LED Retrofit Possible w/Armrest Interior Lights?

[glide]

I was wondering if anyone had luck installing the LED ambient lights under the armrests in their non-PUP vehicles.

I saw some older threads where folks talked about attempting but never any final result. My car does not have the required light strips so I am also looking for a source for those. Abstract Ocean seems to sell everything but this piece for the retrofit.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Mystic]

I myself am thinking of attempting this soon on my Non-PUP 2015. If you do a little digging there's 1 or 2 threads on this topic and the key points I've found is this:

• You can try and get the official parts from a service center, so you can just buy the lights yourself.
• The required wiring is in all doors, even if it doesn't have ambient lighting from the factory. So in theory, they're plug and play.
• You'd have to disassemble the door and get access to the upper portion of the door by removing 11 or so screws. You'd have to manually cut a slit out for the lighting. Which again, most doors will have an opening. It won't be "open" but theres an impression that you can cut out for the lights.
• Your car will not have ambient lighting in the MCU. So plug and play unfortunately wouldn't work. Tesla likely will give you a hard time turning it on.
• You can try and tap into another power source. The lighting for door button controls are apparently on all the time. So you could tap that wire to get power. But you won't have on/off factory toggle in MCU.

So basically, with that in mind I'm still not sure how I want to approach it. If I plug them in normally I doubt Tesla will turn it on for me. So I may have to tap into door switches. Obviously I haven't done anything yet but there's very little information online about this which is why I'm hesitant to do it, but in theory, you can retrofit.

 

[crmartin9]

Very good and accurate summary by Mystic. I installed the LED ambient lights in under the armrests in my non-PUP. I bought the lights from the SC and installed them myself. I was able to get the SC to turn on the feature in the MCU, but they did it more as a goodwill thing since they felt bad for me that the fabrication date on my MS75 missed the cutoff for uncorking by a couple of days. It may require a substantial donation of donuts and begging on your part. My advice is to go into this with the expectation that you'll end up having to tap into door switches or run some auxiliary wiring to power them while hoping to be pleasantly surprised by a sympathetic employee at a SC.

 

[snd92]

Great summary @Mystic For this kind of work Tesla Toolbox is needed. It's possible to get control current from e.g. 12V socket, which will make the lights turn on when car is also on.

 

[glide]

Great summary @Mystic For this kind of work Tesla Toolbox is needed. It's possible to get control current from e.g. 12V socket, which will make the lights turn on when car is also on.

I have access to the toolbox in MA

 

[Mystic]

Very good and accurate summary by Mystic. I installed the LED ambient lights in under the armrests in my non-PUP. I bought the lights from the SC and installed them myself. I was able to get the SC to turn on the feature in the MCU, but they did it more as a goodwill thing since they felt bad for me that the fabrication date on my MS75 missed the cutoff for uncorking by a couple of days. It may require a substantial donation of donuts and begging on your part. My advice is to go into this with the expectation that you'll end up having to tap into door switches or run some auxiliary wiring to power them while hoping to be pleasantly surprised by a sympathetic employee at a SC.

Ah yes you’re in one of those threads I was referring to! If you could, mind telling me if that was for sure the case with you? That they just felt bad given your situation? Like they were reluctant to turn it on for you?

How was your install? If I do tap into another source do you know exactly which wire is the window switches?

Also how long for the parts to come in? I’m on month 2 waiting for a sunroof and it’s getting a bit frustrating. Wondering if it’s because it’s such a big part that’s taking so long.

 

[pkodali]

I have access to the toolbox in MA

What can you do with the toolbox?

 

[crmartin9]

Ah yes you’re in one of those threads I was referring to! If you could, mind telling me if that was for sure the case with you? That they just felt bad given your situation? Like they were reluctant to turn it on for you?

How was your install? If I do tap into another source do you know exactly which wire is the window switches?

Also how long for the parts to come in? I’m on month 2 waiting for a sunroof and it’s getting a bit frustrating. Wondering if it’s because it’s such a big part that’s taking so long.

