Hey guys,

I was vacuuming my car tonight in the garage and it occured to me that with the overhead lights off, the footwell lights illuminate the car really nicely and don't distract you at all when driving (Dim and out of peripheral vision) while giving a nice atmosphere. I was wondering if anyone had thought of changing the wiring on them to either stay permanently on say when in accessories or when the engine is on or even with the parkers or headlights on. Would this be an easy job?

I did try searching but the search terms are pretty vague so a boatload of unrelated stuff comes up and I didn't find anything.

My interior lights (blue neons in the footwells, and red LED's in the door handles and pockets) are just tapped into my cigarette lighter with a switch in between. So i can turn them on and off as i please.

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407644_372571279424545_100000150275969_1664312_138 846247_n.jpg

I think while driving it illegal to have the interior light on, as it distracting. You could wire a switch up, but acc circuit is constantly on while you got the motor going.

So a switch might be the easy solution, just find the wire going to the positive side of the lamp, cut it there and wire switch in-place and find a acc power source. So you can power the other side off the switch.

Not a good idea to have any lights on in the car at night. Light in your peripheral vision will make your pupils close a bit and desensitize your eyes to the outside world. Hence the brightness control on the dash lights, try them at full brightness on a dark country road and then dim them, you will be surprised at the difference it makes as to how well you can see things on the road ahead. I find even the light in my radio will do this.
If you want "mood lighting", save it for your bedroom. lol

Around town, with street lighting, it probably makes no obvious difference though.

in our pajero, the driver side footwell light IS on all the time: this is normal in these cars. I haven't looked at the passenger side. It's pretty dim, not at all distracting, and I think it's a good idea.

As cooperplace says, these are very dim and not in your peripheral vision, the opposite of the instrument lights. I am keen to look into this, I assume it's probably a super simple wiring mod, I just don't have the knowhow.

Like i said, just tap them into the cigarette lighter, add a switch, and you can turn them on and off as you please =]

EDIT: I have never had problems with it set up like this

I agree with Zac93's method. It won't receive power when the key isn't in so you can leave the switch always on and they'll only come on with the doors or when the key is at Accessories.

If you're handy, using the right relays you can do Parker's and door triggers seemlessly without a switch.