7 Best Multicolor Car LED Strips of 2023

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Add some flexible custom LEDs to your vehicle to enhance visibility, or just to add some style.

The advent of affordable LED strips has opened up all kinds of easy-to-install, customizable lighting options, including interior and exterior lights for cars. Color options are practically limitless, and some car lighting kits even have remote controls.

Whether you want to add dramatic lighting behind your car's grille, increase visibility on your bike, or add interior ambiance beneath your front console, you can likely achieve the look you’re going for without breaking the bank (or getting too frustrated with installation). Read on to learn more about LED lighting strips, and see our product recommendations.

For more automotive technology, check out our pieces on remote car starters, portable jump boxes, and MagSafe car mounts.

There are two main categories for automotive LED strips: interior and exterior. It's important to understand the difference because exterior lighting has additional weather sealing that interior strips typically lack.

Most lighting options—both interior and exterior—attach to your car with a semi-permanent adhesive along the backside of the strip. Make sure you thoroughly clean and dry the surface of your car before adhering the light strips, otherwise they may not stick or could fall off prematurely.

Some of our picks have screws and mounts for permanent installation, but adhesives are easier to install and can work well even on exterior lights. LED light strips come in a specific length, so you may want to look for a short or long option depending on where it will be installed.

Entry-level, inexpensive LEDs have fixed brightness and color, while more expensive, higher-end light strips often include options for adjustment with an infrared remote or a dedicated smartphone app. Those with adjustable colors are labeled as RGB light strips, while more complex lights that can display multiple colors at once are labeled RGBIC.

Most LED strips need to pull power from your car's 12-volt system using either an interior plug or a hard wire (for exterior applications). That means you should make sure to turn off power to your lights when the car is off, just like you would with the factory lights, so you don't accidentally run your battery low.

With any type of custom lighting, make absolutely sure you don't stick it in a place that will block the driver's visibility or interfere with any mechanism of the vehicle. Avoid installing anything directly around the steering wheel, gauge cluster, pedal box, or gear shifter.

We recommend these car light strips based on personal experience with our own vehicles, plus some review input from our colleagues at Car and Driver. We also took customer reviews into account to make sure you get what you’re expecting, and aimed for a wide variety of features and price points to suit your needs.

This Aura interior kit is made for simple installation using a simple 12-volt plug. It includes four one-foot strips, (six-piece kits are available), along with double-rowed strips for brighter lighting. The LEDs have adhesive backing, and the kit also includes mounting screws and zip ties for more permanent installation.

With the compatible remote, you can select from 16 color options and some pulsing effects, but these lights really shine when you turn on the radio. With the integrated microphone, you can configure the lights to pulse in time with the music you’re playing.

This four-piece set of underglow strips uses aluminum housing to provide rigidity, giving it a professional look and helping it last longer. The two LED strips intended for the front and rear of the vehicle are three feet long, while the two along the sides are four feet each.

You can hard wire this unit or plug it into an interior outlet—both methods use the built-in fuses on the lights. The colors are fully adjustable with an included infrared remote, and the app controls are easy to use, too.

This affordable interior kit comes with four relatively short and thin LED strips, each one just under eight inches—perfect for adding a luxe vibe to your car's seating. All four are chained together with a 12-volt plug to provide power.

You can adjust the colors with the dedicated smartphone app, whether you want to use the color presets or fine-tune across the entire RGB spectrum. For a slightly more expensive price, an RGBIC version is also available, which lets you use multicolor effects.

These compact, weatherproof strips can be mounted externally on cars, bikes, and boats by hard-wiring them into the 12-volt electrical system on your vehicle.

This pack comes with four small, 12.6-inch strips, and each one must be wired individually—perhaps a hassle at first, but it leads to a streamlined look after installation.

Multiple color options are available, ranging from pure white to green, blue, red, and yellow—however, these colors are not adjustable, so you’re going to have to commit to whichever one you select.

This underglow kit comes with four flexible LED strips that must be hard wired to the battery. They are RGBIC capable, meaning that the color is fully customizable and there are multicolored pulsing effects.

You can adjust the settings on these lights using the smartphone app, which also lets you sync the lights with the music you’re playing on your phone. The whole assembly is waterproof to ensure driving through puddles won't cause any problems.

These LEDs are made to be mounted directly behind the grille of the vehicle, so they have silicone shielding to protect them from both weather and engine heat. (Pro tip: It's important to stick the strips away from any fans or radiators that could interfere with vehicle operation.)

The strips come in bundles of either 12 or 24 inches, which is relatively small. You can control these using an app, with options for full color adjustments, and SoundSync keeps your lights pulsing along to your favorite music. Best of all, these come with a one-year warranty.

This 60-inch specialized LED unit is made specifically for pickup trucks, and provides some utility in addition to the custom look. When wired properly, the LEDs mirror the output from your truck's turn signals, brake lights, and reverse lights. This may require some electrical hardware specific to your vehicle, so read the details carefully before you install.

The LEDs are encased in a rigid, weatherproof aluminum frame to let them maintain an exact shape. They stick to the bodywork using adhesive, plus some reinforcement clips that provide a sturdy installation with no drilling required. This LED strip comes with a two-year warranty, too.

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