LED Door light project

[gregs]

Thought I would post up a couple of pics of my latest project. These all run through the door switches and turn off when the door is shut (except the big barn door as it turns on when any door is opened).

I have made detailed instructions that I will hopefully get to putting up late in the weekend. I also have lots of pics to go with them.


Cheers

Greg

[gregs]

Well here it is, my Door led strip light project that I have been trying to complete for the past couple of weeks in between rain, the vehicle at the panel beaters (an issue between me and a rock…the rock won!!), work etc etc etc.

I have wanted to do this for a while now, so all the bits were purchased or found in the shed, garage or anywhere else they were hiding.

This was all done on a 2012 crd auto patrol wagon. I have not attempted this on any other patrol at this stage so I cannot and will not make any assumptions of it working or the wires being the same across the models. If anyone else has a go at this we can add it to the list of vehicles. I have written these out for others and to hopefully make it easier for them to do, I am not qualified, nor do I have a degree, so for anyone attempting this project please use common sense and observe all safety regulations (if any).

These instructions are (or whatever you want to call them) are quite long but as you do the doors (if you take this project on) you will see it is actually easy. I do apologise for it being longwinded but as some may appreciate it does take a lot to explain things in writing and I wanted to get down as much as possible to hopefully make it easier for others.

I don’t think I have left anything out but if you do find something please let me know and I can change it.

BITS REQUIRED LIST
5050 waterproof LED strip lights cut to required lengths. 2 x 300mm for back doors and 2 x 500mm for front doors (I am experimenting with a 500mm one on the passenger side rear door to see if it gives a better spread of light as it comes up the back of the door a bit whereas the others are just on the bottom of the door)
(Plus a 200mm length for the small barn door if you are going to do this as well)

2 x 30m rolls of 3mm automotive wire in red (I used green as that is all they had) and black single core (with twin core I believe there would be too much wastage and stuffing around) I got these rolls as I can use the rest of the wire for other jobs but if you have some scrap wire around that you can use then go for it but the wire doesn’t need to be any bigger in size.

3M double sided tape x 1 roll (this is only if you want to stick the lights to this then onto the door, I am trying both methods to see what stays on longer)

Electrical tape x 1 roll

Heat shrink x 1 pkt (about 8mm dia from memory)

Crimp terminals -4 x 4mm blue ring terminals (to connect power to fused block) (+1 if doing small barn door)
-8 x male blade terminals (to join wires in door) (+1 if doing small barn door)
-8 x female blade terminals (to join wires in door) (+1 if doing small barn door)
-3 x 6.35mm male blade terminals (cut in half along join, to insert into white plug) (+1 if doing small barn door)
-1 x red female joiner (to connect earth wires for driver’s door)
-12 x 2.8mm red female blade terminals (for bridging wire and for earth wire from door switch to LED) (+2 if doing small barn door)

Cable ties x 1 pkt (150mm)

If you are adding a light to the small barn door then the additional items req are in the brackets in blue

*NOTE*
I purchased a 5m strip light (5050) and got it cut down into the sizes that I required and 200mm of wire soldered on to each section of strip light, it did cost me more but as I can’t solder really small stuff it was worth it.

All the power wires for these led door lights come directly from a 12 blade fuse block under the driver’s quarter panel and have 4mm blue ring terminals crimped to them.

The big barn door led is powered from a 6 fuse block beside the rear drawers
All lights are all separately fused.

I could have run one wire to each side then bridged into it for power to the 2nd row doors but I wanted to keep all the circuits separate from each other.

All LED earths have to go back through each appropriate door switch.

Make sure all wiring is secured with cable ties where it won’t rub and short out and are away from all seat belt mechanisms.

THE BEGINNING. To start off I had to find out how the door switch was wired in so I started off with the driver’s side rear door first (don’t know why I just did). After unscrewing the switch from the pillar and only finding one wire I went about playing with different ideas of bridging out wires, terminal posts and the like until I figured out how I was going to do this.
After I figured the switch out and what terminals to bridge across I started to pull the patrol apart to start wiring it all up.

Here is what I did….

DRIVERS SIDE REAR DOOR

1. Remove door switch, disconnect plug from switch (this side has a little more wire with it so it comes out a little further making it is easier to get apart than the passenger side). Make a small bridging wire to go between the white female plug and the black door switch (if you do all the doors you will only make 3 of these, as the driver’s door is different). I used small (2.8mm) red female blade crimp terminals for this job and it made it very easy to do but I did have to cut a blue male blade (6.35mm) crimp terminal in half (these have a groove down the middle that I cut along) Have a look at the photos, hopefully it will be a little clearer.