I had brought in the car for a few things to the Springfield NJ service center, so it's kind of hard to fully separate out cause and effect. One of the things on the appointment punch list was the uncorking, but then they discovered that my build date was just outside the window when they started to dig into the diagnostics to get started. I don't know for sure whether or not turning on the ambient lights was truly connected to their inability to uncork my car, but it certainly was a good customer relations move on their part to prevent me from blowing my stack and screaming bloody hell in front of them. It ended up being a bit of a pyrrhic victory though, because they ran into some issues with the software trying to turn on the ambient lighting which ended up with them having to put in a tech service call with the mothership in CA and I ended up sitting around the SC for an extra two hours while they got it all straightened out.

Figuring out which connector to use was pretty straightforward. In non-PUP cars, there are a couple of extra connectors floating around inside the door with the same style plug. One of them goes to the puddle lights on the bottom of the door and the other to the ambient lighting. (There might be another connector for cars with the lighted door handles, but I can't remember.) It's pretty easy to figure out which is which by their location and even if that fails, you'll figure out real quick by whether or not the lights go on in response to opening the door.

Running power off of the window switches was my back-up plan, but fortunately for me it never came down to that, so I didn't start examining and tracing out those wires.

The parts came in pretty quickly. I got them in about a week shipped to my house from the time I ordered them from the SC, though that was about 9 months ago.

Overall the install was pretty easy. The hardest parts of the whole install were (1) trying to locate all of the frickin' screws hidden under the insulation in the door panel to take the panels apart, (2) not accidentally kicking over my cup and losing the screws all over the garage floor once they were out, and (3) summoning up the courage to cut the slit into the prestine door panel with a razor blade.

 

[glide]

What can you do with the toolbox?

It is Tesla's proprietary subscription-based diagnostic tool.

No idea what I could do with it in this instance but one of the previous posters mentioned it was needed.

 

[pkodali]

It is Tesla's proprietary subscription-based diagnostic tool.

No idea what I could do with it in this instance but one of the previous posters mentioned it was needed.

How do you get access to it. I would be interested to see if we could enable some software limited things like self presenting doors using the toolbox

 

[Mystic]

I had brought in the car for a few things to the Springfield NJ service center, so it's kind of hard to fully separate out cause and effect. One of the things on the appointment punch list was the uncorking, but then they discovered that my build date was just outside the window when they started to dig into the diagnostics to get started. I don't know for sure whether or not turning on the ambient lights was truly connected to their inability to uncork my car, but it certainly was a good customer relations move on their part to prevent me from blowing my stack and screaming bloody hell in front of them. It ended up being a bit of a pyrrhic victory though, because they ran into some issues with the software trying to turn on the ambient lighting which ended up with them having to put in a tech service call with the mothership in CA and I ended up sitting around the SC for an extra two hours while they got it all straightened out.

Figuring out which connector to use was pretty straightforward. In non-PUP cars, there are a couple of extra connectors floating around inside the door with the same style plug. One of them goes to the puddle lights on the bottom of the door and the other to the ambient lighting. (There might be another connector for cars with the lighted door handles, but I can't remember.) It's pretty easy to figure out which is which by their location and even if that fails, you'll figure out real quick by whether or not the lights go on in response to opening the door.

Running power off of the window switches was my back-up plan, but fortunately for me it never came down to that, so I didn't start examining and tracing out those wires.

The parts came in pretty quickly. I got them in about a week shipped to my house from the time I ordered them from the SC, though that was about 9 months ago.

Overall the install was pretty easy. The hardest parts of the whole install were (1) trying to locate all of the frickin' screws hidden under the insulation in the door panel to take the panels apart, (2) not accidentally kicking over my cup and losing the screws all over the garage floor once they were out, and (3) summoning up the courage to cut the slit into the prestine door panel with a razor blade.

Okay awesome thank you so much! Given your story I think I’ve built the confidence to try this myself.

I bought my car as CPO 2015 and it had black Alcantara headliner which at the time, you needed the Premium package to have. Or at least so I thought, because I love the ambient lighting so I thought I was in the clear. First thing I noticed at delivery was no lighting. I was so bummed.

 

[glide]

Okay awesome thank you so much! Given your story I think I’ve built the confidence to try this myself.

I bought my car as CPO 2015 and it had black Alcantara headliner which at the time, you needed the Premium package to have. Or at least so I thought, because I love the ambient lighting so I thought I was in the clear. First thing I noticed at delivery was no lighting. I was so bummed.

