jdub907

someone gave me an illuminated star. has anyone fitted a lighted star on a "2005" sl500? it is a stock non-fit, but i know someone has done it. if not what year or model grill should i buy? Thanks.

850csi

It was done to my 2008 by a previous owner, but was kind of a hack job.

(If anyone wants this grille I’m looking to sell it)

jdub907

Thanks for the reply. It looks like that would work. I am trying to be less damaging to my existing grill. I removed the clear LED part from the huge black housing and fixed it to the rear of my star with black gorilla tape for a temporary look at it. I'll wire it and see before I permanently mount it with hot glue or even super glue. It will be a subtle backlight rather than in front. I'll post pics if it works well.

kemzo

How much?

jdub907

Should have closed my hood. Ha.


Should have closed my hood.
Well, I did it. I used my existing grill with no modifications. I did modify the lighted star by disassembling it and only using the clear LED portion. I secured it to the back of my grill star temporarily with gorilla tape to see what it will look like. The outer ring is not visible behind my grill outer ring, but the star is slightly larger than my grill star so you can see it. I like it. It is very subtle and if not directly looking you may never see it. I think I'll tack it on with hot glue. Wired it to #10 fuse in my driver side fuse box under the hood with a $7 fuse extender. This circuit is always powered when the key is turned on. Grounded it to a nut on the nearby strut.
Please chime in either yay or nay. I'm a big boy, I can take it if you think it sucks. It's totally removable in 10 minutes. Took me about 30 minutes start to finish.

Frederick NL

Is it lighting up car parts behind the mesh? Perhaps your camera heavily exaggerates the light, as phone cams do (I tried to take subtle pictures of a classic car in the fog, parking lights only. At the photos they stand out at lighthouse force..).

jdub907

Very good question. It's the phone cam. All LED's are front facing and you cannot see the horn shadows as in these pics unless it's very dark outside "and" you are about 1 ft away looking for them. You can get close to the star and not see interior backlighting.
I believe what you see in the pics is the reflection of the LED's on the ring of the circle. They are still lit even though they are right up against the back of the circle on the grill. Do you think I should cover the circle LED's with electrical tape, maybe? It will look better in phone pics.

Thanks.

Frederick NL

Haha never mind the phone pics, what counts is the real world!

850csi

PMd