Installing RickHondaR's Rear Footwell Lighting Kit

[Syx]

Installing RickHondaR's Rear Footwell Lighting Kit

You will need:

1x RickHondaR Front Footwell Lighting Kit (Already fitted before starting this guide)
1x RickHondaR Rear Footwell Lighting Kit

Set of Pliers
Pozidrive/Phillips screwdriver

This took me approximately 45 minutes including the time to stop and take photos.

Please excuse the fact that my car needs vacuuming!

After unpacking the kit and unwrapping the wires, open the passenger door and raise the rear seats. On the 5 door, open the rear passenger side door and use the magic seats. On the 3 door, pull the passenger seat forward and raise the seats before securing them with the seatbelts.
To do this, you will need to lift the retaining clip on the right of the seat bracket for the 3dr.

Seat bracket - retaining "claw" on the right


Seats secured with seatbelts


Remove the two cross head screws in each bracket cover and remove the covers by pulling them away. You'll need to lift the retaining claw whilst wiggling the bracket to release the metal clamp. I found that the spring on the right of the claw became detached on one of mine, this needs to be reinserted into the hole in the side of the claw.



Remove the door sill plastic by pulling it away gently with your fingers. It pops off quite easily.



In the rear of the car, remove the cover around the passenger seatbelt (it is held in by plastic clips only and can be removed by hand), and then feed the longest cable (which has no LEDs on it) underneath the carpet starting from under the nearside rear seat so that it emerges by the seatbelt point, then pull the slack through. This will enable you to route the cable and make it completely invisible even with the rear seats raised.



Run the cable underneath the plastic trim, past the door and behind the plastic trim at the front with enough slack emerging in the passenger footwell. I used the corner of a credit card to encourage it behind the plastic trim and ensure I didn't damage the insulation on the wire.



Underneath the glovebox (and this is dependent on your Front Footwell install) the plastic trim pulls down as it is held in only by trim clips. Run the end of the cable to here so that it will meet with the cables for the Front Footwell LED strip. Don't do anything with the cables yet.



Back in the rear of the car, run the LED strips under the carpet and have them emerge by the seat brackets. There's a strip of foam under the carpet so it's easiest to use two hands to do this, one each side of the carpet and pass the LEDs between hands rather than try to feed it through.



With the LED strips fed through with some slack, refit the bracket covers ensuring that you run the cables clear of the mechanism.
I found it easiest to place the black metal clip in place first, then push the plastic onto it - as trying to find the location for the metal clip with it still in the plastic was difficult!



DEGREASE the plastic covers. This is vital to ensure the LEDs stick! Once done, peel off the backing and stick them down. Pull any slack back through, and hide the white cable underneath the carpet for a neat finish.



Under the glovebox, take the two scotchlocks and connect the cables - white to white (positive) and white with black stripe to white with black stripe (negative). Refit the plastic cover, noting that there is a white plastic "holder" which it slots into before pushing the clips back into place.
Ensure you've gotten a really good connection with the scotchlocks... that's what the pliers are for!



Activate your Front Footwell lights (mine were set up so they came on when I closed and opened the door, yours may be different) and check the rears are working!



If they are not, recheck those scotchlocks. If you're sure that they are correct - you can try reversing the polarity. If you've blown the fuse for the front lights too then it's #14 in the fuse box in the driver's footwell.

Replace the door sill trim, and the trim piece by the seatbelt, making sure all the cables are hidden and are not snagging on any retaining clips.
Undo the seat belts for the rear seats if you've used them and lower the seats. You'll need to lift the claw to clamp them in properly on the 3 door.



Ensure they're secure!



Tidy up any tools you've left in the car and you're done!

[Kuneho]

nice! tfs

[tinkz]

Very good how to, i fitted my in a slightly different position when i got my fronts last year so it was trial and error as there was no how to at tjhe time but im sure more people will fit them now with your help

[robbobaggins]

Nice guide Sam can't wait for mine

[Caddyroo]

Want to do this ! How much is the kit / what colours do they do ?

[RickHondaR]

The kit is now available in the for sale section Footwell lighting kit for the Civic I will say I did choose this position for the leds as it would not interfere with the seats but the downside is they are not as bright as when fitted to the underside of the rear seats, I might look into some brighter leds but then again I am not to sure if this is required or not.

Will say thanks again Sam who sampled and installed this kit to my instructions then did this fantastic how to guide with more pictures and details etc.

[Syx]

Rick, you're most welcome for the guide and as always happy to help!

If there are any questions please don't hesitate to ask; I received the following via PM but as it's useful information I'll post it here:

In Pic 5 and where you said: Run the cable underneath the plastic trim, past the door and behind the plastic trim at the front with enough slack emerging in the passenger footwell.
As you have only lifted the door sill plastic trim, how does the cable get to that point from the rear seatbelt anchor point? I suppose you used a coat hanger to guide it through?
Then from the nearest to the front of the plastic sill to emerging from beneath the carpet under the front footwell, I wondered how you were able to guide the cable through with it being so flexible and no trim was removed at the front?

Starting at the back, from under the rear seat I ran the cable under the carpet and had it pop out where the rear nearside seatbelt lower bolt is; you need to remove a trim piece to see this. I just pushed the cable under the carpet as it's only a short distance.

I then pulled the slack cable through and laid it out to the front of the car. Once I knew I had enough, I put the cable that goes under the door sill trim in place.
Once that was in place I didn't need to remove any more trim, from the door sill back to the rear seatbelt bolt I just pushed it under the bottom of the plastic trim with my fingers, it is quite simply just tucked behind the plastic.
At the front I used the edge of a credit card to do the same, tucked it behind the plastic trim on in the passenger footwell. It appears that the cable is under the carpet but it is not, it is just tucked behind the plastic and emerges at the top. By laying the cable out first you don't need to try and feed it anywhere, it just tucks behind the plastic.

