[is250sp]

Is there a way to increase the ambient lighting? I am referring to the lighting on the wood/cf trims. My 2012 CTS ambient lights were brighter.

 

[geforce912]

As far as i know, the ambient lighting in 2016 is not adjustable: not color and not brightness. There is no mention of adjusting ambient lightning in the manual but i will be curious to know if the cluster dimmer can adjust the brightness. I was told by a sales person that the 2017s have some adjust-ability for the ambient lightning.

 

[Livid]

I don't think my CTS has ambient lighting. I've looked at the wood trim when driving at night and I don't see any light around it. I have the Kona brown interior, if that makes a difference.

 

[geforce912]

I don't think my CTS has ambient lighting. I've looked at the wood trim when driving at night and I don't see any light around it. I have the Kona brown interior, if that makes a difference.

The CTS definitely has ambient lighting. It's white and underneath the wood trim (or whatever trim you have). It's however not very bright or configurable.

 

[orange260z]

I LOVE this feature in my CTS. Very classy.

 

[Crasherhic66]

I agree it's cool looking..when you bend over and look up at it..but it is a little dim and the floor lighting seems to over power it

 

[philly88]

Mine dims with the instrument cluster dimmer dial, but at full the ambient light is very low. Too bad, if it was about 50% brighter it would look nice. From the driver seat I can barely even see the one over the glove box glow.

 

[orange260z]

The lighting along the wood strips is dimmable with the dash dimmer dial, but it seems to ratchet up in steps. I would have preferred it slightly brighter relative to the dash, and particularly the CUE screen which is like a burning torch.

As an aside, IMHO that ambient lighting in the car adds a ton of class and many passengers have been very impressed by the appearance.

 

[philly88]

Speaking of CUE, which I love actually, so much better than others I've used, I don't see a spot where I can dim the brightness at night. Am I missing something here? My old SRX use to have brightness adjustment.

 

[Crasherhic66]

There is a day/night setting in cue but my 2014 CTS cue dims with dash light dimmer switch by parking brake

 

[308slegs]

I love this thread and got me to thinking... The new Mercedes has ambient lighting in blue which I really really like. So did some digging (literally) and found that our ambient lighting is just a 3mm led bulb in a socket attached to the clear plastic rod across the dash and in the doors. So I went to eBay, found 3mm leds (in any color imaginable) and got mine in blue. 10 of them with resistors installed for $4.99. Then I soldered them in place of the boring white ones. I think it looks pretty cool.

 

[philly88]

that looks cool. you should have documented with video or photos what you did to retrofit. what do you have to take apart to accomplish this? And once you do take things apart, you just swapped the bulbs? nothing else needed?

 

[308slegs]

You are right Philly! Sorry about that. I'm better at tactical than strategic (lol). Here's a basic run down for the door panels.. The dashboard is basically the same soldering process, but in order to get to those LED sockets (2 of them), you have to remove the gauge pod and the center stack. For those processes, I went to youtube. Plenty of how to's for both of those processes. Anyway, here are some photos of the driver's door process:

Step 1. Remove door panel

Step 2. Locate and remove black LED socket

Step 3. unpack the new 3mm LED bulbs from ebay

Step 4. Open LED socket and remove white LED, then solder in new LED

Step 5. reinstall the LED harness and secure with tape of your choice (white duct tape in my case)

Step 6. Project is completed and ready to go back into the car!

 

[philly88]

Thanks, seems like a fairly easy install once you get the door panel off. I was sitting in my car last night at a red light lamenting how dim the ambient lighting is which is a shame. The brightness of street lights pretty much cancels out any stock ambient lighting, only in dark side roads can you see it good, even at that it's so dim.

 

[dbphelps]

Actually, to do it right would be to figure out the wiring and where the ambient lights get their power from. Make sure you have dimmable lights and then add-in a dimmer where the branch-out power to all the ambient lighting is centrally located. Either that or go through the painstaking process of matching the ambient light brightness to the rest of the interior lighting so that you can use the main dimmer on all of it, but that is more than likely a fools errand since everyone has different tastes.

But a separate dimmer on the ambient lighting power feed would be the way to do it. Especially if you used a remote system that allowed you to hide everything. I know on my Lincolns the ambient lighting has a separate controller all together that adjusts the brightness as well as the color.

 

[philly88]

Huh, seems like more effort than I'd be willing to go through, @308slegs approach seems legit to me as long as the bulbs work with existing, which it would seem they do. The ambient lighting dimmer is not independent on the CTS, it's the same dimmer dial as the overall interior lighting. So I get your point, but if the aftermarket LED's are dimmable, then it is what it is, and would function like the stock ambient lighting. Which is about all I'd expect in this type of mod. I do want to ask @308slegs do you find the new bulbs to be brighter than the stock? If not, I wouldn't bother doing this mod, it's not so much the colour that I want to change, it's the brightness.

 

[308slegs]

@philly88 they are DEFINITELY brighter than OEM and they are dimmable with the knob as well. I am extremely pleased with install. The wife even complimented the improved effect and she is not a gearhead like me. Lol.

 

[DadyCady]

@philly88 they are DEFINITELY brighter than OEM and they are dimmable with the knob as well. I am extremely pleased with install. The wife even complimented the improved effect and she is not a gearhead like me. Lol.

Hi, The doors look straight-forward. Do you have any images of the dash mods? Are the harnesses easy to get to? Are you saying the gauge cluster (hood and all) needs to be removed in addition to the center stack?

 

[308slegs]

Hi, The doors look straight-forward. Do you have any images of the dash mods? Are the harnesses easy to get to? Are you saying the gauge cluster (hood and all) needs to be removed in addition to the center stack?

Yes, exactly! I don’t have pics of that process, I apologize. The led receptacle is accessible when you remove the gauge cluster (for the short light bar) and the center stack provides access to the light bar over the glove box. It is tedious, but certainly not difficult

 

[cfs]

Yes, exactly! I don’t have pics of that process, I apologize. The led receptacle is accessible when you remove the gauge cluster (for the short light bar) and the center stack provides access to the light bar over the glove box. It is tedious, but certainly not difficult

Is this the procedure for the SRX or another Model? Any information appreciated. I thought by reading the above solution the LED behind the door panel controls the light above the glove box. Thanks in advance.