Footwell lights
Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 9:29 pm
I wasnt up to much today so when i found an old courtesy light from my merc w124 estate i decided to just go ahead and put in the footwell lights.
I pulled the trim from the passenger side door to get at the wire for the door light, the reason this side is because there is no fuse box to have to pull out of the way, so i got the trim off, i also did a bit of waxoling. Anyhow i found where the wires from the passenger door come in, and in that bunch of wires i cut the insulating tape surrounding it and i used a multimeter to find out what the positive wire was, i stuck one probe from the multimeter into the plug for the door light and then pierced the orange wires in the bunch of wires to find it on the inside, there is 4 orange wires in this bunch so doing it this way was necessary but luckily enough i got the right wire first time, so that was the positive i soldered in another strand of wire and tucked it away as that would do the footwell lights, then i had to get the negative, down there in the left corner of the footwell there is an eathing point i seen wires coming from it and snipped one and tried to solder on a wire for it but i had no luck in getting an earth from it must have been a bad soldering joint, and this has i think killed my alarm i think ill need to look tommorow, but i just made a new earthing point by screwing into the body that sorted out my negative, i then put back the trim and i had my power source, i then pulled away the bit of black carpet that sits at the top of the footwell, i cut out a hole for the light, pushed it into place and then soldered the power to this light, then i ran a wire over to the drivers side. For the drivers side i used the LED lights that i had in the first aid box and just wired them in, holding it up just took 4 small screws. Heres the footwell lights working:




As you can see the led lights in the drivers footwell give off a different light and i think this helps explain why them energy efficent lights for the house still arent as good even though we are told they last longer, use less electricity and are brighter, they lack the 'Ambience' of the old fashoned bulbs and thats where the merc light on the passenger footwell is better, so given the chance i will put in a normal light into the drivers footwell.
Heres the passenger side, getting a much nicer more inviting light shone upon it:


.
So thats it installed, sorry i dont have any pictures of installing it my n96 is broke and i only got the lend of a camera when i was finished, but its an easy job to do, just watch out you don't cut any wires for the alarm because i have found mine isn't working after this, but it cant be too serious.
I pulled the trim from the passenger side door to get at the wire for the door light, the reason this side is because there is no fuse box to have to pull out of the way, so i got the trim off, i also did a bit of waxoling. Anyhow i found where the wires from the passenger door come in, and in that bunch of wires i cut the insulating tape surrounding it and i used a multimeter to find out what the positive wire was, i stuck one probe from the multimeter into the plug for the door light and then pierced the orange wires in the bunch of wires to find it on the inside, there is 4 orange wires in this bunch so doing it this way was necessary but luckily enough i got the right wire first time, so that was the positive i soldered in another strand of wire and tucked it away as that would do the footwell lights, then i had to get the negative, down there in the left corner of the footwell there is an eathing point i seen wires coming from it and snipped one and tried to solder on a wire for it but i had no luck in getting an earth from it must have been a bad soldering joint, and this has i think killed my alarm i think ill need to look tommorow, but i just made a new earthing point by screwing into the body that sorted out my negative, i then put back the trim and i had my power source, i then pulled away the bit of black carpet that sits at the top of the footwell, i cut out a hole for the light, pushed it into place and then soldered the power to this light, then i ran a wire over to the drivers side. For the drivers side i used the LED lights that i had in the first aid box and just wired them in, holding it up just took 4 small screws. Heres the footwell lights working:




As you can see the led lights in the drivers footwell give off a different light and i think this helps explain why them energy efficent lights for the house still arent as good even though we are told they last longer, use less electricity and are brighter, they lack the 'Ambience' of the old fashoned bulbs and thats where the merc light on the passenger footwell is better, so given the chance i will put in a normal light into the drivers footwell.
Heres the passenger side, getting a much nicer more inviting light shone upon it:



So thats it installed, sorry i dont have any pictures of installing it my n96 is broke and i only got the lend of a camera when i was finished, but its an easy job to do, just watch out you don't cut any wires for the alarm because i have found mine isn't working after this, but it cant be too serious.