# Door Light Mod DIY



## vr6ninja (Mar 20, 2007)

I am not responsible for any damages created on your car, etc., etc.
OK so now for the fun stuff...
This mod is to add lighting under the door handles when you unlock your car, it's quite nice to know where the handle is at night actually.
So what you might need:
Items for Mod:
-18 Gauge Wire (2 wires in one is more convenient, I used white speaker wire)
-5mm LEDs color of your choice I went with White as to keep the stock look
-5mm LED 1/4" retaining clips
-Resistors (I used 1k Ohm resistors)
-Wire Splices (Easier to do and can be removed as well)
-Tap in Plug Splices (Not sure of there official name, pictured in instructions)
Suggested Tools:
-Small, Medium, and Large Flat Head Screw Drivers
-Wire Strippers
-Wire *****
-Drill and 1/4" Drill bit
-Towels
-Soldering Iron and Solder
-Coat Hanger (the bendable type from a dry cleaners, for making a hook and routing wires)
So first off is getting the door panel removed, There are two screws on either side of the top of the door panel (Marked with Red Arrows). The Window Switch is held in by a clip which can be released with a small screw driver through a small hole on the underside (Marked with a Blue Arrow). After that you simply pull up on the whole door panel and unplug the wires from behind, The window wire is just held in by a piece of foam that comes off. There is also the cable for the door latch, the white plastic piece will unclip and then it's just a hook in the hole of the interior handle.








So it's time to remove the protective cover on a rear door in order to get to the door handle. First thing would be to unclip the side that is facing away from the car when the door is open. This requires pushing the clips with a flat head screw driver or using needle nose pliers what ever works best.








After those clips have become loose the piece will come off with some moving of the clips that go around the square shaped bars.








Now that you have access to the door handle, remove the rod that connects the door handle to the clip by rotating the white plastic piece off of the rod, as pictured, and then pulling the rod off.








The next part is removing the door handle from the door. I suggest placing a large towel below the door as to avoid the mistake I made, the handle fell off at one point and left 2 small chips along the bottom.







The metal piece slides in the direction of the arrow, the best way I've found to move it is to use a large flat head screw driver against one of those two metal pieces that stick out in the middle.








After the clip has been moved then the plastic piece in the door has to be taken off of the handle before the handle is free from the door. Now it's time to get to some serious business, the cutting/drilling. I found it best to put the door handle back together with the backing piece while drilling the hole for the LED. I also remembered to put a microfiber cloth down before working on the door handle as to prevent damage to the paint.








Make sure the clip is in the attached position when drilling the hole 1/4" and it should looks something like this when your done.








Unfortunately I don't have a picture but at this point I placed a LED retaining clip between the moving part of the door handle and the non moving part that is on the outside of the door. This way when you put the LED in it is almost flush with the hole in the pocket for your hand, leaving basically no feeling of anything in the handle.
By now you have successfully prepped a handle congratulations now it's time to put it back in the door. And time to solder an LED to a resistor and wire. I used a 1k ohm Resistor and I made sure to keep the striped end of my wire soldered to the negative side of the LED. You also may want to sand the LED in order to diffuse the light a little better to help prevent the pattern created in my door handles.
Don't forget to cover it up with electrical tape, when doing a similar mod in a friends car I dropped the unprotected LED on a chrome door handle and blew a fuse.








After prepping the LED it's time to put the led into the retaining clip of the handle and run the wire as shown.








It's the wire below the Blue and Red Harnesses, there is a convenient hole provided to route the wire through the rubber hose between the car and door. Yes I am a little OCD on my wire organization, I hate wires.
















One door down 3 more to go. The driver's door is the hardest, theres is a metal piece you have to work around and there is also a plastic shroud that wraps over the door handle and latch assembly that has to be removed.








There are three clips two visible in this photo, the other one is on the top just peaking out from behind the metal part of the door, for this portion of the shroud.








On the other side there is one more clip holding the part that covers the door handle, I just used a flat head screw driver to push it away from the handle and pulled down on it to remove this one.








You also may need to remove the plastic piece next to the metal piece for better access, I did but it was a pain in the neck getting the clips removed, they are philips head screws but aren't the easiest to unscrew, as you can tell in the picture I put them in backwards for easier access when I reassembled the door.








So now you've run LEDs through all 4 doors, routed the wires through each door boot and managed to run the passenger side wires behind the HVAC system with a coat hanger. (It took me 30 minutes to get mine routed a friend and I were fishing that coat hanger wire back there for quite a while and finally got it through to the other side. The best location I've found for connecting these wires is behind the driver's side kick plate.








I used those blue splicing connectors to connect them all together until i was down to one wire to connect. (Would recommend soldering the wires instead, see update for more info.) I then tapped two of those connectors that can be plugged in and unplugged just in case I need to unplug it for some reason. The negative side is the brown wire with a white stripe and the positive is the Red with an Orange striped wire, these both were from the grey connector in the middle on the bottom of the batch of harnesses.








And after it's all done this is what you get when you unlock your car, it fades with the dome lights when it turns off as well.








This is my first DIY with no instructions so if there are any improvements, or I missed something please let me know and I'll edit the directions. Enjoy.



*Update:* A while back both of the driver side ones went out, this last weekend I repaired it. The blue connectors aren't the friendliest with the wires I had and one of them became loose after driving for a few months. 
The other problem was I had bent wires on the LED too much on the drivers door and after the vibration of driving the wire broke off the LED.
So my two tips are: A) Solder the wires together instead of using the blue splicing connectors. and B) Don't bend the wires on the LED more then once as to prevent them from falling off. 


_Modified by vr6ninja at 12:26 PM 3/3/2008_


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## roshlioBG (Nov 5, 2004)

nice job!!!


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## diive4sho (Feb 7, 2004)

*Re: (roshlioBG)*

sweet DIY....I like all of the pics


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## vr6ninja (Mar 20, 2007)

*Re: (diive4sho)*

Thanks, I wanted to do this the day I bought the car, the idea came from the BMWs at work and my friend's dad's car (Acura RL) which both had lit door handles when you unlock the car.


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