Underdash and nerf bar LEDs

I wanted to give my truck a little more colorful lighting as well as add step lights for the nerf bars. I found these LEDS on ebay from seller sureelectronics.



They sell for around $5/$6 per 24 LED cluster. The aluminum board they are mounted on is about 8 inches long and it is easy to attach velcro to the back, so mounting is easy. I had to staple through the velcro I attached under the dash, and spread the staples from the back side, because the Frontier interior plastic doesn't accept glue very well. The staples make tiny holes that are not in view from anywhere but the floor.

I mounted a blue board under the both driver and passenger dash.



I mounted a red board at the base of the center console in the back.



I also mounted 4 white boards on the outside of the truck on the rocker panel to shine on the nerf bar steps.



I tied all the hot wires together and spliced them into the lower power outlet circuit, as it is hot all the time. I suggest pulling the 20 AMP fuse that is located in the fuse block under the hood before connecting to this circuit.

The ground leads are what is used to switch these LEDs on and off, so make sure all your connections are insulated from accidently grounding out.

I bought a 3 position switch and mounted it next to the mirror remote control.



There is no power applied to the switch at any of the three connectors on the switch. I wired the negative (ground) lead for the LED circuit to the center connector, a wire to chassis ground to the top connector. This will allow you to manually turn the lights OFF or ON with the switch. If you want the LEDs to operate on the room lamp circuit (courtesy lights), then splice a wire to the Body Control Module (BCM) terminal 63 to the other connector on the switch.

You have to remove the two 10 MM screws to access the BCM. The BCM has 3 plugs, 2 white and 1 black. The M20 plug is the black plug. Pinch the ends of the connector and pull hard and it will come out of the BCM.





The wire on terminal 63 on M20 is the wire that connects to the room/map lamps. It provides the ground to the circuit when the door is opened. The Nissan documentation said the the wire color was "BR", so I thought it meant BROWN, but there was no continuity from the BROWN wire. I used the ohm-meter to check each wire and I discovered the wire that had continuity to the room/map lights (R9 terminal 2) in my truck was LIGHT BLUE, not BROWN. If you want to verify you have the right circuit before you splice, just follow the schematic below using an ohm-meter.



I leave the switch in the door position and when I press the unlock on my key fob all the LEDs come on and stay on till I start the truck. When I remove the key and get out, they stay on for 5 minutes and turn off automatically or when I hit the lock button on the key fob.

If I want to add some ambiance while driving or parked, I just flip the switch to the other position. I can also leave the switch in the middle position for STEALTH OPS.:laugh:

The whole project cost me less than $50 and I learned a few things about my Frontier in the process!