Center Console Store LED Lighting on PiP

Inspired by AZGeek's center console storage LED lighting post I decided to do the same thing on my 2012 Advanced PiP.

For the LED I used a wired 12vdc LED bulb in cool white.

To install:

• Lift up the armrest storage.
• Pull up the cup holder. It's attached by 4 clips but if you pull gently but hard, it should pop out.
• Next using a plastic pry tool, lift up plastic around the gear shift knob. Once that is popped out..
• Lift up the plastic surrounding the cup holder that's integrated right below the shift knob. I started at the bottom and then gently pushed up. This is the same piece of trim that extends to the right up towards the center vents.
• Once that is out the of way, you can see a perfectly aligned hole in center dash support that you can use to route your LED through (I put a circle around it in the image below)

• It seems as though the plastic comes together at a V here and the two panels are fused together. I was little nervous about mounting it in the center, but as you'll see, it looks great.
• Next take the smallest drill bit you have and drill a pilot hole right in the middle.
• Then use a few sizes up and enlarge the hole. Keep doing this until you get to 17/64. Actually, what I did first is I used a spare piece of plastic and tried my drill bill its until I found one that would accept the collar that comes with the LED light. Better to test on scrap than your Prius!
• Next push the collar in from the storage side.
• From the right hand side of that metal bracket, loop your LED through the hole. This is so you can then run the wires down without them getting in the way
• Then poke your LED through the hole and up against the collar. It doesn't exactly LOCK in, but I can't imagine it coming out either.

• Then all you need to do is snake your wires down to the right hand side of the center console. Since the wires that come with the LED aren't long enough, I extended so that they could reach the footwell light. I simply tapped into the existing two wires and viola!

I couldn't get really good pictures (sorry), but I think it looks great. Here is a
picture of it at full brightness and another while it is dimmed.





The pictures seem to show that it's not fully illuminated but the entire storage area is gently lit up so it looks good.

Not a bad project for < 5 bucks.