I would like an "experienced" person with electrical wiring to answer my questions please.

I am interested in doing the LED door handle mod and had some questions so I dont run into any short circuits, problems, etc....

From what I have read I will be using the following:
1) 20 Guage Wires (Red + Black)
2) 5mm, 10,000mcd Blue LED's (X4)
3) 560ohm 1/4watt resistors (X4)
4) 10amp fuse Part :270-1093

Some other things i would like to mention is that I have also replaced the filament bulbs on the dome, doors, and map lights to the following:

Dome Light (Blue) - 9 Lumen 7500k
Door Lights (Pair)(Blue) - 12 Lumen 9700K
Map Lights (Pair)(White) - 12 Lumen 9700k

Now is my question, I would like to know what precautions or what i need to do to avoid ANY problems when doing my mods. I will be having my battery disconnected while doing this mod. Appreciate your help.

Note: Can you put your advice in words i can understand, this is going to be my first time messing with the wires in my car. Thanks alot!

 

Can someone elaborate on this for me? Im a bit confused

 

Whats to be confused? Its a fuse that goes between where you tap into and your new LED's that way if something happens that could possibly short something out the fuse protects the rest of the system.

 

From my experience, just be a little careful when tapping into the car's wires (and by this i mean the wires in the driver's side and passenger side fuse areas). I accidentally tapped into the wrong wire in the pillar and then ended up cutting it, whoops. It was a quick fix though. Umm besides that, make sure you are tapping into the correct wires because there are a few that have similar color/pattern combos, so follow the diy very closely, and follow every step. It is a pretty well written diy.

I think i used 18 gauge wires and hyperwhite 50,000mcd leds. I kept the 7.5 fuse and havent had trouble with anything since i've done the diy 2 years ago. I also didn't disconnect the battery while doing the mod, i just pulled the fuse. Hope this helps

 

thanks alot you 2. last thing before i start, how do i run power wires to the rear door? How did you do it SRB? Sorry for noobish questions, i have so much to learn.

 

Pull the inside B pillar panels off, pull the rubber boot off the door and the B pillar and run the wire thru the boot into the door and the body

 

yea that was one of the physically hardest things to do. I used a small hollow pipe and ran in it through the boot, then ran the wires through the pipe. Once i got the wires through, i slid the pipe off. Just remember it's a really tight fit inside the boot, there's not much room between the boot and the existing wires going through it.

And there's a couple existing holes you can choose from when running it through the body, in the B pillar.

 

Ok, maybe i didnt phrase this right, I run the rear door wires thru the boot to under the front trim pieces to where? What i meant to ask is where to the ends of the rear door wires hook up to. Straight to the harness?

Sorry bout the confusion, but good to know how to run the wire thru the boot

 

Yes. Each side goes to each harness, ie drivers rear wires run to the drivers fuse area, passenger rear run to passenger fuse. thats where the power comes from. Then you run additional wires from the harnesses to the harness in the A pillar, which is what causes the lights to come on with the dome light. The front door leds are only hooked up to the courtesy light wires in the door panels. Those (courtesy lights in the door panel) will also turn on with the dome light once you finish the mod.

 

Ok that satisfies the main confusion i had.

Last bit i promise, Now can you fill in or correct me if im wrong

Front Doors:
Led w/ Resistor -> Courtesy Lights -> Same Side Harness -> Run wires to A-pillar and tap in dome light?

Rear Doors:
Led w/Resistor -> Run thru boot -> Under trim to harness -> A-pillar -> Dome Light

Ok so what im asking is this:

Where should i put the fuses/resistors (whatever its called) when doing the wiring (and what kind).. Also correct me if im wrong

I will have 3 taps on the harness on each side of the fuse box (2 Leds +wire to a-pillar) and another 2 taps (Each harness to Domelight)

 

Almost. The front door leds ONLY go to the courtesy light wires. They don't go to any harness. I think i was slightly incorrect in where the power comes from in my previous post, which doesnt matter, just trust the diy lol.

If you are curious - the courtesy lights in the door only come on when the door is opened. The wires in the drivers fuse and passenger fuse area are connected to the front door courtesy lights. the reason for running wires from these harnesses to the A pillar harness (which is connected to the dome light) is to trigger the courtesy lights to come on with the dome light, and since the front door leds are powered by the courtesy lights, they will turn on as well with the dome light. Hope this makes sense. If doesn't it's no big deal. Just follow the diy lol

 

Thank you, i totally got what you just said, i just tap the harness for the rear doors and only the courtesy lights for the front doors. Then make a tap into both harnesses again and run them to the A-pillar and tap em both into the dome. I get you perfectly.

Did you have any extra things you had to do or just followd the DIY? from some people i heard they added fuses from Rear LED's to harness.

