Pimp Your Ride: How to Install LED Rope Lights On Your Car

If you’re in the market for some new upgrades for your ride like in Need For Speed, take a look at LED rope lights. LED light strips are great options that are affordable and easy to install. Are you wondering how to install LED light strips in your car though? If so, don’t worry. We’ll break down how you can pimp your ride in no time.

What Are They?

LED light strips are strips of LEDs. Some of them have adhesive backs. Others need items like zip ties to hold them in place. You can apply them onto various surfaces and turn them on to illuminate your surrounding. LED light strips are programmable. That means you can set the colors to whatever you want. You can even make them blink or flourish. The LED nature of these lights makes them perfect candidates for customization.

The best thing about LED light strips is the fact that they don’t cost much to buy. You can buy big rolls of them in bulk and apply them to whatever you want. All you need is a power source and some proper planning.

Where Should They Go?

When we’re talking about cars, the sky’s the limit. You can apply it anywhere that you’d like. Here are some ideas:

• Inside the door frame
• Rear window
• Trunk lighting
• Under the chassis
• Roof of the car

For most purposes, people like to place them on the bottom border of their vehicle. This gives a nice lighting effect to your vehicle. It looks even better when your car is in motion.

In this article, we’ll break down how to install these LED light strips onto the bottom of your vehicle.

Supplies You’ll Need

To install the LED light strips to your vehicle, what are some of the tools you’ll need?

Make sure you have your cross driver, some wire cutters, a hanger, and a wrench. You might also need a soldering station, depending on the LED strip you get. If you have alternatives that also work, that would be fine.

Also, you’re going to need your supplies. You will need your LED strips, electrical wire, electrical tape, and wire connectors. You can get an on and off switch if you’d like. You could also use zip ties or 3M double sided tape if you prefer. We recommend zip ties as they’re less likely to come off.

How much of these supplies you buy also depends on how much lights you want to hook up. If you only want to do the two sides of your car, you’ll need less. If you want to do all four sides of your vehicle, you’ll need more.

How To Install LED Light Strips In Your Car

Here, we’ll break down the various steps to installing LED light strips on your vehicle. These are general instructions that can be used or modified to fit any situation you have. Depending on the brand and make of your LED strips, you might have to alter some of these instructions. Let’s get started.

1. Find Mounting Spots

The first step you’ll need to take is check underneath your vehicle. Look for mounting points on your car. If you’re doing all four sides of your car, you’ll want to look in the front, back, and sides of your car. Some cars will have bolts, brackets, or other openings that you can attach the LED strips to.

A good rule of thumb is to use a zip tie for every 12 inches of LED strip at a minimum. You can do a bit more if you want. Zip ties will be a lot more secure than 3M double-sided tape. Even if your LED light strip comes with an adhesive back, you should still use zip ties.

2. Line Up Your Wires To The Module Box

After you’ve secured your LED light strips into place, you have to route your wires. Figure out the best positions to place your wires by mounting them to the various holes you’ve found. You’ll need to zip tie them into place so that they don’t become loose. The wires on these units are usually pretty thin. If they touch the ground, there’s a high chance they’ll shred.

Once you’ve begun mounting them, route the wires up to the engine bay and connect them to your module box. If you don’t have enough wire from the rear bumper, you can use extensions. This can either come as a pre-packaged item or you might have to solder additional wiring.

3. Connect To Battery

Now that all your LED strips and wiring is mounted, you can connect your LED to the battery. The red wire from your module box should make contact with positive. The black wire will make contact with negative. If there are any optional wires on your module box, check with your unit to see its function.

4. Secure The Module Box

Now that everything’s hooked up properly, you’re going to want to secure the module box. You want to place it near the battery, but not too close to anything that gets too hot. This includes the engine or radiator. Heat can damage the module box and make it malfunction. You also can’t let your module box get wet. The battery and fuse box of your car is set to be dry at all times. Keep the module box close to them so that it gets the same treatment.

On the module box, you’ll want to extend the antenna so that you get a better signal. Regardless of whether the hood is opened or closed, you should get a strong signal throughout.

5. Test It Out

Now that everything’s done, test out your LEDs to make sure it’s all working! Test it out and enjoy the fact that you have lights under your vehicle!

Do You Want To Pimp Your Ride?

Now that you know the steps, are you ready to pimp out your ride? People love to live out their Fast & Furious fantasies. Why shouldn’t you? If you’re looking for LED strip lights for your vehicle, we have the best varieties. Check out our direct mounting instructions for more details!