I got the illuminated door sills, and installed them over the weekend. With the help of the wiring diagram, it makes the job much simpler.

If you have the W210. Remove the back seat bottom. Right next to the battery (to the right of it), lift up the little yellow foam that covers lot of electrical wire, you will see the power door lock controller (bunch of yellow pipe). Beneath those hoses, there's a group of brown wires connected to the PSE Control Module. They are wires that sync all the switches (door, trunk..) to the interior light. You want to tap the wire for the door sills to those wire (so that door sill of each door will lighten up when that door is openned). You can't miss those wire (if you need pix of them, let me know. I'll post it).

The illiminated door sills (as well as all interior lights of the car) have ALWAYS hot power supply. On/Off of the lights is controlled by negative connected/disconnected (via the switch). So connect the NEGATIVE of the door sills to these brown wire as follow:

Front Right: Brown/Blue (brown wire with blue strip color on it)
Rear Right: Brown/Violet
Front Left: Brown/Gray
Rear Left: Brown/Green

Of course, the other option is to rip all panel apart, and connect each sill to the switch directly. But that's too much work.

If you do install, make sure the positive is connected to the battery through a fuse. These chrome/brush door sills stay on top of the OEM plastic one via double tape. If the tape is not thick enough, get some heavy duty 3M double tape, and put another layer or two. They're real high quality stuff: the chrome and brush are top knot, feel very tight, the light is excellent.

Here's the funny thing: I have always thought dealer probably use a different type of illuminated door sill as upgraded option (and they charge $800 for it, part & labor), with mount-on base (take place of the OEM one, instead of stick on top of it), until I stop by the dealer: they use the same (IDENTICAL) ones as mine !!!! stick on top of the OEM sills. So spend your money wisely.

It really enhance the look of the car, especially at night time

Here's one pix of the car (evening)



At night



This seems to get along w/ the chromed cluster rings. Btw, I got the illuminated door sills and chrome cluster ring from same seller on eBay, (eBay ID is outacre), $150 and $40, respectively.

 

Looks real nice, about how long did the installition take? Could you also post some pictures of those brown wires? I should be recieving my set any day now.
ben

 

Here you go. They are to the right of the battery (rear seat), beneath the yellow foam cover

 

Looks great! thanks for the info and photo's I will be doing this mod soon! of course with the help of this thread...

 

They look really good. I was thinking of doing the same thing but I am not too good with the wiring but since you have gave some direction on "how to" then it's doesn't seem too hard after all.. I'm going to get mine done.

 

Zam,
Mine just arrived today, so I'll have a weekend project. Where should I get the power from? Direct from the battery through a fuse, or did you find another source that is always hot?
Also, please explain how to remove the molding and trim to run the wires to each of the doors. I don't want to start pulling the wrong parts and breaking anything.
I bought my sills from Jerry at ForMyMercedes.com. They seem to be a little different than yours. They also have adhesive on the back, but they are not as long as the original sills, so I think I need to pull off the old sills and put the new ones directly on the car body. Are yours shorter? It's hard to tell from the picture.

 

One red wire control positive to all door sills, it's the negatives that control the on/off, and schema is posted above. Do not change the positive wire that control these sills, since they have in-line resistors, w/o these, you'll burn out the LED from the sills.

Connect the positive straight to the battery, through a 10A fuse. Notice that you have to remove all sill to run the power wire, but once you're done with running wire, put the OEM sills back. The illuminated sill stick on top of the original sill via heavy duty 3M double side tape on back of the illuminated sills.

There's no need to remove any door panel. Positive wire go to battery, negative connected to wire as instructed

To remove the sill, gently use the flat-head screw driver and ply them up.











W211 and W210 have different control for door light.

 

Wow, that was fast! Thanks. Meanwhile, I figured out how to remove the rear seat (manual p. 297). Please see my revised post above with new questions.

 

Zam, you da man! I installed my lighted doors sills today and they look great.
Thanks!

 

nice write up! Time for me to get my AMG door sills!

 

wow, i like them, they look great. I plan to do the same on mine someday when I can fork up some cash for it.

 

ebay ID outacre isnt working.

 

does anyone know where i can purchase a set like these
the ones on Ebay dont compare to the ones ZAM's got (they look like OEM)
The Ebay sills for auction look kinda cheesy (my opinion)
thanks for replies

 

I bought mine from Jerry at ForMyMercedes.com. They are made of stainless steel, and include four illuminated sill plates, as well as two additional stainless sill plates for the inside of the front doors. The light is a nice cool blue and is very even.

 

just got the AMG sills from CEC Wheels off of Ebay (username cecwheels) for $175 shipped. The kit came with illuminated front sills and engraved rear sills.

 

Ordered mine from Jerry. Should see them this week. I Can't wait to put them in!

 

btw Huy, you say that you connect the positive to the battery via a fuse, can you show me how you hooked it up and what kind of fuse/holder you used please?

 

Items from Radio Shack: blade fuse holder, 5 amp. fuse (from the 5 pc fuse kit), pack of 7 18-22 ga. squeeze taps, Euro-style terminal kit (total cost about $10).
I tapped the fuse holder into one of the red power wires from the battery using a Squeeze Tap. I then distributed the power from the fuse to four terminals on a Euro-Style terminal block mounted onto the chassis with double-sided tape. I connected each of the four relays to the four powered terminals.

 

I did mine last night. I used a 10a fuse w/ a similar fuse holder. Used the squeeze tap for each wires, and voila, done deal. Everything works. Except I think one of the inverter may be bad, b/c when the door it's hooked up on is left open for about 2-3 minutes, the light dies. Then I close the door and let it sit for a while and it comes back. Checked wiring etc, all is good. I'll have to get a replacement for that, but otherwise everything is good! It looks awesome now!

 

I would love to know if anyone has found this product with pure white LEDs. The look is great but I don't really like the bluish tinge. I am so picky I know

 

The easiest thing for you is to first, find a set of illuminated sills. Then, find a local electronics store or eBay seller that has white EL strips. There's all types of colors available, so you can see all of your options. I was looking into doing the same thing actually. Kind of tired of the blue, hehe.

 

i have a set of about 5 colors....sitting on the project bench waiting for such
a mod. just trying to get time to try tearing off the blue EL panel. if you're
not careful, you mess up the lettering portion. that adhesive is pretty sticky
and you don't want to crink the plastic/metal parts. dont recall the vendor, but
it was simple to Google EL sheet or something similar; cheap too. i didn't like
the hot blue with my Bordeaux exterior.

i also have a RS6 and Depo all spread out waiting for mounting....also Bil-Sport
shocks sitting waiting to replace the yellow adj Konis. dang....i just work too
much to get the stuff i want done.

 

I have blue...personally never seen any other colors being sold! I did see someone in the benzworld forum, with a S-class that had them in a amber type color like my (sign.color), which to me would look better against a biege interior...any color but blue!

But if anyone knows where to get them in any other color, please post....and raymond why 5 diff.colors? Does that =20 EL Strips?