amgkoo

I bought the illuminated door sills from Jerry at formymercedes.com. It comes with 4 "replacement" sills that are illuminated by EL. So it's not some cheap stick onto the factory sill type. The fit and finish are really good. The kit however doesn't come with a installation instruction so i will share my installation experience. It is not too hard to install the sills. I spent about 30 minutes installing the front ones and i will install the rear ones over the weekend. The following instruction is for reference only and I am not responsible for anything that happens to your car as a result of you doing this. (that means, do it at your own risk. ) I assume that you have some basic knowledge of electrical wiring if you want to do the installation yourself, so I am not going to explain how to use the test light, etc..


These are all the tools that I have used.



Start from the driver side, pull off the door trim next to your factory door sill by pulling it upwards. Then you pull off the black plastic cover (yours might be different color) also by pulling it up. The black plastic cover is held in place by two metal clips. Pushing the carpet towards the seat will reveal a black plastic channel that holds all the wiring. Pop that open and use something to hold it open (as you can see in the picture, I used a black AC vent that I have removed to hold it in place). Then you use your test light to try and find a constant 12V power source (that means you get power even when the key is not in the ignition switch). I use the test light and probed the Red wire with yellow strip and found it to be a constant 12V so I have decided to use that wire. You can use a tap splice like the blue one shown in the picture to connect the red wire from the EL transformer to the Red wire with yellow strip.




Next you will have to locate the door switch as shown in the picture. Pull out a black plastic AC vent that is near the door switch (it is the one that I used to hold the black wire channel open in the last step) Then pull out the door trim to locate the wiring for the door switch. You will see a brown wire and a brown wire with white strip taped together by some sort of fabric tape. Pull the wires out and carefully cut the tape apart to separate the two wires.


You want to connect the black wire from the EL transformer to the brown wire with white strip. Since the black wire on the EL transformer is not long enough, you need to get a piece of wire that is about 3 feet long (mine is the blue wire in the picture). Then you can use a tap splice to connect the extension wire to the brown wire with white strip.


And then, just use a butt splice connector to connect the extension wire to the black wire on the transformer.


Now connect the EL transformer to your illuminated door sill. Your illuminated door sill should light up. Press the door switch and see if it turns the illuminated door sill off. After you make sure that everything works, hide the transformer into the black wire channel. Remove the original door sill by pulling it upward. It is held down by three white plastic clips. If you do this right, you will remove the factory door sill and reveal three holes. Wipe the area clean using something alcohol based. Remove the protective backings on the 3M tapes at the back of the illuminated door sill. Use the three plastic guides on the back of the illuminated door sill and fit them into the three holes. Press the illuminated door sill down and make sure that it seats securely.


Put everything back to where they were before. Use the door trims to conceal the wires. After that is done, it will look like it came from the factory. No drilling involved!



Remove the white protective films on the top of the illuminated door sill to reveal the brushed steel trim. Installation for the driver side is now complete.


The Passenger side is a little bit more difficult. There is no wire channel at the same location to find a 12V source. So you will have to remove the plastic panel beneath your glove compartment (you just need to remove two screws and then pull it down), and find your 12V power source towards the back corner. I found myself a red wire with green strip as shown in the picture. Again, you use a tap splice to connect an extension wire to the red wire with green strip. Run the extension wire behind / beneath all the trims and connect it to the red wire on the EL transformer. Everything else is the same as the driver side.




Now enjoy your illuminated door sills.

t-bone

Awesome writeup.

LIONHEAD

Very Nice...got mine also from formymercedes about a year now and get alot of compliments at night.

TPAbnz

Thanks for the great write-up. For whatever reason, no one has wanted to post instructions on the install.

Great job.

AMGfan

Thx for the write-up and pics...TPAbnz...MB of Tampa is asking 600 large for the install.

TPAbnz

And that's only for the front two!!

tymlesE500

thanks for the great write up. I am getting mine is soon. just wondering if you are going to post for the back two as well. thanks

amgkoo

I'll do a write-up on the rear sill installation once I get a chance to install the rear sills. I think the installation will be about the same except that the 12V source is probably beneath the rear seats.

tymlesE500

sounds great. i'll be looking forward to the post.

NitroShredder

amgkoo, nice job.. i have a set of door sills i bought like 2 years ago... STILL in the box.... I TRIED it once... but tore up a perfectly good sill thinking the wires were UNDER the sill......

Thanks for the nice DIY!!! I began disassemling my e500 today... I think I can pull it off.... once the air vent is out... everything is ultra simple.... well except for the sills...

How did you remove the sills? I am afraid to tear up another door sill... they have adhesive and are mounted to a bracket? So I need to save the OEM brackets/clips to mount to the new sill (my EL sills already have 2 sided tape on them... but nothing else).

Thanks
Pete

amgkoo

Just pull the sills up from the sides. There are two/three (three for the front ones, two for the rear ones) white posts/clips beneath the factory sills that keeps the sills in place. If you pull the factory sills up correctly, the white posts will still stay with the factory sills. If they come off, you can just slide them back. Also, you don't need to save the factory posts/clips to mount your aftermarket EL sill.

NitroShredder

So the aftermarket sills do NOT need the "clips" to mount in.. they are held on by the 2-sided tape only? That was my biggest worry (though I should be fearful of playing with the wires =)

Pete

amgkoo

The aftermarket sills should have three posts (three in the front, two for the rear ones) at the bottom where you insert into the holes where the factory posts/clips used to go. After you put the door trims back, they will also press down against the side of the door sills that is closer to the cabin, helping to keep the sills in place. Your EL door sills might be different from mine since I don't know where you purchased yours from.

oblax4

You sent me this link the other day, and I wanted to thank you again. The guy at the shop that will install these next week was also very impressed with your write-up, though he said "the only change that I will make is that I won't use rusty pliers!" - hah! I also told Jerry ad ForMyMercedes.com about your instructions - he was all excited and asked me to forward the link to him, which I did. Great job with this!

