Hi All- I have some flat led lights from another project and I had an idea for them. I would like to drill a small hole in the bottom of my side mirrors and glue the light inside the mirror pointing down super easy. The challenge is that I want to tie them power into the cabin lights. So when I unlock or open the door the light goes on. I figured I could just piggy back on the wires for the power mirrors but where do I connect to the cabin lights? Any help is appreciated.

Please excuse the dirty ride...

the size of the led

 

So I am thinking this is the circuit I need to tie into. Anyone?

 

Why not just tie them into the puddle light already in the door?

 

That would make sense but my LR3 SE does not have them. Do you know if the wiring is there just not the light on SE?

 

Does your door card have a square/rectangle cutout in the bottom of it?

 

My SE has them on all 4 doors, strange that yours doesn't, i would expect the wiring to be in the doors already so you could add them by either cutting the holes or replacing the cards if you wanted them.

 

There is a chance the wiring is there for those lights on the bottom of the door and with a CCF edit they may be able to activate. The truck does monitor those, like other lamps, for operation (burnt out, etc). With that said, I am not sure if they illuminate with the door closed. Traditionally the puddle lights in mirror come on when unlocked. They also do not come on when the vehicle is in drive. The mirrors themselves have an outline on the bottom for fitting factory light fixtures similar to those on the bottom of the door, but they are different. So there may be some way to wire them to the central junction box and activate them so they work as they should but I never looked into myself.

 

I did this some years ago. Describing it makes it sound easy, but in practice it can be frustrating. The wire for the puddle light is most likely NOT there in the mirror. There are wires for the motor and probably the heated mirror (depending on trim level) but there is no extra wire for the puddle light.

There is a 1/8 - 5/16 diameter tube with 2 seperate 90 degree bends that the wires go through. This tube is necessary to allow the mirror to swivel. I found it impossible to get any type of lead in there to pull a new wire as the current wires pretty much filled up the tube. So I had to devise a new plan.

Once the mirror is off of the car, you need to remove the mirror (it is just snapped on the adjustment motor) as the glass comes off there will be a wire for the heated mirror. I cut the spade connector off and soldered a small wire to that wire, pulled it back through the two 90 degree bends and then soldered an additional wire that I pulled back to get power to the puddle light. Use some wire lubrication that the electricians or or just liquid dish soap to help them move through the tube Do not use WD 40 as that could eventually rot the insulation on the wires.

Once those easy steps are completed run the single power wire down the door the the small connector for the under door puddle lights. While you are at it you may as well add the lights under the door for even more night time illumination

Hope this helps
Jeff