Illuminated Door Sills Installation / Retrofit DIY

[Fantasmos]

I've decided to combine a guide to install illuminated sills yourself. It is not completed since I've just finished the rear ones but I will update this post once I am done with the front too. The official info about the installation PDF is attached here. However, it relies on the fact that you have the ready made harnesses for the sills. However, having in mind it's price I guess you will be buying just the sill pieces from ebay like I did or other source so you need to do the harness yourself.

Note: If you have the very basic plastic sills - they are embedded in the main piece and cannot be replaced. If you have the brushed aluminum ones, they can be replaced with the illuminated ones easily.

First, once I got them, I checked if they are working just fine and yey, they are

Second, you need to prepare the harness. Each side has common ground and then you get the positive wire from each door's connector. There is a simple and a “like stock” way to do it. On the side of the sill, you can just cut the sill’s end and use whatever two wire connector for cars you want. You can even solder it or tape it - it’s a led light - plus, ground -> lights on. However, I’ve decided to find the actual connector and make it stock. Of course, that took some time, research and multiple wrong pins ordered…

Link to the connector: 20pcs/lot 1-929080-5
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EJ7tsKy
Link to the pins: 5-928999-1
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EyFS1FS

You need good quality 22AWG silicon wire too. Get a proper silicon wire, don't buy cheap stuff.

On the other end, each cable has ground (standard pin) and one of these that must go into the door connector (male):
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EGG84cY

Of course, you need a good set of crimpers. If yku haven’t done this - get more pins, you will mess few but watch an YT video or two and you will become master in no time.

Now, the fun begins with removing the lower piece of the B trim. You pull the lower end inwards toward the seat and then the whole thing down. Here's an an amazing illustration made by me

Next, you need to remove the back seat. You pull the front up. Don't worry you can't break anything. Pull the front, lift it, needle through the third seat belt and do not unplug any connectors. Just move it away a bit from the side you're working.

Now that you have access to the rear sill, first pull it a bit from the B pillar and then lift UP. Do this carefully wince there are clips there but don't over stress - it's a very hard and flexible plastic. Once you lift it, the metal piece of the sill that you need to replace will be accessible. You can easily do that with your fingers or screwdriver. Note, that you will need to move away the rubber door insulation but don't remove it completely, just untuck the sill from it. Don't remove the rearmost part of the sill, just lift it up and you will get access to the ground. It's a standard 10mm socket, unscrew it and link your ground wire there.

Now, when you do the harness, link the both ground wires there since the front door doesn't have a separate ground wire. Just link the two on the same pin and tie them there. leave a longer ground wire for the front - you will crimp it once you start working on the front sills later on.

Tuck the two wires, click your cable to the the sill and put everything but the piece you removed first together. Needle the red (positive) wire through the door and let it stay there. Now you need to unplug the door connector.

Open the door and remove it from the outside. You need to pull the lock up and then outwards.

Once you unplug the connector, push the other end inside the pillar. Use your fingers to press both ends to unlock and then inwards.

Now from inside the vehicle, slide the piece of the connector that protects the pin. It's difficult to explain. Unclip it and slide it. Just take a look at it for few minutes and don't break it.

Once you gain access to it, plug in on Pin 9. and clip it back together. Make sure you hear the clicking noise from the pin when you add it to the connector. Put everything back together and go get your remote. Close the door, lock the car, unlock the car and then open it. Sills should work just fine The sills should illuminate when you open the door and fade out when you close it.



At the end of this part you should have working rear end sills and a black ground wire tucked away for the front sills. Next, we will have to get power from the front end (Pin 2) but there will be more disassembling because the connector is much harder to get access to. I hope to do it next weekend

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[Nrgy]

Thanks for the write up and the timing is perfect for me! My car arrives at the end of the month and I regret not ordering the CF lighted sills and was planning to tackle this project. Looking forward to your write up on the front ones as well.

 

[DerekS]

To add something tangential to this thread…

I had a lit sill get damaged during a repair. I bought a replacement and the dealer was able to pop out the old insert, plug in the new one and snap it in easily.

So once you have the harness in place it’s an easy replacement.

 

[Fantasmos]

Yes, the decorative pieces are definitelly on the soft side so you have to be careful with them when you pop the sill back in.

 

[Visie]

Have you already done the front ones?

