[ElDiablo1080]

I'm not very good at searching but can anyone help me find the How To guide to installing LED lights to replace your OEM lights in your front and rear dome, glove box (i found it), trunk light, and license plate light. If anyone can find it let me know please thank you

 

[laraw]

I can't remember if there are any tutorials off the top of my head, but...

1. Front Map Lights
The housing that the map lights are in attach to the headliner via two clips. You need to pull this entire housing down to gain access to the map light bulbs. Wrap a thin, flat-head screwdriver in a cloth and insert it between the housing and headliner. It will take some force, but pull it down with the flat-head until you can get your fingers behind it enough to pull it down.

2. Rear Dome Light
With this, you do not need to remove the entire housing... yay! There is a plastic piece that covers the bulb that can be removed easily. On one side of this plastic piece is a little indent. Stick a small flat-head screwdriver inside that piece and pry the plastic off. The bulb will be easy to change from there.

3. Trunk Light
The trunk light... well it is different with the sedan and hatch. I haven't removed my trunk light for my Speed3 yet and I know that my old sedan is different. I'll take a look later today and report back if no one else has any advice before then.

4. License Plate Light
This is fairly easy as well. On the hatchback there are two lights for the license plate. Get under the car so you can see the license plate light housings. The housings are held onto the bumper with plastic clips. Take your flat-head screwdriver and stick it between the clip and bumper and that will release the clip. It may take a little finagling.. but you'll see what I mean when you get under there. Once the clips are released the housing will come off and you can pull it out to remove the bulbs.

Feel free to send me a PM (or reply here) if you have any questions.

 

[ElDiablo1080]

thanks I was going to say if you can get me pictures that would be cool too, i found it on the forums once and I can't find it again, thank you for your assistance though

 

[john_in_the_lbc]

note that you may need to pull out the contacts on the LED bulbs a little bit. sometimes they don't make contact with the socket.

 

[Lander]

Be *very* careful when doing the front map lights...very easy to damage the headliner.

 

[ninjaboy]

so if i wanna get led map and domelights its just pull out the old ones and put in the new one? cause i was looking around and others said you had to do stuff to the map light in order to get it to fit the led or something like that

 

[Six]

pull the housing down, if i remember right the lights just pop out/in. its really simple if you just give it a try

 

[curryp]

Thanks for the instructions! Just installed some blue LEDs. They look awesome!

 

[seanzzila]

Can someone point me to the how-to on changing the glove box light? Thanks.

 

[ElDiablo1080]

When pulling out the glove box you need to take the trim off, depending on your year mines a 2009 Mazdaspeed 3 GT and it's where the Mazdaspeed is in Red on my trim, that whole piece need to be removed. Make sure everything in your glove box is removed as well when you do this. You will need to unscrew the 2 screws above the glove box inside the trim. Then pull out your glove box where you will then see another screw for the light, change it put everything back together and your done

 

[immadorkhead]

i find it easiest to just use a pair of scissors (only one end) and stick it into one end of the map lights in order to pull the housing down. It's really simple and only takes a couple minutes, if that.

 

[ElDiablo1080]

If you take a really thin cloth or like a thin t-shirt and a flathead screwdriver and put it towards the driver side light in the closest corner to you it takes maybe 5 seconds to do

 

[Sir X Loin]

FWIW:

The cargo light in the Hatch is the exact size as the dome. It is sort of tricky to install due to the small opening. I actually dropped a bulb while trying to install it and it fell into no mans land. Take your time...

I just swapped in complete LEDS. WTF is with the glovebox remaining on while the headlights are on??.. That is a horrible design. No wonder the stock 194 burnt out..

 

[Six]

[quote author=Sir X Loin link=topic=139829.msg3356764#msg3356764 date=1254840230]
FWIW:

The cargo light in the Hatch is the exact size as the dome. It is sort of tricky to install due to the small opening. I actually dropped a bulb while trying to install it and it fell into no mans land. Take your time...

I just swapped in complete LEDS. WTF is with the glovebox remaining on while the headlights are on??.. That is a horrible design. No wonder the stock 194 burnt out..
[/quote]
You know you can pull the entire housing out in the hatch right? makes swapping the bulbs a piece of cake

 

[halo0]

[quote author=ElDiablo1080 link=topic=139829.msg3345920#msg3345920 date=1254201579]
When pulling out the glove box you need to take the trim off, depending on your year mines a 2009 Mazdaspeed 3 GT and it's where the Mazdaspeed is in Red on my trim, that whole piece need to be removed. Make sure everything in your glove box is removed as well when you do this. You will need to unscrew the 2 screws above the glove box inside the trim. Then pull out your glove box where you will then see another screw for the light, change it put everything back together and your done
[/quote]

I always leave everything inside my glove box when I remove it...

 

[Sir X Loin]

[quote author=Six link=topic=139829.msg3357198#msg3357198 date=1254854208]
[quote author=Sir X Loin link=topic=139829.msg3356764#msg3356764 date=1254840230]
FWIW:

The cargo light in the Hatch is the exact size as the dome. It is sort of tricky to install due to the small opening. I actually dropped a bulb while trying to install it and it fell into no mans land. Take your time...

I just swapped in complete LEDS. WTF is with the glovebox remaining on while the headlights are on??.. That is a horrible design. No wonder the stock 194 burnt out..
[/quote]
You know you can pull the entire housing out in the hatch right? makes swapping the bulbs a piece of cake
[/quote]

Haha I didnt even try. Ill do that when my replacement LED shows up....