Please post back if you are able to locate parts and perform the install.

 

[Mystic]

Sorry for reviving an old thread and showing up incredibly late. BUT, I have successfully installed Ambient Lighting into my Non-Premium 2015 Model S.

Long story short, service center made a mistake on my car one time and offered all four of the ambient lighting modules for free (which was awesome, they're $49.99 each. But you can order them yourself, they're unrestricted). Next came the install.

You must remove the door panel, and then also remove the upper portion of the door. There's about 11 or so T25 screws that hold that upper door panel in, and some of them are well hidden behind the door insulation. Once those are all out, you can push out the panel slightly. I say this because there's a very strong clip near the door handle that I didn't want to risk breaking. So with all the screws out you can push out the upper trim and get access to the impression where the ambient lighting will go.

Now remember, every car is going to have the wiring for ambient lighting. It's taped inside the door next to one of the other wires. But as mentioned earlier in the thread, no power is going to these wires because the car does not have the feature turned on. So you would need Tesla Toolbox to turn on the feature. Since this wasn't an option for me after trying with Tesla who obviously wouldn't do it, I resorted to tapping into the window switches (which are powered whenever the car is on). So basically you just can't turn the lighting off, which I'm fine with.

After doing every door but the drivers side, I ran into an issue. The drivers window switch delivers power intermittently at all times. So even with the car locked, that one ambient light would turn on and off. Obviously the car sticks out with a white door light turning on and off when locked at night. So I checked other power sources, all of which didn't work. Feeling defeated that I would have to run a wire into the car interior behind panels for a clean look, I took a break.

Here's the strange part. I don't know how, when, or why, but when going into my light settings in the MCU, Ambient Lighting was available!! I couldn't believe it. So I went into every door panel and plugged them into the wire for ambient lighting and sure enough, it works. I can turn them on and off from the MCU, and they work 100% OEM. I'm not sure what happened, but I suspect the car at one point saw the light was now connected, and then a reboot added the option. Because all I know is I plugged them in the right way just to confirm they didn't work, and I performed a reboot for a weird screen problem one time. But there's also a chance Tesla did it, I do remember I was also changing my wheels. So I called them and asked: Can I get the graphic in my car changed for my new wheels? And can I get ambient lighting? Customer service said they will put through the image change, and look into ambient lighting but couldn't give me an answer right then and there. So it could be that, but I really have no clue when it was added to my car.

Overall, I'm happy I now have this minor feature that makes the interior that much better and more premium feeling.

 

[Peterbrowsing]

Does anyone have a specific part number for the interior ambient lights ?

Where can I go to order them - aside from the SC ? I don’t have one close by, unless I make the 3 hr drive to my closest SC.

 

[crmartin9]

Does anyone have a specific part number for the interior ambient lights ?

Where can I go to order them - aside from the SC ? I don’t have one close by, unless I make the 3 hr drive to my closest SC.

My non-PUP has puddle lights

 

[Peterbrowsing]

@crmart

My non-PUP has puddle lights

Thank you so much for the link ! And quick response .

 

[Shadious]

I’m considering trying this too, but the SC said “no” to the software push. I would be willing to pay for the update if they offered it...

 

[kfly212]

Sorry for reviving an old thread and showing up incredibly late. BUT, I have successfully installed Ambient Lighting into my Non-Premium 2015 Model S.

Here's the strange part. I don't know how, when, or why, but when going into my light settings in the MCU, Ambient Lighting was available!! I couldn't believe it. So I went into every door panel and plugged them into the wire for ambient lighting and sure enough, it works. I can turn them on and off from the MCU, and they work 100% OEM.

Has anyone else attempted this and got the MCU to show the Ambient LIghting option without calling or get a SC to do them a favor?
Would be great if it was auto sensing with a reboot.

 

[Shadious]

You have to have it added by s the SC for it to show on the screen. PM me and I’ll tell you how I got it added...

 

[Azsightsound]

You have to have it added by s the SC for it to show on the screen. PM me and I’ll tell you how I got it added...

I sent you a PM. Somehow my lights aren't working and I'm hoping you know why.