My Homemade LED Puddle Lights

[Bosco390]

I decided to do the conversion of my puddle lights on our '10 MKX to LED myself. I purchased the LED bulbs on that auction site, each having 19 LED's... turn signal bulbs... auction title was something like "3157 4157 White Round 19 LED 2 x Pc Bulb". In short, my intent was to cut the stock puddle lamps apart completely removing the bulb mount, reflector, etc and using the stock lamp only as a mounting.

I hope the following is helpful to someone wanting to do the same thing.

Tools & stuff I used... Dremel tool with fine cutting bit, table knife to pry lamp open after cutting (the Dremel leaves a bit of melted "flack", toe nail clippers (to clean off flack), clear silicone sealant, sharp knife (also for removing flack), vice grips or other crimper, electrical tape and heat shrink tubing.

I forgot to include in the picture the electrical tape and heat shrink tubing... tubing should be just big enough to slip over the female spade connectors coming out of the mirror after you remove the stock puddle lamp.

Here's the bulbs I bought... about $6 for the pair

With 19 LEDs each they will be bright enough.

I bought these because of the nature of the electrical connection... basically folded over wires.

I carefully unfolded contact wires on each side and twisted together...

Got from Radio Sh*ck some spade connectors exactly the same size of those protruding from the stock puddle lamp.

I crimped the connectors on to the twisted contacts of the bulb.

 

Now for the cutting of the stock lamp. First I have to warn, be careful NOT to break off the curved tab while handling the lamp... starting under the gauze-covered hole, cut all the way round the lamp, curving up and over the curved mounting tab. Then pry pieces apart and separate. Looked like this...

Discard the part of the lamp with the bulb, electrical connectors, and reflector inside. Your left with a Mounting Ring of sorts... with lens attached.

 

Notice the flack left by the cutting bit... this also occurs if you heat a sharp knife and melt the lamp open... use the toe nail clippers to remove the flack on the outside of the

 

To mount the bulb to the clear lens, I put a dollup of clear silicone and just squooshed the LEDs into it and let it set overnight.

 

 

I then taped up the top of the bulb, as it is taller than the stock puddle lamp, and I didn't want any shorting if it touches the electric mirror mechanism inside the mirror.

 

I then cut two small lengths of heat shrink tubing...

 

Finished product... of course the tubing was slid over the female connectors and wires coming out of the mirror, and then slid back down over the spade after hooking the new lamp up... but it's cold outside, so I didn't take pics of that... but you get the idea.

 

They are awesome bright and white... much better than stock, and cheap.

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2013 by Bosco390

[MikeyDubs]

Nice! Any pics of the installed?

[Bosco390]

Nice! Any pics of the installed?

Here is installed... excuse the less than optimum pic... it's 6.30am and 22 outside. That's a soggy dog toy on the garage floor.

[autom8r]

Clever use of toenail clippers! Well done! How did you get the lenses to stay in the mirrors, glue?

[Bosco390]

Clever use of toenail clippers! Well done! How did you get the lenses to stay in the mirrors, glue?

Oh no no, I would never... the point of cutting the stock lamp in half is to maintain the mounting tabs...see pics 10 & 11.... the lens was never removed from the lamp housing, it stayed in place, as did all mounting tabs... snapped back in just like it came out.. and can be removed and reworked someday if & when the LEDs go bad. Only "glue" used was the clear silicone to affix the LEDs to the back side of the lens.

Edited February 2, 2013 by Bosco390

[Bosco390]

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Ok, my silicone finally set and I went to install the passenger side puddle LED lamp... TOO TALL!!! Apparently, the mechanism inside the mirrors are not mirror arrangements of each other, and there is not enough clearance on the passenger side to accept the assembly. The fix for this was to remove the base of the bulb. I took a chance that the contacts/wires in the bulb base are extensions from the LED electronics which were HOPEFULLY all located in the base of the bulb. So, I took the Dremel tool and scored the base of the bulb and broke it off. I was right, all the electronics are in the bulb part, and the base was just a plastic extension. Here's where I cut.

Then I taped over the hole that was left, and crimped on new space connectors.... here's the finished product.

 

I had to re-do the silicone, so I have not fit it into the car yet, but it is significantly shorter, and I believe it will fit... will post tomorrow when I'm sure.

