[JagNorb]

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!

 

[JagNorb]

WOW! its like a club inside your truck!

Gotta keep things lively!

 

[JagNorb]

I reckon I could have just wired a switch to the always hot lower outlet plug, but it was easier to wire them with the power always applied and just use a switch in the ground circuit to turn them on and off manually. Beside the fact that I didn't have to buy a relay!

 

[JagNorb]

Great Write Up. Here is what i got so far. Got it working with the switch and when the door is open/unlocked. Thanks for answering my stupid questions.

This is with the flash on

Flash Off

My new switch plate i bought from courtsey i had the pocket there before

Just a messy pic of my truck from the back seat.

i was planning on cleaning it out tomorrow but looks like i got to do another family chore. O BOY YARD WORK just wish i could get oneweekend that i could actually just work on my truck and not worry about nothing else

:goodjob: Klee

By the way, life sometimes gets in the way of us havin' fun, but it's OK!

 

[JagNorb]

dude pretty cool write up do you have any close up shots on how you mounted the step bar led..lol it was raining tonight and my uncle tried to get in the truck missed the black plastic step slipped and fell on his a$$..sooooo i now need lights to see the step

I glued black velcro strips (the soft part) along the bottom of the rocker panel (where it's painted black).

I glued the sticky velcro part to the back of the cluster LEDs (they come mounted in an aluminum strip).

They do provide plenty of light so you don't miss the step at night!

They have been on my truck now for about 3 months now and through lots of unseasonably cold Florida weather including lots of rain and I just now checked and they are all still holding tight!

Read the very first part of this thread to get the cluster LED information. By the way, I painted them black; and masking off the SMDs was a royal pain in the :censor:, (there are 24 SMDs in each cluster strip)!!

 

[JagNorb]

ok i got a question that somewhat relevant. how would i hook up the nerf bar lights so that they come on when my blinker lights come on(only when i unlock my doors that is and go off when i start the truck) and also if it would be possible for them to come on when the doors are open as well?

Go to the beggining of this thread and follow the directions on how I did it, because that is exactly how mine works!

 

[JagNorb]

hi i have another question i was just trying ot hook all of this up and the manual said i was supposed to have a br(im guessing brown) wire in pin 63 but the thing is there is no wire there am i just supposed to somehow stick my wire in there or what? also would it be possible to just slice into the third brake light underneath the steering column somewhere?

i have an 09 se kc if that helps

On my 05 CC 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.

 

[JagNorb]

yea i read that before and thought about splicing into a blue wire close to where the pin#63 was but i was kinda sketchy about it (the harness had a white,pink,blue and black wire) in that order from pin 56-59

maybe the harness is different in the 09 seeing as how some of the manual i found from this forum had some things that didnt quite line up in the way they were shown

i guess ill get an ohm meter tomorrow from a friend and try out the different wires

Whatever wire on M20 that makes continuity with pin 2 of the room /map lights is the wire to splaice into.

 

[JagNorb]

ok thanks for all the help man but i think im just being stupid now for some reason i read what you did wrong and thought that the blue wire(pin 63) was hot and but its a ground and i need to run power to the hot wires first then use the blue as the ground right?

i guess ill have to finish tomorrow and rewire a few little things no big problem though

Yeah that's correct. The circuit is controlled by supplying grounds, either from the chassis or a digital low from pin63 M20.

 

[JagNorb]

ok thanks for all the help so far but im still not doing something right....im trying to do the whole setup without a switch so basically i ran power to my leds and ties all the + ones together and then i tied all the - ones together and ran that back to the bcm

i tested the connection with an ohm meter between the bcm and the room light assembly connector and got two different pins as being continuous(one from one pin of the room light, one from the other pin) now my problem is that they wont turn off no matter if i connect the - to one pin or the other in the bcm
thanks for the help

 

[JagNorb]

Is there any way you could post a pic of the splicing at the lower power outlet with the hot wires and a pic of the exact amp to pull from under the hood? I just want to make sure I am doing this exactly right.

Thanks

No pics, but here's the easy way to do it:
1. Get a cell phone charger that has an LED that lights up when you plug it into the car outlet, then plug it into the lower outlet WITH THE KEY OFF.
2. If the cell charger LED came on when you plugged it in, then that shows that you have the always on outlet. Open the hood and pull the 20 AMP fuse that is marked POWER (I think). If the cell charger LED went out when the fuse was pulled, you have the correct fuse, if not, replace it and pull another one and keep at it till you find the correct fuse.
3. Once you have pulled the correct fuse, go to the back of the outlet and splice your wire to the positive lead.
4. Plug the fuse in and see if the charger LED is lit, then get a meter and see if you have 12V on the wire you just spliced. If so, pulle the fuse and continue wiring your LED circuit.
6. Once you have finished, plug the fuse back it and check the operation.
Good luck!