Installing LED lights in an Altima Coupe

Alrighty, so here’s the how to, pretty straight forward, toughest part was getting the wire from the engine compartment to the driver’s panel.

Prepping of car: I will skip the details in some of the easier steps, such as
-take off the front grill – all plastic clips, then pull straight out
-take off the plastic piece underneath the steering wheel – first remove the
side over by prying it open, then remove the one screw in the bottom left hand side,then pull off.  (sorry if I’m being unclear, this part is pretty straight forward)
-Jack the car up and take off the front left wheel
-Remove the rear half of the plastic trim in the wheel well – all plastic clips + 3 screws around the side rockers.
-Finally you will need to cut a tiny hole from the drivers side, it’s located all the way above and to the left of the clutch/brake pads.(see picture)

-Go to the wheel well and use a blunt pointy tool and stab it until you reach the hole you cut in the driver’s legroom (see picture)

You are now done prepping the car

Preping the LEDs:
-You will receive two LEDs with these 4 prong connector and to home-use adapters but you will need to cut the wires (see picture) in order to extend them; to extend them, I soldered the wires together and shrink wrapped them in the rubber heat shrink or you can use electrical tape.

-Extend both LED strips, one ~6ft (passenger side), one ~ 3ft (drivers side).
Whole scheme

Switch: you can buy many different types, I chose the rocker LED.

There should be 3 prongs in the back of the switch, follow instruction as to which prong goes to which source.
-Connect both + ends from LED together and GND ends together.The + end will be extended again to reach the switch, and the GND wires can be grounded at any bolt on the chassis, I chose the one holding the headlight housing. (see picture)

-Cut a 6ft wire for the battery  switch.Cut the wire near the battery end and insert a fuse holder, and insert a 10A fuse in it. Looks like this, I believe this is the mini one, I got the regular one, shouldn’t make a difference though.

Connecting to battery

-Cut a 1 ft wire for the switch  ground wire.Choose any bolt in that area to be grounded.

Start installing!
-Follow the schematic drawing and route every wire accordingly, it should be simple if you did you prepping first. Remember, always plan ahead.
-Test out the lighting before you put everything in place, check if you wired everything correctly, if the led doesn’t light up, flip it since it has polarity.
-Switch: depending where you want to have ur switch, simply drill a hole big enough to fit the switch snug, the location is up to you. I chose the factory buttons above the trunk release see pictures I posted earlier.
-Zip tie everything neatly!! You wont regret this, make sure everything is out of harms way (ie, make sure the wires are not against some parts that will heat up and melt your wires).
-Tape up the LED connecting parts, although the website says the thin-led-strips are waterproof, just as a precaution measure, tape everything tight.

Enjoy and best of luck.

Article by: ursus [\i]