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This is a guide to how to install puddle lights to a 2nd generation RX. First things first. This is a guide only and I am sharing the information with this community. I take no responsibility for anything that may happen to your car or yourself if you opt to perform this modification yourself. This is the way I did it and it worked for me.
Secondly thanks to jakenbake, who was the first to do the puddle light installation. This guide is using information I received from him and also the methods I used to perform the mod. This is a full guide that will hopefully cover most things.
The part that I bought (bought 2 LED's with a black housing and cool white light - opted not to go with natural white).
I would also recommend a good half day to do it (although you won't really "finish" until the glue has dried). Anyone enough rambling, here we go. So sit back and enjoy.
Take off the door card
There are 2 indentions along the bottom of the door. Using a trim removal tool, pop these out and work your way around the door car until it is loose.
Unscrew and remove some items before removing the door card
Remove felt in the hand grip and unscrew.
Remove the cover piece under the handle (I used a flat head screw driver to pop it open)
Remove the window switch module (pried this off with a flat head as well - best to pop from where my fingers show in the picture and slowly work it out of the door card). Disconnect the cables behind it - they all have tabbed pull outs.
Pop off the black trim piece (above the door card) to expose the bolts that hold the mirror in.
Detach the cables that are on the back of the door card (sorry forgot to grab a picture of that).
Remove the door card.
Remove the mirror assembly
Unclip the harness from the orange (or white box as for the driver's door). This will be the one directly snaking its way to the wing mirror.Also undo the 3 bolts. Make sure that you support the wing mirror on the opposite side in case it falls.
Get a nice clean area to work on / in. Yes I did mine in my backyard instead of the shed. It was a nice day
On the side where the bolts are to remove the wing mirror from the door pull the rubber panel off to expose the hard plastic (and more importantly the cables) underneath. This will become evident shortly. Gently pry it off, it is held in by a couple of clips.
Underneath the whole assembly, remove the cover panel that hides 2 of the "star" screws (I forgot what they are actually called). Unscrew all 3.
Remove the glass on the wing mirror. Press in at the top and pull up firmly but gently from the bottom. They are some springs holding it in place.
The internals of the mirror will now be visible. Note that mine might look different to yours as my car (Japan built, Australian delivered) comes with power fold in mirrors. They should however be basically the same.
Now the reason for exposing the cables. Remove the electrical tape where the cable goes into the triangular hard plastic bit. Might not be the easiest to see, but in the picture look on the far right. Grey cable and you can see parts of the electrical tape removed.
This will allow you to push the cable in a bit so that you can feed a little more cable back towards the mirror so that you can access this bolt. If you don't feed a little more cable in, you can't get a screw driver in place to remove the "star" screw. By feeding a bit more cable back towards the mirror this allows you fully expose the screw to undo it.
With the screw removed, this removes the metal base plate. Move it out of the way, and then remove this screw
Next loosen these bolts on the internal of the mirror
The mirror is now loose and you can lift the whole internal assembly to move it around a bit. Note it doesn't come out out and there is no need to completely remove it.
The scariest part of all of this is drilling the hole. I went with a 20mm step drill bit. The step drill bit will cut a smooth hole. I would recommend not to use a normal drill bit as it will look horrid. For my measurement I had the centre point of the whole 20mm in from the inner most side (closest to the car) of the drain hole (marked in the picture). I also had it 10mm up from the seam line of the mirror. In the picture you can see the little spot where the blue tapes intersect where I will start the drilling from.
The step drill bit (best drill bit ever!!!)
After the drilling have a nice smooth hole. Note on the drilling, slow and steady wins the race. The was a lot of room for the whole drill bit to go in so I didn't touch the assembly. Depending on your situation and drill bit, you may need to measure this yourself to make sure you won't drill into anything.
I wanted the wires to follow the OEM wires so as not to foul up on any of the mechanics of the mirror. Above the motor where everything runs through, there is an opening that the new wires from the LED could pass through (just). This is the entry point of the wires for the LED module.
This gives a clearer picture of how the wires routed out.
Following the path of the original gray wire You can see how it follow the original wire (just enough gaps everywhere that it needed to be)
Fitting mirror back to the car again (using the 3 bolts). Hold it on the outside while you put in at least 1 bolt to keep it in place. Note the extra wire now coming in.
Up to this point the LED had been loose in the mirror assembly. One thing that I did not note earlier was that the cable runs from the back of the LED around the back of the whole unit. This avoids it getting in the way of anything. I ran out of JB-Weld and araldite so used some liquid nails instead.
I bought a roll of 4m power/negative cable to join the new mirror the scuff plates (note that 2 metres per side is more than enough). The scuff plates are a great idea as the LED's will light up when the car is unlocked or the door is opened. Opening the door, I had the cable follow the grommets between the door and the frame. For the frame side I popped out the plug a little and fed the cables in through the whole.
On the door side I cut into the grommet (small incision) and fed through the cable. I then followed the OEM cable down and under the window frame so as not to interfere with the window. This then led up and around into the door. I followed it though the plastic and hooked it up to the cable from the LED (didn't take any more pictures of that apologies). My driver's door is so yellow inside!!! My passenger door is clean as a whistle.
Removed the scuff plate and delicately cut the black surround of the red and white wires. Note that "red" is power and "white" is ground.
Connected (I did just use old school twist and tie and electrical tape it). For me the connection is solid, but you may want to get some clamps or solder etc. etc.
One thing that did happen to me is that the fuse blew after disconnecting and reconnecting. It was the 7.5A fuse for the "DOME lights". I replaced the fuse and all good. Tried to show where this fuse is in the engine bay. You will see the white label in the picture. This is under the fuse box lid and indicates which fuse is which.
Testing the LED on both passenger and driver's side. Note that the LED is hidden from view externally as it sits recessed in the mirror.
Night time test after everything put back together again. Looks like the passenger side will need a slight adjustment (still have to fully clip the mirror in - waiting for the liquid nails to set.
Great job Draco! Wonderful right up! A side note....The wiring harness between the door and the kick panel disconnects from the car just inside the kick panel. If you disconnect the harness you can pull it through to the outside and it makes it really easy to run wires inside of the rubber piece so that they are hidden from view.
Great job Draco! Wonderful right up! A side note....The wiring harness between the door and the kick panel disconnects from the car just inside the kick panel. If you disconnect the harness you can pull it through to the outside and it makes it really easy to run wires inside of the rubber piece so that they are hidden from view.
Thanks Jakenbake, I might actually attempt to do that at some stage. Noticed my passenger wing mirror doesn't want to click into place and my liquid nails is still a bit soft to force it in there. Might have to adjust the left one tonight when I get home from work to see if I can get it in a bit more.
Update managed to force the mirror to hook back in properly (was scared it would fall off driving to / from work today). Anyway, both LED's have now somehow lined up (sometimes a bit of force helps).
08-17-14, 04:22 AM
Installing Puddle Lights on 2nd Generation RX