I'm on my phone so can't see if you say on your profile if you have a 3 or 5 door, mine is a 3 door but if you have a 5 I would guess you need to remove the rear door edge trim too and run the cable underneath that.

[jonnyansell]

Has anyone thought about about running the lights to the underside of the doors so that when you open the doors you have leds shining on the ground???

[Syx]

Actually yes. And it shouldn't be too hard at all.
I was going to have a look at this along with lights behind the door handles but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[jonnyansell]

Originally Posted by Syx

Actually yes. And it shouldn't be too hard at all.
I was going to have a look at this along with lights behind the door handles but haven't gotten around to it yet.

That's good to know. Let me know if you manage to do it because I'm thinking of getting footwell lights and I though this would look just amazing.

[thwomp08]

Curse you for this! I may have to part with more money!

[The_Saint]

Very good guide, but i still wouldnt attempt. I am a DIY Nightmare.

Anyone in Scotland good at doing all this?

[RickHondaR]

to be honest if you can fit the front kit easy enough then I would say the hardest part of the rear kit is removing the rear seats

[Syx]

Originally Posted by RickHondaR

to be honest if you can fit the front kit easy enough then I would say the hardest part of the rear kit is removing the rear seats

I think untangling the cables when I got them out of the padded envelope was my biggest challenge

[thwomp08]

Originally Posted by RickHondaR

to be honest if you can fit the front kit easy enough then I would say the hardest part of the rear kit is removing the rear seats

Not a problem with 5 door magic seats

Originally Posted by Syx

I think untangling the cables when I got them out of the padded envelope was my biggest challenge

Have to agree with the both of you though, Rick's instructions and Sam's 'how to' should both get an award! Fitted my kit with great ease!

[RickHondaR]

I have around 5 rear kits in red that I will do for £12 each once they are gone then there will be no more as just dont have the time to make all the different kits but will still sell front kits etc.

if you are interested please see my for sale thread

[jMejMe]

only red kits left for the rear?

[RickHondaR]

Originally Posted by jMejMe

only red kits left for the rear?

yes mate I have blue front kits that would only require extending for use in the rear but due to little demand I am not going to make any more rear kits special so just want to sell the few red kits I have already made, if you want a kit please post in my advert in the civinfo traders section

[thwomp08]

Originally Posted by RickHondaR

I have around 5 rear kits in red that I will do for £12 each once they are gone then there will be no more as just dont have the time to make all the different kits but will still sell front kits etc.

if you are interested please see my for sale thread

Instead of selling rear kits, couldn't you supply front kits and an additional stretch of wire? With even the smallest amount of know-how, you can snip the wire and fit a long stretch of wire to run round the edge as Sam has described in the how-to?

You could always charge the normal amount still or a touch more for the additional wire it doesn't cost much for ferrules (

pic of ferrule

pic of ferrule

) and chocblocks (

pic of chocolate block connector

pic of chocolate block connector

) which I'm sure people wouldn't mind paying for (always good to have a few spares) to get it all wired up securely.

Just my thoughts... Quality kit still mate I have some spare wire I can do a quick how-to guide and add a linky from here to it for anyone to do this

[simonsasuke]

Finished installing front footwells and back footwells.
Kit was not from rickhondar but I would strongly recommend kit his rather than a third party as i had other problems installing it due to the cheap kit I bought 2nd hand.

a big thanks to Syx for his detailed guide but a couple of pointers for the next person looking to do it.

Obviously the original post was a LH drive and pics were for LH drive so be aware of this. My RH drive had:
- a different colour connector housing (light blue) that I needed to pull out from under the steering wheel. Not the white shown in the original post. Maybe this is because I have a 1.4 se. The blue connector housing did have the small lever to press to release but the housing was also significantly smaller than the white connector housing it was next to.
- u can actually thread the wire from the driver to the passengers side footwell without touching the glove box. If u shine a bright light on the passengers footwell aiming towards the drivers footwell, a small path becomes visible at the top left furthest away from the driver. Essentially in the corner. I used this to feed the wiring through using a friend to spot the wires. The main reason I had to use this gap instead of via the glove box underside plastic removal was cos the plastic was not coming off! And I didn't want to pull any harder.
- for 5 doors: there isn't a big plastic cover seen in the original post by the rear passengers seatbelt. It is a smaller plastic cover. Follow syx's guide to route it to the each 'magic seat' clamp thing. - this is by far the most safe and does not at all intrude on the aesthetics of the car as other threads use various methods of going through the centre console and even having to tape down wires to the carpet!

Useful tips:
Dash board pieces come off very easily so if u are pulling hard, u are probably doing it wrong

When u think u have found the light blue and green wires, unplug it and check the interior lights can't come on before u splice the wrong wires as a few wires looked the same to me and therefore I assumed it was that connector housing I had to pull off.

Use bullet connectors (providing u can crimp effectively) and route the bullet connector tips to the right hand side of the rake adjustment lever. This means if u want to disconnect at point, just wiggle the rubber surround by the steering rake lever to gain access to your bullet connectors

Light blue is indeed +ve and light green is -ve

thread the wires through a straw and use that to reach any location u are trying to get to.

If u can't see any wires, in my eyes that counts as a job well done

My lights were significantly dimmer in the rear footwells (due to the led lights having to travel pass the depth of the seats. May invest in brighter lights for the rear footwells to get an even perceived light emmitance.

Read and re-read all of the above posts if u haven't taken apart the car at all and this is one of your first mods because all the things mentioned are where they say they are. If u can't find anything, u are looking at the wrong place.

I'll try get some pics of the few discrepancies I found in the 1.4 se 5 door variant.

Have fun watching footwells fade in and out!