After finding a "how-to" on removing the door panels, I decided to take on this task this early evening. After struggling to get the door panel off, I realized that tapping into the door courtesy lights was going to be a major feat to accomplish. There was a protective steel covering that needed to be removed also for me to be able to snake the electrical wirings for the door sill. After much thought, I decided to go another route for a power source...the foot well lights! :rockon:

I removed both door sill plastic moulds. They were easy to remove. The driver's side just had snaps, while the passenger side had one screw underneath the rubber liner which lifts out.



I then removed the fuse box cover and 3 screws that held the surround in place. I then peeled off the carpet liner away just a bit so that I can route the door sill wiring towards the foot well light. Once done, I tapped to both wires of the courtesy light, making sure which one was HOT and which one of them was the ground.

The hardest part of the whole project was removing the old sill plates. I didn't care to ruin the old ones so I just forced it off after grabbing on to one corner. Applying adhesive remover to the adhesive that was left onto the car body took a lot of elbow grease but once done, I was able to put the new sills without any problems. Well worth it!



Vince

 

Looks awesome! I would love to do that mod. Very well done.

 

WOW, looks fantastic. Would love to see 'em in person.

Great idea on using the footwell lights :thumbup:

I am a little more nervous about removing the old sills and damaging them . . . especially in the event that I would wind up putting them back.

 

Looks great. Excellent work! You now need carbon fibre or leather inner side sills to match. The plastic piece looks out of place.

 

Vinnysca,

They look great! I have some scratches on my sills now I have a reason to change them out.
Was your wiring method the same as the method used in the Cayenne posting?
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...tallation.html

 

Boy, that was fast! Great post. I'd like more info on how you wired them in, as you didn't appear to do it the "normal" way that requires access into the doors. Any photos of the wiring?

Where did you get the illuminated sills? Nice job. I had them on my previous car (Targa) and loved the look.

 

There is definitely the possibility of damaging them. Those 3M adhesives stick like a *****! LOL. But, once you know you have a new one to replace them with, then it's no problem.

Vince

 

No. They are different. In fact, I received an email from Ryan from Suncoast with the Porsche installation instructions on the illuminated sills. OMG! It is so labor intensive!

Vince

 

Good idea! I wonder if Suncoast sells them?

Vince

 

I got the sills from Suncoast.com. I didn't take any pics of the wiring but I will describe them to you here:

The connector wire were ran along the sill edge under the carpet and frame towards the front of the car. I took the footwell lights off. Disconnected the connectors and tapped the wires using tapping tabs. Very easy. Then I tucked the wires safely away from view.

Vince.

 

Thanks. I have to wonder why the prescribed method is so complicated if yours works fine? Yours makes much more sense to me. Maybe, since the footwell lights can be controlled by the overhead switches, they wanted the sills to illuminate regardless of those switch settings. I still vote for your method. Good on ya for finding a simpler solution.

 

Nice job..Well done!!

 

That's a great question. Going the footwell lighting approach makes a lot of sense and certainly makes for a much simpler install. The only thing that comes to mind is that the current draw from the door sills is more than the curcuit for the floor lighting has the capacity to handle comfortably. Can anyone shed some light (pun intended ) on this ?

 

The floor lighting uses incandescent bulbs. If the sills use LEDs which I think they do, then the current draw is miniscule. On the order of 20 mA.

 

Welcome to the illuminated sills club! You'll like it here...especially at night. Great job on the install.


-Alex