*NOTE* At a push a 6.35mm female blade crimp terminal might go across and join both the male terminals in the door switch but it is not ideal and I like the security of having the 2 terminals, but a 6.35mm terminal won’t fit securely onto the third male terminal in the door switch as the crimp terminal is too big and has to sit at an angle (maybe a 4.8mm might fit but I don’t have any to test this theory, I suppose if you wanted to you could file/cut away the surrounding plastic to allow the crimp terminal to fit or wires to be soldered on but I had the correct terminals so I couldn’t be bothered.

2. Remove kick panel and peel back door seal on both sides of back door (I left it in place at the top and put it through the grab handle or rested it over the front seat, but removing it may be easier), remove seat belt bolt cover and undo seat belt bolt (ours needed a 14mm socket), remove plastic seat belt clip and gently pull out cover over wheel arch so as to make it easier to get to white plug and to run wire through to door switch (I wedged a block of wood in here to hold the gap open).

3. Remove panel covering lower half of “B” pillar, this cover will come out easier if you remove the small cover over the driver’s seat rear mount.

4. Connect up bridging wire to door switch and to white plug (I wrapped elect tape around the end so the terminal cannot fall out) See pics on how this was done.

5. Run out length of wire required for earth of LED (remembering that this wire has to reach the strip light in the door and needs to go through the rubber boot between the door and the body) and cut to required length, and I always make sure I have a little more than what I need just in case. Crimp a small female red blade terminal to one end, feed this wire through holes (under wheel arch panel) where switch wires were and push this onto 3rd male terminal in black door switch. Gently feed white plug and earth wire for LED back through hole and screw door switch back into original position making sure no wires are caught anywhere and the seal around the switch is properly fitted. Secure white plug with a cable tie or a bit of elect tape as it can flop around behind the panel.

6. Gently ease out the rubber boot that the wires run through between the door and the body, this allows you to feed the earth and power wires through easier.

7. Run earth wire under wheel arch panel, under door kick plate, and up ‘B’ pillar and feed out through hole in body where rubber boot was (leave dangling for the moment). Now you need to work out where you want power to come from for the lights as you will need to feed both the earth and power wires through the rubber boot together. To get the wires through the rubber boots I used a piece of tie wire about 2mm thick and about 2 ½ feet long, gently feed the tie wire through the boot being careful not to puncture a hole in the side (as it is soft rubber), you have to wiggle the tie wire and the rubber boot so it goes through easier, after coming out other end leave enough tie wire so the power and earth wires can be taped to it (taping it to the last couple of inches is usually fine). Start to pull the tie wire through the boot leaving enough cable inside the pillar so it can all be cable tied securely (to make it easier to pull through the rubber boots you can spray wires with a silicone spray, WD 40 or crc) . When the wires have come through the rubber boot separate the tie wire from the wires as you will not need the tie wire until the next door. Now go back and secure the earth wire with cable ties from the switch through to the rubber boot at the ‘B’ pillar. *NOTE* make sure the wires do not come in contact with the seat belt mechanisms, this goes for the other side as well. If you follow the original wiring loom there should be no issues.

8. Feed wires through hole in door left by rubber boot making sure they are not too tight and let them dangle inside the door and refit rubber boot to both door and body.

9. Remove door trim…To remove the door trim firstly you have to remove the armrest cover and elect window switch (if you have this), to do this push up at back of the soft arm rest cover (closest to door catch), this will probably require a little bit of force as it is pretty tight. Once you have managed to unclip this end, hold onto the armrest cover and pull back gently (towards the door catch), this will slide the arm rest cover out from its hole, place it to the side (where it won’t get damaged). To remove the elect window switch undo screw in door handle (hollow in arm rest), lift up at rear and pull back gently and the front section of the armrest with the elect window switch should come out. Disconnect window switch and place this cover to the side. Remove plastic surround from door opener (I used a flat bladed screwdriver). Undo the 3 large screws (that you can now see as the armrest covers have been removed) securing the centre of the door trim to the door. Unclip door trim from door (I used a screwdriver or wedged it out with my fingers but if you have a door trim removal tool all the better as this can save the paintwork, and or damaging the door trim). Once all the clips are out grab the trim near the top and gently push the door trim upwards so it slides out from beside the window. Place to one side. Remove the speaker (this will make it easier to wire up the strip light).

10. Remove paper from back of strip light to expose the double sided tape that the light came with (if you don’t have this use (12mm) 3m double sided tape, I have used both methods to test which one works best) and fit LED strip light to bottom of door (or where you want it). I lined up a slot in the bottom of the door with the wire just so it is tucked out of the way.

