illuminated door sills

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goldenii68

Active Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2007
Messages
159
Location
London
Car
c230 elegance selection kompressor
I've got a set of illuminated door sills and have seen the 'howto' thread on the forum to fit them however, my car is a face lift 2000 w202, is there no power source at the door switch so I can connect the live red wire from the invertor as opposed to finding a live feed down the side of the car as was shown in the 'howto' thread?

Any help would be appreciated (help with fitting even more so!)
 
I've got a set of illuminated door sills and have seen the 'howto' thread on the forum to fit them however, my car is a face lift 2000 w202, is there no power source at the door switch so I can connect the live red wire from the invertor as opposed to finding a live feed down the side of the car as was shown in the 'howto' thread?

Any help would be appreciated (help with fitting even more so!)


hey bud.

Between the plasma illumination you have the black trickery box!
brownish or black colored wire from the black trickery box this wire you have to connect to the B-pillar wire for killswitch.
you have to gut your B-pillar and check for the brown wire IIRC, there will be 2 MAYBE 3 different wires IIRC, try them all if you don't find the correct one?
one of them is the kill switch for your illuminated doorsills when you have tapped a pwr source thief, then you press the lightswitch on your car and doorsills are off.


You connect the power loom from the trickery box directly to the battery (red wires) connect looooooooooooooong extension wires.
that's what I did.

god speed :thumb:
 
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Thanks dude,

that means you connected directly to the battery? Is there no power source at the B pillar?
 
Don't connect directly to the battery . :crazy:

You connect to a fuse in the fusebox , can't remember which one , but it's important that the step up transformers are fused otherwise potentially a big fire risk. The fuse that you go to is one that is live all the time ( obviously ) .

I sold my illuminated sills to markmifsud ( along with the instructions ) , might be worth PM ing him to see if he could photocopy you a set and post them over ?

The B pillar switch is an earth , basically they have a constant live connection and the earth is made when the door switch is activated , which then makes them light up . This is also why they 100% need to be fused.

If you can't get a copy of the instructions , and must connect directly to the battery , at least put an inline fuse in place somewhere.
 
Don't connect directly to the battery . :crazy:

You connect to a fuse in the fusebox , can't remember which one , but it's important that the step up transformers are fused otherwise potentially a big fire risk. The fuse that you go to is one that is live all the time ( obviously ) .

I sold my illuminated sills to markmifsud ( along with the instructions ) , might be worth PM ing him to see if he could photocopy you a set and post them over ?

The B pillar switch is an earth , basically they have a constant live connection and the earth is made when the door switch is activated , which then makes them light up . This is also why they 100% need to be fused.

If you can't get a copy of the instructions , and must connect directly to the battery , at least put an inline fuse in place somewhere.


Thank you Howard,

Is markmisfud still around? I have copied the 'howto' thread, and I'm still wary of where to pick up a live feed without having to use the battery route.
 
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You go up under the dashboard and pick up a connection on the underside of the fusebox.

It's fiddley , but if you want to do it properly , that is the way to do it.

The ends of the wires ( if it is an OEM kit ) will have spade connectors on the ends that slot into slots that are already there on the underside of the particular fuse.

Mark is indeed still around , he was at Ollys the other day. Drop him a PM.
 
You go up under the dashboard and pick up a connection on the underside of the fusebox.

It's fiddley , but if you want to do it properly , that is the way to do it.

The ends of the wires ( if it is an OEM kit ) will have spade connectors on the ends that slot into slots that are already there on the underside of the particular fuse.

Mark is indeed still around , he was at Ollys the other day. Drop him a PM.


Can you remember what fuse it is? I've got four sills so could they all be powered off the one connection? I've pm'd Mark, its the one mod I can't wait to do and want to make sure I do it right, I will take pictures and post them here as a 'howto' hopefully
 
No sorry, it's three years since i did mine , and it was on another car.
 
I'll be out with the torch looking under the dash now! Thanks for your advice, I can't wait to get them fitted (properly) :D
 
You probably won't tell which fuse it is by looking under the dash.

There is a grommet you can pass through that brings you out in the fuse box location in the engine bay.

