[Chazzy J]

Great project! I imagine it be won’t be cheap to do though. How are you doing research/finding part numbers? Do you have access to SIS or service express, or are you trudging through the parts websites? I hate looking under the hood and not having A service manual to look at to figure out what an unfamiliar item is!

That is the one thing I love about Honda/Acura - Parts are normally reasonable. I think to order all the lights and donatation harnesses, it was $200 or so? Reasonable in my mind.

I use AcuraPartsWarehouse.com because of diagrams. So it made it fairly easy to identify the necessary lighting pieces and harnesses with male-connectors for donators. The lighting system is setup as a “series” electrical connection as opposed to “parallel” connections. So that was a little surprising to me, so it wasn’t as simple as just changing out harnesses because of that - that’s a whole other conversation and comes with it’s own set of complications without electrical diagrams. The fact that some lights could be red while other lights could be white (or any other combination you roll with), meant I had to pick where I wanted to splice into the harness.

I dont have the electrical diagrams, so I’m trying to just splice into the correct lines where possible and ensure the lights light up. I’ll set everything up ”parallel“ for now. The only lights I wonder if I’d be better off running a series will be the dash lighting and the center console lighting. I’ll try it parallel first because that’s just easier, but if the lighting dims for whatever reason (because those are bigger LEDs and may draw more power than what the amp provides for parallel connection), I’ll have to go back and set it up for a series connection to allow for better power flow. My gut tells me parallel connections will be just fine - LEDs don’t draw that much power…

 

[Chazzy J]

theres blank spot to install them? i mean a spec trim night not have blank spot to install/screw them in place.

Yeah, if you stick your hand under the rim of your center console, you’ll feel the indentation - and then once you look, you‘ll see where the lights go. Same with the door pockets, you’ll see with the lights go and the clips are on the backside of the door panel. I haven’t actually had the trim off on the dash yet to verify fitment, but I can see where it fits in - shouldn’t be a problem.

I’ll try to take a lot of pics once I have the harnesses made and start taking it apart.

 

[Chazzy J]

cool thanks i might just order all the light needed and splice them in parallel

This photo should help you get started - shows the part numbers. Note the quantities order of each part.

 

[Chazzy J]

Kudos to you for having the patience to figure out what you need and experiment! I’m an electrical engineer and car electrical always has gone against normal practices you’d use elsewhere. Like switching neutral side of circuits etc. Auto manufacturers design to save wiring/money. I’m sure the series circuit for LEDs falls into that category somehow. when you make millions of the same car and have mostly specially trained technicians to fix, they can afford to design things that aren’t easily traceable by the layman (especially when they don’t let you have access to manuals and schematics). But this will be a challenging, fun project for you! And yes, Honda parts are reasonable and every part in the car is well thought out, once you understand what they intended.

oh yes my friend. Definitely gotta take your time with something like this and put it together slowly - makes it more fun!!

 

[Chazzy J]

ok i can see u got both on the dash next to the climate control, both on the center console (shifter console) and four for all 4 doors bottle holder, what about the bottom/second light on all four door panel (the one underneat the handle trim)?

you mean the one I have circled in blue? That one comes stock on US models. Is it not on Canadian models?

 

[Chazzy J]

updating this post with more accurate information about the lower lights found in post 14 above:

Aluminum Trim to Replace Type S Black Wood

Like I‘ve said in the past, I’m a big fan of the sporty geometric aluminum trim Acura uses in the A-Spec and Type S base. I’m not a huge fan of wood in my cars; however, the black wood in the Type S advance is very nice. If I HAD to choose wood, that’s exactly what I would’ve chosen. I went out...

www.mdxers.org

 

[Chazzy J]

true... its part of the wood finish trim.. but i really miss the center dash ambient lightning from my odyssey... should have come stock..

Don’t you worry, I’ll get it working with a write up. Only thing about the dash lighting is I’m going to be tapping the floor lights harness. So they won’t take the top color, they’ll take the floor color.

