Puddle lights installation

5/22/2010

LED puddle lights

Gen 3 SHO

Parts required:

2x 2ft LED strips, any color, Oznium.com

2x 1ft LED strips, any color, Oznium.com

4x ½” rubber grommets

wire, I suggest 22awg stranded speaker wire

wiring connectors

tools needed:

right angle drill (possible to do without)

basic wiring tools

soldering tools

screw drivers

Remove all 4 interior door trim panels

remove the woofers (speaker) from the front doors

peel back some of the plastic water shield from the rear doors for access to the stock wiring

Mount the LED strips

The 2 ft strips go on the front doors, the 1ft strips on the rear doors.

Clean the bottom of the door with alcohol. The LED strips have attached adhesive strips which hold very well even through water, but the surface must be clean. Mount the strips on the inside of the weather stripping on the bottom of the door. Center it on the horizontal section of the door.

There are three obvious ways to get the wires to the inside of the door.

route the wire up along the inside of the door and under the interior door panel. The wires will reach and they will be fairly subtle, but they will be visible and it will not look professional.

Cut the connector off of the LED strips and route the wires through the rectangular water drain at the lower inner corner of the door. The wire will still be visible, and the connector would have to be reinstalled or left out.

Drill a hole in the bottom of the door to get the wires in.

I went for option 3 because it was the cleanest. If so drill a 1/2” hole in the bottom of the door at the end of the strip where the wires are. There isn't anything on the inside of the door but verify this before drilling! Take a 1/2” rubber grommet, coat the outer edge of it with silicone and insert it into the hole. The silicone will seal the bare metal to prevent it from rusting, the grommet itself will prevent the wires from being damaged by the sharp edges. The 1/2” size allows the supplied connector to fit. If you remove the connector the hole could be smaller, but I left it in just in case I ever have to remove the doors or disconnect one strip for any reason. Once the wires were through I filled the remainder of the hole with silicone. I'll leave the water drains to the stock location.

the strips are completely hidden by the doors. they can't be seen unless you are looking from below the door.

Route the wires into each door through the stock wire passageway. It is possible to use a single conductor wire and get ground from inside the door, but I figured it would be just as easy to do with a 2 conductor wire, and easier to troubleshoot later if anything goes wrong.

Driver's front door

this one is the trickiest. Remove the plastic cap from the top of the connector block in the door jamb area. Using a 10mm socket unscrew the connector and disconnect. Cut the plastic tie that holds the rubber wire duct onto the lower part of the connector and pull the rubber part off the connector. In the door jamp locate to copper colored hex head screws, one just above and one just below the plastic connector block. Loosen them so the block can be moved slightly. Fish the wire from the inside of the car through the rubbere duct. The wire must bypass the stock connector, but pull the rubber duct up around the connector as it was but with the wire sticking out. Looking carefully under the plastic connector block you will see some passageways below it that the wire will fit through, fish the wire through one of those holes and pull it out through the speaker opening. Make adjustments to get rid everything the correct length then replace the plastic tie with a wire tie (preferably a black one. It will have to be a long tie to fit around) this will hold the rubber duct in place. Tighten up the plastic connector block screws to secure it back in place and reinstall the connector. Carefully pull the slack out of the new wire from inside the door so it fits perfectly. Once this is done the new wire will be invisible. Replace the cap on top of the connector block. Seeing pictures should make this more clear.

There are details about this method of getting wires into the driver's door on my writeup about my audio system install.
I will have to see if I can find them

Passenger's front door

This is the easiest. There isn't anything in the way of the rubber duct for the stock wires, just fish the new wires through and attach to the LED strip wires by solder or butt splices. Be sure to tie the wire away from all moving parts inside the door!

Rear doors

These were more difficult than I had thought. But both can be done the same way. You must remove the B-Pillar interior trim panel. This is a pain. The seatbelt runs through it but fortunately its not nessesary to remove it completely, just get it out of the way so you can get to the wiring. Remove the rubber duct from the door side and the car side. On the car side you will find that there is a connector for the factory wires which clips into place. Press on the tabs to release it. Remove the rubber duct from the connector. Fish the wire through the rubber duct. Now the wire must be passed through the connector. If you look at the end of the connector you will see two channels. They do not go through because they are blocked at the far end. These channels are large enough to fit a 2 conductor 22awg wire. Drill a hole large enough for the wires to pass and fish the wire through the channel in the connector and through the hole. Reinstall the rubber grommet on each side and carefully route the wire through the stock hole and clip the factory connector back in place. Don't forget to reconnect the factory harness! Route the wire forward under the trim panel and up to the floor light area on the side of the door

Connect the wiring

splice the wiring into the floor light wiring. Be careful of polarity. Nothing will happen if they are hooked up wrong, but the LED strips won't work. Test them to make sure they work before putting everything back together! If they don't, locate the loose connection and fix it.

Mike
97 ES
10 TBM

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