GrantK
New member
If this mod has already been covered, sorry for the rehash.
Kudos go to Antman for his door handle, overhead console and cup holder LED mods that inspired me to do this little bit of insanity.
The mostly black interior of my TE means that at night it gets really dark inside and it’s hard to find things. So I first added Antman’s door handle LED mod which made a BIG difference for the handles, then I stole Antman’s overhead console LED mod which helped make the Homelink and moon-roof switches easier to see. At that point I decided that I wanted to be able to locate the door pockets easier so…
I added two 3mm orange LEDs (prewired with current limiting resistors) to the front doors and 1 to the rear door pockets. They are wired to the power that illuminates the door switches as Antman did for the door handle LED mod.
For the front doors I added one LED for the map section and one for the bottle section since they are separate area. For the rear doors I just added one like I did for the front map section. The LEDs are installed a little ways up from the bottom of the pockets to prevent dirt from accumulating on them and hiding the light. They are also located towards the back, cabin side of the pockets. This is so people only see the light and not the LED itself.
The first pic is the map pocket LED for the passenger door. I drilled the hole with a Dremel from the back side of the panel and mounted it with hot-melt glue so that the LED’s tip can just barely be felt in the pocket. This is also how I did the back doors
The second pic is the bottle pocket LED. I drilled from the cabin side using a Dremel with a right-angle adapter. Then I hot glued it as well so I could just barely feel the tip of the LED in the pocket.
I then wired them together and ran the wire up to the existing door handle LED. I used more hot glue to keep the wire in place.
The last pic is the results after re-install the door panel; there is too much ambient light to really see the results.
The final step was a beer and this quick writ-up. Enjoy.
Kudos go to Antman for his door handle, overhead console and cup holder LED mods that inspired me to do this little bit of insanity.
The mostly black interior of my TE means that at night it gets really dark inside and it’s hard to find things. So I first added Antman’s door handle LED mod which made a BIG difference for the handles, then I stole Antman’s overhead console LED mod which helped make the Homelink and moon-roof switches easier to see. At that point I decided that I wanted to be able to locate the door pockets easier so…
I added two 3mm orange LEDs (prewired with current limiting resistors) to the front doors and 1 to the rear door pockets. They are wired to the power that illuminates the door switches as Antman did for the door handle LED mod.
For the front doors I added one LED for the map section and one for the bottle section since they are separate area. For the rear doors I just added one like I did for the front map section. The LEDs are installed a little ways up from the bottom of the pockets to prevent dirt from accumulating on them and hiding the light. They are also located towards the back, cabin side of the pockets. This is so people only see the light and not the LED itself.
The first pic is the map pocket LED for the passenger door. I drilled the hole with a Dremel from the back side of the panel and mounted it with hot-melt glue so that the LED’s tip can just barely be felt in the pocket. This is also how I did the back doors
The second pic is the bottle pocket LED. I drilled from the cabin side using a Dremel with a right-angle adapter. Then I hot glued it as well so I could just barely feel the tip of the LED in the pocket.
I then wired them together and ran the wire up to the existing door handle LED. I used more hot glue to keep the wire in place.
The last pic is the results after re-install the door panel; there is too much ambient light to really see the results.
The final step was a beer and this quick writ-up. Enjoy.
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