How to add a hatch light

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johnr

Active member
Joined
Jul 24, 2014
Messages
28
Location
central Cali
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:
  • 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:
1%20-%20pop%20off%20cover.jpg


(2) Unscrew lamp assembly using the Phillips screwdriver:
2%20-%20unscrew%20lamp%20assembly.jpg


(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:
3%20-%20thread%20wire%20through.jpg


(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.
4%20-%20wire%20emerges.jpg


(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:
5%20-%20wires%20attached%20to%20plug.jpg


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.
5%20-%20screw%20closeup.jpg
5%20-%20wire%20terminal%20crimped%20before%20attaching%20to%20screw.jpg
5%20-%20wire%20attached%20to%20screw.jpg


(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:
6%20-%20poke%20slots.jpg
6%20-%20slots.jpg


(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.
7%20-%20attach%20wires%20to%20light.jpg


The finished product looks great, is bright, and illuminates the hatch area very well!
completed%20-1.jpg
completed%20-2.jpg
completed%20-3.jpg
 
Nice install. Were you able to save the rivet holding the headliner in or was it destroyed by removing it?

I did mine a bit differently, mainly out of fear of damaging the headliner. The main connector for the dome lights is behind the black plastic panel on the left side of the cargo area. I tapped the feeds there and ran wires along the floor under the trim to put lighting under the dash, under the front seats for the rear footwells, and in the cargo area. I have an entire thread on it here: http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2168

Some pictures:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/khgdv3kkwezrjgm/20140515_214403.jpg?dl=0 (dome connector is the top one).
https://www.dropbox.com/s/axi7ahnumw2q3iq/20140515_214428.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/niit41rppa5up0s/20140515_220105_LLS.jpg?dl=0

Here's the other lights since I mentioned it:
Floor dome - https://www.dropbox.com/s/m3adbvsqpmoye31/20140901_200537.jpg?dl=0
Floor accent - https://www.dropbox.com/s/cyhyvrae53phcg3/20140901_195905.jpg?dl=0 (not quite that bright in reality)
Puddle lights - https://www.dropbox.com/s/rjpzlgomjkp8c7f/IMG_20141124_175657947.jpg?dl=0
 
Nice install John R!
I wanted a cargo light that turns on anytime the rear hatch is open, so I used one of those self-stick LED strips in clear resin switched by a magnet and powered by AA batteries. Bright, even light distribution without glare. The adhesive wouldn't stay stuck to the headliner, so I sewed the strip along it's full length with a whip stitch, which can be cut out without a trace...
Of course , that means the batteries also get wasted if you leave the hatch open for long periods, but I'm only on my second set of batts in nearly a year. I hid the battery pack inside the right rear quarter panel.
 
johnr, thank you for your detailed and informative post. Together with PV1's implementation and jray3's battery-powered solution, we have three nice ways of providing light back there. I'm personally a fan of holding things in place using Velcro.

At first I was bemused by these posts wondering "why bother?", then I realized that I almost never have need for the back seats and they're always down and thus that area is nicely lit by the existing domelight. :roll: :idea: :roll: Incidentally, the previous owner of my used i-MiEV replaced all the interior lamps and turn signal lights with very bright LEDs.
 
Thanks guys for the comments.

@PV1: The rivet holding the headliner in broke when removing it. I was going to replace it with a new rivet but haven't done so yet. I saw your install, it looks great. In some ways having the lamps on the sides is preferable - for example if turned on while driving there's no glare. There are many ways to go about this project, and I'm happy to share my install. It's great how well the iMiev lends itself to these DIY enhancements! :D
 
Like Jray, I got a little $1 special light that you just push if needed, double sided tape on it. I have not installed it yet as I have not been outside at night to fiddle with it.
I know that double tape will not stick to the liner.

Anyone every try to see if Velcro will stick to the Liner ? I know it will make it "fuzzy" but I don't mind. Just thinking of a way to put it up in the middle right by the rear hatch.
 
tigger19687 said:
Anyone every try to see if Velcro will stick to the Liner ? I know it will make it "fuzzy" but I don't mind..
I tried velcro with no luck.
Also used two little push-on puck-style lights on the plastic rear quarter panels before sewing the strip to the headliner, but they were often accidentally turned on by cargo or knocked loose by cargo.
 
jray3 said:
tigger19687 said:
Anyone every try to see if Velcro will stick to the Liner ? I know it will make it "fuzzy" but I don't mind..
I tried velcro with no luck.
Also used two little push-on puck-style lights on the plastic rear quarter panels before sewing the strip to the headliner, but they were often accidentally turned on by cargo or knocked loose by cargo.

Ahh, that is what I got a, small puck like, 3 led lights so it will be bright.
 
You could drill a hole on the center of the plastic rivet that holds the headliner up and then mount the light with a screw

Don
 
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