 

[ls973800]

You must have used some completely different bulbs than others who have done this mod. For them from what I've read it was basically a plug and play once they removed the lens like you did in the first post. Never heard anyone having to cut the bulbs down, or any complaints about them not being bright enough.

 

Why did you go with what you did? Brighter? Better quality? Cheaper? Just wondering.

[Bosco390]

You must have used some completely different bulbs than others who have done this mod. For them from what I've read it was basically a plug and play once they removed the lens like you did in the first post. Never heard anyone having to cut the bulbs down, or any complaints about them not being bright enough.

 

Why did you go with what you did? Brighter? Better quality? Cheaper? Just wondering.

I hope the pics are clear enough on what I used. The others I have read on here used a festoon bulb same size as stock. I used a TAILLIGHT bulb. Festoon LED bulbs have 2 or 4 LED's. These have 19. I had bought a set of lamps, done the festoon bulbs, but was dissatisfied with the brightness.

Also, I did not remove the lens, as in the procedure for replacing festoon bulbs... I cut the lamp in half, keeping the lens attached to the mounting tabs.

[fishx65]

I think most of us used a 32mm Festoon with either 4 or 6 SMD 50/50 leds. The SMD 5050's are really bright. The first Festoons I purchased were not the 5050's and were really dim. Bosco's method is a very interesting and creative way to convert the Puddles to Led but I think the Festoon swap is brighter and much easier. I purchased my Festoons on E-bay for around $4.00 for the pair.

[ls973800]

Also, I did not remove the lens, as in the procedure for replacing festoon bulbs... I cut the lamp in half, keeping the lens attached to the mounting tabs.

 

Perhaps it's just a matter of description. In your picture showing where you put the silicone sealant to affix the bulb, that is the lens, correct? The lens has been cut away from the body except for the clip, correct? Looking at your pictures, you put the lens back in but got rid of the black upper half of the "socket" and housing that held the original bulb, right?

 

I'm not trying to argue, I just want to understand because am interested in doing this mod also. I purchased the 6 SMD 50/50 leds also, and just planned on cutting the lens off in order to swap out the bulbs.

 

Glad to hear you got it to do what you wanted it to do, and that it is bright enough also.

[Bosco390]

Also, I did not remove the lens, as in the procedure for replacing festoon bulbs... I cut the lamp in half, keeping the lens attached to the mounting tabs.

 

Perhaps it's just a matter of description. In your picture showing where you put the silicone sealant to affix the bulb, that is the lens, correct? The lens has been cut away from the body except for the clip, correct? Looking at your pictures, you put the lens back in but got rid of the black upper half of the "socket" and housing that held the original bulb, right?

 

I'm not trying to argue, I just want to understand because am interested in doing this mod also. I purchased the 6 SMD 50/50 leds also, and just planned on cutting the lens off in order to swap out the bulbs.

 

Glad to hear you got it to do what you wanted it to do, and that it is bright enough also.

No argument perceived, and I think yes, you've got what I did. I was drawing the distinction because, when I did the first trial with the "usual" procedure using LED festoon bulbs, I used a serrated steak knife to score and eventually remove the clear lens from the black "socket"... whereas here, as you said, I cut the black upper half of the socket in half. The focus was to remove all of the "socket" except for the mounting tabs.

 

By way of follow up to my earlier post, the passenger side is now in... removing the extraneous part of the bulb base was successful in reducing the height of the new assembly to fit with the limited clearance....

 

All that said and done, I will probably re-do both sides now...hahahah. The talk here of SMD type LED's has me regretting that I did not use that type of bulb... so I have ordered a new set of TAILLIGHT bulbs on that auction site... these are still very similar to what I used above... but have 22 SMD LEDs per bulb... my hope is that they will be even brighter (I have insight into the fact that I can get a bit obsessed). When they arrive and I make the change out, I'll repost. Here's the new bulbs I've ordered.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Bosco390

[Dingo]

Mine have 6 1/2W leds each.

[fishx65]

Those should be a ton brighter then the original ones you used. Have fun Macgyver!!!!!

[Bosco390]

Those should be a ton brighter then the original ones you used. Have fun Macgyver!!!!!

Heheheheheh.... Macgyver.... hehe... Thanks, fishx!! Will post when they arrive and are installed.

[apkarian100]

Looks good man.

[Bosco390]

Looks good man.