11. Run positive wire to fused distribution block (or wherever the power is to come from). I used a 4mm ring terminal on all the power wires at the fused distribution block.

12. Before connecting it all up permanently check to see if it all works properly.
Bare a bit of wire on the ends (at door) and twist the pos wires together and the neg wires together making sure the pos and neg do not touch each other (the wires on our lights were a solid grey for positive and grey with a white stripe for negative, if you are soldering your own wires to the strip lights you may wish to use a red and black wire, but it doesn’t really matter). Once you have it connected put a 5 or 10amp fuse in, the door light should come on, now push the door switch to see if the light goes out, it should (and the interior light should go off as well if there are no other doors open), if it doesn’t…have you re-installed the door switch!! It won’t work as it should without it screwed back into place.

13. Now if you have it working properly, remove the fuse at the fuse holder. Once this is done then you can cut the wires to the right length (I left them slightly longer as it makes them easier to join). Before joining them, feed them through the small slotted hole near the speaker and slide a piece of heat shrink over both the wires to protect them from the edges of the hole (you may need to put the heat shrink over the wires already attached to the strip light because when it is all done these might be the wires going through the hole, it depends on how long they are). Now slide another piece of heat shrink over each wire and join wires together using normal size blade terminals (I used these so I can easily replace the lights if needed), slide heat shrink back over joins and heat up so it shrinks and seals the connections and keeps them together (or you can use elect tape if you want!). Now route the wires so they are neat, and secure the wires inside the door with cable ties to the existing wiring loom but make sure that they are clear of the window when it is in the down position.

I put a dob of silicone under the wire at a couple of places to hold it, it is up to the you if you want to do this. WARNING ** When heating up heat shrink be careful around the clear dust cover and the silicone seal, as it can melt. **

14. If you are now happy with it go ahead and re-fit the fuse back into the holder, check light to see if it still works as it should, go ahead and re-fit the speaker, door trim and all the bits in the reverse order you removed them. When re-fitting the elect door switch (this goes back in first and then the soft cover) drop the front down first then slide it forwards, it will slip into place then you can drop the back of it down and re-install the screw. The armrest cover (the soft bit) is the same process, drop the front down and slip it under the switch part then push down at the back, give it a gentle tap with the soft part of your hand (it should go into place easily)

15. Now that everything is back together (with the rear door anyway), I put a small dob of silicone under the wires from the light, just to make it more secure.

PASSENGER SIDE DOORS

16. The passenger side doors are pretty much the same as the driver’s side rear door in that the switch and plug only have one wire and so need to have the bridging wire made up.
The positive wires for these doors are run directly from the fused distribution board and are cable tied securely to existing wiring looms so as to not rub through and short out

PASSENGER SIDE REAR DOOR.

17. Just follow the same procedure for the driver’s side rear door. After the plastic seat belt clip and the seat belt bolt were removed, the cover was prised open and was kept this way with a block of wood so I could get to the white plug. The door switch on the passenger side rear door doesn’t have much movement as the wire is too short so you will have to be careful in getting the plug apart. There is also a white plastic cover that is easily removed from the inside of the ‘B’ pillar under the panel cover on this side, removing this allows better access to the rubber boot. Be sure to re-fit this cover before re-fitting the cover panel over the lower section of the B pillar. Cable tie the wires securely to make sure they won’t rub and short out, especially near the seat belt mechanism!!

PASSENGER SIDE FRONT DOOR
18. The door switch is the same as the rear door, but to get the wires through the ‘A’ pillar takes a bit more care as there are quite a few wires surrounding the hole that you have to go through. But it can be done with a little care and caution. Once the both the pos and neg wires are through follow the same procedure to pulling the door trim off as the rear door BUT there is also a small triangular black cover that sits at the front of the door on the inside, this needs to be removed first to get the door trim off. All you need to do is remove the small black plastic clip (I used a screwdriver for this clip) and prise the cover off (mine took a bit of force but it didn’t break and I did it by hand and not using any tools but a door trim removal type tool would have come in handy). Install LED light the same way as the other doors.

DRIVER’S DOOR.

19. This is where the fun was!!!!
The driver’s door switch has 3 wires coming into it (and as such caused a moment of panic), so I found which one I needed (red with yellow stripe) and bridged into it. I cut, and then joined the wires back together with the earth wire for the LED and put heat shrink over the top. I cable tied this wire along underneath the kick plate to the wiring loom already there and up past the distribution block, I roughly measured out how much I would need to reach the light in the door and cut the wire. With the power wire I left it on the roll until I needed to cut it when I hooked it to the distribution block.

