LED Equinox - Terrain LED Interior LED Map, Dome, Footwell Lights

For those who might be interested in replacing their standard bulbs with LED for interior lighting.

NOTE: . . Please read the whole thread. There were two individuals who posted only AFTER they caused their own problems. The light types that I pictured in this thread work fine for over a year now.[/color]

NOTE: Care should be taken when replacing these wedge type bulbs. Be careful with the orientation of the wires making contact in the vehicle sockets and also that you insert them straight and positively into each socket. Test the LED for operation by trying to insert it just partially to see if it lights. If not , you may have to turn it around for the proper polarity and check for it to light again.

I have found that you only need TWO Canbus bulbs for the interior map, dome and footwell lights. Because of the way the interior lights are wired, as long as the BCM "sees" two CANBUS type LED bulbs, the load is sufficient to make all the lights work properly, including the "theater" dim on and off functions. Some may even get by with no Canbus bulbs, but I tried it and the dimming works much better with at least a pair of Canbus wedge type bulbs.

Now, there are different configurations of 194 wedge type LED bulbs. Some have 5, 6, 8, 10 12 and 20 or more LEDs. I recommend the type that use 5 to 10 5050 type LED elements. The less elements the smaller the bulb and less likely to run into size limitations in the lamp housing.

You can shop for many places for these LED bulbs and save money if you only need to buy 2 CANBUS types.

These are several of the regular and 2 of the Canbus LEDs I have used. I
also purchased a few 20 SMD LEDS (Third picture down), but they start
to get pretty large and only fit in some applications.

I had noticed the LED footwell light dispersal still did not seem on par with the the rest of the LEDs I had used to replace the standard halogen lamp bulbs in our 2015 Equinox LTZ.

So, taking a closer look as the footwell light cavity, I noticed that it has a dome shaped inner top I suppose to contain the light output. But this "dome" can also be used as a reflector surface to make use of more of the LED light output.

With that in mind, I had some aluminum self adhesive duct sealing tape and trimmed a piece to install inside the domed interior of the footwell light cavity. This is best done by removing the whole under dash panel for both the driver and passenger side. There are just 2 or 3 screws and a couple push in tabs holding each panel to the firewall under the dash.

Here are a few pictures of the results. Since we have the Light Titanium , really light gray interior, the white light from the LEDS looks much better than the standard halogen bulbs which tend to look dim and too yellow. The footwell lighting in particular is much better.

Below are pictures of the LED I used, the footwell light cavity with reflective aluminum tape applied to it's interior, and a few more.