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ckamps

Member Since: 04 Jul 2023
Location: Missouri
Posts: 31

Retrofitting premium interior lighting to D90

Are the wiring harnesses for premium - aka ambient - interior lighting already in place for 2020-2023 Defenders that don’t have the feature?

Dashboard premium/ambient lights

Simon from PowerfulUK has shown that at least on one of his Defenders, the wiring harness is already in place for at least the long dash section of premium/ambient lighting. I assume that the two short sections of the dash also have the unused connectors in place.

See 5:48 in:

?si=

Door lights: handle and door pocket

Do the door lights - both the door handle and door storage pocket areas - have the compatible wiring harness in place?

Extending to foot wells

Based on the Vulkan Automotive video demonstrating installation of their ambient lighting extension kit, it appears that there’s no existing compatible harness that addresses the footwells.

?si=iDcL4fof6AhyqEyQ

Hunters Prestige retrofit kit also shows an extra wiring harness to address footwells:

https://huntersprestige.com/collections/li...ension-kit

All encompassing kits on Ebay

I’ve see some kits on Ebay that offer premium/ambient interior lighting retrofit options for 2020-2023 Defenders. These kits appear to address lighting for dash, two locations in each door, and footwells. Their product photos also show wiring harnesses included in their kit. Presumably, those harnesses are at least needed for the footwells - as in the case of the Vulkan extension kit - and perhaps for the two lights in each door.

Here’s one of several examples from eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/284165256815?hash...SwELRgE9fw

Why do this?

I particularly like the notion of subtle lighting in the long dash area. Being able to change the lighting color overall would also be nice. But I wouldn’t expect to change the color very often. (I know I can swap out existing bulbs with different colors for several of the areas, but those don’t address some of the unlit areas that premium/ambient lighting addresses). 2021 D90 Pangea First Edition

19th Nov 2023 2:38am

Down & Dirty

Member Since: 15 Sep 2023
Location: Somewhere outback
Posts: 44

Have a read here may help

https://www.defender2.net/forum/topic85281-465.html My 24 HSE X-Dynamic 90 Carpathian Grey

19th Nov 2023 8:52am

mmbanf

Member Since: 16 Mar 2021
Location: Milano
Posts: 131

Hi, unfortunately the dashboard and center console wiring stops after a few centimetres. to carry out the retrofit you need to take a signal wire directly from the bcm, and bring it laterally to the left of the dashboard and into the central console. the door wiring is complete. you have to buy all the original premium lights, three on the dashboard and four front doors, a center console. to do this job well it is necessary to dismantle the right front seat and the right floor covering, the central console and the parts of the dashboard. Once all this is done you must activate the function with Gap.

Marco

19th Nov 2023 8:05pm

Defendit..

Member Since: 09 Aug 2020
Location: 's-Hertogenbosch
Posts: 375

Hello Marco,

I'am also working on 'how to' retrofit the ambiance lighting interior option.

For the dash long Beam we need:
129976 carrier light guide
129968 wire Interior lighting ( with 1 lamp I suppose)

For the Drivers display we need
129966 wire Interior lighting ( included 2 lamps I suppose)
129975 carrier light guide 2 pcs.

For the center console we need
129927 wire Interior lighting ( included lamp and carrier I suppose)

So the above are 6 pieces

For the doors I'am really not sure if you also need to replace the 4 pieces.
I've read somewhere to check the connectors if they have 3 wires instead of 2.

Anyway 10 pieces from € 55,- / € 59,- makes it almost € 600,-

There has to be another way to archive this for less money. No Mud flaps for my 90.!
-----------------------------------------
P300 S MY21 on air, adv.+ offroad pack, DRL+fog, Dinamica Suedecloth + Ebony headliner/Cross Beam- Many Mods..

21st Nov 2023 5:08pm

Paladino

Member Since: 07 Dec 2022
Location: Serbia
Posts: 30

I am also interested in this retrofit. The leds work on lin-bus. Coding is the easiest part (at least I think so)
Does anyone know the pins on the bcm for a my23?
Is it 3 pins for the dash or 6 pins for two areas?
Is the centre console a separate connection?

The leds can be bought from previous generations land rovers.
For the led diffusers, maybe we can use Plexiglas tubes, I used them in the past with great success.

Click image to enlarge

21st Nov 2023 9:23pm

mmbanf

Member Since: 16 Mar 2021
Location: Milano
Posts: 131

hi, I'm talking about a defender 90,
the codes of what you need for the dashboard are:
LR129927
LR129966
LR129968
LR129975x2
LR129976
regarding the front doors:
LR130014
LR130030
LR130051
LR130123
The lights on the original doors without premium lighting are not good, they have two wires, actually the LED source can be adapted with that of some range rovers that you find used but save little money and have shorter wiring.

https://www.ebay.it/itm/266322164214

the center console wiring is isolated, not complete.
When you have procured all the material, write in pm, be careful it is a complicated job, in particular it requires dismantling many plastic parts and rewiring some connectors, including a delicate connector on the BCM. So the work requires experience, and patience.
There are professionals in the UK who offer it as a service.

Marco

22nd Nov 2023 7:45am

ckamps

Member Since: 04 Jul 2023
Location: Missouri
Posts: 31

Some useful info below from David at Hunters Prestige. Including an observation about the non-OEM UX you might get with some of the other kits out there. Separately, I obtained an installation doc from one of those suppliers. Sure enough, configuration of the lighting was done via existing buttons on the doors. Seemed kind of odd.

It sounds like Hunters might eventually offer a retrofit kit for DIY for those who can’t travel to their shop. Such a kit - which would presumably include wiring in addition to easy-to-obtain lights and other parts - combined with their existing ambient lighting extension to cover the footwells, might be an interesting combo.

The BCM aspect seems like the trickiest part. Beyond all of the trim removal required.

Quote:
Yes, you are correct that this is not an easy retrofit. However, we can do it and we have done many cars already. ...

There are a lot of aftermarket ambient light kits which actually use a decoder on each door to control the light ( which in our opinion is useless) because if one cannot retrofit it like how the factory does, then that can not be called a retrofit, rather a 'modification'.

Now we use the Land Rover genuine parts to do this retrofit and the correct way is to actually wire to the BCM control module where the Pivi can control the colors.

Are you following our socials? We actually have a car from Germany come to us today and as part of his build is actually a complete ambient light retrofit kit to his car. We will be making some key points in our video about this retrofit where we will highlight some key points. We will then edit the video and post it next week( Friday) on our Youtube channel.https://www.youtube.com/@Hunters_Prestige

Make sure you stay tuned for that video and hopefully, we will cover most of your questions in the video.

2021 D90 Pangea First Edition

23rd Nov 2023 2:29am

Paladino

Member Since: 07 Dec 2022
Location: Serbia
Posts: 30

One thing to note if someone tries to do this on the commercial - the power to the leds comes from the bcm/gwm so new wires will need to be installed.

5th Dec 2023 9:52am

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