XLT Ambient Lighting

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light1mj

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Just bought a 2017 Expedition XLT, new to me. Nice vehicle, but one thing I notice is the interior lighting is poor. The vehicle has a dark, dark, interior, and at first I thought the materials just soaked up a lot of light. Last night I poked around under the dashboard and there are no lights under there at all. There are very few interior lights throughout the whole vehicle. Do I have a blown fuse and I'm just not seeing the fixtures? Do I need to go aftermarket and put some lights in? I don't want to be in the dark!
 

Black

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Swap your existing bulbs for LEDs and you will have substantially more light.
That is a simple fix. If that is not enough light for you then I would look into aftermarket LED under dash lighting.
Or the crazy expensive OEM kit linked above.
 

Adieu

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You need about 20 bucks of LEDs to get obnoxious bright interior lights... same bulbs can also be used for license plate lighting, just look up the size (I forget) and get the set from JDM Astar on amazon or ebay, $10-12ish covers front and midrow and rear plates. Then add a "festoon" type in the right size for the rear cargo area.

Strangely, for some reason some of em have a super faint glow even when turned "off" IN SOME TRUCKS BUT NOT OTHERS though, but not enough to drain your battery out, at least not in a few days



Oh and to complete the look, might want to get puddle light LEDs, those are ~$20

2019-01-10 04.10.05.jpg
 
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Dorzak

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My 2016 XLT has ambient lighting controlled from the the Sync 3 including color and brightness. Could the brightness be turned all the way down?
 

coolzzy

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If you have the big sync touch screen, you should also have ambient lighting but maybe it's turned off. It's accessible through the touch interface and you can change color of the lights. Brightness is controlled by the panel dimmer rocker to the left of the steering column. Mine got turned off once and it was darker than dark inside the top uck at night with black carpet, leather, and headliner. Ambient light makes a big difference.
 
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light1mj

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The brightness was turned all the way up with the switch to the left of the steering column, but that one seems to only dim the instrument and dash lights. It does turn on and off the dome and map lights. I installed a set of the Yorkim LED lights found on Amazon and eBay and it's a night and day difference, no pun intended. $21 later, now I can see. I only put in dome, map and reading lights to start with. I'll probably do the license plate lights next. The puddle lights on the side mirrors are also on my list.
One thing I've noticed, I don't think there are any stock under dash lights in the vehicle, which is disappointing. I can't imagine spending $48K+ for a vehicle that lacks courtesy lights in the foot wells. Not sure if I'll buy one of those $200 kits or not.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

Adieu

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The brightness was turned all the way up with the switch to the left of the steering column, but that one seems to only dim the instrument and dash lights. It does turn on and off the dome and map lights. I installed a set of the Yorkim LED lights found on Amazon and eBay and it's a night and day difference, no pun intended. $21 later, now I can see. I only put in dome, map and reading lights to start with. I'll probably do the license plate lights next. The puddle lights on the side mirrors are also on my list.
One thing I've noticed, I don't think there are any stock under dash lights in the vehicle, which is disappointing. I can't imagine spending $48K+ for a vehicle that lacks courtesy lights in the foot wells. Not sure if I'll buy one of those $200 kits or not.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

You could glue some LED strips, <$10 for single color, $30ish with controller....though I'm not sure where to splice the power so as to have it run when the vehicle is on and/or when the doors are open... problem with the obvious-seeming lighter socket is that Fords run them always-hot, so it'd never turn off

Suppose you could splice it off your map lights, although that'd require a fair bit of disassembly and wiring... or maybe off the interior lights control dial?
 

Dorzak

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The brightness was turned all the way up with the switch to the left of the steering column, but that one seems to only dim the instrument and dash lights. It does turn on and off the dome and map lights. I installed a set of the Yorkim LED lights found on Amazon and eBay and it's a night and day difference, no pun intended. $21 later, now I can see. I only put in dome, map and reading lights to start with. I'll probably do the license plate lights next. The puddle lights on the side mirrors are also on my list.
One thing I've noticed, I don't think there are any stock under dash lights in the vehicle, which is disappointing. I can't imagine spending $48K+ for a vehicle that lacks courtesy lights in the foot wells. Not sure if I'll buy one of those $200 kits or not.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Ambient lighting is controlled from Sync 3 and separate from the control on the dash. Screen brightness on Sync 3 if you have option package 202A on the XLT
 
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