Door handle lights

[FarmerPug]

Its possibly been discussed in the past, but sitting in a skoda superb the other day i admired the illuminated door handles and wondered how hard it would be to do in the 406.

Would it be possible to mount a small LED in the top of the door handle surround and run it off the light that illuminates the electric window switches, thus no need to run wires in through the door (which is tricky job to do)

The BSI and laws of electricity probably still apply but a small LED couldn't do much harm, could it?

[lozz]

Shouid be easy to do,
just earth it away from the switch,

[FarmerPug]

As in earth it to the metal door?

Would using the switches ground/earth be the reason why its bad for the BSI?

[lozz]

As in earth it to the metal door?

Would using the switches ground/earth be the reason why its bad for the BSI?

its is on fords anyway as ifound out,
never tried this on pugs,

but id earth away from switch, earth to one of the window mechy bolts, perhaps,

[steve_earwig]

Face it, if you can't find the door handles you're probably too drunk to drive it anyway

[lozz]

[FarmerPug]

Face it, if you can't find the door handles you're probably too drunk to drive it anyway

cant argue with that

[dirtydirtydiesel]

+1 bud I fancy doing this as my Audi A6 had this on & i really liked it, let us now how you get on

[FarmerPug]

+1 bud I fancy doing this as my Audi A6 had this on & i really liked it, let us now how you get on

Ive already got the front doors wired up with LED puddle lights in the wing mirrors, i think ill have one bright LED in the handle to come on with the mirror lights when the car is unlocked.

then wire a dimmer "warm white" LED to come on with the electric window switch, for that nice mood lighting effect.

[FarmerPug]

I tried out the lights in some spare door handles i have:








The interior ones might need a bit more time, trying to hold the LED's in bezels takes too much space, and is a pain to try and countersink the bezels:


The one on the right is a bright one to come on when the car is unlocked, the other one is a dim one to come on with the window switch lights





At the moment if the interior handles were done this way it wouldn't look too bad sitting beside them but looking across the car you would be able to see the parts sticking out

[dirtydirtydiesel]

I tried out the lights in some spare door handles i have:

Looking good so far bud , keep us posted

[Welly]

I love your experiments FP, one thing though - I don't understand why you'd need the bright LED on when you unlock the car? you'd be stood outside? or do you lock the car when driving and then passengers can see the handles when you unlock from inside?

Can the 406's BSi be told to lock the car once it starts moving?

[steve_earwig]

Yes. Next question

While I admire the effort that's going into this I still can't see much use for it. Once you unlock the car the interior lights come on so there's no missing it

Say Frank, you appear to have more free time than even me, what's your secret?

[GingerMagic]

I love your experiments FP, one thing though - I don't understand why you'd need the bright LED on when you unlock the car? you'd be stood outside? or do you lock the car when driving and then passengers can see the handles when you unlock from inside?

Can the 406's BSi be told to lock the car once it starts moving?

Yes, on fully-mux you can activate the deadlocking when pulling away via PP2000.

[FarmerPug]

The drivers door has a functioning LED, its a bit of a pain trying to get them evaporation barriers off carefully without ripping them, and i need to get a tube of tiger seal to put them back on.

The door handle has to be removed, and stripped down, but while i had the parts of the door apart i set upon the inside of the door with the copper grease and paint brush, there is no rust in there but there won't be any now.
I also spotted that the rod going from the door handle to the latch was chafing against the wires to the central locking part of the latch it didn't get through to the copper but was not far off it, this is the original loom with the original clips still holding it in place, so if anyone gets odd central locking behaviour this could be a potential culprit.

The LEDs wiring has to be routed carefully so that the window does not catch it when moving down, but apart from that it was easy to install, here it is:



I have the inside handle working with the "bright LED", i need to check through some wiring diagrams to find out what wire supplies the power to the window switch lights.
As for the two led arrangement, the bright one will come on when the car key is removed thats the only thing i can think to justify it, other than that its a bit pointless, i don't have any automatic deadlock in my car, the option was selected in pp2000 but the car doesn't seem to do it.