johnr
Active member
Mitsubishi designed the iMiev quite well, but one thing they forgot was illumination of the hatch area. After several occasions where I came home late at night and had to use a flashlight to dig stuff out of the hatch area, I figured it was time I install a light there.
This is fairly easy to do. There are a few different ways one might go about performing this upgrade, but I'll just show you how I did it. You'll only need a few tools:
And just a couple parts:
(1) Pop off the dome light cover using the flat blade screwdriver:
(2) Unscrew lamp assembly using the Phillips screwdriver:
(3) Tape the end of the electrical wires to the end of the coat hanger wire and thread it through along the ceiling toward the rear of the car:
(4) Pop off the rear-most center pop-rivet holding the ceiling material onto the roof, reach in and grab the wire and pull the end out. Try not to wrinkle the ceiling material too much. You might want to get a new pop-rivet as you'll likely break the original one when removing it.
(5) There are a few options for attaching the wires. There are three wires going to the dome light. One of them is negative (black), one is positive (red), and one is switched negative (green) which is only on when the door or hatch is open. You will need to connect one of your wires to the positive. The other wire may be connected to the switched negative if you want the light to only come on when the hatch or door is opened. You can find these wires attached to the plug in the ceiling - just splice onto them and tape the connections with electrical tape:
Or, alternatively, you can connect the wire to the switch on the dome light instead - if you do this, the dome light switch will also control your hatch light. This is what I elected to do. Crimp on a #6 ring terminal to your wire; remove the screw on the dome light assembly and screw it back on through the ring terminal as pictured, taking care not to drop any of the small parts. If you do this, you might wish to attach your other wire to the negative connection on the dome light assembly as well (the two connections are indicated in the photo below), and thereby avoid any splicing or unplugging.
(6) Position the new light where you wish to attach it, then poke slots near where the ends would be so it can slide on:
(7) Poke the wires out through the slots and attach them to the light. Note that since this is an LED light the polarity is important - if it doesn't work, swap the negative and positive wires and try again. Tape the connections with electrical tape. Then fiddle with the light a bit to get the wires tucked away neatly and the light wedged in to the ceiling material.
The finished product looks great, is bright, and illuminates the hatch area very well!
This is fairly easy to do. There are a few different ways one might go about performing this upgrade, but I'll just show you how I did it. You'll only need a few tools:
- Phillips screwdriver
- Flat screwdriver
- Flashlight
- Wire stripper
- Electrical tape
- Straightened-out wire from coat hanger
- Scissors or knife
And just a couple parts:
- Two electrical wires (long enough to go from the existing dome light to where you intend to install the hatch light). I used a section of spare extension cord. Since we're using an energy-efficient LED light, pretty much any gauge wire will work fine, even tiny wire like 22 gauge is OK.
- A suitable 12 volt lamp. I chose Newark part number OVM12F3W7, which is a bright, nice looking 12 volt LED strip.
- Depending on how you wire it up, one or two #6 ring terminal connectors might come in handy. I used one.
(1) Pop off the dome light cover using the flat blade screwdriver:
(2) Unscrew lamp assembly using the Phillips screwdriver:
(3) Tape the end of the electrical wires to the end of the coat hanger wire and thread it through along the ceiling toward the rear of the car:
(4) Pop off the rear-most center pop-rivet holding the ceiling material onto the roof, reach in and grab the wire and pull the end out. Try not to wrinkle the ceiling material too much. You might want to get a new pop-rivet as you'll likely break the original one when removing it.
(5) There are a few options for attaching the wires. There are three wires going to the dome light. One of them is negative (black), one is positive (red), and one is switched negative (green) which is only on when the door or hatch is open. You will need to connect one of your wires to the positive. The other wire may be connected to the switched negative if you want the light to only come on when the hatch or door is opened. You can find these wires attached to the plug in the ceiling - just splice onto them and tape the connections with electrical tape:
Or, alternatively, you can connect the wire to the switch on the dome light instead - if you do this, the dome light switch will also control your hatch light. This is what I elected to do. Crimp on a #6 ring terminal to your wire; remove the screw on the dome light assembly and screw it back on through the ring terminal as pictured, taking care not to drop any of the small parts. If you do this, you might wish to attach your other wire to the negative connection on the dome light assembly as well (the two connections are indicated in the photo below), and thereby avoid any splicing or unplugging.
(6) Position the new light where you wish to attach it, then poke slots near where the ends would be so it can slide on:
(7) Poke the wires out through the slots and attach them to the light. Note that since this is an LED light the polarity is important - if it doesn't work, swap the negative and positive wires and try again. Tape the connections with electrical tape. Then fiddle with the light a bit to get the wires tucked away neatly and the light wedged in to the ceiling material.
The finished product looks great, is bright, and illuminates the hatch area very well!
