search far better than I.

Sometimes, when you are in a hurry (eg: pulled something apart and have stray bits left when you've put it back together -oops!).... using Search seems like a hassle - BUT there is a real goldmine of Info in AMC.

On the downside, we may start a thread, then side-track into something completely different - SO occasionally the best info surfaces in threads whose titles in no way suggest that thing you are wanting to know. Best idea is to try to think what search terms will bring up what you want, and the more uncommon the term (you hope) the less extraneous info will pop-up in Search results.

With the lamps and wiring tho, there HAVE been discussions with lots of good info within the last 6wks, and more within the last 6 months. Give it (Search) a try and see how you go!

Its a good idea to try at least a basic search before asking commonplace questions, cos other members are likely to have discussed already. Check out the "menu" of Forums, too - it may give you ideas of where is best place to Search, or best place to post up.

Also look for "STICKY" threads in the various Forums - these are only "sticky" cos they are deemed to be useful and full of info of use to others!!


Thanks! This club is alot more helpful than others i've been with so thanks for all the help guys!

Mmmmm C-Pillar Trims!

when i put my rear pillar lights in...i used the boot light as a constant power source.....and a seperate earth in the boot...now the rear lights have three wires..ie.earth,contant and switch..now what i did,was to remove the rear door swith,on mine ,there was only one wire...but what i did was connect another wire to the other side of the switch and then run this wire to the lights...so in summery..earth wire was in the boot..got the power from the boot light...and the door switch provided the other circuit...so now thet turn on when you open the rear doors,,and work independently as reading lights when required.........

Was it much hard work? Or was it easier than it sounded?

Thanks to "alphabet boy" (twlvlks etc) for searching and finding one of my old typically-long-winded posts about this.

You can easily earth each of your rear courtesy lights into the metal panel of the c-pillar - there is an unused screw-hole right near the lamp location, and self-tapper into there is easy. (self-serve wreckers are usually littered with heaps of short self-tappers as used in console and dash panels etc).

Some members prefer to drop the roof lining and run wires from each rear courtesy lamp to the "room lamp" - which is usually the plain square lamp with sliding lens mounted in the middle of the car - about above front seat backrests.

My preferred method was to run passenger rear courtesy lamp power wires across to drivers side, join in with drivers rear courtesy lamp power wires, then run the two power wires forwards to drivers A-pillar. (Reason? the power wires for the interior lamp run up the drivers A-pillar, there is a red "constant 12v" wire, and a red/white wire which is "12v-when-a-door-is-open"). I was able to tuck all this wiring in from the edges of the roof lining - ie: I didn't need to fully drop the roof lining. Just seemed easier to me, and there is a fair bit of room behind the A-pillar trim to join the wires in.

EDIT: If you can be bothered looking on E-bay for "surface mounted" LED lamps which are like little pieces of circuit board - these are AWESOME in the reading lamps. Any other LEDs (that I have noticed anywhere) are crap - the light needs to shine SIDEWAYS out of these lamps - have a look at how the bulb mounts in to the lamp units, you'll see what I mean.

Thanks alot elwyn. That makes plenty of sense. :) I'll be parts hunting tomorrow at some point hopefully :)

If your after some "C" pillar lights ask madmagna, I think he has a pair lying around. I'll be swinging by his place this weekend to wire up a set I purchased from him.

I ran the power for mine from the rear centre to the main cabin light's Constant and door wires using a tape measure, soooo easy. Pushing the tape from the rear to the centre of the car out the cab light hole, taped the wire to the measure and retracted.

Marty!!! Using a tape measure to run wires behind headlining - EPIC idea. Love it.

Must find me some crappy job to do, so I can try your method. Thanks for mentioning it.