Duke-U
Member
Haha @rickyjb same here, the HDMI mod is fun, this one I will definitely do too! Thanks @VelociRabbitt for sharing this great idea!
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
A little interior lighting mod
- Thread starter VelociRabbitt
- Start date
rickyjb
Member
Yep Hdmi mod is great for us pre ap MCU 1 with no V10 in sight .
Was quite enjoyable routing the cables for the FM transmitter and the chromecast, also cool to take a peek at how the car was put together under all that trim.
So i took the plunge and did this mod today. I LOVE it! We did it slightly differently, tucking above the IC and directly into the doors. These lights can be cut to size so that's awesome 
NOTE: Ignore the red in the last pic. I have ultra bright red door led lights and Red lighted door sills that are reflecting off the wall and door in the garage.
Thank you to @VelociRabbitt for the idea and a shoutout to @steinermeister
NOTE: Ignore the red in the last pic. I have ultra bright red door led lights and Red lighted door sills that are reflecting off the wall and door in the garage.Thank you to @VelociRabbitt for the idea and a shoutout to @steinermeister
The pigtails are actually how I spliced in. I basically treated the pigtails as If they were the direct line in the car (Because that's exactly what they are, just extensions). and when you unplug the harness that's in the door, the pigtails just get plugged in female to male, and male to female between the original wiring and the lighting harness and you're in. If you ever want to remove them, just unplug the pigtails, and reconnect the original setup
This is 100% non destructive. You can remove it without any evidence of it ever being installed, and you don't risk damaging ANY wiring in the process!! the pigtails were made to be sacrificed lol they weren't to extend anything, only to splice in non-destructively.
First off: very cool project.
On the parts list: isn't it two pairs of pigtails? With one pair you can't do the back doors without splicing or am I over thinking this?
Started mine tonight. I can't believe how tight the fit is on the door! I had to use a shopping club card plastic key chain to wedge in there just to make enough room and that was a two handed effort.
No, you’re correct. Each package comes with 2 pigtails, so by purchasing 2 packs, you get 4! You need a pigtail for each door if you don’t want to cut the car wiring!!
And yeah, the fit is extremely tight, please please please be careful, as the finish on the chrome-ish trim is VERY delicate and will scratch easily. Once you have it done though it looks killer!
I’m so glad so many people here have taken a stab at this mod!!
Got mine about 1/2 done. Loving the look. Pics don't do it justice at all. Also my lights are white, not sure why the color came out so blue.
Here is what I learned (for those about to do this)
1. I tried caulk insulation from Home Depot (near window trim area @HD). It works great for sound at low brightness, but when they go full, it does not seem to work. Need to follow the @VelociRabbitt 's lead on this one. YMMV. It did make it easy to stick the box where I wanted it though.
2. I was able to wire through the door wiring boot (on passenger side). I used a zip tie and some tape to pull it through. It required removing the boot on both sides to make it work.
3. I've spent probably 4 hours on this and need to do the back doors still. My fingers are sore from pressing all the wire in. The dash was easy, the doors nearly impossible. Again, I'm not done, but this looks REALLY amazing.
Thank you @VelociRabbitt for all the information and details on doing this!
Here is what I learned (for those about to do this)
1. I tried caulk insulation from Home Depot (near window trim area @HD). It works great for sound at low brightness, but when they go full, it does not seem to work. Need to follow the @VelociRabbitt 's lead on this one. YMMV. It did make it easy to stick the box where I wanted it though.
2. I was able to wire through the door wiring boot (on passenger side). I used a zip tie and some tape to pull it through. It required removing the boot on both sides to make it work.
3. I've spent probably 4 hours on this and need to do the back doors still. My fingers are sore from pressing all the wire in. The dash was easy, the doors nearly impossible. Again, I'm not done, but this looks REALLY amazing.
Thank you @VelociRabbitt for all the information and details on doing this!
Got mine about 1/2 done. Loving the look. Pics don't do it justice at all. Also my lights are white, not sure why the color came out so blue.
Here is what I learned (for those about to do this)
1. I tried caulk insulation from Home Depot (near window trim area @HD). It works great for sound at low brightness, but when they go full, it does not seem to work. Need to follow the @VelociRabbitt 's lead on this one. YMMV. It did make it easy to stick the box where I wanted it though.
