Interior Car Lights: The Ultimate Guide to Maximizing Ambience

Interior car lights are the ideal upgrade for taking your driving experience to the next level. Your car's interior can significantly impact the mood and comfort of both your day and night drives. At Ambient Car Vibes, we are encouraging and enabling our community to pay attention to the details, as they can make a big difference when it comes to customizing your vehicle.

In this guide, we will explore the importance of interior car lights and provide valuable insights into maximizing the ambience they create. Additionally, we will delve into different types of lighting, the benefits of upgrading them, factors to consider when choosing lights, installation tips, and maintenance practices. By the end of this guide, you'll have all the information you need to transform your car's interior lighting and enjoy a truly immersive driving experience.

The Importance of Interior Car Lights

Interior car lights serve multiple purposes beyond simply illuminating the car's interior. They contribute to the overall aesthetics and give you more than enough options for unique customization, allowing you to create your own colour scheme and lighting style. Your lighting doesn't have to be overbearing either, you can create a calm and inviting atmosphere, giving your car a modern feel.

Additionally, they provide essential illumination for reading, locating objects, and visibility during night drives, preventing you from having to toggle the ceiling light on and off while at the wheel, which is a plus for safety.

In terms of functionality, we prefer remote-controlled interior lights for our range with multi-colour options. At Ambient Car Vibes, we intentionally avoided providing app-controlled lighting. The main reason is to eliminate the need for drivers to use their phones to adjust their car lights while driving, to ensure safety and prevent any issues with law enforcement. Furthermore, we decided to steer clear of any potential technical complications, related to app functionality. Not to mention the abundance of apps already occupying storage space on our phones, we aimed to avoid further clutter.

For interior lighting options that lack multi-colour modes and do not require remote-control, they are designed to be operated solely through a power connector, either a 12V or USB connection. Alternatively, certain options can be directly wired into the car's electrical system, enabling them to function automatically without manual control.

Understanding the importance of your car's interior lighting will help you appreciate its impact on your driving experience.

Types of Interior Car Lights

There is a wide range of options when it comes to lighting up your car's interior. You can add lighting to your ceiling, footwell area, dashboards, central console, doors and even seating area. We will discuss the unique features, benefits, and applications of each type, allowing you to make an informed decision when selecting the right lights for your car.

Starlights are ideal for adding a dreamy feel to your ceiling. Children and adults love them and they add a modern touch, as cars like the infamous Rolls Royce come with them pre-installed. We provide 2 types of starlights. One is the USB version, which is ideal for those who want the starry effect but prefer to avoid the installation process. The second option is our ambient starlights, which require installing into your interior headliner, but are worth the effort as they provide an authentic effect and feel.

An alternative option for the ceiling is the ambient starlight, which is more of a disco light, as the light emits from a light capsule with 2 disco balls. With a variety of colours and modes at its disposal, the disco balls rotate, enabling the lights to spin and blend your preferred colours, giving a vibrant glow throughout your car from an overhead perspective. The rotating lights allow the beams to reach every corner of your car's interior, making it a brighter and more vibrant choice.

Footwell lights are extremely popular and allow you to light up the footwell areas of the driver and all passengers. Our footwell lights, for example, are very easy to install and come with either USB or 12V power connectors, Lighting up your footwells can transform your car's ambience, as the light emanates from the floor area. Your choice of colour can give your car a drastically different feel, and multiple modes can add some excitement to your interior atmosphere.

Lighting up your dashboard, central console and doors is easy with LED strip lights. Simply run them through the crevices from your central console, up through the dashboard, as they take minutes to install and perfectly complement footwell lights. LED strips are popular for good reason, as they add a modern feel to the front of your vehicle's interior.

Car door handle lights are another great addition to your interior. They are positioned discreetly behind the door handle, emitting a gentle glow in your chosen colour. As they wire into the electrical system behind your door panel, they remain illuminated while your car is running and automatically turn off once your car is switched off. While more understated compared to other lighting options, they are effective and won't go unnoticed.

Positioned discreetly behind the door handle, these lights emit a gentle glow in your preferred colour, creating a captivating ambiance. By connecting to the electrical system behind your door panel, they remain illuminated when your car is running and conveniently turn off when your car is switched off. While more understated compared to other lighting options, they are undeniably impactful and guarantee attention.

Benefits of Upgrading Your Car's Interior 

Adding interior lighting can bring a plethora of benefits that go beyond just aesthetics. Let's delve into the advantages of replacing your stock lights with high-quality, customized options and explore how such an upgrade can enhance various aspects of your driving experience.

First and foremost, LED lights are to way to go as they consume considerably less power compared to traditional incandescent lights, which means you can enjoy prolonged usage without draining your car's battery. This energy efficiency not only reduces your environmental footprint but also saves you from worrying about the additional energy being used by your battery.

LED lights are known for their durable construction, making them highly resistant to vibrations, shocks, and even extreme temperatures. This durability makes them ideal for daily use and assures the user they will maintain their functionality.

The LED lights will also boost the brightness within your vehicle and are much more vibrant compared to conventional lighting options.

As well as brightness and vibrance, LED lights also emphasize the colour temperature. Giving you a much fuller depth of colour, allowing you to create a more distinct ambience. Your choice of colour will have a profound effect on the feel within your car, while colours like daylight white while giving a fresh and energized feel, while blue is known to increase alertness and elevate mood.

The numerous benefits of LED interior car lights that have been outlined, will give you a deeper understanding of how your choice of lights can completely transform your driving experience. You will be able to increase the overall enjoyment of being in your vehicle from both the driver's and passenger's perspectives.

Proper installation is essential to preserve the longevity and functionality of your lights. Lighting options that use 12V or USB for power are generally easy to install and shouldn't give you any issues. However, kits that wire into your car's electrical system can stop operating if incorrectly installed. After effects of an incorrect installation can raise several issues, including your lights not turning on at all, turning on but not functioning properly or even not turning off when you have switched off your car. It can even affect other electrical functions in your car.

So depending on the technicality of the installation, it may be recommended you get a professional to install your new lighting. When installing yourself, step-by-step instructions should be followed accurately for the best outcomes.

Maximize the lifespan and performance of your lights with general maintenance. Depending on your type of lighting, your kit may need repositioning or cleaning to keep them in pristine condition. Wiping your light bars with a damp cloth is key to keeping their brightness from being dimmed by dust. Double-checking to make sure no wiring is exposed will prevent damage or connectivity issues.