20. Getting the wires through the ‘A’ pillar. There is a bolt that holds the rubber boot onto the ‘A’ pillar but on closer inspection of this there are a lot of wires and connector blocks in the way and no way to get a wire or 2 through (although I did try to undo the bolt but the door locks went ballistic, opening and closing, so I quickly did the bolt back up). But there was a solution…there is a small rubber/plastic grommet just below this so I went in here. I had to push and twist the wire so it “drilled” a small hole in the grommet, this took a little effort as there is not much space (you may want to get the grommet out and punch a hole in it or just leave it out, put the wires through and silicone the hole up, I suppose I did it the hard way!!). I could not get to this grommet from the inside as there are way too many wires and electrical bits in the way. You will have to go in from the outside, and once you poke it through you will need to straighten the wire out a little, and continue to do this until you can grab it from the inside, once you grab the tie wire pull it through until you are able to attach both the pos and neg wires with elect tape, lubricate a little and start to pull back through the grommet. I managed to get both wires back through (just be careful when pulling them through as the grommet will want to pop out as well. I put a finger each side of the wire coming out to hold the grommet in, the lubricant will help here. Pull the wires through enough to reach the strip light in the door.

21. Remove rubber boot at door and with the wires still attached to the tie wire, punch a small hole with the tie wire into the side of the rubber boot near the middle and feed the tie wire through until it comes out the bottom until you can grab the pos and neg wires.

22. Remove wires from tie wire and feed pos and neg wires into door, making sure you have enough to reach the light, re-fit rubber boot.

23. Silicone up where wires go through grommet into cabin and into rubber boot.

24. Now follow procedure for removal of door trim as per other side front door (including the triangular cover)

25. Install LED light and wire up as per other lights

26. Fit fuse to distribution block and check to make sure the driver’s door light is working correctly and check all the other lights are working as they should be. I always put fuses in last so there can be no sparkies….

27. Re-fit any panels etc.

28. Pack tools away.

29. Sit back and admire work…..with beverage in hand. (and a pair of sunnies)

COSTS for this project
5m roll of 5050 strip LED (cut to sizes and pre-wired) $105
Wire-I bought 2 rolls (1 black and 1 green. They didn’t have red) and $20 max
I still have plenty left over for other jobs
Heat shrink-(I had plenty of this laying around) $10 max
Terminals-(I already had these) $25 should be enough
Cable ties-pkt 150mm long (already had these) $5
Roll of 3M double sided tape $10
Roll of elect tape $2
TOTAL $177 approx

So for less than $200 you too can have a vehicle that can be seen from outer space.

SMALL BARN DOOR
If you decide to do this door as well then you will need to make another bridging wire. (parts list at top in blue)
Remove door trims and clear plastic dust cover, mount light into position and feed wires through small hole in bottom of door (under circular black sticker), remove switch and disconnect from plug, insert bridging wire and earth wire for strip light and tape up, refit switch, remove rubber boot from door and rear pillar, remove left hand light assembly (the one in the body, not the bumper), this has 2 bolts on the inside that you need to get to by removing the small panel on the inside near the back left hand corner, once bolts are out pull light out, it will take a little bit of effort and pulls out backwards (do not pull sideways as you could break the plastic lugs in the light!!). Run wire from power source (I ran mine from the fuse board at the front, under all kick plates down driver’s side, under wheel arch panel and across the back under the carpet near the kick panel then around through the passenger side rear pillar and into the rear light cavity, up through the rubber boot between the door and body into the door). Once wire is through rubber boot and is cable tied along the wiring loom in the rear quarter panel refit rubber boot, crimp terminals onto wires, slip a piece of heat shrink over wire and join terminals, slide heat shrink back over terminals and shrink. Cable tie wire/s securely and refit door trims. Check to see if light goes off by pressing switch in, if goes off then job is nearly complete, just need to silicone hole where wires for light go through small hole at bottom of door. Now job should be finished.

Vehicle list..I will update this as needed (when someone completes any or all door/s)

2012 GU ST wagon-all doors except big barn door

[gregs]

more pics uploaded

[gregs]

Small barn door

[gregs]

Reserved for later purposes

[Cbates]

looks awesome mate! be keen to do the same to mine!

[Winnie]

Like the look of this mate, what is the purpose though?

[NissanGQ4.2]

Like the look of this mate, what is the purpose though?

So one can see things *L*

They sell rear door kits on fleabay

Looks good Greg, would beat the standard lighting any day

[Winnie]

So one can see things *L*

Haha really!?
Nah I meant the ones on the insides of the doors.