2. I was able to wire through the door wiring boot (on passenger side). I used a zip tie and some tape to pull it through. It required removing the boot on both sides to make it work.
3. I've spent probably 4 hours on this and need to do the back doors still. My fingers are sore from pressing all the wire in. The dash was easy, the doors nearly impossible. Again, I'm not done, but this looks REALLY amazing.
Thank you @VelociRabbitt for all the information and details on doing this!
Update: Got them silent! I tried the Hotglue approach and Neoprene. I cut neoprene to wrap the box, surrounded it in glue, then wrapped it. in two layers of neoprene ($10 60" role on amazon). As far as placement they are just below the window control box. lots of room there and they are outside the door insulation for further noise barrier. I can't hear them AT ALL in the car now. Much happier.
Duke-U
Member
- the door panel could not be separated from the door because of a nylon band securing both at the back end, upper corner of the door. This limits your handling space. No idea why it is done, and couldn’t find how to disconnect that.
- the sharp bends at the door edges means cutting off the lip. Make sure to measure or mark this accurate
- the crease in between the upper and lower half of the panel, the area that becomes visible when you open the door, was so wide that the lip wouldn’t stay put and I had to use doublesided tape to fix it, which in turn makes it hard to tuck it in again.
- I wrapped the box in foam and secured it to the pin pillar on the inside of the panel, just below the little triangle window. Used a pigtail as OP suggested.
In all, not the easiest job potentially, but worth the effort. Will take some snapshots before putting the panel back in place.
Last edited:
Duke-U
Member
Aaaand.... nailed it. The back doors are way easier!
the interior lights were on in the last pic. Credits to the amazing iPhone 11Pro camera!
the interior lights were on in the last pic. Credits to the amazing iPhone 11Pro camera!
Duke-U
Member
Careful with that sound isolation, the box gets hotter than you might expect, and specially when sun heats up the door in summer. On my install, suddenly one side went dark, both front and rear, and both the org light and the new wire light. At the same time a little buzz was heard near the mirror, varying with the brightness of the dash and interior light.
it turned out the box in the passenger rear door overheated, melted and the extra drawn current then melted the wire, short-circuiting it. The current from the dimmer apparently was limited and divided in several strings, hence only the two doors stayed black. The buzz was from the extra current the short drew.
I took both out, redid the isolation with bitumen mass stickers and included a 1 Amp fuse behind the pigtail splice. Better safe than sorry.... it is now doing a bench test to see how hot the box get, it is now at 40C.
So be aware of this risk. Specially in hot climates!
So I finally tried this on my x... Same thing really but I didn't have the guts to connect them to the ambient lights on the doors. I did the front dash and tied into the puddle light and the back sets.... Tied to the bottom puddle light as well. Looks great... Just wish they stayed on during driving but oh well.
Attachments
@gazepdapi looks great. I tried it with my X but gave up on the doors as well. Looks like the lights in the doors on the X don’t have the s are light connector as the others / model S. This would mean I guess to do it we would be splicing into her wires.... Is this what you found too?
I had not thought of doing just the dash and the seat outlines.... good idea. You may have inspired me to try again!
I had not thought of doing just the dash and the seat outlines.... good idea. You may have inspired me to try again!
I didn't even bother with the doors actually at all but I'm sure it's the same as the S. The way I approach it was using the pigtail extensions as mentioned earlier (link) to tie into the low volt system. I tied in using posi-tap mini connectors to connect to the two wires from the el wire....this made it very easy. If you ever want to completely remove this, just remove the pigtail connector and you're done without any permanent changes to the car wiring.
I've done this (4 doors and dash). You take off the door panel and you can see the wire for the ambient light in the door. Splitter goes there - but you have to remove the door panel, then its mostly clear (only a couple options up near the handle/where the light is located.
The dash is the harder one - to get it on ambient you have to run from the dash through the door grommet into the passenger door - its very possible, but takes some time working in a really tight space.
Thanks, for the electrical connection, you just splice the pig tails to connect the light ropes and use the pig tails connection to connect between the factory harness and the factory ambient light? Sorry, I haven't opened the panels yet so I cannot tell how the they are connected in the back.
Similar threads
