Bought rodney's handles a year or something ago. Finally got around to working on them. Was going to install white LEDs in them but came to find out to get the WDP handles painted ASM, it'd be 60 bux per. Much cheaper to buy a handle factory painted from oemacuraparts.



Again, here's rodney's lights.


He used the superflux 4-chip LEDs on the left but I wasn't trying to go that bright. I used the one on the right.


Here it is all wired up.


I know you're asking yourself, "Why didn't I sand the tip?"


About 5:30 PM.


Can't trust these night shots. Light output is much more subtle.


When it's completely dark out, the light evenly fills the handle sink which is why I didn't sand. Haven't gone through the process of wiring it to the courtesy lights. Just tapped the door's interior corner light.

 

It's always on?

 

looks cool i guess.... but what are the point of these? i don't see myself driving around town with them on all the time.

i guess if you go to car shows it would be a attention getter, but not that many car shows really take place at night for you to show it off.

props for taking on such a project, but to me this falls into the same category as LED underglows... don't really see a good use for it except for "wow thats cool"

i still think you should have gone with white leds instead. why would you have needed to paint your handles if you wanted the white leds? you can't use white leds with your wdp handles?

 

Looks great! If you can wire them so when you unlock the door with your FOB they light up. That way, they are only on when you need them.

 

it'd be cool if they were wired to the dome lights, that way when you unlock the car they would come on and stay on until you got in the car.

dammit, lovemytl-s beat me to it

 

Haven't gone through the process of wiring it to the courtesy lights.

They will be wired to the courtesy lights when all handles are in. I just tapped the interior light so you guys could see it lit up. I unplugged it right after the photos.

And vietx, you've really missed something, bro. His handles are WDP. My car is ASM. I wasn't gonna put WDP handles w/ blue lights on my ASM. My photo even shows a white LED.

 

oh i see, i didn't read the part where it said "rodney's lights" i thought those were pictures of your car.

but yeah i think white would look best on door handles. any other color seems to be on the fast n furious ricey side.

also switching to the LED that was less bright was a good idea. the 4 flux led seems like overkill. if i were to have this done to my car, i would want it to be very very easy on the eyes and subtle, but still noticeable from about 15 feet away. not something that i can see from 100 feet away

 

Those look great-nice job Cisco!




.

 

it looks pretty cool IMO

 

This would be helpful for my toilet at 3am. Does look neato though.

 

Lol

 

You know this just reminded me of the lights my 525i has. It has lights under the Rear View mirrors to light up the floor. That may be a great accompany feature to this light in the door handles. I must agree White is a must and any other color just makes the car look VERY RICER.

 

how would you connect these to the dome lights so they only light up when you unlock the car? I think that's the only way I would have these wired as.

 

Cool my BMW E60 has LED under the mirrors same as Mafyoso and our E90 has these lights in the door handles. They are cool at night. Can you make a DIY please?

I really want to do this.

 

I wonder if you can tap something so that they ONLY blink when you lock/unlock car but never come on otherwise. That would be cool!

Nice though...very nice.

 

^ yea, that would be cool like the way the marker lights blink when door lock is locked/open. Something to thing about.

 

i think these lights would look a lot better with door handles like:



rather than our door handles like:



so the light output is downwards and it does the job and doesnt blind you LOL

none the less....great install...

 

yea maybe tapping them into side markers instead of dome lights. But I don't understand how they would just blink and not come on when the lights are on. I don't know the wiring for side markers.

But I think it would look good if the light was hooked up to the dome lights but pointed downwards toward the ground not into the door handle area like i have seen on some BMWs

 

Thanx for the compliments. The lights aren't bright at all so blinding (ricey) is not an issue. Wiring to the dome will not be a problem since I already have puddles tapped into it (which is also why lighting the sink was more important to me than shining downward towards the ground). Should be something like this when all completed.



From what I see, the lights that flash when locking / unlocking (sidemarkers, turn signals, rear lights) all stay on when driving at night. I know there are relays that can delay a device from powering up for a couple secs but none that could be wired into the handles to prevent them from staying on after the two flashes.

 

Yeah man do a DIY I would love to see the Steps to this with Pics and maybe a Video showing them in action when its done. I may pick up some of those LEDs and do this myself when i get a chance.

 

Perhaps a cover can be put over the bulbs to reflect the light down only.

 

^^^ true....as the OP said the light is very subtle....to pull any LED work on the exterior of a TL you have to make sure of the subtle-ness and the flow of the lines/character of the car....

from the pix OP posted it looks kinda ricey but if the pix are not doing justice then this is a well done mod....as I said none the less the install is awesome....hats off to the OP

 

that's what I think, I think it's too bright or something. But I know that it's hard to capture LEDs at night very well.

 

The camera is trying to expose the 99% of the picture which is dark, so the tiny part of the pic that is bright is going to be overexposed.

 

I think I like the BMW light pointing down to the ground more than illuminating the door handle area

 

Wow!!! great works! it looks pretty coooool!

 

I just saw my buddy's BMW 335i for the first time and the LEDs pointing down are effing hot. If someone Macguyvered up a door handle mod like that, I would buy it fo sho.

 

here are the handles of my BMW 760, it's 1 bulb with two openings to divert the light:

 

You're on your way brother...

When I had them on my TL they were wired to the courtesy light circuit. They would only light up when I hit the FOB remote and unlocked the car, or just turned off the car. They did not turn on when I turned on the interior lights manually. The wiring was a mission all on it's own. I had to get a special relay that would work well with the low amperage negative pulse of the courtesy light circuit.

This was the relay I had to use after many trials and errors:
http://www.switch-smart.com/applications-ar01.html

A regular Bosch relay would make a buzzing noise because of the low amperage of the factory trigger that has to be used.

 

It's been awhile but due to the summer and having no carport or garage, I had to wait for the temp to get more comfortable. Finally got around to installing the driver side. I'm already working on the removed front handles now which will become the new LED rear handles. They go in next week. Here's a vid of them in action. Like stvtec mentioned, the camera is overcompensating the light output do to the darkness so disregard what looks like a white dot in the sinks. The light spreads evenly in person. Excuse the repetitive FOB clicking. Battery's about to die.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM3GgYU_wzQ

 

Cisco....even thow the install is great I hope you are open to some creative criticism....

1> The puddle lights make it look like a puddle....it should be a little more sharp and not so wide spread....
2> The Handle leds kinda look bright and does not do the job....it does not shine in the keyhole....

Now time for props:
1> Very clean install
2> It does look good

 

Thanx for that and being part of an internet forum means critiques are gonna come, good or bad, whether I like it or not.....HA! I picked those puddles due to their conical housing and since the courtesy lights have a slow fade when they go off, it loox like the light circles are being sucked up. They only make individual circles on the ground with no overlapping but I can understand how the overexposure gives them the look of flooding like neons. As for the handles, the only job they have is to accent the door handle. If it loox bright, again, overexposure. I guess I could illuminate the keyhole but it was never my intent to light it. I never use the key. Just haven't put the cover on yet.

 

looks sweet. how was it wired? i agree with mafyoso, a diy would be nice to see if you have time. if i was to do this i was thinking of wiring it to a stealth box that Ampd Emblems has, considering i am planning on getting the front and rear emblems from them anyway.

 

that's too ricey for me but i guess to each their own i suppose.

 

PROPS for taking the criticism in a positive manner

 

Nice install Cisco.