 

When you say tap into the harness again, not sure how you mean it, but once the wires running from the led to the harness are hooked up, you can just tap into the wire you're using (the 20 gauge) and run those to the other harness instead of tapping into the same harness wire more than once.

I didn't run any fuses between the harness and the led. It wouldn't hurt anything if you did and wouldn't be hard. I just pretty much followed the diy.

 

What i meant by tapping into the harness is like this

The rear door is tapped into the harness and the front is already there. So would i need to make a fresh new tap on the same wire to transfer it all to the a-pillar. If i were to tap into the 20guage that is connected to the harness, wont it just light up the rear door.

 

Some people have had some problems doing this mod (blowing some fuses). I was one of the first ones to do this after the DIY was put up and had no problems doing this as I followed all directions step by step. I did not take any shortcuts. My suggestion to you would be to follow that DIY word by word and you should not have any problems especially since your battery will not be connected.

On another note, im thinking of taking this mod off. I enjoyed it while I had it but my ride is about to be a whole lot different soon. (Still Sticking to my 99' TL)

 

^Which is why i asked all of these questions, to avoid blowing fuses. Did you replace the fuse to a 10amp fuse? And where would that fuse go? I still dont know where that is located.

I would go with the 50,000mcd srb was talking about, but he said "i think it was 18 guage".. Would this work?

 

ok, no more questions for now. Parts ordered and will post up results in photo section once done.

 

make sure u put the resistor on the positive side of the LED

i would also suggest running the LED's in a parallel circuit as a cars 12v system will blow anything more than 3 LED's with resistors and probably damage wires.

 

how would i run it in a parallel circuit?

What i had planned on doing was using 10,000mcd LEDs with 18 guage wire and keep my 7.5A fuse.. Now you got me interested, how should i do that?

 

I didn't replace any fuses.

 

^Ok good knowing that.. Will post up results soon, waiting for the parts to come in Thanks for all the help guys

 

itll b waaaaaay easier if u just get the kit...its only $40 for a pair...u dont need resistors n shit...basically just tap into the dome lites n ur good to go...

btw...if memory serves me rite...i was the 1st to do it...n now that every1 has it...i took mine off n tossed it...

over played

 

I have never seen it here yet (Aside from the BMWs), just underglow lights

 

http://www.google.com/search?source=...LED+in+&aqi=g4

 

I understand what it means, just dont know how i can apply it to the mod.

2 Leds in parallel on each side im guessing with 2 leds -> Resistors -> Front Door Courtesy -> Harness to Dome (from each side)?

Im not clear on running parallel on this one..

 

Another confusion:

So what this is basically saying is to run the driver side rear door LED to the driver side harness and tap into it for power. Now It says to take off all the trim pieces to "run the driver side fuse box to the passenger side. How does that work?

 

Is this correct?

 

correct. the done would connect to the drivers fuse though.

 

Then why run the wires to the passenger side if i can tap into the dome from the drivers side?

Like, it tells me to take the drivers fuse wires (Where i tapped into from the rear door) and run it all the way to the passenger, tap into passenger fuse, send a pair of wires from dome and tap into passenger fuse again. Its soo wierd

 

dome
**

 

ok this is how yo wold set it p in parallel

attach two wires from the dome positive leave.
one wire goes to the passenger
one wire goes to the drivers

attach two wire to each side as the positive for the LED

ground the negative wires

youre done

 

sooo...much...work

edit: nevermind, it seems easy after reading what phee said

 

This picture is throwing me off. Why is there 6 wires? EDIT: NVM, he connected the driver harness with the rear driver on the passenger side. (Correct if im wrong)

So from the drivers fuse box with the back driver door already tapped into the drivers fuse, i would run a (Neg/Pos) from the harness, under the trim pieces, to the passenger side, and use those 2 ends and connect it straight to the dome? And use the passenger fuse to the dome also?

 

Phee, you didnt mention anything about the neg. wires from the dome. Im not familiar with the terms just yet, how would i ground the negative wires?

 

http://chrisco.texas-222.com/CBInsta...roundWire1.jpg

put the wire under a screw.....

http://www.eurekaboy.com/f250/newmirrors17.jpg

 

What im not geting is all the connections.

Like here is what i know so far,

Driver Rear Led - Run it to drivers harness and tap (Pos+Neg)
Driver Front - Tap into courtesy light (Pos + Neg)
With all the wires on the driver side connected to the harness, i would then get extra wire and tap (Pos+Neg) in the harness and run it all the way to the passenger side and tap the positive wire to the dome and do what with the negative?

Passenger Rear - Tapped (Pos+Neg) into pass. harness
Passenger Front - Tap (pos + neg) into courtesy
Take wire, tap into harness (Pos + Neg) and run the positive and make a second tap into the dome's positive wire.

What do i do with the negative wires from each of the harnesses?

 

where r the courtesy light located? pic would help a lot