DIY door pull led swap

S

scottvt

Member
Car
2010 FX35 AWD
Name
Scott
So you swap out all the bulbs in your interior for nice, modern, crisp white lights. Then maybe notice a few bulbs you didn't even know you had. The door pull lights! (Ambient lighting) They are an ugly drab yellow, and totally clash with the new LEDs. So now what? FIX IT! Here's how.

First, pop off the outer cover of the interior door pull, and the small cover behind the actual door lever. For the door pull, I like to start around the bottom as there is a bit more to grip. For the cover behind the lever, just take a flat head, wrap some tape around it, and pry out on the lip right by the door lever/lock tab. Pops right out. Behind these covers you will access three bolts.
38934862832_063665946c_k.jpgIMG_2092_LI by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr

After the (3) 10mm bolts have been removed, the little rubber bumper needs to come out, and the you can start popping clips. Again, here I like to start at the bottom using two levers. One to kind of feel around and the other to do the popping.
38255387664_7bd3f02878_k.jpgIMG_2094_LI by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr

Once all the clips are popped and the panel is loose, unplug the gray harness and pull the light out.
38255546724_925fc957c3_b.jpgthumbnail_IMG_4083 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr

Once you have the light out, you need to cut the bulb from the plug and add the new bulb socket.
38934954082_644fc9a0e7_k.jpgIMG_2081 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr

Here I used T5 LEDS from Diode Dynamics, and some sockets I found on Amazon. A pack of 10 for $5, and they are built how you would expect a $.50 harness to be built. Just cheap. The terminals weren't crimped very well, a couple of them literally fell apart. I re-crimped them, and put a healthy dab of hot glue on them to hold the terminals in the plastic housing as they were very loose as well.
Next, solder the connections and use heat shrink tubing to protect your work. At this point, wire color, and polarity do not matter. LED bulbs do have a positive and negative side, but not being labeled on the bulb itself, you will not know until you install the bulb.
38971570871_c9f863043e_k.jpgIMG_2096 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr
24106652237_84cab58db4_k.jpgIMG_2097 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr
38971585561_dc35078c06_k.jpgIMG_2087 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr

Next it is time to reinstall everything. Slip your new harness thru the hole in the door panel and reconnect the harness. The door panel goes on in just the same fashion it came off. Start popping the clips back in, reinsert the rubber bumper and bolt it up.
Now this light socket will not fit as the OEM one did. All I did was a wrap of 2 sided 3M tape to hold it in place. So far so good.
38971536041_ced10930a1_k.jpgIMG_2098 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr
25100378578_f9ef05c156_k.jpgIMG_2100 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr

At this time, if the bulb isn't lit up, make sure the rest of the lights are illuminated. If the door stays open too long, the lights go out to avoid draining the battery. If the rest of the interior lights are out, simply shut the door and open it back up, or just push the button on the door jamb. If the lights are on, pull the new LED out and rotate it 180* and re-install into the socket. SHOULD be on now!
After that's all situated, reinstall the cover behind the door lever and the outer door pull cover, sit back and admire.
38084977045_afb155166d_k.jpgIMG_2101 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr
38934823182_6d4c4db361_k.jpgIMG_2108 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr

Please note this writeup was done on the back door. The process for the front is exactly the same. Bolt locations and everything is the same.
25100820568_91b1363e0e_k.jpgIMG_2115 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr

Good luck, and I am NOT responsible if you screw anything up!
 
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That’s awesome, so the bulbs can’t just be swapped? You have to do all these things?
 
Correct. I kind of missed that part. The original light is kind of integrated with the mount/harness so you can't just do a simple bulb swap. Not that this is very hard.
38257973114_ce1af208e3_k.jpgIMG_2090 by Scott Van Thiel, on Flickr
 
Nice work, and DIY. I Just checked, I have these lights too, NEVER, noticed them before. Wow! Question, from your photos, it looks like the wire just might be long enough the cut and solder on a new socket without removing the door panel. May need to sacrifice the old socket but it's gone anyway. You did the work already, what do you think? Also the light looks blue, are these 6K LEDs?

Thanks,

MC
 
Thanks! You could certainly do it without removing the door panel, but to me it wasn't worth it. I would definitely disconnect the battery if you do so due to cutting and exposing wires. I don't like how much stuff gets reset on this thing when you disconnect the battery haha. I also didn't want to risk burning the interior soldering so close. It really only takes about a minute to pop these panels loose.
As far as the bulbs, I believe they are 6000K. Whatever Diode Dynamics calls Cool White.
 
I looked again today, can't believe I've never noticed these lamps. After looking at your photos I thought I could basically solder wires to the new socket at my desk then cut out the existing socket and connect the new socket to the existing wires with crimp on butt connectors. No risk of burning the leather and I can cut/crimp one wire at a time so no need to disconnect the battery. I'm thinking I'll pull the handle, like you show, and take a look at how much space and wire there is.

Thanks again for the nice DIY!

MC
 
If you go that route, you won’t need to do any soldering. The new sockets come with the wires attached. The only potential issue I see is the butt connectors being a bit too bulky to stuff in the hole and behind the panel. Good luck! Let us know how it goes!
 
scottvt said:
If you go that route, you won’t need to do any soldering. The new sockets come with the wires attached. The only potential issue I see is the butt connectors being a bit too bulky to stuff in the hole and behind the panel. Good luck! Let us know how it goes!
Click to expand...
Where did you get the shift knob?
 
ocal21 said:
Where did you get the shift knob?
Click to expand...
Bought some LED's that come with the resistor and wire soldered and heat shrinked already. Also ordered some 22 gauge solder seal butt connectors. Solder and heat shrink in one connector, hit it with a heat source an viola, soldered and heat shrunk in one step, and the are less than 1/2" long.

MC
 
Mcontrols said:
Bought some LED's that come with the resistor and wire soldered and heat shrinked already. Also ordered some 22 gauge solder seal butt connectors. Solder and heat shrink in one connector, hit it with a heat source an viola, soldered and heat shrunk in one step, and the are less than 1/2" long.

MC
Click to expand...
Awesome man, good luck! Post pics when done!
 
I think this is a nice subtle mod, and the color jives with the blueish-purplish color of the nav wheel and radio knobs.

Could you provide links for the bulbs and sockets with wires?

I'm guessing these are the bulbs?

74 SMD1 LED
 
Banjos-n-Beer said:
I think this is a nice subtle mod, and the color jives with the blueish-purplish color of the nav wheel and radio knobs.

Could you provide links for the bulbs and sockets with wires?

I'm guessing these are the bulbs?

74 SMD1 LED
Click to expand...

This is what I bought. Don't have them yet so can't comment on quality. Reviews are pretty good.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B007O1WXHG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And the butt connectors.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LK2YJQC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
MC
 
I like the look; cool as hell! I've purchased some LED blue-bulbs to replace the LEDs in the illuminated front door scuff-plates to try and match the same blue hue of the guages and dash panel. Hoping to get to it this weekend; now - you've got me thinking of this idea!
 
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