When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
yeah the oem lights must have been the same as the door handles if they didn't change. I thought about making the the cupholder "polar" but said **** it, just make it all uniform.
the way it looks in these two pictures is amazing: one is a ML the other is a GLS, both taken from different threads
the way it looks in these two pictures is amazing: one is a ML the other is a GLS, both taken from different threads
I love the polar, and I was really tempted to wire that led on, but my OCD will eventually go nutzo with the mismatched colors. I remember in my dad's ML with ambient, I would always stick it on polar and end up going back to solar. I say this knowing at some point in the next year, I will probably get bored of solar and swap over to polar. In hindsight, should have put in a small 3 way mechanical switch on each trim piece and hidden it to engage the other 2 colors. Now that's REALLY some redneckin'.
I f'ed up too when I ordered my wife's GLC -- told the broker it needs x, y, and z, but of course forgot ambient light. Luckily she doesn't care/notice
And chris went with the tempered cup holder in his ML. Very simple install.
yeah it's just a 12v power source you needed -- not contingent on the ambient light. I wanted to grab one of those, but they're in the $400 range on eBay. You like the temperature control? How good is the cool function?
Alright I'm stumped -- curious if you might have some advice. My rear puddle lights I connected yesterday basically "killed" the rear doors.
I tapped the main 12v coming into the door and use the door contact ground (module c7, pin 9) as the negative. Puddle lights work just fine and as expected. Until I lock the car and walk away. When I come back, the door is basically "dead". Lock doesn't activate, and if you get in the front, the ambient lights are off. Have to pull the pin up manually and open door for it to come back alive. I guess I'm creating a loop somewhere and the rear door controller doesn't like it, but that doesn't make any sense.
Do you remember which wires you tapped when you put the rear puddle lights in? I also tried tapping into the ambient light positive, but when I did that, the ambients turned off. I'm stumped.
Alright I'm stumped -- curious if you might have some advice. My rear puddle lights I connected yesterday basically "killed" the rear doors.
I tapped the main 12v coming into the door and use the door contact ground (module c7, pin 9) as the negative. Puddle lights work just fine and as expected. Until I lock the car and walk away. When I come back, the door is basically "dead". Lock doesn't activate, and if you get in the front, the ambient lights are off. Have to pull the pin up manually and open door for it to come back alive. I guess I'm creating a loop somewhere and the rear door controller doesn't like it, but that doesn't make any sense.
Do you remember which wires you tapped when you put the rear puddle lights in? I also tried tapping into the ambient light positive, but when I did that, the ambients turned off. I'm stumped.
I wish i can help ya bud this is the main reason people should know what to look for when they want the ambient lighting in the car rather than do retrofits
I wish i can help ya bud this is the main reason people should know what to look for when they want the ambient lighting in the car rather than do retrofits
yeah -- technically this is all oem equipment at least. The front puddles are fine, and have been in for a year, but I didn't have those same pins avail in the rear door. The puddles are the thing I care the least about, just a bit perplexed 😁
yeah -- technically this is all oem equipment at least. The front puddles are fine, and have been in for a year, but I didn't have those same pins avail in the rear door. The puddles are the thing I care the least about, just a bit perplexed 😁
call this a good tutorial for others, too
believe me you what you are doing is one of the chief complaints of ML drivers behind the halogens, the LOGIC7 system, the 360 camera/park assist system, the blind spot monitor/active lane keep assist, the illuminated star, and distronic plus (not in any particular order) but these are all the retrofits people want in their ML/GLE.
Alright, so my OCD got the better of me, and I wanted to be able to change between Solar, Polar and Neutral. So I spent the last 3 days running cable to all the individual door trims to access both LED's in the trim pieces, and run them up front, behind the climate control, all running to two rocker switches. One for the yellow LED (solar), one for the blue (polar), and when both switched on, you get neutral. I'm pretty happy with the results. Polar is a little too dim for my taste, but think neutral looks pretty good with the Anthracite trim and black interior.
Quite the undertaking, and if I could give one piece of advice to anyone else wanting to try this -- BUY A P-TOUCH to label everything!!! If I could give a second piece of advice -- buy the damn truck with the $800 option
Only thing I can't figure out for the life of me is the rear puddle lights. The fronts have been in for a year plus. I wired the rears to the door contact switch and the 12v coming into the door, using originally the OEM puddle lamps I bought, but (see earlier post), those for some reason completely killed power to the door. Had the idea this am to put in my old crappy Chinese puddle projector lights, and voila -- they worked, and didn't kill the door. I thought all was well until I was making a call in the truck with the ignition off and key out, and heard a buzzing coming from behind me. I turn around, and see the rear puddle lamps have TURNED ON! At about 10% power though, not full brightness. The car had been completely off for about 30 seconds (door trims dimmed, exterior lights off etc)., and then the rear puddles turned on. If you wake up the car, ie -- hit the unlock button, they turn off until the rear doors were opened. I'm just stumped. This should be a no brained compared to the door ambients. 12v constant, with a negative on the door contact switch. Open = on, closed = off. I will say though, the puddle lights have no polarity, and turn on with the plug in either position, but hav tested both ways and still turns on. I've gotta think of a different solution....but I'm running out of ideas.
Anyways, here's a gallery and video of the install and setup and a video of the setup on YouTube:
Finally got rear puddle lights working. Ending up tapping the rear map lights up in the headliner. Those were harder than the damn ambients. All of the other 12v leads either kept the lights on after the cockpit was powered down, or weren't powerful enough to carry the voltage needed.
my thinking is that since he went with the package 876 default cup holders (meaning the light in the back) rather than the heated and cooled package.
sort of. The heated / cool cupholder still has ambients in it, but just Solar. I put the dual led's in my cupholder so I can get solar, polar, or neutral.
I do want it, but I want to sell my original trim pieces and old cupholder first to make some money back, then I'll get it
Ahh ok. The temetered one cant have ambint since that would remove the cool light effect of red light on hot and blue light on cold. Therefore they never have ambient in them. I actually think bright white would be nice in it.
have you ever taken apart the led emitter to see whether or not it looks like all of the other emitters in the car? It must have a second or third led for the red and blue
Ahh ok. The temetered one cant have ambint since that would remove the cool light effect of red light on hot and blue light on cold. Therefore they never have ambient in them. I actually think bright white would be nice in it.
It would be better if it matched with the ambients, but i see why they set it to solar
Well thats MB, you pay and then you pay more for retrofitting everything lol. I was referring to the heated cool cups
well the crazy thing is, you can't find the led emitters on the EPC anywhere. I've looked up every number I've seen on them, and they don't pull up. Even called my parts guy and he couldn't find the emitters.
01-02-2020 | 05:47 PM