Thanks Apkarian!... here's the update... and I have to say I am really really pleased with how they turned out.

 

The new 22 SMD bulbs arrived today... physically they are SO much smaller than the LED bulbs that I had installed before. They were listed on the auction site as "White 3157 22 SMD LED Upgrade Back Up Reverse Light Bulbs 3057 3155 4114"

 

As you all will recall, I had an issue with the previous LED bulbs being too large... too tall, actually. Here's a shot of the new bulbs sitting next to the stock Puddle lamp... they will fit into the car nicely.

 

Again, as I did with the last upgrade (read above), I twisted the leads together, and subsequently crimped male spade connectors onto the leads (read above).

 

The size of these bulbs is going to be perfect for this application.

 

I removed the last upgrade I did to the driver's door... here is the previous LED bulb alongside the new 22 SMD bulb.

 

I installed the new SMD's with a dab of epoxy, as opposed to using the silicone... to be honest, this was because I didn't want to wait a day for the silicone to set and harden... the epoxy set in 5 minutes. I did NOT cover the SMD chips with epoxy... just dabs to attach the new bulb to the lens that I separated the old upgrade from. Here it is installed in the Driver's door.

 

Since I took the pics under exact same lighting conditions, here is a side-by-side comparison of the first upgrade LED bulb with the new, smaller 22 SMD bulb... significantly brighter. I am really pleased with the result!!!

 

Hope this is helpful to someone who want to upgrade to max brightness of their puddle lamps.

Edited February 8, 2013 by Bosco390

[Eddie Man]

Thanks for the DIY & tips...

Just did this mod and it turned out great!

Edited March 3, 2013 by Eddie Man

[kc300c]

I love seeing folks thinking outside the box and trying different ways to do mods. Glad it worked out for you. Looks like you put a lot of thought and time into it.

 

In case some who read this thread aren't up to doing this mod themselves. Check out our totally plug & play LED Puddle Lights. We use an LED panel array with eight 5050 SMDs in our LED Puddle Lights totaling 2.5 watts. Light output is probably 3x that of the stock puddle light. www.DAYTIMEBrightLites.com

 

[Bosco390]

Thanks for the DIY & tips...

Just did this mod and it turned out great!

Awesome!... and glad what I did may have been helpful.

[orizzo]

Bosco390 - Thanks for the instructions.

[iAutom8]

Hi guys,

 

First off , thanks for the great posts. Secondly, I wanted to shared my mod and ask a question from my results.

 

Using some spare parts I decided to take on this project. My interior was converted to LED some time ago.

 

I used 1 watt LEDs and some LED power drivers.

 

 

 

I assembled the LED to the driver.

 

 

 

Attached some leads and ran them through puddle rather than trying to solder to the connections.

 

 

 

Finished product with everything sealed tight silicon-ed and sealed tight.

 

 

 

The LED are much brighter and better. The question I have is a result of an issue that i have. It appears that the puddle lights come on when the doors are unlocked. However, they only come on on the second or third attempt. They don't work every time. I can't say for certain if this is what was happening before the conversion. And, I don't believe it was the case.

 

Anyone experience/see this?

 

Thanks again, AlAiN

 

 

 

[Dingo]

It all depends on the drivers. The factory lights dim up to full and back down. Most led drivers have a problem with that. If you put a relay on them, they'll work flawlessly.

[iAutom8]

Thanks for your response. I forgot they dimmed on and off. I have a few 12v led arrays that I'll give a try. I'll see if the issue is related to the drivers. Thanks again!

[Dingo]

Like I said, a single relay in the kick panel would easily fix it.

[kc300c]

As Dingo said, it is the driver and due to the ramping up and down of the voltage during the dimming cycle. I would suggest that you bench test your puds before you install them to make sure your LED and controller do not generate too much heat inside the pud housing. Not sure that the 1 watt LED will generate too much heat, but your controller might in combinatation with your LED. I have experimented with higher wattage LEDs in my plug and play LED puddle lights. A couple of LEDs I have tried got too hot causing the LED to fail. Granted, the puds usually only stay on for a minute or so during normal operation, but if the doors are left open, for whatever reason, the puds could remain on for 15 minutes or more until the battery saver in the vehicle automatically turns them off. And since my LED puds come with a very long warranty (as long as the customer owns the vehicle), I'm afraid that the accumulative heat effect over time will shorten the life of the lamp.