NitroShredder

Thanks dude.... mine doesn't have any posts in it.. just the 2-side tape... I will into "transplanting" the clips/fasteners from the OEM to my aftermarket one. Don't remember WHERE I bought it.... was like 2 years ago =-)

tymlesE500

this has been on of the most informative posts yet. thanks for all of the info. so how did the rears go? if you don't mind can i get some info on how to do those? am am getting the same sills as you. thanks

shtsai

thanks for the info.
I will receive my sill this week. Amgkoo would you might post the instruction for the rear ?? Thanks

amgkoo

Ok, here is the rear illuminated door sill installation instruction. I have been too lazy to write something up. :p But here you go:



First, you have to remove your rear seat. There are two indents beneath your rear seat, one on each side (the blue arrow shows one of them). You just need to push the tap in and lift the seat up.

I will start with the passenger side:


After you removed your rear seat, you will see a sheet of black insulation material. Lift up the black insulation material and you will see that the panel next to your rear seat that needs to be removed is held down by a black nut. Remove the black nut and then pry out the small trim locking pin.




Pull out the panel next to your rear seat like shown in the picture. Also pull out your door trim, and the black plastic panel near your factory door sill.



Locate the door switch as shown in the picture. You want to connect the black wire from the EL transformer to the brown wire that is closer to the body panel like shown in the picture. Since the black wire from the EL transformer is not long enough, you need to get a piece of wire that is about 3 feet long (mine is the blue wire in the picture). Use a tap splice to connect the extension wire to the brown wire. Then use a butt splice connector to connect the extension wire to the black wire from the EL transformer.


Near the factory door sill, you will find a black wire channel like the one in the front driver side. You will find a red wire with orange strip. This was my choice of constant 12 volt power source. Use your test light to confirm since the color code of your wires might be different from mine. Use a tap splice and connect the red wire from the EL transformer to the red wire with orange strip. Connect the Illuminated door sill to the EL transformer and see if it works. If it does, just install it the same way you install the front door sills.

Now you can install the rear driver side sill. Everything is the same as the rear passenger side except the location of a constant 12V power source.

Lifting up the black insulation material on the driver side will reveal many wires. Again, use the test light to locate a constant 12V source. I used a solid red wire next to a red wire with yellow strip (Note: this red wire w/ yellow strip is not constant 12V).


Again, use a tap splice connector and connect the red wire from the EL transformer to this red wire as shown in the picture. Install the illuminated door sill like you did with the other ones. Put everything back in reverse order. This is it. Enjoy!

NitroShredder

amg, thanks a billion. Yesterday afternoon I undertook this DIY with this thread printed out with my father (an auto repair vet of 40+ years... he's the best!).

I now have a set of Ill. Door sills... turns out my sills didn't come with clips and didn't have a "slot" for them... but they seem plenty secure with the supplied 2-way tape.

We did do some "slight modification" since the passenger side front didn't have a wire of the same color you mentioned (I think red with green strip).. instead we tapped a red/white wire and got the 12v constant.

We didn't tackle the rear yet... since I couldn't get the pics of the rear install to download... and it was like 98 degrees here yesterday... this fall when it cools down below 90 we'll install the rear sills.

But thanks for the great write up!!!

Too bad there's no 12v constant in the door switch... THAT would have been a piece of cake to install... ESP for the passenger side.

Peace!

TPAbnz

It's a shame that the vendors who sell these after-market sills don't want to step up to the plate with install instructions??? It leaves me to think they are defective in some manner.

But this DIY is great. Thanks.

steph280

I agree, great write up. I've putting off getting these sills because of the horror stories I heard from people having difficulties. These pictures sure make things easier.

You buying a house in Woodbury?

tymlesE500

thanks again for all of the info. still some of the best info i go yet.

amgkoo

Man, you have good eyes. I have been looking.

aceman

AMGKoo...

Awesome post, i put my drivers sill in tonite, your instructions were spot on except for a couple of things to point out.

1. The color of the striped cable on the door switch is brown with yellow stripe

2. When removing the black plastic interior door sill if you will, start by pulling up from it in the rear, then the middle. The front part of it should not be pulled up. Once you have the 2 rear most positions up, pull the plastic piece towards the REAR of the car. I pulled the front clip up and broke it.

3. Wire taps - the AWG size on wiring from the EL transformers is VERY thin. i was concerned my taps wouldn't puncture the insulation so i just bent the prestripped part back over itself & inserted in the tap, worked ok but will keep an eye on it.

4. I'm concerned that the wire coming off the sill, when it crosses over the metal lip that the weather strip channel fits over, may over time get cut - the wire's that thin. i put some tape around it but in escence bulked it up a bit. Curious where you / how you crossed that lip. I was tempted to drill a hole in the lip.

Again, THANK YOU VERY MUCH - you made this EXTREMELY EASY.

Finally, I also purchased these from Jerry at formymercedes.com. He has to be one of the nicest,straight forward vendors i've ever dealt with. If you're going to do this mod and haven't bought the sills yet - call him and get them. they ad a nice touch for $ 160 bucks and a couple hours tops.

Aceman

aceman

As per amgkoo's instructions.

For the fronts:
Front drivers side = tap into brown/yellow stripe
Front pass side = tap into brown/white stripe

Aceman