All the undersides of the fuse box have what look like holes for spade terminals , but only certain ones are actually connected ...

Here is where i did them .... it was on a w208 , but as they share the same platform with a 202 it should be the same.

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/electronics/55059-w208-illuminated-sills.html

There will probably be instructions on WIS on how to do it , perhaps a PM to Olly or Ian Walker would help , they may be able to look them up and email them over ?
 
I'll have a look at your thread, pardon my ignorance, whats WIS?
 
Workshop Information System

Dealers and Indy's use it as a step by step guide on how to do things.
 
Thank you yet again, its a pity there's no club members near me in Chingford who have done this mod to perhaps give me a helping hand:dk:
 
Don't connect directly to the battery . :crazy:

You connect to a fuse in the fusebox , can't remember which one , but it's important that the step up transformers are fused otherwise potentially a big fire risk. The fuse that you go to is one that is live all the time ( obviously ) .

I sold my illuminated sills to markmifsud ( along with the instructions ) , might be worth PM ing him to see if he could photocopy you a set and post them over ?

The B pillar switch is an earth , basically they have a constant live connection and the earth is made when the door switch is activated , which then makes them light up . This is also why they 100% need to be fused.

If you can't get a copy of the instructions , and must connect directly to the battery , at least put an inline fuse in place somewhere.

Sorry I foggot to mention earlier today in my previous post.
I used fuses between battery and doorsills, NO probs there.
The instructions said connect doorsill positive loom direct to battery positive clamp and negative ground I bolted to the chassi to avoid alternator noize!

My sills works great so far!
My friend who used to work for the MB dealership helped me to install them I guess he knew what he was doing.
He worked by beating up busted panels on cars and did electrical work
 
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Not doubting you for a minute , but the instructions on the OEM sills clearly state to pick up the live from XX fuse in the fusebox , and go into the earth on the doorswitch.

Were yours OEM or aftermarket , as aftermarket sills ( from formymercedes.com for example ) state to connect them in a different way to the OEM ones. They say to pick up a live from the loom in the door sill.

OEM instructions detail what wire to pick up on in the door pillar .
 
Just seen this thread, PM replied to, but its not much help. I didnt read or retain the instructions as I have puddle lights so I was able to take the live feed from there.

If I didnt, i think I would have run the feed from the OH Panel as those lights are fed by the same circuit.
 
Not doubting you for a minute , but the instructions on the OEM sills clearly state to pick up the live from XX fuse in the fusebox , and go into the earth on the doorswitch.

Were yours OEM or aftermarket , as aftermarket sills ( from formymercedes.com for example ) state to connect them in a different way to the OEM ones. They say to pick up a live from the loom in the door sill.

OEM instructions detail what wire to pick up on in the door pillar .

mine are aftermarket.
IIRC correct there were no instructions on the box?
I had to ask around how to install them suckerz.
I know it may be bad for them doorsills to be connected directly to the battery therefore I used fuses between sill and battery.

After installment I noticed I had an alternator sound, it was very annoying when the noise speeds up with the transmission changing gear!
It turned out that power loom from doorsills was to close my cars stock loom picking up noise.
I had to remove and reinstall the wireloom from doorsills and put them further away from stock loom!

Lesson learned do a great job on doorsill wireloom install from the very first beginning, otherwise your car will sound like a compressor car, whining!
Annoying when you drive.
 
Today,

I fitted my illuminated sills:bannana:, it was straightforward and a big thank you to Howard and Mark for your advice, my set was an aftermarket one so your advice was well appreciated.

I earthed them via my door switches which was easy and I spliced and joined the wires instead of using scotchloks and used bullet connectors for the constant live, it is much easier and looks very tidy.

The only hard part was the actual fitting of the sills as the previous ones were stuck on and took a bit of teasing before they came off, sadly I couldn't take pictures to post as I forgot to bring a camera with me:wallbash:
 
Good work !!!

It's satisfying knowing you have done it properly isn't it !! :bannana:
 
Good work !!!

It's satisfying knowing you have done it properly isn't it !! :bannana:
In the words of Father Jack 'Oooooooooooooooh yesssssssssss! However I wish I had the camera with me, that is one regret I do have :doh:
 

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