Two reasons, take the Autodromo color for example, red on top, white on bottom. I feel like it’s going to be a weird “cut over” from the dash to the door panel if the dash is red, and then it cuts over to the door garnish and the red jumps up to the top of the door. I just feel like that’s going to have a funny look. So basically the only red on the interior would be the top of the door panels, everything else would be white as the secondary color.

And then second reason is I don’t really feel Like fishing a 10ft wiring harness through both door boots, but if it needs to be done, it needs to be done

 

[Chazzy J]

did you think about putting usb c in the third row?

I’ve got no one that sits back there, but easy enough to run a 10ft cable off the second USB A in the second row if someone is back there and needs it.

Random find though. I’ve seen MDX reviews claim that the 3rd row passengers get no vents in the 3rd row and therefore might be hot/cold. I did find a vent that runs under both 2nd row seats, so the 3rd row does get air flow back there lol.

 

[Chazzy J]

Door harnesses with donor male connectors put together and installed:

 

[Chazzy J]

Doors completed with dual color capability:

Sport Mode:

Autodromo; red on top, white on bottom:

 

[Chazzy J]

Working on removing the center console. I was hoping it’d be as easy as just yanking up, but there are screws I’m having trouble locating. The dash came apart very easily though

 

[Chazzy J]

Found the culprits. You have to remove the charging pad to remove those two screws and then the whole unit lifts out.

 

[Chazzy J]

VICTORY!!

 

[Chazzy J]

More info on the dash and center console lights please, part #? Did you just connect to the existing door light? TIA!

I spliced into the footwell harnesses. Left footwell and lights on the left, right footwell for lights on the right.

here’s the part numbers for everything:

 

[Chazzy J]

View attachment 121770
View attachment 121769
thanks to chazzy for the help! done to a red interior aspec to a aspec advance. done a few weeks ago didnt have the time to post.

Heck yeah brother!! Well done!

 

[Chazzy J]

Registered just to commend you on this effort. Looks absolutely awesome. I am no handyman but will try it on my own A-Spec.

Well thank you sir. Definitely not for the faint of heart. It takes some time and patience, but 100% doable. @eLaRGie can share some tips and tricks he learned along the way if you get stuck. Cheers!

 

[Chazzy J]

IMO Chazzy has an OCD (i am too) he tapped the left LED to left footwell and right LED to the right footwell (which is good) 😅. but i build one harness that connect all center console led to the right footwell and works aswell and easier.

Lmao. Guilty.

As I was pioneering this, I wasn’t sure what kind of power draw would be too much, so I tapped as @eLaRGie described above - left for left, right for right. I connected the dash and console harnesses together when I made the harness, so it’s just a single tap into each footwell for me and that powers both lights on their respective side.

@eLaRGie tapped a single footwell and all his lights power up just fine. No concern with power draw. The passenger side footwell is much more accessible than the drivers side - so that’s a good thing.

And again, as @eLaRGie mentioned, special note for the passenger side dash light - it has two connectors. So make sure you have 5 donor connectors for those 4 lights you’re installed. Good luck mate.

 

[Chazzy J]

of course you have to make longer wiring yourself, wiring that you buying is only for the connectors

@G3VSF
yeah, you’ll need to buy a set of 20gauge wiring and build the wiring harnesses yourself. It’s definitely a little bit of work, but again, totally doable.

 

[Chazzy J]

Fantastic job. I admire people with such technical/electrical/mechanical proficiency and guts!. My only question is this: what happens to the warranty on your vehicle? Wouldn't Acura blame every little hiccup you encounter on this rather extensive rewiring of your vehicle?

Thank you! It was quite the project.

It’s definitely a risk one takes when doing something like this. I’m pretty familiar with automotive electric and stuff, so I’m comfortable there won’t be any other issues.

but yes, it is rather easy to remove if needed and wrap up the wiring harnesses. But honestly, my dealership knows me at this point, they know my ride and the wife’s ride and I trust them to take care of me if anything weird ever happened.