I ordered my 4S completely as I wantend but overlooked the door sills. Everything is blacked out except the door sills.
I found some second hand black ones on eBay but never put them in because it looked hard to do.
But do I really need to disassemble every thing to take the original ones out? Or can I just carefully pop them out? ??
Hope you can help me. Maybee you have pictures? ?

 

[cryingfreeman86]

Hello,

First of all, thank you very much for the great instructions. I was able to get the back light to light up without any problems, but pin 2 on my front connector is occupied by a blue wire. I mean the connector shown in the diagram in the manual. Or is the correct one not shown in the diagram at all? Does anyone have any advice?

Best regards,

Michi

 

[T1000AJ]

Have you done the fronts yet, done my rears no issue, just about to do the fronts but looks a lot more challenging getting access to front connector from inside ?

 

[Gachnar]

Thanks for the info on the rears. I did this retrofit yesterday. I'd done this before on my Macan. The rears as noted are pretty easy to do stock.

The one mistake I made was taking off more of the trim than I needed to on the first side, where I removed the entire front trim piece and pulled the rear one mostly out. It's easier if you stop once you can get to the ground point it makes it easier to get it all lined up and back together. Just make sure all the clips are in the trim and take your time. When removing, work out from the B pillar, and when putting it back work toward the B pillar. The rear trim attaches to the front, so don't full reinstall until you finish with the fronts.

I used the Suncoast kit which had the wire harness. It just uses the rear ground and has pins for both doors. I couldn't find a good guide on getting to the front harness, so for now I just tapped into the footwell lights. It means they don't fade out individually, but they still come on when you open the door. If I locate the full instructions I'll go back and redo it to stock.

 

[T1000AJ]

Thanks for the info on the rears. I did this retrofit yesterday. I'd done this before on my Macan. The rears as noted are pretty easy to do stock.

The one mistake I made was taking off more of the trim than I needed to on the first side, where I removed the entire front trim piece and pulled the rear one mostly out. It's easier if you stop once you can get to the ground point it makes it easier to get it all lined up and back together. Just make sure all the clips are in the trim and take your time. When removing, work out from the B pillar, and when putting it back work toward the B pillar. The rear trim attaches to the front, so don't full reinstall until you finish with the fronts.

I used the Suncoast kit which had the wire harness. It just uses the rear ground and has pins for both doors. I couldn't find a good guide on getting to the front harness, so for now I just tapped into the footwell lights. It means they don't fade out individually, but they still come on when you open the door. If I locate the full instructions I'll go back and redo it to stock.

Where is the feed from the footwell lights... is it easy to access ?

 

[Gachnar]

Very easy to get to. The lights I used are just popped into the felt in the footwells, you can pop the couple pins to loosen the felt so you can tuck the wire. I used splices so I just removed some tape to get to the red wire, attached the spice, and then retaped it and plugged it in after I crimped on the connector for the splice.

 

[T1000AJ]

Just did same, works as you said, they come on when door opens, but on my car they remain on permanently with door shut etc, they only go off when you exit and lock car.

I try and make some time this week to figure out how to remove the fuse box assembly etc to get hand access up the front connector

 

[987fanatic]

Hi!

I'd love to know what you ended up doing.

My back sills are dented and would like to replace them for new ones, but only if it is a quick swap.

Do you know if it is easy to do? Just pop them out and replace or do I need to remove all of those back pieces in the B trim and so on?

Thanks

 

[kif]

I was wondering if anyone has figured out a method to access the front connector. Did back last night and that was pretty straight foward. cryingfreeman86 said pin 2 on his connector was occupied, perhaps he or someone else can let us know how they got to that connector. Is removing the glove box possibly a way to get access.?

 

[al02car]

I did the front and backs today, so big thank you for the guide it made doing the back easy... the front was harder but do able, front passenger was the easiest out of the two front.

Let me see if I can post a few pic... first time so please be nice.

So for me to fit my hand up and behind the fuse box I need to remove these two connectors, once done I was able to disconnect the front door connector and pull them though to the cabin do I could insert my cable into PIN 2.

 

[al02car]

Driver side was harder you need to disconnect 6 cable/connectors and the top of the fuse box slides left (uk spec) which after digging through the soft foam it should give you access to the back of the door connector block... but this took me 20min being careful on pulling the connector in to the cab, connect PIN 2 and put everything back... to do all four took me most of the day But very happy with the results, got mine off ebay carbon versions.

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