It does make for some bloody good photos though

[NissanGQ4.2]

Haha really!?
Nah I meant the ones on the insides of the doors.

It does make for some bloody good photos though

So you can see the ground when you hop out @ night of course!

[MEGOMONSTER]

That looks great mate

[gregs]

Cbates, cheers mate.


KRISTOFFA, Mate I put these on so when I open the door or the missus or daughter opens the door/s then we can see what is below, also if we drop something then we can find it easier.


NissanGQ4.2

Looks good Greg, would beat the standard lighting any day

yeah mate it certainly lights up the area nicely.


MEGOMONSTER, thanks mate.



Cheers

Greg

[Clunk]

Look great mate, the old man has some on his Paj, they definitely make sense as its nice to see where your stepping when there's no street lights around...... there's been a couple of times up at their property where I've got out of the car only to find their dog has left a little welcome present for me to step in lol

[nickverms]

That looks great. when will the guide be up?

[rusty_nail]

looks great mate! very luxury!!!

[frenzy]

Nice work there mate.

[gregs]

Thanks guys. Hopefully the info will be up soon. I am trying to get it all in order...well as much as I can anyway.

Cheers

Greg

[scotty83]

Just showed my wife the photos and she said GO... This would have to be the first mod she has ever agreed with. not asking twice on this one. Just eagerly awaiting your thread updates.

[gregs]

Instructions are now up guys. It has taken a bit to get sorted out but hopefully they are understandable.

Cheers

Greg

[Silver]

So you can see the ground when you hop out @ night of course!

and so you can see what treasure fell out onto the ground by accident while you were dissembarking :-)

[AB]

That is a seriously detailed post mate...Well done!

[gregs]

AB, thanks mate. Took a while to do but I think it was worth it. Looks good at night too, and it keeps the missus happy (bit different from when I first started this project as she was like....what are you doing this for...blah..blah..blah...now she likes the lights as she can now see...)

Cheers

Greg

[Winnie]

Don't think I've ever seen a write-up that detailed, great job! Sure will help people out a lot who want to do this.

[AB]

Hi Greg, I have updated your first post with the helpful document you emailed me yesterday mate.

[frenzy]

Wow! What an awesome how to!!!! Top work!

[gregs]

Don't think I've ever seen a write-up that detailed, great job! Sure will help people out a lot who want to do this.

KRISTOFFA, thanks mate, I hope it does help others out (or it may just confuse the bejeezus out of them). This is the first time I have done something like this so I may have gone a bit over the top but I wanted to get as much written down as possible.

Cheers

Greg

[gregs]

Hi Greg, I have updated your first post with the helpful document you emailed me yesterday mate.

AB, thanks mate, greatly appreciated. Great idea with the pdf file too, people should be able to download it easily now and keep a copy for their reference later on.

Cheers

Greg

[gregs]

Wow! What an awesome how to!!!! Top work!

Thanks frenzy, I just hope everyone can understand it.

Cheers

Greg

[megatexture]

sweet set up mate and write up and awesome light output have you thought of running the led strips outside providing they are waterproof? say under the sidesteps/bumper and rig it to the doors and also a override switch so you can flick it on when off-road also ? be cheap rock light set up and then you don’t have the hassle of taking off door panels .

[gregs]

sweet set up mate and write up and awesome light output have you thought of running the led strips outside providing they are waterproof? say under the sidesteps/bumper and rig it to the doors and also a override switch so you can flick it on when off-road also ? be cheap rock light set up and then you don’t have the hassle of taking off door panels .

megatexture, mate I hadn't thought of doing anything on the outside but I do like the idea though......hmmmm......I will give it some thought over the next couple of weeks and see what I come up with, and yes the lights are waterproof.

Putting them inside a piece of clear water hose will protect them a bit more as well.

My missus is going to kill me if I go and put more lights on or around this vehicle...ah well...gotta go sometime!!!

Cheers

Greg

[kraza]

MATE,
Just read the post very, very impressive well done

Kraza

[gregs]

Kraza, thanks mate. I now appreciate the work that other's do when writing up this sort of thing, it's a lot of work when you don't know what you are doin'.

Cheers

Greg

[megatexture]

My missus is going to kill me if I go and put more lights on or around this vehicle...ah well...gotta go sometime!!!

Cheers

Greg

you can never have enough light ! just do it ! ill be ordering some strips asap looks a treat

[Waza]

Brilliant post mate, thanks for the effort.

Cheers

[Aldrich08]

Wow great idea.. Well I see this thing first time in life that someone install the light in door panels for just see the ground. The project is very good. where you got this idea about installing led's in panel. Thanks for sharing your project.

[red_spider]

great write up!